Buddy Wakefield: www.buddywakefield.com

Vulnerability is what made every movie, sang every song, and wrote every poem that ever plugged a life back into itself.
—Buddy Wakefield, A Choir of Honest Killers

BUDDY WAKEFIELD is an actor, writer, producer, and three-time world champion spoken word artist featured on the BBC, HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, ABC Radio National and has been signed to both Sage Francis’ Strange Famous Records as well as Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records. In 2004 he won the first Individual World Poetry Slam Finals thanks to the support of anthropologist and producer Norman Lear, then went on to share the stage with nearly every notable performance poet in the world in over 2000 venues internationally from The Great Lawn of Central Park, Zimbabwe’s Shoko Festival and Scotland’s Oran Mor to San Quentin State Penitentiary, House of Blues New Orleans and The Basement in Sydney, Australia.

Buddy has been a busker in Amsterdam, a street vendor in Spain, a team leader in Singapore, a re-delivery boy, a candy maker, a street sweeper, a bartender, a maid, a construction worker, a bull rider, a notably slow triathlete, a facilitator at Quantum Learning Network, and is the most toured performance poet in history. He is the founder of Awful Good Writers, and the producer and host of Heavy Hitters Festival 2020, a summer-long series of online shows and workshops featuring thirty of the most beloved performance poets alive.

The inaugural author released on Write Bloody Publishing, and an original Board of Directors member with Youth Speaks Seattle, Buddy is published in dozens of books internationally with work used to win multiple national collegiate debate and forensics competitions. His first short film, Farmly, directed by Jamie DeWolf, won Best of Texas at the Literally Short Film Fest, and the USA Film Festival.

In the spring of 2001 Buddy left his position as the executive assistant at a biomedical firm in Gig Harbor, WA, sold or gave away everything he owned, moved to the small town of Honda Civic, then set out to live for a living. His aim was to tour North American poetry venues for two years. He did not stop. Wakefield, who isn’t concerned with what poetry is or is not, delivers raw, rounded, disarming performances of humor and heart.

Mary Lambert: www.marylambertsings.com

Mary Lambert is not your typical multi-platinum artist. While studying Music Composition at Cornish College of the Arts, she found a home in the spoken word community of Seattle and began experimenting with infusing poetry into her music, performing frequently as a cellist, singer-songwriter, and poet. Lambert had never released music and was juggling multiple food service jobs when she received a call from Macklemore and Ryan Lewis to collaborate on their marriage equality anthem, “Same Love”. Writing and singing the hook to “Same Love” led to an MTV VMA win and two Grammy nominations: Song of The Year and Album of The Year, and culminated in the iconic 2014 Grammys performance, which featured a mass wedding officiated by Queen Latifah and Lambert’s unforgettable duet with Madonna. After the viral success of releasing a standalone version of the song, “She Keeps Me Warm” Lambert shortly signed to Capitol Records. She released Welcome to the Age of My Body, an EP with a re-release of the Top 20 hit “She Keeps Me Warm” and “Body Love”, a spoken-word piece about body image. Later that year, she debuted her first pop song: a tongue-in-cheek single, “Secrets,” that went Gold and shot to No. 1 on the Billboard Dance charts, which was followed by her debut full-length album, Heart on My Sleeve. Lambert received the Human Rights Campaign’s Visibility Award, The SAMHSA Special Recognition Award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for her work on destigmatizing mental illness, and was invited to speak at the UN. She has performed on the Colbert Show, Ellen, The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show, and the American Music Awards.

Lambert had been successful in the eyes of the public; but below the surface, she was struggling with frequent panic attacks and suicidal thoughts. After two releases, she parted ways with formal management and Capitol Records. The desire was to reclaim her independence and to focus her attention on other aspects of her career: poetry, acting, composing, writing, and production. Lambert self-released the joyful indie-pop EP Bold and a self-recorded holiday EP, Happy Holigays under her own label, Tender Heart Records. In 2018, Lambert signed a book deal with Macmillian to release a poetry collection centered around trauma and mental illness called Shame is an Ocean I Swim Across, and she released her sophomore album, Grief Creature, as a complementary work shortly thereafter. Written, produced, and arranged almost entirely by Lambert, the “breaking up with shame” album contains heart-rending adult-pop songs, intense spoken-word tracks, and slick collaborations with musician-friends Macklemore, Julien Baker, Maiah Manser, and Hollis.

Lambert is currently recording a new album; co-starring in the Netflix animated musical and series, I ♥ Arlo and Arlo the Alligator Boy; hosting The Manic Episodes, a mental health podcast; and facilitates a virtual workshop on body image called Everybody is a Babe. Lambert is also the film composer for 1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture, a documentary about the mistranslation of the word “homosexual” in the bible. 1946 won the Audience Award at both Doc NYC and OutFEST and broke records for the most viewed film in Doc NYC history. She lives between Seattle and Western Massachusetts with her dog, Georgie.

@ Fremont Abbey Arts Center

7p doors, 7:30p show

All ages, some seating available, bar w/ID

ABBEY ARTS EVENT INFO:

Fremont Abbey is ADA accessible on either level.
For most events we have a mix of padded chairs and standing room.
Seating is not guaranteed or reserved unless noted.
To respect the performing artists and your fellow attendees, please refrain from talking during the performances
Please limit photos during the show so as to not distract other attendees from the experience.
Phone and video may be permitted for some shows, from the standing area only please.
No professional cameras or cameras with shutters allowed in the venue
We are an all ages venue. Kids 10 & under are free at Abbey Arts concerts & arts events unless noted.
Equity & Inclusion - Entering the venue indicates agreement to adhere to the Abbey Respect Policy. www.fremontabbey.org/respect
Service animals as defined by the ADA are allowed. Service animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities.