Tara Betts
Tara Betts is an author who in 2010, Essence Magazine named as one of their 40 Favorite Poets.
Betts received her B.A. in Communication at Loyola University, received her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from New England College. She received her Ph.D. in English/Creative Writing from Binghamton University.
Tara Betts encourages literacy and works with arts programs. In Chicago, she was an influential educator. 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, Louder Arts Project, Cooper Union, Dodge Foundation’s Poets-In-The-Schools program and London’s Roundhouse.
Tara Betts appeared on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam. She also appeared in the Black Family Channel series Spoken. She has also been one of the writers/performers in Girlstory-an intergenerational, multicultural women’s performance collective. Tara has also performed in plays, including two SouthWest V-Day productions of Eve Ensler’s ’Vagina Monologues’ at Chicago’s DuSable Museum. After winning Guild Complex’s Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Award, she represented Chicago twice at the National Poetry Slam.
Betts began her post as a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Illinois-Chicago in 2015. Prior to that, she was a lecturer in creative writing at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.
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