Staceyann Chin

Staceyann Chin

Staceyann Chin is a spoken word poet born in Jamaica and living in New York City. Chin is a full-time artist. Openly lesbian, she has been an "out poet and political activist" since 1998. From the rousing cheers of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe to one-woman shows Off-Broadway to poetry workshops in Denmark and London to co-writer and performer in the Tony-nominated, Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway, Chin credits the long list of "things she has done" to her grandmother's hard-working history and the pain of her mother's absence.

Chin was the winner of the 1999 Chicago People of Color Slam; first runner- up in the 1999 Outright Poetry Slam; 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 cable access programs in Brooklyn and Manhattan as well as many local radio stations including, WHCR and WBAI. The Joseph Pap Public Theatre has featured this young poet on more than one occasion, and Staceyann has enjoyed great success internationally, with much lauded performances in London, Denmark, Germany, and New York's own Central Park Summer Stage.

Her individual performances warranted her work being published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Pittsburgh Daily. Her work was also featured on "60 Minutes." Her poems can be found in her first chapbook, Wildcat Woman, the one she now carries on her back, Stories Surrounding My Coming, and numerous the anthologies, including Skyscrapers, Taxis and Tampons, Poetry Slam, Role Call, Cultural Studies: Critical Methodologies. Staceyann's voice can be heard on CD compilations out of Bar 13- Union Square, Pow Wow productions and many more. She is a host on Logo's After Ellen internet show "She Said What?" and a co-host of BETJ's My Two Cents. Still fighting for time to finish all the other projects she has begun: her much-anticipated memoir, the new one-woman show, CDs, DVDs, the books of unfinished poems, The poet/performer/activist/entertainer is desperately trying to create some room to travel to see her sister and to breathe.

External links

• Official Staceyann Chin website
• Staceyann Chin at the Internet Broadway Database
• Untamed Poetry, Loose on Broadway by Ben Brantley, New York Times, November 15, 2002
• Staceyann Chin: More Than a Mouthful by Jocelyn Voo, Curve Magazine (retrieved April 3, 2007)