Tara Betts

Bio:

You Should Be A Poet

You craft words well, in creative and unexpected ways. And you have a great talent for evoking beautiful imagery... Or describing the most intense heartbreak ever. You're already naturally a poet, even if you've never written a poem.

Tara Betts at Apples & Snakes Whitechapel Gallery reading in London Tara Betts is the author of Arc & Hue on Willow Books. She teaches creative writing at Rutgers University. Tara's work has appeared in Essence magazine, the Steppenwolf Theater production "Words on Fire," Obsidian III, and the Columbia Poetry Review. Her work has been anthologized in Gathering Ground (University of Michigan Press), Bum Rush the Page (Three Rivers Press), The Spoken Word Revolution (Sourcebooks), Power Lines (Tia Chucha Press), Poetry Slam (Manic D Press), ROLE CALL (Third World Press), These Hands I Know (Sarabande), Best Black Women's Erotica 2 (Cleis Press) and Home Girls Make Some Noise: Hip Hop Feminism (Parker Publishing). Tara is a writer/educator/performer, appeared on HBO's "Def Poetry Jam" and in the SouthWest VDay production of Eve Ensler's "Vagina Monologues" at Chicago's DuSable Museum. She also appeared in the Black Family Channel series "SPOKEN" with jessica Care moore. After winning Guild Complex's Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Award, Tara published her collection of poems "Can I Hang?" She also represented Chicago twice at the National Poetry Slam. She has performed her work in Cuba, New York, the West Coast and throughout the Midwest at venues such as Arie Crown Theater, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Studio Museum of Harlem, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Bar 13, Yerba Buena Cultural Center, The Metro, Ladyfest Midwest, the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago Cultural Center, poetry slams, conferences, several colleges, universities and numerous public, private and alternative schools. She has shared the stage with Patricia Smith, Rosellen Brown, Afaa Michael Weaver, Kwame Dawes, Luis Rodriguez, MC Lyte and Grammy-nominee Jill Scott. In addition to her experiences with page and the stage, Tara Betts teaches creative writing at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. She also encourages literacy by working with arts programs such as Urban Word and DreamYard. In Chicago, she was an influential educator through the internationally-acclaimed Gallery 37. Tara co-founded GirlSpeak, a weekly writing/leadership workshop for young women. She has also conducted short-term workshops in schools, community centers, Ms. Foundation, City Girls (a substance abuse rehabilitation center for teen girls), Cook County Jail and Cook County Juvenile Detention Center, Cave Canem Foundation at Long Island University's Brooklyn campus, London's Roundhouse and Bronx Writers' Center. Tara, a graduate of Cave Canem and the MFA Program at New England College, has received residencies from Ragdale Foundation, Centrum and Caldera and an Illinois Arts Council Artist fellowship in New Performance Forms. Tara Betts is the author of "SWITCH." This title poem also appears on "New Skool Poetics" CD released on Chicago's naievete records.

Member Since:

January 27, 2006

Members:

Tara has shared the stage with several musicians including: Ernest Dawkins, flautist Nikki Mitchell, David Boykin, Mark Stampley & Eclipse of the Moon, Nikki Patin and denizen kane. Tara has also hosted hip hop showcases with Family Tree (www.allnaturalhiphop.com), the primeridian, ANG 13, doverock, Nemiss, Karma360 and many others. She has also hosted several hip hop showcases, National Poetry Slam bouts and one of the biggest Not In Our Name rallies in the Chicago Tribune Plaza.

Influences:

June Jordan, Audre Lorde, Sonia Sanchez, Patricia Smith, MC Lyte, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Meshell N'degeocello, Cassandra Wilson, Gwendolyn Brooks, KRS-ONE, Public Enemy, Pablo Neruda, Martin Espada.

Sounds Like:

A jazzy sister who should have her own radio show/someone who can learn you something/who uses big words & knows what they mean/some serious neck poppin' and lip pursing/feminist thought with a hip hop & downhome lean/she might be from down south/she got the Chicago flav happenin'/someone who would watch the world from her stoop after a trip overseas/what happens when you read tons of poetry and listen to Alice & John Coltrane, R & B, hip hop and rock'n'roll like a constant permeating soundtrack.