“A little hip-hop, a little punk rock. They are emcees with no beats, a hardcore band with no instruments.” -Charles Ellik, slam champ
“They rock the way I never knew you could without music.” -924 Gilman Booking collective member
“Holy S**t! I never knew poetry could be that way.”- Jim Goad
Honors and Stagemates
Meet The Suicide Kings as Individuals
The Suicide Kings are a spoken word trio comprised of three award-winning Poetry Slam Champions. Collectively, they are known for their explosive live performances and a stylistic versatility that has brought them legions of fans at universities, hip-hop venues, spoken word and poetry shows, punk venues, and in workshops with at-risk youth. The Suicide Kings dice spoken word, punk rock theatrics, and a cappella hip-hop into a breathtaking display that transcends what most people think of as poetry.
Their work reflects three lives and where they diverge and intersect: suicide attempts, human relationships, learning English as an immigrant, child molestation, Jewish and Asian identities, fatherhood, and personal triumph over adversity. They relate lyrics, poems, and stories that balance the profane and absurd on the head of a sword. They are the tattooed knuckles under the velvet glove of American poetry.
Honors:
HBO’s Def Poetry Jam 2003
West Coast Regional Slam Champs
National Slam Rank: 5th in Nation
bEASTfest 2002
They have shared the stage with spoken word artists, authors, comedians, and rock & hip-hop bands such as:
The Dwarves*Marc Bamuthi Joseph (SeeKing)*Jim Goad*Pitch Black*Saul Williams*Sekou tha Misfit*Sage Francis*Anticon*The Fleshies* Eighth Wonder*Deepdickollective*Dead & Gone*Ishle Yi Park, Beau Sia, Taalam Acey*The Cost*Enemies*Big Poppa E*Taylor Mali* Stacy Ann Chin* Roger Bonair-Agard
Members
Geoff Trenchard’s poetry blasts you like a punk rock opera, taking the audience through the mosh pit of his mind. With a hardened empathy for the disposed and damaged, he has a style slick enough to spoon feed the boogieman nightmares. Since his burst on the San Jose slam poetry scene in 1999, he has hosted Bakatalk (one of San Jose¹s longest running open mics) and The Third Degree (San Jose¹s most successful Poetry Slams). After making the Silicon Valley Poetry Slam Team in 2000 and 2001, he toured the US and British Columbia. In 2002, he was part of the Berkeley Slam team who took the Western Regional Championship at Big Sur and went on to rank 5th in the nation. He currently lives in Oakland where he continues to write and teach poetry workshops all over the Bay.
Rupert Estanislao holds Quezon City, Philippines close to his heart and pens his immigration and experiences from his native home into performance poetry. Since coming to America in 1993, he has become the frontman for the multi-racial bilingual hardcore band Eskapo and screams a lot in Tagalog and English. He has performed at universities, high schools, punk venues, and slams all over the Bay Area. An immigrant, a punk, a perpetual novice who wishes to learn poetry from life on a day-to-day basis, he writes from beauty and brutality – attempting to pen his experiences from two cultures into the language of poetry.
Jamie Kennedy exploded onto the slam scene in 1999, on a team that took third place in the nation. He has competed and qualified for Bay Area team slots ever since. After being kicked out of two schools for his controversial performances, he created Tourettes Without Regrets, a kind of “psychotic vaudeville” show featuring spoken word, rock music, hip hop, and stage theatrics. He is known many ways and by many names: “hellspawn leprachaun”, “firecrotch” and as the outspoken great-grandson of L. Ron Hubbard. He performs regularly at universities, high schools, punk clubs, and slam venues. He is also a filmmaker, a novellist, and a father to his three year old daughter Nadia.