To book Seth Walker to perform, please visit the Bookings page.

About Seth Walker

Brief Bio:

Seth Walker is Houston’s premiere spoken word artist. His magnetic personality and electric humanism crackle in every performance, providing audiences with an incomparably exhilarating and uplifting poetic experience. In 2007, Seth Walker entered the Houston poetry scene like thunder. Taking 1st place in the Houston Grand Slam, Seth was ranked as the top Slam Poet in Houston 2007. That same year, while on the Houston Slam Team, Seth also placed 2nd overall in Texas at the Texas Blue Bonnet Competition. In November of 2007, Seth left Houston to travel and tour across the nation full-time.

Born August 1st, 1984 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Seth’s early life progress was measured in overflowing notebooks and a drive for excellence in education. As the sun of a preacher man, he was born to shine, but it was his mother’s voice and stage presence that later inspired him to take the stage.

His family moved to Houston, Texas where Seth fell into heavy drugs and gang violence. Surviving all he could, Seth moved to Long Beach, Mississippi in the summer of 2004 to attend college at U.S.M. on the coast and get his life together. Although he excelled, Seth would be destined to eventually return to the Lone Star state. After losing his home and nearly all his possessions to the violent winds and unforgiving waters of Hurricane Katrina, Seth returned home to Houston. He was able to overcome this tragedy and eventually use the emotional momentum from his tumultuous experiences to fuel his frenetic career and explosive imagery.

“A Tree Story” by Seth Walker
Performed at the Utah State Arts Fair

Seth Walker on “What Poetry Can Do”
Segment of interview w/Joe Ivory Mattingly

Seth works with many charitable organizations in the Houston area for the promotion of public awareness and social aid such as local inner-city high schools teaching after school poetry workshops, Planned Parenthood events promoting for free on-site HIV testing, local church fund raisers, local college fund raisers, and H.A.W.C. (Houston Area Women’s Center) performances to raise money for battered women’s housing and outreach. Having toured around the nation performing and competing, Seth Walker is a well seasoned veteran of the performance poetry scene.

Competitions

• 1st place: Utah State Arts Festival | Utah State Wide Competition | June, 2009
• 1st place: Berkeley Slam | Berkeley, Ca. | May, 2009
• 1st place: Annual Highway Poetry Festival Political Slam | Los Angeles, CA | April, 2009
• 1st place: Mills End Slam | Phoenix, AZ | March, 2009
• 1st place: Ocotillo Slam | Tuscon, AZ | March, 2009
• 1st place: Last Poet Standing | Austin, TX | 2008
• 1st place: Russell Simmons Slam | Dallas, TX | 2008
• 1st place: Last Chance slam | Houston, TX | 2007
• 1st place: Grand Slam | Houston, TX | 2007
• 1st place: Talk to me Shadow Bar Slam | Houston, TX | 2007
• 1st place: Talk to me Mr. A’s Slam | Houston, TX | 2007
• 1st place: Showcase Showdown | Houston, TX | 2007
• 2nd place: Houston IWPS Slam | Houston, TX | 2008
• 2nd place: Blue Bonnet Slam Texas State Competition | Beaumont, TX | 2007
• 2nd place: Galveston Love Slam | Galveston, TX | 2007
• 3rd place Arkansas Grand Slam | Hot Springs, AR | 2009
• 29th place: Individual World Poetry Slam (International Competition) | 2008

Accomplishments & Experience:

