cats for change
Honored to be working with the Waterwell Drama Program Class of 2024 in their New Works Lab for the premiere of Cats for Change. Each year Waterwell commissions a new play written specifically for actors in their senior year in the Waterwell Drama Program at the Professional Performing Arts School. Directed by Josiah Davis, Cats for Change is a play that reflects on what we are meant for in this life, what is required of us in this world, and who we relate to along the way.
The limited engagement runs April 3-6. Tickets are available here.
WIND IS IN THE CANE. Come Along.
It’s here! The new critical edition of Cane, celebrating the 100th anniversary of Jean Toomer’s groundbreaking Black modernist work is available from The 3rd Thing, publisher of The Math of Saint Felix. This new edition, which I am proud to have co-edited, comes with a companion guide and beautifully designed oracular deck complete with offerings from more than forty artists, writers, thinkers, and makers. Find out more about this special collection, including how to order here.
2023 NYSCA/NYFA ARtist Fellow: Poetry
Happy to announce that I am a 2023 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Poetry! Excited for the peer recognition and to be part of a program that has supported artists of all disciplines across New York State for 38 years. Thankful to have this kind of support for my work. Many thanks to the New York Council on the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts! Full details at nyfa.org.
(Writ)Ual Mix: Traditions of the Diaspora
Thrilled for my play Good Blood to be included in this year’s MixFest at the Atlantic Theater, an annual free reading series exploring and celebrating the abundance of diverse stories in the theater. This year focuses on traditions of the diaspora in a series of readings of new work co-curated by theater artists Daaimah Mubashshir, NSangou Njikam, and Awoye Timpo.
Good Blood tells the story of a Haitian family living in Brooklyn and their return to Haiti as they work to cure their history in the hopes of securing a future. From the journey of immigrants to the spread of a global epidemic, language, time, and an ocean are crossed in an interrogation of the contracts we make, the conditions under which we live, and what it means to reach for a love that might outlive you. More info at www.atlantictheater.org.
Bernarda’s Daughters world premiere off-broadway
Flatbush goes Off-Broadway in this world premiere co-production from The New Group and the National Black Theatre. Amid gentrifying construction, street protests, and a sweltering summer in Flatbush, the Abellard sisters take refuge in their family home. Simmering in the losses of their father and their neighborhood, they clash over how to contend with the legacy of their parents in a city that is no longer theirs. Inspired by Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba with a breathtaking immediacy, this play paints an entrancing portrait of a family at a crossroads.
A limited Off-Broadway engagement, performances run May 4 - June 4. Tickets and more information available at www.thenewgroup.org.
Cane: 100th Anniversary Edition & Oracular card deck
Honored to deepen my relationship with The 3rd Thing, publisher of The Math of Saint Felix, as a co-editor of a new edition of Jean Toomer’s 1923 visionary book Cane. To celebrate its 100th anniversary, we are creating a faithful reproduction of the book accompanied by an oracular deck with offerings from a spectacular group of Black writers, artists, and scholars.
Support the project and secure your copy with a Kickstarter pledge!
BERNARDA’S DAUGHTERS on Audible
Bernarda’s Daughters in now available for downloads and listening through Audible. In a sweltering summer in Flatbush, with streets overrun by wrecking crews and new construction, the Abellard sisters take refuge in and attempt to escape from their family home. The audio play, directed by Dominque Rider, features Amara Brady, Jasmin Walker, Lorraine Toussaint, Malika Samuel, MaYaa Boateng, Zenzi Williams. Listen to the play here.
This production is part of Audible’s Original Theatre Titles initiative and is creatively produced by The New Group, as part of their Off-Stage Series.
Conversations in Atlantic Theory
A deep thinking and feeling podcast interview for Conversations in Atlantic Theory. Reflecting on The Math of Saint Felix and engagement with themes of mourning, remembrance, poetics, and more. Listen to the episode here.
Conversations in Atlantic Theory is a podcast dedicated to books and ideas generated from and about the Atlantic world.
The MAth of Saint felix - Available for PRe-Order
“This book is ledger and legacy.” —The Math of Saint Felix, a series of attempts, is now available for pre-order at The 3rd Thing Press.
“In a lyric enlivened by elements of theatre and the play, Exavier wrestles with notions of labor, care work and the sacrificial body of the Black mother.” —Desiree C. Bailey, What Noise Against the Cane
With an official launch on November 9, 2021, stay tuned for news about events on the book’s dedicated page: dianeexavier.live/math.
BRIClab Performing Arts Residency
Still coming down from an amazing two weeks at BRIC Arts for Bernarda’s Daughters’ BRIClab residency. Working with director Dominique Rider, sound designer Kathy Ruvuna, and other collaborators, we did some imagining and reimagining of sharing theater in a time where gathering means something else entirely. Hotline Sing and Mo(u)rning Call are two rehearsals at making theater differently. Enjoy both on the play’s website: bernardasdaughters.club.
