March 19, 2009

A. K. “Mimi” Allin produces poetry on the page and off, by way of public installation, urban maneuver, and collaborative and solo performance. “AKA” has whispered poetry through a 300-pound block of ice, painted it on umbrellas, and put it in the middle of a labyrinth cut into a lawn with hand shears. All of this to get poetry to the people! Allin formed close ties to the Green Lake area of Seattle by sitting at a small desk there every Sunday from 9–5 for one full year. Her efforts were quickly returned by an enthusiastic and supportive public. And she learned that interjecting poetry into public places is as easy as putting yourself out there. Documentation of “The Poetess at Green Lake” and more recent “aka instigations” can be found at http://thepoetessatgreenlake.blogspot.com/. Allin earned her M.A. in writing from City College of New York in 2006.

Vanessa DeWolf creates interdisciplinary poetic works of text-based performance. Her work often combines narrative and poetic language with visual and movement processes. Her training: figure skating, M.A. in playwriting at Boston University under Nobel prize winner Derek Walcott, somatic practices, alternative dance, improvisation, printmaking, and more. She grew up in the mountains and is currently a valley dweller. She runs an artist residency program at Studio Current for performance artists, a unique opportunity to support artists in process and practice via rigorous dialog with each other. She is a facilitator of fieldsessions and has been the director of The Field Seattle (www.thefieldseattle.org), an artist-driven peer-review organization that cultivates reflective feedback with artists from all disciplines. Her work has been seen in Alaska, Boston, Germany, Tacoma, and various venues throughout Seattle including: Untitled Intersection, Ten Tiny Dances, Fisher Ensemble, Velocity Dance Center, and Freehold Studio Lab Theater.