Note: This video contains mature content and explicit language.
Combining poetry, objects, and video, (Don’t Be Absurd) Alice in Parts is an immersive installation by multi-genre writer and performer Anastacia-Reneé that offers a rageful meditation on gentrification—of neighborhoods and its insidious effects on the body—as seen through the eyes of her multilayered and witty character Alice Metropolis.
On Saturday, April 24, 2021, four of Anastacia-Reneé’s most beloved poets read their works in engagement with and in response to (Don’t Be Absurd) Alice in Parts at the Frye. This reading, one of two presented in conjunction with the exhibition, is interspersed with the poets’ reflections on the exhibitions and the ideas that fuel their practices.
ABOUT THE POETS
Mahogany L. Browne is a writer, organizer & educator. She is Executive Director of Bowery Poetry Club, Artistic Director of Urban Word NYC, & Poetry Coordinator at St. Francis College. Browne has received fellowships from Agnes Gund, Air Serenbe, Cave Canem, Poets House, Mellon Research & Rauschenberg. She is the author of most recent works: Chlorine Sky, Woke: A Young Poets Call to Justice, Woke Baby & Black Girl Magic. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Cynthia Manick is the author of Blue Hallelujahs (Black Lawrence Press, 2016) and editor of Soul Sister Revue: A Poetry Compilation (Jamii Publishing, 2019) and The Future of Black: Afrofuturism and Black Comics Poetry (Blair Publishing, forthcoming 2021). She has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, MacDowell Colony, and Château de la Napoule, among others. She is Founder of the reading series Soul Sister Revue; and her work has appeared in the Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day Series, AGNI, Callaloo, Los Angeles Review of Books (LARB), The Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere. She currently serves on the board of the International Women’s Writing Guild and the editorial board of Alice James Books.
Natasha Ria El-Scari is a writer, editor, Cave Canem alum, performance poet and educator for over a decade. She is also a life coach and editor. Her poetry is widely published and she is the author of five books, three spoken word CDs (available on all media outlets) and one DVD. She is the founder/curator of Black Space Black Art and the founder/owner of the Natasha Ria Art Gallery (formally El-Scari Harvey Art Gallery) in Kansas City, MO.
avery r. young is a 3Arts Award-winning teaching artist, composer, and producer with work that spans the genres of music, performance, visual arts and literature. Examining and celebrating Black American history and culture, his work also focuses in the areas of social justice, equity, queer identity, misogyny, and body consciousness. As a writer, this Cave Canem alum has work featured in The Breakbeat Poets, Coon Bidness, to be left with the body, and Make Magazine. He has also written curriculum and essays on arts education that appear in the Teaching Artist Journal and A.I.M. Print.
Explore this collection of recommended reading for the exhibition, which includes the poets from this program, available for purchase at the Museum Store’s website.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Looking for more poetry? Check out the first poetry reading and the virtual opening for (Don’t Be Absurd) Alice in Parts, which featured a choreopoem inspired by the exhibition’s central character Alice Metropolis as well as the spirit and work of Audre Lorde. The choreopoem was read by a chorus of seven artists and poets selected by Anastacia-Reneé. Note: This video contains mature content and explicit language.
Missed the exhibition in person? Explore a 3D tour of the immersive installation. If you prefer video to 3D, we invite you to view this this special tour of the exhibition, narrated by the restless, late-night thoughts and fears of Alice Metropolis. Note: This video contains mature content and explicit language.