Staceyann Chin (born December 25, 1972) is a

spoken-word Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a late 20th century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics of ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or w ...

performing artist The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perfor ...

and

LGBT rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Notably, ...

political activist. Her work has been published in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'', and the ''Pittsburgh Daily'', and has been featured on ''

60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique st ...

''. She was also featured on ''

The Oprah Winfrey Show ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', often referred to as ''The Oprah Show'' or simply ''Oprah'', is an American daytime syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in Chicago, Illinois. Produced ...

'', where she shared her struggles growing up as a gay person in Jamaica. Chin's first full-length poetry collection was published in 2019.

Personal life

Chin was born in

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispa ...

but now lives in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. She is of Chinese-Jamaican and

Afro-Jamaican Afro-Jamaicans are Jamaicans of predominant Sub-Saharan African descent. They represent the largest ethnic group in the country. Most Jamaicans of mixed-race descent self-report as just Jamaican. The ethnogenesis of the Black Jamaican people ste ...

descent. She announced in 2011 that she was pregnant with her first child, giving birth to daughter Zuri in January 2012. She has been candid about her pregnancy by means of

in-vitro fertilization In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process of fertilisation where an egg is combined with sperm in vitro ("in glass"). The process involves monitoring and stimulating an individual's ovulatory process, removing an ovum or ova (egg or eggs) ...

, and wrote about her experiences as a pregnant, single lesbian in a guest blog for the ''

Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

''.

Career

Openly

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

, she has been an "out poet and political activist" since 1998. In addition to performing in and co-writing the Tony-nominated

Russell Simmons Russell Wendell Simmons (born October 4, 1957) is an American entrepreneur, writer and record executive. He co-founded the hip-hop label Def Jam Recordings, and created the clothing fashion lines Phat Farm, Argyleculture, and Tantris. Simmons ...

Def Poetry Jam ''Russell Simmons presents Def Poetry'', better known as simply ''Def Poetry Jam'' or ''Def Poetry'', is a spoken word poetry television series hosted by Mos Def and airing on HBO between 2002 and 2007. The series features performances by estab ...

'' on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

, Chin has appeared in

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer th ...

one-woman shows and at the

Nuyorican Poets Cafe Nuyorican is a portmanteau of the terms "New York" and "Puerto Rican" and refers to the members or culture of the Puerto Ricans located in or around New York City, or of their descendants (especially those raised or currently living in the N ...

. She has also held poetry workshops worldwide. Chin credits her accomplishments to her hard-working grandmother and the pain of her mother's absence. Chin's poetry can be found in her first chapbook, ''Wildcat Woman'', the one she now carries on her back, ''Stories Surrounding My Coming'', and numerous

anthologies In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...

, including ''Skyscrapers, Taxis and Tampons'', ''Poetry Slam'', ''Role Call'', ''Cultural Studies: Critical Methodologies''. Chin's voice can be heard on CD compilations out of Bar 13- Union Square and Pow Wow productions. In 2009, Chin published her autobiographical novel, ''The Other Side of Paradise: A Memoir''. She has been a host on Logo's ''After Ellen'' Internet show, "She Said What?" and a co-host of Centric's ''My Two Cents''. In 2009, Chin performed in ''

The People Speak The People Speak is an online community of young people who want to get involved in global issues. The community engages people of all ages and backgrounds in thoughtful discussions about the value of international cooperation for the United State ...

'', a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian

Howard Zinn Howard Zinn (August 24, 1922January 27, 2010) was an American historian, playwright, philosopher, socialist thinker and World War II veteran. He was chair of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College, and a politica ...

's ''

A People's History of the United States '' A People's History of the United States'' is a 1980 nonfiction book by American historian and political scientist Howard Zinn. In the book, Zinn presented what he considered to be a different side of history from the more traditional "fund ...

