staceyann chin

Staceyann Chin is a writer and activist best known as a co-writer and original performer in the Tony Award Winning Russel Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway, for which she received a 2003 Drama Desk award.  She is currently the Poet in Residence at the Culture Project.

She has spoken and performed at universities across the country including NYU, Princeton University, Harvard University, Cornell University, Yale University, UC San Diego, and The University of the West Indies.  She has also had her work featured around the world, including in Sweden, London, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand, and Jamaica.

Her first one-woman show, Hands Afire, ran for ten weeks in 2000 at the Bleecker Theater, where she also performed her second, Unspeakable Things in 2001.  Her other show, Border/Clash opened in 2005 to rave reviews from the New York Times, and it ran for three months.  

This year, Scribner published her memoir The Other Side Of Paradise.  Her work has also been in Essence, Jane, The New York Times, The South African Times, and many other publications.  Her poetry has been included in numerous anthologies, including Skyscrapers, Poetry Slam, and Bullets and Butterflies.

Staceyann was the recipient of the 2009 New York State Senate Special Human Rights Award, the 2008 Safe Haven Award from Immigration Equality, 2008 Honors from the Lesbian Aids Project, and the 2007 Power of the Voice Award from the Human Rights Campaign.  In 2006 she was nominated for the GLAAD award for Outstanding New York Theater: Broadway and Off Broadway, and in 2007 she was selected by the Center for Women and Gender at Dartmouth College for the Visionary In Residence Award.

For more speakers on race and racism, see: Veronica Chambers, Loretta Ross, Wyndi Marie Anderson, Staceyann Chin, Jehmu Greene, Marcia Ann Gillespie, Irshad Manji, Catherine McKinley, Peggy Orenstein,  Lisa Tiger, Nancy Redd, or Jewel Woods.

For more artists, see: Periel Aschenbrand, Vinnie Angel, Farai Chideya, Ann Fessler, The Guerrilla Girls, Robin Morgan, Kathy Najimy, Sheryl Oring, Angela Rose, Julia Serano, or Debbie Stoller.