Tara Betts 
After winning Guild Complex's 1999 Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Award, Tara published her collection of poems Can I Hang? She also represented Chicago as a slam team member at the 1999 and 2000 National Poetry Slams. She has also performed her work at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Womanmade Gallery, The Metro, the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago Cultural Center and several colleges, universities and Chicago public and alternative schools. She has shared the stage with Patricia Smith, Rosellen Brown, Afaa Michael Weaver, Kwame Dawes and Grammy-nominee Jill Scott. Tara also co-hosts a monthly performance/open mic series Women OutLoud at Square One.

Tara's work has appeared in the Steppenwolf Theater production Words on Fire, Obsidian III, Columbia Poetry Review, and the following anthologies:

These Hands I Know (Sarabande, 2002);
That Takes Ovaries! (Three Rivers Press/Crown, 2002);
ROLE CALL (Third World Press, February 2002);
Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam (Three Rivers Press/Crown, 2001);
Poetry Slam: The Competitive Art of Performance Poetry (Manic D Press, 2000), and
Power Lines: A Decade of Poetry from Chicagos Guild Complex (Tia Chucha Press, 1999).

In addition to her experiences with page and the stage, Tara Betts teaches writing and encourages literacy by working with arts programs such as Young Chicago Authors and the internationally-acclaimed Gallery 37. Tara recently co-founded and co-teaches GirlSpeak, a weekly writing/leadership workshop for young women. She has also conducted short-term workshops in schools, community centers, City Girls (a substance rehabilitation center for teen girls), Cook County Jail and Cook County Juvenile Detention Center. Tara is working on her first full-length poetry manuscript.

If you are interested in booking information or upcoming appearances, send correspondence to Tarabetts@aol.com or call 312-455-1733.

Related Links

Def Poetry Jam Story for AALBC.com
http://aalbc.com/authors/def_poetry_jam_story.htm

Killing the Black Body?: Race and the Reproductive Battleground
http://www.africana.com/DailyArticles/index_20001016.htm

Illinois Arts Tour http://www.state.il.us/agency/iac/Guidelines/Artstour01/Lit/guildcomplex2.htm

Illinois Writers' Directory
http://www.litline.org/IWD/html/betts.html

Women OutLoud 
www.womenoutloud.com

Young Chicago Authors 
http://www.youngchicagoauthors.org/content/teachers/

Mosaic Fall/Winter 1999
Celebrating our voices Ida B. Wells by Tara Betts.
www.aalbc.com/writers/download.htm

Mosaic Spring 1999
Poetry Loving You is Church by Tara Betts
www.aalbc.com/writers/spring_1999.htm

Gwen Brooks Blk Writers Conf.
... tyehimba jess, tara betts, dr. duriel harris (whom jess affectionately called dr.
funk), plus a host of other young chicago poets were on the set in addition
www.aalbc.com/events/gwenbrookswritersconf.htm

 

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