Tonya Ingram (September 1, 1991 – December 30, 2022) was an American poet, author, speaker,

disability activist The disability rights movement is a global social movement that seeks to secure equal opportunities and equal rights for all people with disabilities. It is made up of organizations of disability activists, also known as disability advoca ...

, and

mental health Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. It likewise determines how an individual handles stress, interpersonal relationships, and decision-making. Mental health ...

advocate. Ingram died on December 30, 2022, waiting for a kidney transplant.

Life

Education

Ingram was a graduate of

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

and

Otis College of Art and Design Otis College of Art and Design is a private art and design school in Los Angeles, California. Established in 1918, it was the city's first independent professional school of art. The main campus is located in the former IBM Aerospace headquarte ...

. While at NYU, Ingram performed on the school's poetry slam team, which won the 2013

College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational The College Union Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI) is an annual Poetry Slam tournament put on by the Association of College Unions International (ACUI) in which teams of four or five college students from different colleges and universities compete ...

. Ingram founded the team alongside Eric Silver, Matthew Sparacino, and

Safia Elhillo Safia Elhillo ( ar, صافية الحلو; born December 16, 1990) is a Sudanese-American poet known for her written and spoken poetry. Elhillo received a BA degree from the Gallatin School at New York University and an MFA in poetry from The Ne ...

. They were coached by Mahogany Browne.

Performance and poetry

Ingram's writing was often about

Black feminism Black feminism is a philosophy that centers on the idea that "Black women are inherently valuable, that lack women'sliberation is a necessity not as an adjunct to somebody else's but because our need as human persons for autonomy." Race, gen ...

and living with

Lupus Lupus, technically known as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), is an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue in many parts of the body. Symptoms vary among people and may be mild to severe. Comm ...

and

kidney failure Kidney failure, also known as end-stage kidney disease, is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney failure is classified as eit ...

. Ingram performed at the

Nuyorican Poets Café The Nuyorican (Puerto Rican New Yorkers) Poets Cafe is a nonprofit organization in Alphabet City, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It is a bastion of the Nuyorican art movement in New York City, and has become a forum for poetry, music, hip ...

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...

, and Lexus Verses and Flow's variety show. Her work was featured in the 2021

Madewell J.Crew Group, Inc., is an American multi-brand, multi-channel, specialty retailer. The company offers an assortment of women's, men's, and children's apparel and accessories, including swimwear, outerwear, lounge-wear, bags, sweaters, denim, dr ...

"What Are You Made Of? Creatives of Color" campaign,

Hallmark A hallmark is an official mark or series of marks struck on items made of metal, mostly to certify the content of noble metals—such as platinum, gold, silver and in some nations, palladium. In a more general sense, the term ''hallmark'' can al ...

's Mahogany Writing Community and card brand, MIGA Swimwear, ''

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 ...

'',

To Write Love on Her Arms To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA) is an American nonprofit organization that aims to present hope for people struggling with addiction, depression, self-injury and thoughts of suicide, while also investing in treatment and recovery. Based in M ...

, and

Hello Giggles HelloGiggles.com is an entertainment and lifestyle website launched in May 2011. It was founded by actress/musician Zooey Deschanel, producer Sophia Rivka Rossi and writer Molly McAleer. The website is geared toward women, and covers topics in pop ...

. Ingram was the curator of ''Poetry in Color Live!'' at

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Pa ...

Journalism and activism

In addition to poetry, Ingram wrote and contributed to high-profile

journalistic Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...

pieces on wasted

organ donation Organ donation is the process when a person allows an organ of their own to be removed and transplanted to another person, legally, either by consent while the donor is alive or dead with the assent of the next of kin. Donation may be for re ...

s, the dysfunction of the

American healthcare system The United States far List of countries by total health expenditure (PPP) per capita, outspends any other nation on health care, measured both in ''per capita'' spending and as a percentage of GDP. Despite this, the country has significantly wo ...

