Complete Resume
LARGE PROJECTS
Poet, 21V Choir commissioned Praisesong For Tulsa for their inaugural concert, Beyond Binary. This choral piece witnesses the cyclical nature of what it is to be Black in America including the truth of the inevitable reckoning it shall receive. This is a sonic disruption of America's constant requirement for Black trauma. Set in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma on May 31, 1921, the characters in the poem give thanks for their beautiful lives. In this piece, we are celebrating both Black survival and Black thrival.
Author, The Splooge Factory, a collection of poems published by Frayed Edge Press, 2018
Text & Visual Artist, Futuristic Relics and Motherboards Sacred excerpts from Rebrand The Past a collection of flash fiction, poems, videos, paintings, 3 dimensional constructions and textiles. Solo Exhibitions to date: Irma Freeman Center For The Arts, Pittsburgh, PA. 2018. Martin Luther King Library, San Jose, California 2017. Group exhibition: Dayton Visual Arts Center, Dayton, Ohio, 2017
Poet & Videomaker, Given The Circumstances is a short experimental screenpoem by Christina Springer about Justice, a black woman who understands her world is in so much trouble that all she can do is get in the bath; swim down the drain; and into the future where she can live happily ever after as a mermaid in the open sea. Streaming Spaces, 2019
Founder, Curator, Primary Artist, Svaha Paradox Salon, presents work by excellent artists
who are under-exposed due to the way in which they perform and present their identity. Pittsburgh, PA. 2013 - 2020
Projects:
BlackSpace is a home for Black wellness in Pittsburgh as expressed through healing arts. Current resident artists, Black Dream Escape and Ether.
Amor Fati West: Salon featuring Madame Dolores, an intimate concert with Madame Dolores
Poet, Preacher, Teacher: An Intimate Evening with Marvin K. White.
Electronic Corpse: Poems from A Digital Salon, highlights from collaborative poems generated in a digital salon which connected poets around the world.
Videomaker, Pantry Of Salt & Sugar, created videos for micro-songs by Christiane Dolores. Titles: Adrenaleeeeen, Won’t be going to Petty Island, and our GREAT collective NEED, and wrote the lyrics for the song the beautiful house I make, 2017.
Visual Artist, Group Exhibition, Matreal, Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, 2017, 3 pieces from Futuristic Relics & Motherboards Sacred. 2016
Co-Writer, War Streets, with Ron Modro, Television series based in Pittsburgh’s Mexican War Streets. 2016.
Conceptualist, Writer, Performer, Producer, She Diva Died. & Come Again? Incorporated poetry, music, movement and video to explore the joys and challenges of raising a Black man. Howard Alexander, Windafire, Directed by Tracey D. Turner. 2013
Writer, Performer, Second Steel, Performance #3, a collaborative performance art piece about urban revitalization including text and movement in a site specific installation with Juan Aldape, Colin LaLonde and Windafire. Produced by Unlisted: a performance art series, Pittsburgh, PA. September 2013
Key Collaborator, Miko Kuro’s Midnight Tea, Mumbai, India, Serifos, Greece & Pittsburgh, PA. MKMT provides a safe space wherein a diverse array of artists and members of the community can co-create a ritual involving tea. 2011 - 2013.
Co-writer, Mule Bone Blues, with Michele Poulos, an award winning screenplay about Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston’s trip South. Runner up, Sundance Film Festival Screenwriting Contest 2011 - present.
