George Watsky is a writer and performer who believes in the equal power of the tear and the belly laugh. Born and raised in San Francisco and now based in Los Angeles, Watsky aims to cross-pollinate the stage, screen and stereo with work that speaks to both the humor and frustrations of modern life.

Watsky was featured on Season 6 of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry on HBO. He was the 2006 Youth Speaks Grand Slam Poetry Champion, 2006 Brave New Voices International Poetry Slam Champion, and performed in a record six consecutive Youth Speaks Grand Slam Finals. The last three of those audiences, all topping out at over 3,000, were the largest ever for poetry slams anywhere in the world. In 2009 Watsky was one of three poets who performed live on FOX at the NAACP Image Awards in honor of Russell Simmons’ lifetime achievement award.

Watsky has made strides to bring his poetic sensibilities to the theater world. His one-man show So Many Levels has been presented in Boston, San Francisco, Vermont, and at the Hip Hop Theater Festival Critical Breaks series in New York City. He has also been featured at the San Francisco and Washington, DC arms of the Hip Hop Theater Festival. He played the title character and co-wrote a 2004 adaptation of Dante’s Divine Comedy for the Living Word Festival and his stage play Harold’s Fall or King Will is the recipient of the 2009 Rod Parker Playwriting Fellowship.

Taking it to the page and stereo, George’s debut poetry collection and CD, Undisputed Backtalk Champion, was published by First Word Press in 2006. Edited by novelist Adam Mansbach, the book is currently in its fourth printing. As an emcee, Watsky has performed on both coasts with his band Invisible Inc. The trio’s self titled album, a blend of jazz and hip hop, features R&B sensation Passion. He served as a regular on-air personality for WERS Boston’s hip hop show 889@Night for several years.

An honorary graduate of the Centre for Sustainability Leadership in Melbourne, Watsky has emerged as part of a vanguard of artists involved in the sustainability movement. The inaugural Speak Green winner for poetry on climate change, Watsky was twice invited by Robert Redford to perform in Sundance, Utah. He served as host of Green Mic in San Jose, California and of the culminating concert of Powershift 2007 in Washington DC, and performed at Rock the Debate in Oxford, Mississippi, prior to 2008’s first Presidental debate. His work has brought him to the opening plenary of Green Cities 2008 in Sydney, Australia, and Greenbuild Chicago, where he took the stage immediately before President Bill Clinton.

Touring while finishing his college education on a condensed schedule, George has performed at conferences and universities in more than half the states in the US, and two in Australia, appearing at some of the nation’s most notable venues, including the Apollo Theater, the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, the San Francisco Opera House and the Shrine Auditorium. He has shared billing with, among others, Beyonce, Stevie Wonder, Bonnie Raitt and Mohammed Ali.

Watsky is completing an interdisciplinary B.A. in “Writing and Acting for the Screen and Stage” at Emerson College, where he has studied with Keith Johnstone, Ken Cheeseman, Robbie McCauley, Sarah Hickler, Amelia Broome and Andrew Clarke and worked with mentor Bonnie Comley.

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Artistic Interests

On Subject Matter

I am interested in any subject that inspires emotion in me. I hope things that make me laugh will make others laugh, and that what scares me will, at the very least, make others think. I am especially committed to exploring my own, perhaps universal, fears (loneliness, death, environmental degradation, etc.) but doing so in ways that are hopeful, even funny.

On Politics

Politics is the means by which people organize the world and subsequently make brilliant and mostly idiotic decisions. The work will be political. The political work will be hilarious. And disturbing. When I bought my first batch of condoms I organized them by color in my sock drawer. One was blue, three were beige. Sex (and lack thereof) is political.

On Tone

I am invested in art that captures a broad range of human emotions. Tears of laughter. Tears of sorrow. Passion. Ambivalence. I am not interested in art that plays only one emotional note. Superbad hits some heavy issues. I also find The Notebook hilarious. I want my serious poems to have punchlines. I want my funny songs to give you nightmares about your childhood. (That sounded less sadistic in my head.) The world is too complicated and interesting to stay sad or annoyingly bubbly for long. Kurt Cobain was onto something. So was Lucille Ball. Imagine for a moment that Kurt Cobain was into older women. The last twenty two years of her life were the first twenty two of his. Imagine that for some reason they were scientifically able to conceive a child and carry it to term. What a weird kid that would be.

On Medium and Style

Ultimately, I would like my media to be as diverse as the emotional hues with which I aim to pack them. Screenplays that are poetic. Musical monologues. I am still learning, and I aim to become fluent in several forms, in the hope of gaining for mastery over their convergence. Songs, stage plays, screen plays, one person shows, and poems are the forms in which I am most actively working to develop my voice. As for style, I am interested in fusing the modern poetic voice into music and longer forms, but not by sacrificing traditional techniques when they are appropriate.

On Audience

Having an audience in the first place is a privilege. I am first and foremost interested in treating my audiences with respect. I am not interested in “dumbing down” my work, but I am equally repelled by the idea of inaccessible art. I understand that as a straight, white college-educated male, I occupy every socially oppressive demographic, except for Thundercat. People often gravitate towards art that speaks to their personal experience, and in borrowing from other cultures, particularly in my hip hop, I respect that my work will not appeal to everyone. But I hope that by remaining truthful to my own experiences I can comment on issues universal to all people. I love oral poetry in large part because it demands audience participation. When an audience knows and understands what a performer is relaying, there can be a feedback loop. I like to imagine this same feedback occurring when writing in all other media, and therefore strive to achieve a similar degree of accessibility across all forms.