, the impact of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

on disabled people, and other

disability rights The disability rights movement is a global social movement that seeks to secure equal opportunities and equal rights for all people with disabilities. It is made up of organizations of disability activists, also known as disability advocat ...

issues. In 2021, she testified as a patient on the

kidney transplant Kidney transplant or renal transplant is the organ transplant of a kidney into a patient with end-stage kidney disease (ESRD). Kidney transplant is typically classified as deceased-donor (formerly known as cadaveric) or living-donor transplantati ...

waitlist on a

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

hearing regarding the

organ transplant Organ transplantation is a medical procedure in which an organ is removed from one body and placed in the body of a recipient, to replace a damaged or missing organ. The donor and recipient may be at the same location, or organs may be transpo ...

system.

Surfing

In 2020, Ingram learned to surf through Color the Water and AdventureCrew,

BIPOC The term "person of color" ( : people of color or persons of color; abbreviated POC) is primarily used to describe any person who is not considered "white". In its current meaning, the term originated in, and is primarily associated with, the U ...

surfing communities, and attended a surf retreat in

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...

Search for a kidney

Efforts and advocacy

In 2019, at age 27, Ingram posted on

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

looking for a living person willing to become her kidney-donor. Utilizing journalism, Ingram and writer and organ-recipient, Kendall Ciesemier, asked the government to hold the organizations involved in OPS accountable, believing this would result in Ingram receiving a kidney. Ingram wrote an opinion essay; appeared in a government video; wrote letters to members of the Biden administration, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (C.M.S.) administrator

Chiquita Brooks-LaSure Chiquita W. Brooks-LaSure is an American healthcare policy official who is the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in the Biden administration since May 2021. Education Brooks-LaSure earned her Bachelor of Arts from Pri ...

and the head of the

Health Resources and Services Administration The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services located in North Bethesda, Maryland. It is the primary federal agency for improving access to health care services for peop ...

, Carole Johnson; worked with members of Congress, including Representative

Katie Porter Katherine Moore Porter (born January 3, 1974) is an American politician, law professor, and lawyer who is the U.S. representative from California's 45th congressional district since 2019. She is the first Democrat to be elected to represent the ...

; and even testified before the House Oversight Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy in May 2021.

Aftermath

Ingram told the House Oversight Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy that she would die without the federal government's urgent action. A year and a half later, on December 30, 2022, Ingram died of complications from kidney failure. In 2022, Ingram was one of 12,000 people on waiting lists who died or became too sick to receive a transplant. Ingram's friend and fellow journalist, Kendall Ciesemier, commented on future potential for intervention in the organ procurement system by the American government:

Death

Ingram was found unresponsive during a wellness check at her apartment around noon on December 30, 2022. Her death was announced in an Instagram post on New Year's Day. Hernandez and his wife

Alyesha Wise Alyesha Wise, aka "Ms. Wise" is a poet, teaching artist and co-founder oSpoken Literature Art Movement(S.L.A.M). From Camden, N.J., Alyesha currently resides in Los Angeles where she also serves as a teaching artist foStreet Poets, Inc She pre ...

were close friends of Ingram's and raised $30,000 for funeral arrangements and to build a trust to send Ingram's 15-year-old younger sister to college. With the money, they honored Ingram's wish to have a

green burial Natural burial is the interment of the body of a dead person in the soil in a manner that does not inhibit decomposition but allows the body to be naturally recycled. It is an alternative to other contemporary Western burial methods and funerary ...

underneath a tree. The ceremony to bury her occurred on the grounds of

Hollywood Forever Cemetery Hollywood Forever Cemetery is a full-service cemetery, funeral home, crematory, and cultural events center which regularly hosts community events such as live music and summer movie screenings. It is one of the oldest cemeteries in Los Angeles ...

under a California Oak on January 27, 2023. An article from the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' states, "Ingram was on the kidney donor wait list for three years. In an interview, atthew "Cuban"Hernandez said he believed her death was preventable." The Biden administration subsequently announced intentions to reform the organ transplant system.