• Member of the Austin Poetry Slam team 2010
• Member of the Houston Slam team 2007
• Member of the H-Town Slam team 2008
• Headliner for National arts festivals such as the Utah State Arts Festival 2009
• Operated an independent underground studio to record & produce local poets in Houston.
• Charitable Cause fund-raising & organizing.
• Years of hosting experience for both local and national competitions.
• Works with intercity high school after school programs teaching poetry to youth and young adults.
• Experienced in teaching comprehensive poetry workshops for writing, editing, body language & psychology, and general performance.
• Twice featured at Da Poetry Lounge Hollywood’s World Famous Poetry Set.
• Member of the H-Town Slam team 2008.
• Works with bands, visual artists, and fellow poets around the country to create new forms of experimental art.
• Has toured across the country performing poetry to millions of people.
• Has produced three full-length albums.
• Has worked with colleges, organizations, churches, and businesses such as:
  • Planned Parenthood
  • Diamond Cutters Int.
  • Future Presidents of America
  • The Houston Area Women’s Center
  • Pepperdine University (Malibu)
  • Prarieview A&M University
  • University of Northern Alabama

What Others Have Said About Seth Walker

Press Comments:

“Neobeat slam poet Seth Walker’s words were a perfect counterpoint to the message at hand. With lyrics that celebrated triumph of the spirit over the degradation of life circumstances, Walker engaged the audience and, hopefully, galvanized them to take up the cause even after the show was over.”
Melonie Magruder | The Malibu Times |”Fashion to Free Trafficking Victims” | Malibu, California

“The feature for the night was Seth Walker who’s name is appropriate because he walked on water. Defying not only gravity, but mediocrity as well. He opened up with a prayer then paid homage to our fallen soldier Suzie Q. He then courted us with a love piece and closed with two of his and our favorites. Seth, ‘Rock on Dude.’”
Genesis | G’s and Z’s Blog | Houston, Texas

“I saw Seth perform in Los Angeles and he was captivating. His stage presence, his sense of empathy and the way he embodies his poems all combine to create a dynamic performance. The moment he was done, three hundred people leapt to their feet and thundered him with applause.”
Jason McBeth | 2008 IWPS runner up | Los Angeles, California

“Floating above the seas of disposable ideas and so-called “news” presented by supposed “Fair and Balanced” hucksters, Seth Walker brings it real, raw and unrelentingly. His spoken word is emotional but not over-wrought; to the point but not simplistic. Seth Walker is a walkabout version of the evening news. In a world of false messengers, Seth is the real thing.”
Kenn Rodriguez | National Poetry Slam Champion | Albuquerque, New Mexico

“Seth Walker has exploded onto the poetry scene coupling clever word play and high energy stage performances to become Houston’s most passionate poet! A true joy to watch, he is a must see.”
Black Snow of Snow Industries Poetry Collective | Houston, Texas

“Seth Walker possesses a very passionate and animated delivery orgied with crazy vivid and vivacious imagery to make for some entertaining storytelling and consistently crucial truths.”
Jessica Davis aka Lady Pariah | Poet | Houston, Texas

“A phenomenal ‘word spitter’, whose delivery is as on point, as his work is socially relevant. Seth has the swagger of a hip hop B-boy with the revolutionary mind state of an artist who lives his work. A true poet in the street, out there making change happen.”
Amoja Sumler aka “Mo Man” | Poet | Little Rock, Arkansas

Written Samples:

The Objector
~By Seth Walker

Upon induction into the United States Marine Core
He was informed that his uniformed ass was now government property
He wore a half cocked grin like a death shroud,
Proudly nodding in compliance.
But his faith weighed on him like a lead albatross

Spun like a quarter on a bar top
He landed halfway round the world
Playing cops and robbers with real guns
No take backs
No more stopping the game for cars…..
Instead, opening fire…..

He played judge and executioner
Till he forgot the necessity of juries
His morality flew on Icarus wings
Not tempered for hells oven
His M-16 shells dripped red wax in sand traps
Replacing his dreams with snuff film scenes
As a boy, he hadn’t truly conceived war
Never imagined in childhood games
How a bullet hole looks
Hung between the eyes of a nine year old
How mothers cry differently
When tears are shed over spilt potential

He couldn’t wear his W.W.J.D. bracelet on the battle field
And still look God in the eyes at night…
His prayers began to float crooked
Telling himself he was only doing a civic duty
Protecting mothers from terrorists….
But guardian angels don’t carry the grim reapers sickle
Mortgage to be made or not…..