Outreach Artist & Facilitator, Historic Royal Palaces, London, England, 2006 - 2008 Cross-disciplinary arts and history projects at The Tower Of London and Hampton Court Palace. Projects delivered: Rapping On Walls, a poem-video, Black Birds & Bars, a poetry-photography-book, Bling & Beheadings, poetry and storytelling about the Crown Jewels. Dragon Drap D’or became a permanently installed poem-wall-hanging for the opening of the new Clore Learning Centre opened by HRH Charles, Prince Of Wales. London, England
Writer, Umoja African Arts Company, two Neo-African ballets, Living Ancestry and Kikombe Cha Kisiri Mato, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 2003 − 2004
Conceptual Artist, Writer, Performer, Composer’s Collaborative, The Splooge Factory, a collaborative dance theatre piece about race, gender and fetish with Peter Kirn. Dynamic Duos with Charles Griffin performed at Lincoln Center, directed by Valeria Vasileski. New York City, 2001 - 2002
Conceptual Artist, Producer, Writer, Performer, Sun Crumbs Interdisciplinary, Pittsburgh, PA, in various collaborative text-based interdisciplinary performances. 1999 - The Black Princess Diaries with Nelson Harrison, Howie Alexander, Christiane Leach, Roger Bonair-Agard, and Stacyann Chin, 2001 - Archetypal Alchemy, with Tucki Bailey, Nelson Harrison, Regie Gibson, Tyehimba Jess, Staycee Pearl, Biko, Pittsburgh, PA.
Co-Conceptualist, Producer, The Greater Pittsburgh Poem Chase, an interactive installation displaying poetry as an city-wide treasure hunt to discover city landmarks, with Laurie Graham Pittsburgh, PA., 2001.
Scriptwriter, Voice Talent, Voices Of The Millennium, Talladega!, a video documenting the history of Talladega, Alabama, produced by Curtis Reaves as part of an artist’s residency with Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, Talladega, Alabama, 2001
Co-conceptualist, Poet Painbrush, for The Painted Phrase, an interdisciplinary work performed in collaboration with photographer Zed Armstrong. Viaduct Art Gallery Pittsburgh, PA., 1997
Conceptual Artist, Writer, Performer, Life Rites, an interdisciplinary piece incorporating poetry, movement and music about the human condition from pre-birth to afterlife with The Kornicki Project and Adrienne Wehr. City Theater Pittsburgh New Works Festival, 1994
Producer, Director, Co-Writer, Performer, Mary Magdeline & The Apostles, a poetry-rock opera with Bucky & the Surf Weevils examining race, gender, sexuality, abuse and Catholicism. Pittsburgh, PA.,The Acting Company, 1995.
Co-Producer, Writer, Director, Creation Of Destiny a 16 mm afro-futurist time travel 58 minute film, set in 1859 Ohio about the personal relationship dynamics throughout time between Free Blacks and White Progressives starring BarbaraO, Full Circle Films, Ohio, 1993
Art Director, Narration Screenwriter, Assistant Producer, A Powerful Thang directed by Zeinabu irene Davis. Won Best Production Design by the Atlanta Film & Video Festival, Wimmin With A Mission Films, Ohio, 1994
SELECTED POETRY-ONLY ENGAGEMENTS
All Womyn’s Showcase, produced by Two Miles East - Summer Garden Series and School Of Arts And Culture at the Mexican Heritage Plaza, San Jose, 2016
Testify: a Black Womanhood Series, Poem One, produced by Joy Yejide KMT of The Tabernacle Of Immaculate Mirrors at The New Bohemian, October, 2013
Wild Women Of the Poetry Slam, Kentucky Women Writers Conference, Transylvania University, Lexington, KY., 2013
Tapping The Motherline, Writer & Performer of text for the closing of an installation of Wherein Fury Takes Flight: The Time Of Our Silence Is Over by Alyson Pou at Aljira Gallery. Newark, New Jersey, March 2013.
