London Calls Me: Writing Callaloo
Donation protected
WHY I’M ASKING FOR YOUR HELP:
I’m honored to have been invited to attend the CALLALOO Literary Journal’s 2014 Writing Workshop hosted by the Black Cultural Archives, in collaboration with The Equiano Centre at University College London, England. I have a chance to work with esteemed poet Gregory Pardlo and be in residence with fiction writers Maaza Mengiste and Jackson Brown, as well as 20 other multi-genre writers selected from an international pool!
CALLALOO is unable to provide funding support for the writers who are attending, so we are asked to pay our own transportation, room and board. Your individual support ensures my ability to attend this workshop, to further my artistic development and to collaborate with other artists from across the globe.
WHAT I WILL BE WORKING ON:
1) While in residence at the week long workshop, I will continue the writing on my current poetry manuscript, “Anchoring the Compass” as well as producing new poems. This manuscript furthers the artistic exploration I began in my solo performance play, “Ungrateful Daughter: One Black Girls Story of being Adopted into a White Family . . . that aren’t Celebrities.” (awarded Zellerbach Foundation, James Irvine Foundation grants). This play examined my relationship to my Black and Filipino ancestry and the many historical secrets as a result of being adopted by white parents. “Anchoring the Compass” manuscript extends many of the themes I began to explore in my play, including the complexity of a hybrid, diasporic identity when one does not know one’s birth family history nor has any visible, mirrored link to a particular ancestral homeland. Many of the pieces in “Anchoring” explore how searching, speculation, story-making, mythology and invention all play a part in the development of the constantly moving, changing identities of adopted bodies. Reproductive justice, family preservation and the resistance to human trafficking are strong threads in this work.
Post workshop – I play to extend my trip for one week:
2) to continue my research on diasporic black adoptee communities. This research is a major part of the work that is informing my new play in development, “Side Effects”. “Side Effects” is a theater/ dance / visual art project that explores the personal and geopolitical impacts of inter-country and domestic transracial adoption on Black, Asian and multi-racial bodies of color. This multidisciplinary theater project speaks to the phenomenon of global adoption, and adds to conversations around concepts of multiple diasporas and the dispersal of bodies of color for white consumption, under the guise of multiculturalism and philanthropy.
3) to make connections to other adoptee artists working, writing and performing in London for potential transnational artistic collaboration.
WHY THIS MATTERS:
This work is an act of resistance. The act of voicing back to the decades of having our narratives written by other people is a critical step in these fields. This manuscript adds to the short lineage of black diasporic women who have been adopted across race and are producing poetic / theatrical / creative work. The work of Adoptee poetics / adoptee pedagogy speak directly to the phenomenon of global adoption, and the dispersal of bodies of color for white labor and consumption, under the guise of multiculturalism and philanthropy.
In addition – the chance to work with CALLALOO is an honor. CALLALOO has hosted retreats, literary readings, symposia, performances, conferences, and other gatherings that bring scholars and creative writers together in the communities where the office of the journal is housed and at various institutions across the United States, and in such countries as Brazil, England, Cuba, Mexico, and Ethiopia. Since 1997, Callaloo has also offered annual creative writing workshops that provide rigorous sessions in poetry writing and fiction writing for new and emerging writers in the African Diaspora.
WHERE DOES THE MONEY GO?
Your contribution goes directly to assist with airfare, room and board for the duration of the workshop and for the week of collaborative artistic meetings post workshop. Your donations also go to the 7.5% gofundme and WePay take for fees.
My goal is to find as low cost housing as possible through using Airbnb, friend connections, etc.
LET’S DO THIS! I have 15 days to raise $3700.00. Please donate what you can and please share with your communities far and wide.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Lisa Marie is a Bay Area (Oakland) based, Black/Filipina writer, performer, playwright, educator and one leading voice in transracial/ international adoption education and advocacy. She is currently touring her acclaimed solo show, Ungrateful Daughter: One Black Girls Story of being adopted by a White Family… that aren’t Celebrities, a comedic look her experience of being adopted by a white family in the 1970′s.
