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dream laborer poet for hire artist and curator     publisher        dream punk      published writer                        the Wanderer

Marshall James Kavanaugh 
                 is a dream laborer of words and various art forms used to create poetic dream spaces for his readership to explore. His works contain a culture driven attempt at documenting the creative activism of his generation. Over the years, he has taken his poetry to streets, art galleries, and performance venues around the country. In 2017-2019, he co-organized a series of readings across the country with a variety of performers under the moniker, Poets For Peace. The tours culminated in the publication of two zines by the Poets For Peace in the summer of 2020 as a mutual aid response for the Black Lives Matter movement. 

photo by Nikki Volpicelli, for JUMP Magazine

Beyond these community events, as a full time performer, Kavanaugh creates stream-of-subconscious inspired poetry on demand for the general public as Dream Poet For Hire. Equipped with a Smith-Corona Skyriter, he sets up in public spaces around Philadelphia and writes on-the-spot poems on any topic. He has published two collections of short stories, several small chapbooks of travel fiction, and two collections of haikus with the small press, A Freedom Books. His most recent poetry book, Travel By Haiku: Volumes 6-10, Far Out On The Road With Friends (released March 2021) is a modern ode to the community found on the road, with collaborative haikus written by six navigators of its far reaches over the course of three separate road trips.

He has performed and had his work exhibited in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Currents New Media Festival, MoMA PS1, The Paseo Taos Arts Festival, Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, Space 1026, and Vox Populi, as well as other cultural spaces around the country. He is the resident writer of The Dream Oven art salon since 2011 and was an active member of the Philadelphia art collective/gallery, Little Berlin, from 2012-2014. In 2017, he began curating at the Taos, NM collective and new media gallery, Parse Seco. 

He currently divides his time between travel and writing a novel about the first trip he took out to the West Coast. ​When he is not on the road he usually can be found in the Philadelphia area with his two cats building large TV installations.

CV

b. 1987
​
SOLO & SMALL GROUP EXHIBITIONS



2022
"PECO Free First Sunday: A Love Letter To West Philly"    The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia PA

2021
"Live At The Writers House on WXPN"     Kelly Writers House, Philadelphia PA
"Everyday Places Artist Partnership: West Philly Community Poem"     The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia PA
"Mural Arts and Wawa Present: Barnes on the Block"     The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia PA
"from the BEATS to the BEATNIK"     The Beatnik Lounge, Joshua Tree CA
"Grass Colors – Paintings + Bikes"     Tulla-Realschule, Mannheim, Germany

2020
"Uncharted Waters"     Havertown Community Action Network, Philadelphia PA
"Street Poets: Live Typewritten Art"     1455 Summer Literary Festival, Winchester VA
"The Poetry of Strangers – Typewriter Parade"     Book Soup, Los Angeles CA

2018
"ManifeSTATION Station: Give The River A Voice"    The PASEO, Taos NM
"Libraries, curated by Little Berlin"     The Front, New Orleans LA
"Dreams By Request"      Currents New Media Festival, Santa Fe NM
"A Poem Is Where The Heart Is..."     curator, Parse Seco, Taos NM

2017
"Poets and Unicorns"     The PASEO, Taos NM

2016
"Natural Tendencies"     Anetra Studio, Denver CO
"March Forth"     Martha Street Mummers Museum, Philadelphia PA
"Peripheral Surveillance"     #TheWrong New Media Festival, University of the Arts, Philadelphia PA

2014
"The Dream Oven: A Retrospective"     curator, Little Berlin, Philadelphia PA
"Between The Act & Motion"      Artscape, Baltimore MD
"Plato's Porno Cave - The Trial"      curator, Little Berlin, Philadelphia PA
"Year of the Gewgaw"     Collage Fest, Philadelphia PA
"Little White Cubes"      curator, Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts, Wilmington DE

2013
"Fort Thunder Attacks...again!"     Space 1026, Philadelphia PA
"All Of CITYWIDE"     Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia PA
"Limits and Demonstrations: A Lula Chamberlain Retrospective"     curator, Little Berlin, Philadelphia PA
"Plato's Porno Cave - The New World"     curator, Little Berlin, Philadelphia PA

2012
"HUNG"      Little Berlin, Philadelphia PA
"Bruce High Quality Foundation presents Bruceforma 2012"     MoMA PS1, Queens NY
"Plato's Porno Cave - A Dream Symposium"     curator, Little Berlin, Philadelphia PA

2011
"Carnivale de Arcanum"     curator, VWVOFFKA, Philadelphia PA

2010
"Soundoffka vol. 2"     VWVOFFKA, Philadelphia PA
"Small Objects"    curator, VWVOFFKA, Philadelphia PA
"Concrete, etc"      curator, VWVOFFKA, Philadelphia PA
"Soundoffka vol. 1"     VWVOFFKA, Philadelphia PA



RESIDENCIES

The Barnes Foundation and People's Emergency Center
Everyday Places Artist Parnership, Philadelphia PA - August 2021-February 2022
https://www.pec-cares.org/barneswest.html

Parse Seco, Taos NM; March - May 2018
http://www.parseseco.com/artist-residency--show-submissions.html

368 Ponce, Atlanta GA; April - May 2017
http://www.368ponce.com/

The Holy Underground, Baltimore MD; February 2016
http://theholyunderground.tumblr.com/