Media
From PBS:
“Anastacia-Reneé is a writer, educator and interdisciplinary artist. In collaboration with New York City’s Lincoln Center, she performs pieces from “Side Notes from the Archivist,” her new book that explores five decades of American history through her perspective as a Black, queer feminist. She shares her Brief But Spectacular take on legacy and poetry.”
Anastacia-Reneé: (Don’t be Absurd) Alice in Parts
JANUARY 30 – APRIL 25, 2021 / FRYE MUSEUM
Anastacia-Reneé’s poetry and performances are an assertion of presence that counteract the erasure of those who have been marginalized by American society. With an unflinching focus on collective liberation, her work is rooted in the Black feminist and womanist traditions, and their intersectional approach to addressing racism, sexism, homophobia, ageism, and class. In her writing, she plumbs the depths of the day-to-day experiences, emotions, and injustices that too often go unexpressed in order to transform silence into language and action. In this exhibition, Anastacia-Reneé offers a rageful meditation on gentrification and its insidious effects on the body and home, as seen through the eyes of her multilayered character Alice Metropolis.
Alice has appeared in Anastacia-Reneé’s literary and interdisciplinary work for the past seven years. (Don’t be Absurd) Alice in Parts centers on Alice’s struggles against various forms of gentrification, some of them literal, as in her displacement from her home and neighborhood, and some figurative, such as the colonization of her body by cancer cells and of her mind by the anxiety and terror of navigating white supremacy every day. Presented as an immersive installation that invites visitors to walk through Alice’s home, the exhibition charts the ways in which she strives for wholeness and transcendence against interlocking forms of oppression that relentlessly fracture her sense of self.
Alice’s home is a place of both solace and nightmares, comic relief and deep frustration. Inside, she has built a spiritual sanctuary dedicated to "The Lorde"—a reference to Black lesbian feminist writer, mother, warrior, poet, and activist Audre Lorde (1934–1992)—as a source of strength and inspiration. Alice’s lived experience opens a window into the world of an individual attempting to stay one step ahead of the forces that seek to erase her essence and existence. As she writes, “in what life is a black woman allowed to be her own spin & her own chair? in what life is she allowed to sit as long as she likes & still be moving forward without being a moving target?”
In this powerful reading, Seattle Civic Poet Anastacia-Reneé invites us into her version of “the talk” that people of color feel bound to share with their sons as they walk out in the world — a world where being young, and brown can too easily get you shot. Her second poem, brings us back to the everyday world of raising children who often ask the toughest questions, including, “do I matter?” Anastacia-Reneé is a writer, performance artist, and workshop facilitator who has been described as a queer super-shero of color. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.
From the event description: Rajiv Mohabir reads from his gorgeous, award-winning memoir Antiman (out now in paperback) at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division! The winner of our 2019 Prize for New Immigrant Writing, Antiman explores the fraught constellations of race, sexuality, and cultural heritage that have shaped Rajiv’s experiences as an Indo-Guyanese queer poet and immigrant to the United States.
Rajiv will be in conversation with queer writer, educator, interdisciplinary artist, speaker and podcaster, Anastacia-Reneé. Anastacia-Reneé’s forthcoming book of poems, Side Notes from the Archivist (HarperCollins, March 2023), is a rich and beautiful collection of verse and image—a multi-part retrospective that traverses time, space, and reality to illuminate the expansiveness of Black femme lives. Moderated by Chaelee Dalton
Quenton Baker, Anastacia-Renee, Marcus Scott Williams & Naa Akua!
A reading at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division
iTunes Podcast: The Deep End Friends Podcast
Listen to the episodes of The Deep End Friends podcast with Anastacia Renee and Reagan Jackson.
Photo Credit Brad Curran (Artist Trust)
Anastacia-Reneé on Soundcloud
Photo Credit Brad Curran (Artist Trust)
“…Seattle's civic poet, Anastacia-Renee Tolbert, tells us why saying "no" can be glamorous” on NPR
