Poetry has a million messages. But its inadequacy at conveying specifics are all too apparent in post-election America. A poet’s call to arms is lost in the clatter of the rest of pop culture.

Message poetry is dead. Dan Solomon leads a message life.

i contend / that all art is political. -”Howling”

Dan Solomon’s poetry casts off easy definition; he’s not a satirist or a confessionalist, not a humorist or an imagist, not a monologueist or a slam poetist. His work deals extensively with the the social and political climate in post-election American culture, but it’s not political poetry.

“It’s not political; those words are trivial,” Solomon says. “Politics is a tool for creating the world in which you want to live.” Solomon attacks the arrogance and ignorance of the current administration with scathing humor in his spoken word sets, but reserves the bulk of his energy to communicate his message of the bridge between the political and the personal. “To focus on either misses the point — you can’t dwell on the personal to the extent of self-obsession, but without a personal slant to your politics you forget why you wanted to build that world to begin with.”

With his goal outlined, Solomon expresses his message with a unique blend of spoken word poetry, of first-person storytelling recounting his own experiences as an activist and performer and stand-up comedy. Believing that the power of the spoken word is in its versatility, Solomon explores the many styles the art form encompasses. Solomon’s innovative, yet cohesive style was honed by several national tours at which he performed alongside rock bands at live music venues across the United States and Canada. While he’s a veteran of the slam poetry scene, having been a regular fixture at San Antonio’s famous Puro Slam, as well as having performed with poets such as Taalam Acey, Mark Smith, and Amalia Ortiz, the choice to perform at rock clubs was a decision made out of an interest in challenging the mainstream perception of poetry.  

“Every time you go to the supermarket, you’re confronted with music; every time you go to a coffee shop, you’re confronted with art. But poetry still exists primarily for those who seek it out. By touring rock venues, I wanted to challenge people to accept the spoken word as a similarly vital artform,” Solomon says. “In order to frame the poetry in the proper context, I began speaking extemporaneously between pieces and found that the mix of scripted and unscripted material held the attention of club audiences better than either one on their own.” Solomon’s style is another manifestation of his goal to build a bridge between the personal and the political — his storytelling and comedy deal mostly with social and political themes, while the poetry tends to articulate the rest of the artist’s message, all the while seeking to maintain a place for the spoken word in the cultural conversation.

Solomon’s tours have brought him to venues such as Oakland’s Stork Club, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Houston’s Mary Jane’s, The State University of New York-Stonybrook, Austin’s Emo’s, Montreal’s Barfly, and Chicago’s legendary Green Mill. His most recent tour, a 58 date headlining tour accompanied by Austin’s Real Live Tigers, saw him performing in 26 states and two provinces in promotion of his second novel, 2004’s Poplife. The novel, which expands on themes that are at the core of Solomon the performer, was published in July 2004 as a free download via a Creative Commons license via Solomon’s website. This approach allows Solomon to reach a wide audience without calling into question the integrity of his message.

Explains Solomon, “You can’t charge people for your work without treating them as consumers, and when you do that, any message that you may have becomes suspect. Your motives are called into question — “did he write that in order to sell me something?” — and the connection to the audience becomes the connection of the salesman to the consumer.” To that end, in addition to the free novel, all merchandise at all performances on the Poplife tour, including CDs and poetry books, was offered to the audience free of charge. “The message has to outweigh commercial concerns. If I was interested in making money, I’d have become an accountant,” quips Solomon, but the tour was a success by any standard; by the time he returned home, Poplife had been downloaded more than a thousand times.

Poplife is about a young man named Elliott Robinson who meets an old man named Elliott Robinson and the way that they become friends. It’s about your favorite band and Che Guevara and the way that pop culture and the serious parts of life are both only tools used to find happiness. It’s about love. In addition to Poplife, Solomon has written ten poetry chapbooks, four spoken word records, and a previous novel, Quiddity, which entered its second printing in January 2005 by Lulu Publishing.

In addition to his spoken word performances, Solomon is also the vocalist for The Spent Shells, a band that blends a number of distinct genres of music with spoken word. The second Spent Shells album, Alamo, was released in January 2006 and included performances by James Eric, Tony Presley of Real Live Tigers, Art Mayes, and Donner from Charlie Daniels Death Wish.

Readers of his books and people who have seen Dan Solomon perform have witnessed firsthand how the message behind his work is the message behind his life; intensely personal, and striving to find some universal truths because of it.