She has performed Ungrateful Daughter in the New York International Fringe Theater Festival, Los Angeles Women’s Theater Festival, The Atlanta Black Theater Festival, San Francisco Solo Festival, San Francisco Theater Festival, at StageWerx Theater, Off-Market Theatre, The Marsh Theater at Berkeley & in SF, The Shelton Theatre, universities and academic conferences across the United States. Ungrateful Daughter has been awarded James Irvine New Works, Zellerbach Family Foundation and City of Oakland Cultural Arts grants. Lisa Marie is the original co-producer of the highly praised “W. Kamau Bell Curve: Ending Racism in About an Hour”, the basis for FX television series, “Totally Biased w W. Kamau Bell”. She directed “All Atheists are Muslim” by Zahra Noorbakhsh and most recently co-produced “A History of the Body”, a new play by Filipina playwright Aimee Suzara.
She has been teaching creative writing, poetry and performance workshops for over ten years. She was the 2010-2011 Poet in Residence at June Jordan’s Poetry for the People at U.C. Berkeley and is an alumni in Poetry of VONA Writing Workshop working with Ruth Foreman and Willie Perdomo. She was most recently published in Eye to the Telescope, in the anthology, Other Tongues: Mixed-Race Women Speak Out, As/Us Literary Journal, Line/Break Special Issue on Asian American Adoptee poetry. She is currently focused in on her new manuscript of poems, tentatively titled, “Anchoring the Compass” and obsessing about her new play in development, “Side Effects”.
Lisa Marie has been featured as a commentator on CNN, NPR, KPFA Berkeley, KPFK Los Angeles and was given the honor of one of Colorlines Magazine’s “Innovators to Watch”for her social justice work around black adoptees. As Founder and Director of AFAAD, Adopted and Fostered Adults of the African Diaspora, Lisa Marie has helped build one of the first international organizations to focuses on the needs of adoptees and foster care alumni of African descent. AFAAD provides space for adoptees and foster care alumni to connect, heal from loss, create support networks and advocate around domestic and international adoption issues.
Lisa Marie holds an M.A. in Cultural Studies focusing in African Diasporic Women’s Literature, and an M.A. in African American Studies from UC Berkeley. She authored “A Birth Project”, a blog focusing on transracial adoption and black diasporic identity 2006-2012.
I’m honored to have been invited to attend the CALLALOO Literary Journal’s 2014 Writing Workshop hosted by the Black Cultural Archives, in collaboration with The Equiano Centre at University College London, England. I have a chance to work with esteemed poet Gregory Pardlo and be in residence with fiction writers Maaza Mengiste and Jackson Brown, as well as 20 other multi-genre writers selected from an international pool!
CALLALOO is unable to provide funding support for the writers who are attending, so we are asked to pay our own transportation, room and board. Your individual support ensures my ability to attend this workshop, to further my artistic development and to collaborate with other artists from across the globe.
WHAT I WILL BE WORKING ON:
1) While in residence at the week long workshop, I will continue the writing on my current poetry manuscript, “Anchoring the Compass” as well as producing new poems. This manuscript furthers the artistic exploration I began in my solo performance play, “Ungrateful Daughter: One Black Girls Story of being Adopted into a White Family . . . that aren’t Celebrities.” (awarded Zellerbach Foundation, James Irvine Foundation grants). This play examined my relationship to my Black and Filipino ancestry and the many historical secrets as a result of being adopted by white parents. “Anchoring the Compass” manuscript extends many of the themes I began to explore in my play, including the complexity of a hybrid, diasporic identity when one does not know one’s birth family history nor has any visible, mirrored link to a particular ancestral homeland. Many of the pieces in “Anchoring” explore how searching, speculation, story-making, mythology and invention all play a part in the development of the constantly moving, changing identities of adopted bodies. Reproductive justice, family preservation and the resistance to human trafficking are strong threads in this work.
Post workshop – I play to extend my trip for one week:
2) to continue my research on diasporic black adoptee communities. This research is a major part of the work that is informing my new play in development, “Side Effects”. “Side Effects” is a theater/ dance / visual art project that explores the personal and geopolitical impacts of inter-country and domestic transracial adoption on Black, Asian and multi-racial bodies of color. This multidisciplinary theater project speaks to the phenomenon of global adoption, and adds to conversations around concepts of multiple diasporas and the dispersal of bodies of color for white consumption, under the guise of multiculturalism and philanthropy.
