An excerpt from my creative non-fiction/fiction piece, "My Story Begins With" will appear in the forthcoming anthology Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic: Art, Academics, Activism and the Austin Project as part of the Louann Atkins Temple Series in Women and Culture by The University of Texas Press.

In Austin, Texas, in 2002, I was fortunate to participate with a group of artists, activists, and academics led by performance studies scholar Omi Osun Joni L. Jones formed the Austin Project (tAP), which meets annually in order to provide a space for women of color and their allies to build relationships based on trust, creativity, and commitment to social justice by working together to write and perform work in the jazz aesthetic.

Inspired by this experience, this book is both an anthology of new writing and a sourcebook for those who would like to use creative writing and performance to energize their artistic, scholarly, and activist practices. Theoretical and historical essays by Omi Osun Joni L. Jones describe and define the African American tradition of art-making known as the jazz aesthetic, and explain how her own work in this tradition inspired her to start tAP.

Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic: Art, Academics, Activism and the Austin Project
ISBN: 978-0-292-72204-0
$60.00, hardcover, no dust jacket
33% website discount: $40.20
ISBN: 978-0-292-72287-3
$24.95, paperback
33% website discount: $16.72
Not yet published; available for pre-order