MP3 Wesley Teal - of meanings and the things they imply

Raw, verbal poetry evokes topics from romance to politics. This album explores the emotional range of a city of people in decline.

37 MP3 Songs
SPOKEN WORD: Poetry, SPOKEN WORD: Audiobook



Details:
Born in Norman, Oklahoma, in 1984, Teal moved to Lawrence, Kansas, at the tender age of eight. It was here, while attending the same Pinckney Elementary that famed poet Langston Hughes once attended that he wrote and published his first poems. By the time he left Pinckney he already had a national publication under his belt in the Anthology of Poetry by Young Americans.
It was in junior high that Wesley first began writing seriously, producing volumes of poetry in small personal journals. Almost all of these works were of the expected immature quality and style. It was here that he first dabbled in publishing, producing a farcical underground paper at school.
His work took great strides towards maturity in high school as he began garnering local attention for his work. It was also here that he first became involved in political movements, which began to color much of what he wrote. During this time he wrote such early classics as âSiempre, vivimosâ and âDeath of an Abolition Town.â
It wasnât until after he graduated with mediocre marks that his career as a poet began to take off. In the years since heâs written many of his finest and most ambitious works, such as âAppalachiaâ and âPhoenix City Blues.â He also founded the occasional broadsheet The Sheet: A Review of Underground Literature which he both edits and publishes. He has given readings each year in Lawrenceâs annual Red Balloon To-Do art show, at the Granada, Solidarity! and at 2004âs We Are Resisting! Conference, which he helped organize.
His writing has been published in GetUnderground.com, deep cleveland junkmail oracle, remark, The Lawrencian, Lyrics from the PIT, Kansas Radicals Exposed Calendar, Pretty Thing Pressâ erotic anthology Velvet Heat, and Lara Cantoneâs book Urge from SmokeStream Publishing.
In 2005 he released his first album of poetry through Label Whore Records, entitled of meanings and the things they imply. This album carried solely by the rich, comfortable tone of Tealâs voice this album explores the experiences and reactions of a young man coming of age and of those around him. Evoking such diverse moods as romance, depression, passion, rage, and hope, this multifaceted work delves deeply into the human experience. The track âMy Generation Dreamsâ written while Teal was still in high school was also released in 2006 on a benefit CD for Allied Resistance, a prisoner-activist/prisoner support network.
Currently working as a school bus driver, Teal is forging ever ahead. He is in the process of publishing his first chapbook entitled Death of an Abolition Town and has tentative plans to collaborate on a second CD with Lawrenceâs masterful noise duo, the Mountain Tops.