B. Dolan

Infobox musical artist |
Name = B. Dolan
Img_capt = B. Dolan
Img_size = 300x300
Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = Bernard Dolan
Alias = Bombzo Way, Bombzo the Clown, Evel Knievel
Born = March 8th, 1981Fact|date=September 2007
Died =
Origin = flagicon|USA Providence, Rhode Island, United States
Genre = Alternative Hip Hop
Occupation = Rapper, Spoken Word Artist
Years_active = 2001 – Present
Label = Strange Famous Records
Associated_acts =
URL = [http://www.myspace.com/bernarddolan Official Website]
Notable_instruments =

B. Dolan (born March 8, 1981 in Rhode Island) is an American activist, performance artist, poet and emcee based in Providence, Rhode Island. B. Dolan's art is often genre-defying; though his work bares a clear hip-hop influence, it has been known to incorporate diverse elements of storytelling, clowning, and absurdist theatre, among others.

As an activist, Dolan is known primarily as the creator and co-founder of [http://www.knowmore.org Knowmore.org] , a wiki devoted to connecting consumers with Social Responsibility information about corporations. [http://knowmore.org/wiki/index.php?title=About] Dolan is also the author of [http://knowmore.org/wiki/index.php?title=American_Apparel,_LLC "Understanding American Apparel,"] an in-depth report on the controversial garment company, which lead to Dolan's involvement in Dov Charney's recent sexual harassment trial. [http://www.strangefamousrecords.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=41257&start=0&sid=977ed917d958b5df38a7dcff2cdb760d] __FORCETOC__

Career

Dolan began writing small novels and plays at the age of 12, and to have received his first rejection letter from a publishing company before his 15th birthday.

In 2001, he moved to New York City and began performing as a Slam Poet at Alphabet City's Nuyorican Poets Cafe, where he gained the attention as part of HBO's Def Poetry in 2002. He also captured the Providence title in both 2002 and 2003, and served as a member and coach to several national Slam teams before breaking with poetry slam in late 2003.

2003 also saw the first release of "The Failure," [at the time] a two-disc, homegrown demo full of Dolan's earliest work. After this self-release, Dolan disappeared from poetry slam to pursue more overtly musical projects, as well as his own contribution to social justice work.

In 2002, he founded a youth art-outreach program called "the Open Mics Project", and began counseling youth through rap and poetry in a variety of settings. In 2003, he took a job working with adjudicated youth at Tides Family Services, and helped the school develop a hip hop-based arts program for their at-risk students.

In the midst of developing the ragged, breakdown aesthetic seen in his most recent work, Dolan conceived of (and co-founded) the knowmore.org website with former slam teammate and friend Sage Francis. Dolan joined Francis on The Knowmore.org Tour in support of the project, which is when Francis expressed interest in releasing a revised version of "The Failure" on Strange Famous Records Faced with the original demo's wide scale release, Dolan undertook the task of completely reworking the 2 year old "Failure." 2008 will see the official release of the new "Failure", which has been trimmed down by a disc, and doesn't have a single track in common with its predecessor.

Only the story remains same; we are in a fallout shelter, listening to the recordings of the last man on earth.

Since signing to SFR, Dolan has appeared on Sage Francis' Death Dance Tour and Buck 65's International Situation Tour.

2008 will see the release of the "Live Evel" vinyl EP (4/1/08 SFR,) the May release of "The Failure" (feat Sage Francis, Alias, Sole, and more,) and an appearance on Prolyphic & Reanimator's debut album "The Ugly Truth" (May, SFR.)

Discography

References

External links

* [http://seattlest.com/2007/11/30/we_review_buck_2.php Seattlest Review of a B. Dolan performance]
* [http://www.appscout.com/2007/08/knowmoreorg_keeping_tabs_on_th_1.php Appscout review of Knowmore.org]
* [http://www.urb.com/permalink/2237/Exclusive-Sage-Francis-MP3s.html Urb.com review of B. Dolan's "Heart Failure"]
* [http://www.gotpoetry.com/News/article/sid=331.html Review of the 2003 Failure at Gotpoetry.com]