Jerome Hill ARtist fellowship Finalist
With incredible gratitude, I am happy to announce that I am a 2021 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship Finalist in Theater, Performance & Spoken Word. In an impossibly challenging year for artists, the Foundation has chosen to award one-time grants to finalists in recognition of their work and growing contributions to the field. I look forward to developing new work with this support from the Jerome Foundation. You can find out more about this year’s recipients here.
Off Stage @ The New Group
Bernarda’s Daughters is coming to headphones near you! So excited to share this play as part of The New Group’s Off Stage slate of virtual programming in 2021. In association with John Ridley’s No Studios, Off Stage will feature original projects at the intersection of art and social engagement in a variety of media. Check out The New Group’s website for more on Bernarda’s Daughters and all the other projects in development.
Health & Justice for all - Human Impacts Institute & Old stone house
Looking forward to being in conversation with Kizzy Charles-Guzman from the Mayor's Office of Resiliency & Lubna Ahmed from WE ACT for Environmental Justice in this youth-led panel about health, justice, and creative communities in NYC. RSVP for the free webinar here, hosted as a collaboration between the Human Impacts Institute and Old Stone House.
Brooklyn utopias - Old Stone House
Thrilled to be part of this exhibition at the Old Stone House in Brooklyn. Brooklyn Utopias: 2020 invites participating artists to explore how Brooklyn has continued to change over the past 10 years, and if/how it can serve as a model for urban and American living on a national scale as we navigate a global pandemic in a time of unprecedented social, political and environmental turmoil.
My project Each Body Remains a Miracle continues the work of Each Body Is a Miracle (Haiti Cultural Exchange, 2017) and Each Body Is (Still) a Miracle (No Longer Empty, 2019), Each Body Remains a Miracle is a play in retreat and an exploration of health and wellness in Brooklyn. The project is filtered through the lens of Bernarda’s Daughters, a play-in-progress that tells the story of five sisters living in the heat of mourning their father, their neighborhood, and what they thought they knew about their lives.
This imagining of a different kind of Brooklyn future occurs through two modes: the installation of an essay called Florence Delva, and a book-making public project called What Comes from the Garden.
Learn more about the project at the Old Stone House’s online exhibition page. The show is on view online and in person (by appointment) August 20 - October 18.
Poet of the Week - Brooklyn Poets
“me laughing at the sum of you, my second mother: a girl”
Enjoyed this space to talk about poems and Flatbush as Poet of the Week over at Brooklyn Poets. Check out the interview and hear me read A People Long Divided here!
The Math of Saint Felix - The 3rd Thing Press
"The Math of Saint Felix is Brooklyn-based writer, theatermaker and educator Diane Exavier's attempt to do the math of a woman, of her mother, in a family, in America, in Haitian Diaspora."
Elated that my book The Math of Saint Felix will be published by The 3rd Thing Press, a small independent press dedicated to publishing necessary alternatives. My book will enter the world with the work of a cohort of rigorously imagining artists: Quenton Baker, Paul Hlava Ceballos, Rachel Kessler, Elisheba Johnson, and Eli Nixon.
Check out The 3rd Thing for more on their experimental and interdisciplinary approach to publishing.
Personal & Collective Grief
Sighed, laughed, and thought with my good friend and talented cultural worker Paula Santos, host of Cultura Conscious, a podcast about arts and cultural workers and the communities they serve. Spend some time in the podcast archives after checking out my interview with her!
SOLANGE AND FRANKIE RITE LOVE SONGS IN THE MOURNING @ FIVEMYLES GALLERY
Looking forward to premiering new poems and a new play for Haiti Cultural Exchange’s Diaspora NOW series! Grateful for this opportunity to reconnect with the folks at Haiti Cultural Exchange after my 2017 Lakou Nou residency. I’ll be sharing poems from a new manuscript and the first draft of a brand new play, all reflecting on the difficult work of grief and mourning in diaspora. Direction by Dominique Rider, featuring Will Adams III.
painting by Pamela Fernandez
Playwrights’ Week @ The Lark | 11.4.19 + 11.8.19
Honored to be part of this year’s Playwrights’ Week at The Lark! Bernarda’s Daughters will be receiving a week of development culminating in a staged reading, along with the work of Shayan Lotfi, Omar Vélez Meléndez, Jaymes Sanchez, and Ren Dara Santiago.
