Writer, poet, educator and activist Audacious IAM was recently named Greater Bay Area Teacher of the Year by Youth Speaks
(2016), nominated for an Oakland Innovative Artist Award (2017 - 2015), a 2016
National Queer Arts Festival of San Francisco Grant recipient, named Best
Literary Works of the Year (2010) and is also a founding member of the Spoken Word
Collective Pr3ssPlay Poets. Audacious is the creator and chief-editor of the anthology, Blues Arrival: Stories of the Queer Black South
& Migration.
Audacious IAM was born and raised in Ruleville, Mississippi and now resides in Oakland, California. She holds her BA Degree from Rust College and MFA Degree from Mills College.
Her art is exhibited through words on the page, performance and film in the attempt to transform, dissect and explore the intersection of blackness, queer identity, fragility and being a woman in America and beyond. As a queer black female artist, she has given and hopes to continue to provide her community with a platform for dialogue, social change and transformation through artistic creation.
Publications:
580 Split Journal (2021)
Reflections by James Gayle (2019)
Straight Up Anthology (2018)
Cooweescoowee Literary Journal (2018),
The Womanist Journal at Mills College (2012).
