ENTREPRENEUR
My primary ongoing arts practice is a project called RENT Poet, which creates collaborative poetry, mediated by the technology of the typewriter, with participants. RENT Poet inspires meaningful conversations with the general public about their hopes, fears, memories, and dreams for the future, and work with a poet to immortalize these thoughts in verse. RENT Poet has grown beyond art project into a start-up business, under whose auspices I train artists in this practice and hire them to run the piece at events. The project has been commissioned by a wide range of entities, from Google and YouTube to the Emmys to the LA Chamber of Commerce. Participants are frequently moved to tears, and some give feedback that they’ve kept their artwork for years as both a memento and tool for reflection.
In 2017 my work with RENT Poet led to Writer’s Residencies on Amtrak Trains and at Mall of America (selected out of 4,500 applicants), and was featured in The Guardian and The New York Times. This led to a literary agent, publications with The Guardian and Mississippi Review, and a book deal with Harper Collins to write about poetry's intersections with marginalized spaces. This book is set for national release in 2020.
POET
My first book of poetry, I Sold These Poems, Now I Want Them Back, was published by local publisher Yak Press in 2016, and my poetry has further appeared with Angels Flight Literary West (2017), Art& (2017, Germany) Spoken Word London (2016, UK), Chaffey Review (2016), Fools Guild Quarterly (2015), New York Academy of Medicine (2012), and more. I also perform poetry and spoken word, featuring at such venues as UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion, Da Poetry Lounge, The Broad Stage, CAP UCLA, Chandler Center for the Arts (AZ), Electric Forest Festival (Michigan), and University of North Dakota, Grand Forks.
WRITER & EDUCATOR
As a cultural writer and critic, I explore diverse movements within art ranging from Mariachi music to the avant garde, writing for LA County Art Commission’s Public + Art, The Ford Theatres, LACMA Unframed, HowlRound, ArtsBeatLA, LA Theater Review, and others. In higher education, I authored a chapter on urban arts activism for Art + The City (Rutledge, 2017) and have guest lectured or presented workshops at UCLA, CSUN, UC Berkeley, Miami University (OH), and University of Nebraska, Omaha. I am also a teaching artist working with K-12 students throughout LA County, in partnership with Get Lit and 24th Street Theatre, and was a 2015 Artist-in-Residence with the National Parks System bringing youth into parks to make art .
EVENT MAKER
ArtsBeatLA called Quickdraw Poetry Cabaret, which I co-directed with my ensemble, Melrose Poetry Bureau, "one of the best nights of live performance in town." In 2016, I conceived and was the Artistic Director of NEVERMORE, an Edgar Allan Poe-inspired festival in the Valley (with the Center for Cultural Innovation, City of Los Angeles, and METRO). In 2014/15, I conceived and directed Bike Odyssey LA, an immersive re-telling of Homer's The Odyssey over the course of a bike ride, which was lauded by LA Weekly as "ingenious...completely unforgettable." Bike Odyssey LA was presented by CalTrans, METRO (through C.I.C.L.E.), The Santa Monica Museum of Art, West Hollywood, and the National Endowment for the Arts (through Our Town Long Beach). I was the Founding Artistic Director of Tabula Rasa Theatre Co. (Scotland, 2007-2011), under whose auspices I devised 11 works and traveled to create pieces with the indigenous Shuar Federation of Ecuador (2012), Pure Theatre Lab MACHAL, South Korea (2009), and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (2011).
LEADER
I received a 2018 Leadership LA Fellowship and a 2018 Emerging Arts Leaders Mentee position with poet Charles Jensen. In 2017 I completed an Arts for LA ACTIVATE Fellowship using poetry to advocate for community voices at LA City Hall, and I was a 2016 City of Los Angeles Artist-in-Residence, creating poetry activations around place and gentrification. In 2015 I was nominated for a Doris Duke Impact Award for contributions to the field nationally. I hold an MA in Sustainable Development from the University of St Andrews, Scotland, with a thesis on community voicing projects for social and environmental justice which won the 2011 Prize for Innovative Research.
