Rupert Estanislao, Jamie DeWolf and Geoff Trenchard
Influences
---The Suicide Kings tour relentlessly from schools to theatres and their many travels have taken them to such venues as the San Quentin Penitentiary, Shoreline Amphitheater, Slim's, Pac Bell Park, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, La Pena Cultural Center, 924 Gilman, The Green Mill, The Bowery Poetry Lounge, First Avenue, and Mensa Conventions. They've shared the stage and opened up for Mos Def, Saul Williams, Sage Francis, Kanye West, Dave Chapelle, Lauryn Hill, dead prez, Lou Reed, The Last Poets, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Taylor Mali, Jerry Stahl, Jim Goad, Beau Sia, Ishle Yi Park, Roger Bonair-Agard, Danny Hoch, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Aya De Leon, Mark Smith, The Coup, Ant-icon, Jill Scott, Goapele, The Dwarves, Kid Beyond, The Enemies, The Lewd, Cropknox, Oppressed Logic, The Cliftons, Felonious, Immortal Technique, Zion I, Shane Koyczan, Mike Mcgee, Mums the Schemer, StaceyAnn Chin, Ursula Rucker, Taalam Acey, Sekou tha Misfit , Jason Carney, Buddy Wakefield, Jerry Quickley, Rives, Big Poppa E, George Mckibbens, R.A.C, Dennis Kim, 8 th Wonder, Al Robles, Oscar Penaranda, Barbara Reyes and Jimmy Santiago Baca.
Sounds Like
"The profane yet sometimes profound group entertains with a helter-skelter mix of shock theater, oddball comedy, vaudevillian antics, on-stage debauchery, a bit of self-help therapy, and yes, even poetry." - Contra Costa Times......“…the freaks and wild children of the slam poetry world…Inviting the Suicide Kings to perform is almost like taking the bearded lady, an organ grinders monkey and a drunk to a funeral, you know something’s going to happen but it’s just too damn funny to stop it.” - The Pirates Log (Modesto Junior College), January 29, 2004......“The trio that has just started to get the national fame (and infamy) they have long since achieved locally. They are filled with energy and conviction. As their pieces unravel, although they are coated in comedic exaggeration, they candidly show the audience the unrelenting roads they have crossed to get where they are now. Their performance left the audience staggering to find their voices to demand more.” - San Francisco State Express, March 2004.......“Sexy metaphors and smart love ballads…always straining to say what is unsayable, in a tone and form so angry it's liable to burn straight through the audience's brains.”
- East Bay Express, May 5, 2004
The Suicide Kings are a spoken word powerhouse comprised of three award-winning Poetry Slam Champions out of Oakland, CA.
On one pivotal night in 2000, Rupert Estanislao, Geoff Trenchard and Jamie DeWolf crossed paths. All of them had notebooks in their back pockets crammed full of confessional verse. They formed a pact: to bring a new hardcore sensibility to the world of poetry. The Suicide Kings were born into the world of poetry slams--a competitive barroom battle of wits and rapid monologues that has become an underground phenomenon over the last ten years.
---The Kings have been described by a college newspaper as the "freaks and wild children of the slam poetry world...Inviting the Suicide Kings to perform is almost like taking the bearded lady, an organ grinders monkey and a drunk to a funeral, you know something's going to happen but it's just too damn funny to stop it.". Contra Costa Times said, "The profane yet sometimes profound group entertains with a helter-skelter mix of shock theater, oddball comedy, vaudevillian antics, on-stage debauchery, a bit of self-help therapy, and yes, even poetry."
---The trio began to travel to stages across the U.S. and "started to get the national infamy they have long since achieved locally" (SF Express). Within two years they had performed live at San Quentin Penitentiary, HBO's Def Poetry Jam, UPN's "Strange and Unusual Television", NPR, Live 105's BFD Concert, and their work was broadcast on college radio and pirate stations from the Mid-West to the Philippines. A poem by the Kings based on Estanislao's personal past experiences as a gang member has been turned into a short film about guns directed by Ramsel Cruz, entitled "The Question".
---They performed and led slam poetry workshops at over sixty universities and high schools across the U.S, including Stanford University, University of Normal Illinois, Cal Poly, San Francisco State University, University of Minnesota, U.C Berkeley, and Chico State. The Kings were featured performers at the NACA College Conference and APCA College Conference their first year of application. They continue to develop original curriculum and mentor young writers in the Bay Area through Youthspeaks and Opera Piccolo in after school writing programs.
---They continue to tour the U.S telling their stories and confessions in high schools, bars, clubs, colleges, and theatres, balancing complex verse on the tip of their tongues, carving out a new mark in the world of literature inspiring Stanford University Radio to state, "The Suicide Kings are the tattooed knuckles under the velvet glove of American poetry."
---Contact the Suicide Kings at tongueartillery@yahoo.com or (510) 938 3364
when are you guys coming remotely near san diego??? i'd love to see you guys. listening to your three voices sends me on a trip that i never want to end!
![Agent Racket [AF]](http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/102/s_6efd670363fd4a68849e4466934fbddb.jpg)
