Kevin Murphy

Kevin Murphy’s poetry is exuberant, comic and slightly mad, and comes from a place where stones are alive and potatoes talk. With nods to the beats, the bards, the surrealists and the blues, he accompanies himself on guitar and percussion. Kevin has toured throughout the Northwest and beyond as a member of the entertainment/ education extravaganza known as the New Old Time Chautauqua. His new book is called A Beautiful Chaos Demands Energy, and his CD is Between Onions and Oxygen (2002).

He teaches poetry as an artist-in-the-schools with Allied Arts of Whatcom County, has been featured as poet/ vocalist with Opera Jupiter, Conscious Pilot and numerous other musical ensembles, and collaborates with dancers and jugglers too. A dramatic and engaging performer, his approach is playful and experimental, He agrees with Emily Dickinson that when you encounter real poetry you feel like the top of your head is being taken off. Kevin grew up in upstate New York where he survived thirteen years of Catholic school, has traveled extensively, especially on the Indian subcontinent, and lives with his wife Jeannie in Bellingham, Washington.