My primary ongoing arts practice is a project called RENT Poet, which creates collaborative poetry, mediated by the technology of the typewriter, with participants. RENT Poet inspires meaningful conversations with the general public about their hopes, fears, memories, and dreams for the future, and work with a poet to immortalize these thoughts in verse. RENT Poet has grown beyond art project into a start-up business, under whose auspices I train artists in this practice and hire them to run the piece at events. The project has been commissioned by a wide range of entities, from Google and YouTube to the Emmys to the LA Chamber of Commerce. Participants are frequently moved to tears, and some give feedback that they’ve kept their artwork for years as both a memento and tool for reflection.
In 2017 my work with RENT Poet led to Writer’s Residencies on Amtrak Trains and at Mall of America (selected out of 4,500 applicants), and was featured in The Guardian and The New York Times. This led to a literary agent, publications with The Guardian and Mississippi Review, and a book deal with Harper Collins to write about poetry's intersections with marginalized spaces. This book is set for national release in 2020.
POET
My first book of poetry, I Sold These Poems, Now I Want Them Back, was published by local publisher Yak Press in 2016, and my poetry has further appeared with Angels Flight Literary West (2017), Art& (2017, Germany) Spoken Word London (2016, UK), Chaffey Review (2016), Fools Guild Quarterly (2015), New York Academy of Medicine (2012), and more. I also perform poetry and spoken word, featuring at such venues as UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion, Da Poetry Lounge, The Broad Stage, CAP UCLA, Chandler Center for the Arts (AZ), Electric Forest Festival (Michigan), and University of North Dakota, Grand Forks.
WRITER & EDUCATOR
As a cultural writer and critic, I explore diverse movements within art ranging from Mariachi music to the avant garde, writing for LA County Art Commission’s Public + Art, The Ford Theatres, LACMA Unframed, HowlRound, ArtsBeatLA, LA Theater Review, and others. In higher education, I authored a chapter on urban arts activism for Art + The City (Rutledge, 2017) and have guest lectured or presented workshops at UCLA, CSUN, UC Berkeley, Miami University (OH), and University of Nebraska, Omaha. I am also a teaching artist working with K-12 students throughout LA County, in partnership with Get Lit and 24th Street Theatre, and was a 2015 Artist-in-Residence with the National Parks System bringing youth into parks to make art .
EVENT MAKER
ArtsBeatLA called Quickdraw Poetry Cabaret, which I co-directed with my ensemble, Melrose Poetry Bureau, "one of the best nights of live performance in town." In 2016, I conceived and was the Artistic Director of NEVERMORE, an Edgar Allan Poe-inspired festival in the Valley (with the Center for Cultural Innovation, City of Los Angeles, and METRO). In 2014/15, I conceived and directed Bike Odyssey LA, an immersive re-telling of Homer's The Odyssey over the course of a bike ride, which was lauded by LA Weekly as "ingenious...completely unforgettable." Bike Odyssey LA was presented by CalTrans, METRO (through C.I.C.L.E.), The Santa Monica Museum of Art, West Hollywood, and the National Endowment for the Arts (through Our Town Long Beach). I was the Founding Artistic Director of Tabula Rasa Theatre Co. (Scotland, 2007-2011), under whose auspices I devised 11 works and traveled to create pieces with the indigenous Shuar Federation of Ecuador (2012), Pure Theatre Lab MACHAL, South Korea (2009), and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (2011).
LEADER
I received a 2018 Leadership LA Fellowship and a 2018 Emerging Arts Leaders Mentee position with poet Charles Jensen. In 2017 I completed an Arts for LA ACTIVATE Fellowship using poetry to advocate for community voices at LA City Hall, and I was a 2016 City of Los Angeles Artist-in-Residence, creating poetry activations around place and gentrification. In 2015 I was nominated for a Doris Duke Impact Award for contributions to the field nationally. I hold an MA in Sustainable Development from the University of St Andrews, Scotland, with a thesis on community voicing projects for social and environmental justice which won the 2011 Prize for Innovative Research.