3) to make connections to other adoptee artists working, writing and performing in London for potential transnational artistic collaboration.
WHY THIS MATTERS:
This work is an act of resistance. The act of voicing back to the decades of having our narratives written by other people is a critical step in these fields. This manuscript adds to the short lineage of black diasporic women who have been adopted across race and are producing poetic / theatrical / creative work. The work of Adoptee poetics / adoptee pedagogy speak directly to the phenomenon of global adoption, and the dispersal of bodies of color for white labor and consumption, under the guise of multiculturalism and philanthropy.
In addition – the chance to work with CALLALOO is an honor. CALLALOO has hosted retreats, literary readings, symposia, performances, conferences, and other gatherings that bring scholars and creative writers together in the communities where the office of the journal is housed and at various institutions across the United States, and in such countries as Brazil, England, Cuba, Mexico, and Ethiopia. Since 1997, Callaloo has also offered annual creative writing workshops that provide rigorous sessions in poetry writing and fiction writing for new and emerging writers in the African Diaspora.
WHERE DOES THE MONEY GO?
Your contribution goes directly to assist with airfare, room and board for the duration of the workshop and for the week of collaborative artistic meetings post workshop. Your donations also go to the 7.5% gofundme and WePay take for fees.
My goal is to find as low cost housing as possible through using Airbnb, friend connections, etc.
LET’S DO THIS! I have 15 days to raise $3700.00. Please donate what you can and please share with your communities far and wide.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Lisa Marie is a Bay Area (Oakland) based, Black/Filipina writer, performer, playwright, educator and one leading voice in transracial/ international adoption education and advocacy. She is currently touring her acclaimed solo show, Ungrateful Daughter: One Black Girls Story of being adopted by a White Family… that aren’t Celebrities, a comedic look her experience of being adopted by a white family in the 1970′s.
She has performed Ungrateful Daughter in the New York International Fringe Theater Festival, Los Angeles Women’s Theater Festival, The Atlanta Black Theater Festival, San Francisco Solo Festival, San Francisco Theater Festival, at StageWerx Theater, Off-Market Theatre, The Marsh Theater at Berkeley & in SF, The Shelton Theatre, universities and academic conferences across the United States. Ungrateful Daughter has been awarded James Irvine New Works, Zellerbach Family Foundation and City of Oakland Cultural Arts grants. Lisa Marie is the original co-producer of the highly praised “W. Kamau Bell Curve: Ending Racism in About an Hour”, the basis for FX television series, “Totally Biased w W. Kamau Bell”. She directed “All Atheists are Muslim” by Zahra Noorbakhsh and most recently co-produced “A History of the Body”, a new play by Filipina playwright Aimee Suzara.
She has been teaching creative writing, poetry and performance workshops for over ten years. She was the 2010-2011 Poet in Residence at June Jordan’s Poetry for the People at U.C. Berkeley and is an alumni in Poetry of VONA Writing Workshop working with Ruth Foreman and Willie Perdomo. She was most recently published in Eye to the Telescope, in the anthology, Other Tongues: Mixed-Race Women Speak Out, As/Us Literary Journal, Line/Break Special Issue on Asian American Adoptee poetry. She is currently focused in on her new manuscript of poems, tentatively titled, “Anchoring the Compass” and obsessing about her new play in development, “Side Effects”.
Lisa Marie has been featured as a commentator on CNN, NPR, KPFA Berkeley, KPFK Los Angeles and was given the honor of one of Colorlines Magazine’s “Innovators to Watch”for her social justice work around black adoptees. As Founder and Director of AFAAD, Adopted and Fostered Adults of the African Diaspora, Lisa Marie has helped build one of the first international organizations to focuses on the needs of adoptees and foster care alumni of African descent. AFAAD provides space for adoptees and foster care alumni to connect, heal from loss, create support networks and advocate around domestic and international adoption issues.
Lisa Marie holds an M.A. in Cultural Studies focusing in African Diasporic Women’s Literature, and an M.A. in African American Studies from UC Berkeley. She authored “A Birth Project”, a blog focusing on transracial adoption and black diasporic identity 2006-2012.
Organizer
Lisa Marie
Organizer
Oakland, CA