But… what do you do and what have you done?”

Another wonderful question!

A griotte is the female version of griot. Griots in many West African cultures are carried in a family by a lineage. Often, they sit outside the village (ayyy lonely) observing before they give their truth. They say the things people want to hear and what they don’t want to hear. Now, unfortunately for me, my ancestors were taken from their homeland and I have no possible way to know whether I would be a griotte by lineage. But, my work does the function (before I knew the term), and now I’m running with it. 

The western canon can call me an interdisciplinary storyteller, but that’s genuinely an understatement on what I do. People say interdisciplinary for things like combining photography and video art. I say interdisciplinary like writing eleven novels, a decade-long poetry cycle that culminates into a narrative arc that becomes a one woman show with a tuba and loop pedal (why not?), and a symphony with spoken word. (Still trying to find a box?)

Now, some of you may be thinking, “how can one person do all of those things at a high level?” “Jack of all trades, master of none,” “sounds boastful.” And all I can say is, yeah, it doesn’t make sense. I don’t blame you! 

But…

That’s from the framework of the crafts being the trades. The way my work functions is the “master of one” is my one thesis that I find a way to encode in everything I do, often subconsciously. (Want to know more about the thesis? Check out The Vision—I dare you!)

My mediums include: performance (tuba, voice, acting, spoken word), writing (novels, poetry, short stories, essays, plays), and composition (symphonies, solo works, and chamber works). 

Yeah, it’s a lot and they all have their own histories and whatnot, so feel free to click through them all.