In March, 2006 Watsky won the Youth Speaks Poetry Grand Slam Finals
with a perfect score in front of a sold out San Francisco Opera House
crowd. In April, 2006 his San Francisco slam team won the BNV National
Poetry Slam, with the finals culminating at a sold out Apollo Theater
in New York City. In 2007 he appeared on the sixth season of Russell
Simmons presents Def Poetry on HBO and in November, 2006 Watsky traveled
to Sundance, Utah as the recipient of Robert Redford's Sundance Summit
Award for poetry on climate change. Watsky holds the record for consecutive
appearances at Youth Speaks Grand Slam finals (with five). The last two
of those slams (at the San Francisco Opera House and Masonic Auditorium)
are to date the two largest audiences ever for a poetry slam of any age,
anywhere in the world, topping out at over 3,000 each. A three-time
Bay Area National Teen Slam Team member and a 2005 and 2006 Brave New
Voices National Finalist, his poetry is featured on the CDs Bringing
the Noise 3 and Bringing the Noise 4 and in the second First Word Press
anthology Hearts Sized Like Cities.
Watsky's debut poetry collection and CD, Undisputed Backtalk Champion
from First Word Press sold out its first printing. After a limited second
run it is awaiting a third edition with a new distribution deal from
the legendary City Lights Books. Adam Mansbach, Author of Angry Black
White Boy or The Miscegenation of Macon Detornay provides the foreword.
Watsky has been featured in most major Bay Area media outlets including
the San Francisco Chronicle, Oakland Tribune, San Francisco Bayview,
WILD 94.9 FM, KGO radio, KPFA Hard Knock Radio, the KRON 4 Evening News,
and the KPIX Channel 5 Morning Show. He has performed at the biggest
venues in the area and beyond including the Apollo Theater, the Great
American Music Hall, the Independent, the Herbst Theater, Masonic Auditorium,
the War Memorial Opera House, Bimbo's, the Yerba Buena Theater, and has
won all-ages slams in Berkeley, Marin, and at the famed Nuyorican Poets
Café in Manhattan. Watsky has performed with the DaKah Hip Hop Orchestra
and has been featured at shows headlined by Mos Def, Bonnie Raitt, Taj
Mahal Michael Franti and Meshell Ndegeocello among others.
He hosted the popular San Francisco 21 and under open mic Final Fridays
from 2005-2006. Watsky is a member of the class of 2010 at Emerson College
in Boston where he is pursuing an acting degree.