This will be the first complete public sharing of Bernarda’s Daughters, which has seen different iterations in Hold(ing) Tight at Penn State and Adelva Called Adela at Kings County Hospital. In true Flatbush fashion, Bernarda’s Daughters tells the story of the Abellard sisters, who are in the heat of mourning their father, their neighborhood, and their lives. Flames in the forms of desire, longing, and family secrets slowly burn in their mother’s house, where it seems there is no one to cool it in this play inspired by Federico García Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba with poetic and literary cues from Kamau Braithwaite, Louise Glück, Mary Ruefle, Toni Morrison, and more.
I’ll be reading an excerpt from the play at Meet the Writers on Monday, November 4. The staged reading will be held on Friday, November 8. Tickets to both events are free! But reservations are required.
(after)care @ Kings County Hospital | June 2019
Sharing work in (after)care, organized by No Longer Empty’s Curatorial Lab in partnership with Kings County Hospital, comes at the perfect time for me. Reflecting on care, gentrification, and wellness, I am presenting Each Body is (Still) a Miracle, a sort of “state of the city” in regards to the changing demographics of Flatbush. Each Body is (Still) a Miracle will be presented in three parts:
Adelva Called Adela: Notes on Flatbush: an essay on gentrification and living in Flatbush published on Before It’s Gone, a web-based project organized by Brooklyn based activist organization, Equality for Flatbush, “documenting Brooklyn, fighting gentrification, and holding police accountable.”
By Numbers By Miracles: an instant book/print/reportage on the relationship between Haiti and the U.S.
Petit Plasaj: a floral crown/commitment making workshop at Kings Country Hospital
Check out nolongerempty.org for more on the exhibition, including info on other participating artists. And stop by my project blog, eachbodyeastflatbush.tumblr.com, for more info on each component of Each Body Is (Still) a Miracle, as well as other links to health and wellness in NYC.
collage by Diane Exavier
Incompleteness edition—burning House press | May 2019
I was invited by guest editor Petero Kalulé (writer and fav ghost on Twitter) to submit work to Burning House Press’ May edition on incompleteness. “The incomplete vibrates unending it is open; but open in the sense that is reduced and subtracted it could also be a figure of chance, play, loneliness, a puzzle…” Grateful for this chance to play and piece thoughts together with this poem (tomb speak) and essay (Louise) available online. Be sure to check out the rest of the month’s incomplete offerings, as well as this collaborative poem (what we hold closest to us) I drafted by chance with Petero via a Twitter exchange!
Photo Prose—Your Mirror: Portraits from the ICP Collection | 4.24.19
In this event co-organized by the Poetry Society of America, participating poets were invited to choose images from the ICP’s latest permanent collection exhibition to respond to through creation of new work or reinterpretation of existing work. The images will be projected while the poets read, allowing the audience to dive deeper into the connections between the visual and the textual. So excited to be reading a fresh new draft with my favorite artists: the poets!
hold(ing) Tight | 11.29.18 - 1.19.19
Didn’t hesitate to pick up the call when artists (and homies) Mark Epstein and Stina Puotinen asked me to show up to their waiting room in Hold(ing) Tight at Penn State. The exhibition reflects on the space of the waiting room and what it means to wait. My work includes A First Draft, a short essay on waiting (which comes ready with a reading list!) and The Final Act, a series of seven postcards that make up the fifth act of my new play Bernarda’s Daughters.
Life BalmS Vol. 5 | August 2018
Spoke to Twitter (and all around) fav Amani Bin Shikhan (Toronto based writer and director) for the fifth installment of her special edition column Life Balms on Healthline.com, reflecting on what gets us through—in this case, thinking about care, its practice, and its necessity. A conversation I was happy to have and to keep going! Read the whole interview here.
illustration by Ruth Basagoitia
image by Juan Pablo Rahal
Cosmic Commons | 5.12.18
In an evening of imagining new realities and deep diving into the multiverse with You Are Here, I share the first iteration of Piti Placing: Small Relations—an exploration of the possibilities of relation when the rules of engagement shift. People are welcome to consider their own relations and make renewed commitments to themselves and those in their care. How do you place yourself in your daily life? In your community? In the lives of those you love?
Publicly Complex | 4.21.18
Back in Providence for another round of Publicly Complex, the reading series now in its 10th year, at Ada Books. Bringing Teaches of Peaches back to where she started with a few other zine companions in tow. Sold out of copies at the reading, but Teaches of Peaches is still available online at The Atlas Review. Purchase a copy and I'll mail you an additional zine!
Lost & Found: Summer 2017 Art Inquiry Guide | Spring 2018
For arts educators and youth serving organizations, a resource guide compiling activities from my summer as a scholar and mentor at New Urban Arts' Summer 2017 Art Inquiry program. The guide is available for free download at newurbanarts.org.
