[IHJ Artists’ Forum/Poetry and Vocal Performance]
Tuna Melt and Other Sonic Fables

  • *This event has finished.
  • Date: Thursday, July 7, 2016, 7:00 pm
  • Venue: Iwasaki Koyata Memorial Hall, International House of Japan
  • Artist: LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs (Interdisciplinary poet; US-Japan Creative Artists Program Fellow)
  • Language: English (with consecutive interpretation; original texts will be provided.)
  • Co-sponsored by the Japan-US Friendship Commission (JUSFC)
  • Admission: Free (reservations required)

LaTasha_2016SLaTasha Nevada Diggs is the erudite daredevil poet, provoking the body to move as she moves the mind, allowing us, through her soundscapes and hybrid canvases, the privilege of hearing the solar system spin. —2016 Whiting Award Citation

Poet, vocalist, and sound artist LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs presents a selection from her acclaimed debut book, TwERK, new performance-based works, and a taste of flash non-fiction. While Diggs᾽ poetry can be traced to the Black Arts Movement from the 1960s, her contemporary use of language as a source of cultural expression is developed through the polyphonic splicing of global and local lexicons, involving Tagalog, Japanese, Spanish, Black English, Cherokee, and Quechua. This cosmopolitan engagement with language connects her work to the avant-garde as well as the “street” aesthetics of hip hop music and spoken word performance. Please join Diggs and her special guests (TBA)-and come with all of your six senses open and ready!