David Lawton

I am a native of Woburn, Massachusetts and a graduate of the theatre program at Boston University, where I was also a Guest Artist in the playwriting classes taught by Nobel Laureate (in Poetry) Derek Walcott. I have appeared as an actor Off-Broadway, had my plays performed Off-Off Broadway, and sang background vocals for ten years with the New York underground band Leisure Class. It was in the band's de facto headquarters in the Chelsea Hotel that I befriended beat godfather Herbert Huncke and San Francisco poet Marty Matz and was inspired by their embodiment of the spoken word. My work has appeared recently in Meat for Tea and Schuykill Valley Journal. I have been featured at such live venues as :Kiss*Punch*Poem, Cornelia Street Café and the HOWL Festival in New York, Dire Literary series in Cambridge MA, The Gold Rush Saloon in New Orleans and the Beat Museum in San Francisco. I served as co-host/co-producer of the 2009 "Downtown Does Huncke for His Birthday" event at the Bowery Electric which spotlighted Huncke's prose, and am also one of the interview subjects for "This Ain't No Holiday Inn: Down and Out at the Chelsea Hotel 1980-1995" (Schaffner Press). I am an editor for greatweatherforMEDIA, and serve as one of the hosts for their live and virtual readings. Pixie Dust, the debut album from Hydrogen Junkbox, my lo-fi antifolk poemusic band with Aimee Herman and Eric Alter, is available on most streaming services.