Collaborations & Commissions
Developing collaborative projects with other artists and creators of all disciplines, whether small-scale or long-term, is a vital part of my arts practice. I am most interested in building collaborative relationships that aren’t focused solely on creating a product (though tangible outcomes are always exciting). The collaborative projects I’m most drawn to are connected in some way to the identities and lived experiences of the collaborators, involve sustained dialog, and benefit a local, national, or global community in some way. Here is a representative sample of my recent collaborations & commissions:
- as a poet and performer, I wrote and performed new work for Sister Black Press/Monica Edwards Larsen’s project Poetry of Resistance & Change, which was presented as a series of letterpress posters, broadsides, postcards, and chapbook, as well as a site-specific performance and a group poetry reading at The Soap Factory in Minneapolis
- as a visual artist and DIY book designer, I collaborated with fellow poet Roy G. Guzmán and poet & translator Marco Antonio Huerta to create Restored Mural for Orlando, a benefit chapbook in response to the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shootings in Orlando, Florida
- as a poet, I was commissioned by conductor Amanda Weber to write a poem, “O Sister,” in conversation with members of the Voices of Hope choir at the Shakopee Women’s Prison; the poem was then set to music by composer Kathleen Allan and performed by both the Voices of Hope and the University of Minnesota Women’s Chorus
If you connect with my work and would like to propose a collaboration or a commission for a commission that will benefit the community, please send me an email with a little information about you and your idea—I look forward to hearing from you.
I am always willing to consider paid commissions for multidisciplinary projects as well. Email me with a description of the nature and scope of the project, and we from there we can set up a time to talk.
The Moon!
I love the moon. I grew up in the rural south, where I could trust the moon in all its phases to visit me above the woods, in the creek’s waters, and through my bedroom window. Even now, as an adult living in a dense urban landscape, I go out of my way to find that bright spot the sky, not deterred by copycat streetlights or the haze of light pollution.
I’d love to talk with you about the moon, which is to say: if there’s something I haven’t covered on these pages, some new and better way I could support you or connect with you or learn from you or participate differently in our shared community, I hope you’ll get in touch.
D. Allen // the body connected 