End to Avoid Damage | 3.26.18 + 3.27.18
People have been watching the moon and the stars since the beginning of time. When living through apocalypse, what becomes a moon? What is a star? What planet remains? What planet reveals itself to be inhabitable? And who can you live with? End to Avoid Damage is a play about friendship and the laundry list of things to be done as a world comes to its end. A specially commissioned play for Westmont College, directed by Theatre Arts student Karly Kuntz.
Teaches of Peaches: a Preview | Online Now
"The book sets itself up through the lyric urgency of a poem and the sober reportage of the essay," say the dream-makers at The Atlas Review, who interviewed me and released a trailer for Teaches of Peaches. Check out the book's preview online.
"DE: ...I just want to work hard at being a person who is fully alive in a world that is not betting on that, because of a history of turning people into capital..." -Read more on love, capitalism, and cats here!
Each Body is a Miracle | Fall 2017
This fall I'm launching Each Body is a Miracle, my residency project with Haiti Cultural Exchange. Stationed in East Flatbush, my play Good Blood will serve as a catalyst to researching health issues of Haitian residents in the area. As the character Yves says, "And yet each body is a miracle: the dust we came from; the specs of dust we are, to which we shall return. My God, live! You must practice." I'm looking forward to practicing in and with East Flatbush this fall. Check out the press release for more information and keep up with the project on my (one of many) blogs!
FLEA FRIDAYS | 9.29.17
Moved back home in perfectly poetic time with this question from the first ever Flea Fridays: What does home mean to you? I'll attempt to answer with poems and essays from Teaches of Peaches (now available to order) as I join a bill of talented homebound artists including Rebecca Rad + Starr Busby, Julia Anrather, and The Lobbyists. Flea Fridays are curated and directed by Lilleth Glimcher.
TEACHES OF PEACHES | Available for PRE-ORDER September 2017
"Grief is a cat named Peaches." Shaking with excitement for the release of Teaches of Peaches, my chapbook of essays and poems, a winner of the 2017 TAR Chapbook Series. Of the collection, Desiree Bailey says: "In her writing, we hear the footfalls of Dionne Brand and Édouard Glissant. We hear her movements through Haiti, Brooklyn and New England, in body and imagination." Pre-order during September (link here) for FREE shipping!
HaitI CULTURAL EXCHANGE: LAKOU nou Residency | Summer-Fall 2017
My return to Brooklyn kicks off in perfectly poetic fashion with an artist residency with Haiti Cultural Exchange. As a 2017 Lakou NOU artist, I'll be working with community members in East Flatbush, listening and learning about community needs and creating an artistic project in response. Visit HCX's website for more info on my fellow Lakou NOU artists: Glenda Lezeau, Jasmine Plantin, and Nubian Nene who will be working with communities in Carnarsie, Flatbush, and Crown Heights, respectively. Flatbush, I'm coming home! See you in the yard!
THE KILROYS LIST | 2017
The list is here! I am thrilled to be featured as an Honorable Mention on the 2017 Kilroys List. Congratulations to all the women writers featured on this year's list and shouts to the Kilroys for continuing to fight for gender parity in theater.
Writers in Action | 4.22.17 + 4.24.17
So very excited for the inaugural Flea Theater/Brown University Project Residency featuring new work by myself (Good Blood) and Carlos Sirah (The Utterances).
Good Blood (directed by Lilleth Glimcher) follows the story of a Haitian family living in Brooklyn and their sudden return to Haiti. From the journey of immigrants to the spread of a global epidemic, Good Blood crosses language, time, and an ocean as it questions the contracts we make, the conditions we live under, and what it means to reach for a love that might outlive you.
The Utterances (directed by Marina McClure): After a large-scale ecological disaster, coupled with The War that Settled Dust, were-citizens of The City, now fugitive from home and land, seek out alternative territories in order to (re)build, (re)member, and (re)name.
Visit writingislive.com for more info.
Publicly Complex | 4.8.17
Poetics of relation come to life when I link up with fellow mermaid lover Desiree C. Bailey for the latest edition of Publicly Complex at Ada Books in Providence (#westsidebestside). Between the two of us we've got at least three poems about the sea.
Anthology Vol. 18 | 4.5.17
April 5 begins the season of "final rounds" with my last time presenting at Anthology, a reading/performance series for graduate students from Brown + RISD. I'll be presenting a reading of a very short play called Blame the Season, which will performed at Westmont College's Hive Festival this spring.
Explosions from the Other Canon | 2.24.17 + 2.25.17
I collaborate with Marcel Mascaro for a reflective response to Adrienne Kennedy's An Evening with Dead Essex for Explosions from the Other Canon, curated by the brilliant Kate Bergstrom, a multimedia event exploring plays written by women that have been assembled into "The Other Canon."