Works

Books

* ''Growl and Snare'', ''Penmanship Books'', 2013 * ''Another Black Girl Miracle'', ''Not a Cult'', 2018 * ''How to Survive Today'', ''Wild Awake Publishing'', 2020

Performed Poems

* "On Praying to God While Taking the SAT Exam", ''Brave New Voices'', 2011 * "Thirteen", ''

Intermedia Arts Twin Cities hip hop, also referred to as Minneapolis hip hop, is sub-genre of rap music that originates from the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Minnesota. History Hip hop culture in the Twin Cities can be traced a ...

'', 2013 * "Unsolicited Advice (after Jeanann Verlee)", ''CUPSI New York Cit''y, 2013 * "Isms", ''NPS Boston'', 2013 * "Khaleesi", ''NPS Boston'', 2013 * "I Am Twenty-Two", ''NPS Oakland'', 2014 * "Raise Up", ''The Kennedy Center'', 2014 * "Monster", ''NPS Oakland'', 2015 * "We Are Full", ''NPS Oakland'', 2015 * "Live", ''NPS Oakland'', 2015 * "Suicide", ''Da Poetry Lounge Slam'', 2015 * "An Open Letter to My Depression", ''

BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ken ...

'', 2015 * "Seven Commandments", '' Sofar NYC'', 2016 * "I Am 24", ''Brooklyn Slam'', 2016 * "Dear Discouraged", ''To Write Love On Her Arms'', 2016 * "Until the Stars Collapse", ''Art Share'', 2018 * "Here is What Loneliness / Love Tells You", ''

Los Angeles Theatre Center The Los Angeles Theatre Center is an institution in Los Angeles, which is operated by the Latino Theater Company. In January 2006, the Latino Theater Company won a lease to operate The Los Angeles Theatre Center for 20 years and got a $4 millio ...

'', 2018 * "For the Next Lover", ''Los Angeles Theatre Center'', 2018 * "On Days You Miss Your Ex", ''Los Angeles Theatre Center'', 2018 * “how to be strong”, ''To Write Love On Her Arms'', 2019

Awards & Titles

* Slam Champion, ''

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...

Poetry'', 2011 * Recipient of $10,000, ''New York Knicks'' ''Leader of Tomorrow'' ''Scholarship'', 2011 * Team Member at Urban Word, ''Second'' ''Place Team at

Brave New Voices Brave New Voices was created by Youth Speaks Inc in 1998 (a non-profit organization from San Francisco promoting youth intellectual and artistic self-development) after the inaugural Youth Speaks Teen slam poetry in San Francisco – the first po ...

'', 2011 * Team Co-founder, ''SLAM!

NYU New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-United States Secretary of the Treasu ...

'', 2012 * Slam Champion, ''SLAM! NYU Grand Slam'', 2013 * Team Member at Nuyorican, ''Grand Slam Team'', 2013 * Nominee, ''

Pushcart Prize The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize published by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are ...

'', 2014 * Team Member at

Da Poetry Lounge Da Poetry Lounge is the largest weekly open mic performance space for poetry in the US. It is located in Los Angeles at the Greenway Court Theatre. History Da Poetry Lounge was founded in 1998 as "Dante's Poetry Lounge" by poets Dante Basco, Ro ...

, ''Slam Team'', 2015

Interviews

* "Lupus: Poet Tonya Ingram on Navigating the Organ Donor System", ''So Life Wants You Dead Podcast'' * "Dating, Self-Care, and Chronic Illness", ''Just Break Up Podcast'' * "Another Black Girl Miracle", ''We Have Jobs We Swear Podcast'' * "The Journey and Intersections of Mental Health and Faith", ''Yas and Amen Podcast'' * "007", ''Keep Creating Podcast'' * "Tonya Ingram", ''Sexually Satisfied Woman Series''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ingram, Tonya 1991 births 2022 deaths 21st-century American journalists 21st-century American poets African-American poets African-American women journalists American disability rights activists American medical journalists American online journalists American public speakers American women poets African-American feminists African-American women writers American feminist writers Feminist theorists African-American LGBT people 21st-century African-American writers Burials at Hollywood Forever Cemetery