After a long talk with his creator….
Private First Class Michael Barnes
Turned in this statement:
“I have been trying to justify being a soldier
And finding a way to do so while still being a Christian,
But I can no longer justify spending my short time in this world
Participating in or supporting war. …
I must try to save souls,
Not help take them.”

September 24th, 2008
Private Barnes was granted
Conscientious objector status with an honorable discharge
After experiencing a religious awakening in Iraq.
So now it’s our turn to call our troops back
To their families, Communities, and country…..
Before We Let Him……
Call them home…..

Seth Walker performing “The Objector”

Immigrant Nation
~By Seth Walker

Every day I pass her door
A little more curious than the time before
I’ve lived around the walkway from her for six months
Half spent on bent knees
The other spent on lit blunts
But today I was sober as a judge
Cleaner than soap suds

Sitting on the front porch, she passes
Cracked her licorice whip eyelashes
She speaks perfect Spanish
I’m even pretty sure she speaks a little English
Don’t have the cojones to find out what her name is

So for now,I call her dawn

Because I believe she may be the one
That lifts the sun over the hills
Right after she drops her kids off at school
While unwittingly working a twenty-four hour job as a tool

Promoting national id cards
With RFID chips
But borders are like rules,
They’re meant to be bent
Freedom can’t be an inalienable right
As long as government mentality exist
Cause elitist have a habit of forgetting
That Mexican’s aren’t terrorists

Above her lives a kid
Working shit jobs, I wouldn’t shit on, Gratefully
Just happy that his fathers social security number is still working properly
He lives a life in gratitude of his status as a junior
It’s peculiar how “good people” are only products of proper documentation
Cause last time I checked compassion didn’t take vacations
Just wouldn’t be prudent
He smokes just as much pot as any other college student
He’s the most American non-citizen I know

His mother stands so proud she glows
Powerful as a black panther fist
Screaming we must resist
She’s five feet of concrete
That will not be moved by la migra
She drifts like holy breath
She’s lived a life so hard she makes bricks look bitch
Cause a mothers love is the only thing that can defeat a super fence

Just taste her tamales
Lend her your ear for a minute
And she’ll tell you stories of morning glories
Passing beneath her feet like yellow road strips
Focusing her best to not drop her baby
Cause there’s no purpose in risking everything
If you lose the only thing worth saving

She smiled took a sip of her hot drink
Her eyes were so deep brown
They made her coffee look weak
She is my understanding of heritage
I don’t deserve to be an American
If she’s not the definition of what one is

I wished I could slit my wrist and paint her red white and blue
Go downstairs and dowse the dawn too
Thank them for all the work they do
To inspire freedom writers to spell pictures
In colors ethnocentrism has yet imagined
To love people more than our constitution ever fathomed
But we’re too worried about who’s mowing our neighbors lawn
To realize that there’s something fundamentally wrong

So fight on you sun lifters
Smuggle in your brothers and sisters
Take my job if you need it
Write poetry in words I don’t speak yet
Remind us what Malcom X meant
When he said “Through whatever means necessary”

I plead to foreign countries to send us your hungry
Your tired, poor and restless
Stereotypes are just government hype supplied for scare tactics
To shut down the borders
Free speech is an American dream now that they’ve passed the gag orders
We can’t build a fascist nation without thinking about retaliations to demonstrations
Baton coming down on American skulls
Like jokes about green cards on hard working ears
When blood sweat and tears don’t earn you a piece of this pie
I lose my appetite
Maybe it’s time to translate “Do not go gentle into that good night”
Out of English
So we can learn what it is to work hard enough to deserve to read it

Until then …… My home is your home
Make my face familiar
You are my familia
And one day we’ll make one united immigrant nation together

Seth Walker performing “Immigrant Nation”

If you are interested in booking Seth Walker to perform, please visit the Bookings page.