Multidisciplinary artist avery r. young is a 3Arts Award winning teaching-artist, composer, and producer with work that spans the genres of music, performance, visual arts, and literature. Examining and celebrating Black American history and culture, his work also focuses in the areas of social justice, equity, queer identity, misogyny and body consciousness. As a writer, this Cave Canem alum has had his work featured by The BreakBeat Poets, Coon Bidness, to be left with the body and Make Magazine. He has also written curriculum and essays on arts education which appear in Teaching Artist Journal and A.I.M. Print. Dubbed “sunday mornin jook joint,” his performance and work in sound design merges spiritual and secular aesthetics with dramatic and comedic sensibilities. He has performed in the Hip Hop Theater Festival, Wordstock, and Lollapalooza. He has recorded with house producers Anthony Nicholson and Charlie Dark and is featured on recordings such as New World Reveal-A-Solution, Audio Truism, Catfish Haven’s Devastator, and New Skool Poetiks. His new full-length release, booker t. soltreyne: a race rekkid, features songs and other sound designs created during his artist residency with the University of Chicago’s Arts and Public Life initiative. It was during this residency that he worked on sound design and concrete poems called cullud sign(s). Through voice, sound, visual art, and performance, young is constantly exploring the forms in which poetry can exist. His work moves through these genres seamlessly and presents a human with multiple identities. He is currently a coach for the youth poetry ensemble Rebirth, and he is working on his first full manuscript of poems.
More about Avery on the Urban Gateways blog:
Decorated Artists Grace UG Roster – Congrats Amaniyea and Avery!
Award-Winning Spoken Word Artist in Action at Wentworth School