Book Description
Tennessee Reed compiled her writing from 1998 to 2006 in
City Beautiful, her fourth published poetry collection. Among her experiences living a poet's life since the age of five were 1994 poetry workshops and readings in Berlin and Bonn, Germany, where she was youngest person ever presented by the United States Information Agency's Arts America Program. This two-part volume features a series of poems inspired by animals, "Animals & Others," originally part of her 2005 Master of Fine Art's thesis project at Mills College.
About the Author
Tennessee Reed began writing as a child, and has compiled five books of poetry, three of which have been previously published. Her first poetry book, Circus in the Sky (I. Reed Books, 1988), was published when she was eleven years old. These poems were written between the ages of five and eleven (Kindergarten-5th grade). The poems in her second book of poetry, Electric Chocolate (Raven's Bones Press, 1990), were written between the ages of eleven and thirteen (6th-7th grades). Her third poetry book, Airborne (Raven's Bones Press, 1996), was written from ages thirteen through nineteen (from 8th grade through 12th grade and during her sophomore year of college). Her fourth and fifth books are combined in this collection, written between 1998-2006. They are City Beautiful and Animals & Others and written from her junior year in college into 2006.
Her poetry has also appeared in the San Francisco Examiner, Quilt magazine, the California State Library Foundation Bulletin, Poetry USA #25 & #26, The Raven Chronicles, Konch magazine, and in the anthology From Totems to Hip Hop edited by Ishmael Reed (Thunder's Mouth Press, 2003). Her essay, "Being Mixed in America," appears in MultiAmerica: Essays on Cultural Wars and Cultural Peace edited by Ishmael Reed (Viking, 1997) and in The Baltimore Sun. Currently, she is working on a non-fiction memoir entitled Spell Albuquerque. An excerpt was published in June 2002, on the Internet web site of the National Council of Teachers of English. She also has two children's books in manuscript, The Troll and the Magical Music Box and The Land of Una.
Tennessee Reed has given poetry readings on the East and West Coasts of the United States, Alaska, Hawaii, England, the Netherlands, Germany and Japan. In 1994, she became the youngest person presented by the United States Information Agency's Arts America Program, reading her poetry in Bonn and Berlin, Germany. Composer Meredith Monk and her ensemble performed the NYC premiere of "Three Heavens and Hells," a twenty-minute a cappella work for four female voices with text by Tennessee Reed, at Merkin Hall, December 4-5, 1993. Ms. Monk has continued to perform the work throughout the U.S. and Europe, and recorded it on "Volcano Songs" (ECM New Series CD, 1997). Its world premiere, at the 1992 Bay Area Dance Series, was part of Face the Music, a live video performance work by The Children's Troupe of Roberts and Blank. Composer Carman Moore set another of her poems, "Old Parents Blues," to music for the same event. Tennessee Reed was a performer in The Children's Troupe from 1985-1992.
Tennessee Reed is currently a resident of Oakland, California, and is Secretary of Oakland PEN. She is a graduate of U.C., Berkeley, where she received her B.A. in American Studies in 2001, and Mills College, where she received her M.F.A. in Creative Writing in 2005.
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