In The Image Of Angels, a one woman show based on poems from the CD of the same title. Multiple venues including Lollapalooza, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Louder Arts Poetry Series, Suny Oneonata, North Carolina School Of The Arts. 1995 − 2003
PUBLICATIONS
Books: The Splooge Factory, 2018, 69 Love Poems: One Black Man, 1999, A Cacophony Of Sultry Images, 1997, Sucking The Silver Lining Out Of Clouds, 1994
CD: In The Image Of Angels, a full length collection of poems. 1995
Anthologies: Tender, ED., Deesha Philyaw, Vanessa German, Art House, 2019, A Whore’s Manifesto, Thorntree Press, 2019, Encounters, ED, Paula Cole Jones, Skinner House Press, 2011, Saints of Hysteria: A Half-Century of Collaborative American Poetry, Soft Skull Press, 2007 Gathering Ground, ED., Cornelius Eady, Toi Derricote, Camille Dungey, University of Michigan Press, 2006, The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Poetry Slam, ED, Marc Smith, Penguin Books, 2003, Cave Canem 6, Cave Canem Foundation, 2002 Her Words, ED., Felicia Mitchell, University Of Tennessee Press, 2002, Cave Canem 3, Cave Canem Foundation, 2000, In Our Own Words, ED, Marlow Peerse Weaver, 2000, Cave Canem 4, Cave Canem Foundation, 1999 Companions, ED., Joanne Fox, Foxfold Press, 1999, Will Work For Peace, ED., Brett Axel, 1999 Standing On the Ceiling, ED., Joanne Fox, Foxfold press, 1998, Sinister Wisdom 15th Anniversary Anthology, Sinister Wisdom Press, 1994, Revival: Spoken Word From Lollapalooza 1994, Manic D Press, Riding Desire, ED., Tee Corinne, Banned Books,1993, Piece of my Heart, ED., Makeda Silvera, Sister Vision Press, 1991.
Literary Journals: Raising Mothers, Eyedrum Periodically, Obsidian 42.1 & 43.2, The Mom Egg, Rhino Poetry 2016, The Comstock Review, #WomanCentered, Feminessay, Fledgling Rage 13, Union Station Magazine, Torch, The Drunken Boat, Callaloo 22/4, Janus Head, Kuumba, Fireweed, InContext, Survivor Magazine, Crack, This Order, Outlet Literary Journal, The Pennsylvania Review, The New Voice, Da Juice!, Amethyst, Sinister Wisdom 42 & 57, Common Lives Lesbian Live 26, Drumvoices, Presents, Mothering Magazine,
Installation “Poetry In Motion,” by Adrienne Heinlich - an installation of my poetry and the poetry of five other African-American women poets on in the Pittsburgh Public Transportation System. Work appeared in bus stations and on over 800 public buses city-wide. 1996
AWARDS - FELLOWSHIPS
Advancing The Black Arts In Pittsburgh, The Pittsburgh Foundation & Heinz Foundation, 2013
Residency, Virginia Center For Creative Arts, 2012
Cave Canem Delegate, University Of Missouri Summer Writing Session in Greece, 2011
“40 Under 40,” Pittsburgh Urban Magnet Project & Pittsburgh Magazine Regional Leadership Award,2002 Pennsylvania Council On The Arts, Poetry Fellowship, 1998
Cave Canem Fellowship & Scholarship, 1998 - 2002
Poet In Residence, Winchester-Thurston School, 2000 - 2002
Pittsburgh Poetry Slam Champion, 1994 - 2000
Heinz Multi-Cultural Arts Initiative Award - 1994
Pennsylvania Council On The Arts, Media Award 1993
NEA Mid-Atlantic Regional Media Arts Fellowship,
1993 Best Production Design for A Powerful Thang Atlanta Film & Video Festival,
1992 NEA Mid-Atlantic Regional Media Arts Fellowship,
1991 Ohio Arts Council, Media Award,
1991 Fuji Film Award, 1991
BUSINESS & TEACHING EXPERIENCE
PALS Enrichment Programs, Pittsburgh, PA. Teaching Artist, 2008 - 2010
University Of East London and CityLit College, London England, Professor, 2006 - 2007
Sun Crumbs, 1998 - 2005, Administrative Director & Cofounder
91.3 WYEP - FM Pittsburgh 1995 - 1996, General Manager
EDUCATION
Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio, 1987, Bachelor Of Arts Triple Major: Theatre-Dance/Literature