''. She taught a seminar at the arts-oriented Saint Ann's School in

Critical analysis

Chin's "activist driven" work has garnered praise in various publications. Of her one-woman show ''Border/Clash'', The ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote that Chin "is sassy, rageful and sometimes softly self-mocking." '' The Advocate'' wrote, "With poems that combine hilarious one-liners ("I told her I liked the way she made that pink push-up bra look intellectual") with a refusal to conform ("I want to be the dyke who ''likes'' to fuck men"), Chin is out to confront more than just the straight world." In the book, ''Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam'', author

Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz ( ; born November 26, 1978) is an American nonfiction writer and poet. Life A native of Philadelphia, Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz graduated from Central High School of Philadelphia in 1996 and received a B.F.A. in Dramati ...

referred to Chin as "definitely the prize to win" among the three New York City

Poetry Slam A poetry slam is a competitive art event in which poets perform spoken word poetry before a live audience and a panel of judges. While formats can vary, slams are often loud and lively, with audience participation, cheering and dramatic delivery. ...

venues during the years she competed, adding:

Awards

Chin was the winner of the 1999 Chicago People of Color Slam; first runner- up in the 1999 Outright

; winner of the 1998 Lambda Poetry Slam; a finalist in the 1999 Nuyorican Grand Slam; winner of the 1998 and 2000 Slam This!; and winner of WORD: The First Slam for Television. She has also been featured by

Public-access television Public-access television is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is narrowcast through cable television specialty channels. Public-access television was creat ...

cable TV Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...

programs in Brooklyn and Manhattan as well as many local radio stations including, WHCR and WBAI. The Joseph Papp

Public Theater The Public Theater is a New York City arts organization founded as the Shakespeare Workshop in 1954 by Joseph Papp, with the intention of showcasing the works of up-and-coming playwrights and performers.Epstein, Helen. ''Joe Papp: An American L ...

has featured her on more than one occasion, and Staceyann has toured internationally, with performances in London, Denmark, Germany, South Africa and New York's own

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...

Summer Stage. In 2015, she was named by Equality Forum as one of their 31 Icons of the 2015

LGBT History Month LGBT History Month is an annual month-long observance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history, and the history of the gay rights and related civil rights movements. It was founded in 1994 by Missouri high-school history teacher Rodney ...

Other Awards

* Drama Desk Award (2003) * Center for Women and Gender at Dartmouth College for the Visionary-in-Residence Award (2007) * Human Rights Campaign Power of the Voice Award (2007) * Lesbian AIDS Project Honors (2008) * Safe Haven Award from Immigration Equality (2008) * New York State Senate Special Human Rights Award (2009)

Works

Books

* ''The Other Side of Paradise - A Memoir.'' 2010. New York: Scribner.
''Crossfire: A Litany for Survival''
2019. Chicago: Haymarket Books.

Chapbooks

* ''Wildcat Woman'' (1998) * ''Stories Surrounding My Coming'' (2001) * ''Catalogue the Insanity'' (2005) * ''Mad Hatter: Ramblings from the Attic Volume 1'' (2007) * ''Mad Hatter: Ramblings from the Attic Volume 2'' (2007)

Theatre

* Hands Afire (2000) (one-woman show) - Bleecker Theatre, New York * Unspeakable Things (2001) (one-woman show) - Bleecker Theatre, New York * Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam on Broadway (2002-2003) * Border/Clash: A Litany of Desires (2005) (one-woman show) - Bleecker Theatre, New York * Motherstruck! (one-woman show) (2015-2016) (Run in Chicago, DC, and NYC)

Anthologies

* "Authenticity", in ''Black Cool: One Thousand Streams of Blackness. Edited by

Rebecca Walker Rebecca Walker (born November 17, 1969, as Rebecca Leventhal) is an American writer, feminist, and activist. Walker has been regarded as one of the prominent voices of Third Wave Feminism, and the coiner of the term "third wave", since publis ...

'' (

Soft Skull Press Counterpoint LLC was a publishing company distributed by Perseus Books Group launched in 2007. It was formed from the consolidation of three presses: Perseus' Counterpoint Press, Avalon Publishing Group's Shoemaker & Hoard and the independent S ...

, February 1, 2012)Staff (December 12, 2011)
"Black Cool: One Thousand Streams of Blackness
Edited by

.", ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

''.

Performances

* Staceyann Chin
Performed Poems
in ''Trikster - Nordic Queer Journal'' #3, 2009.

Interviews

* Staceyann Chin & Ulrika Dahl

in ''Trikster - Nordic Queer Journal'' #3, 2009

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chin, Staceyann 1972 births Living people African-American poets American women poets American feminists Jamaican emigrants to the United States American spoken word artists American writers of Chinese descent American writers of Jamaican descent African-American feminists Jamaican people of Chinese descent LGBT African Americans Lesbian feminists American lesbian writers LGBT writers from Jamaica LGBT rights activists from the United States Slam poets Womanists American LGBT poets LGBT American people of Asian descent Hakka writers American people of Chinese descent Feminist musicians African-American women musicians 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women African-American women writers