Artist Detail

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Stacy Dyson

Poet - Singer - Writer

About the artist:

Stacy Dyson is a black female poet who explores, illustrates, and illuminates the history, self-image, philosophy, life and times of the Black woman. "All those stories, all those songs, all those lifetimes. Someone has to sing for my sisters. I'm fortunate enough to be able to do that in my life." Ms. Dyson has done one-woman shows in Oklahoma, Massachusetts, California and all over Colorado. She has published six chapbooks Black Diamonds, Obsidian Ice, Blues in the First Position, Woman 724365, Nefertiti's Kiss, Por Innocencio and written a full-length manuscript In the Language of Sapphires. She has released three CDs The Madonna of Nevada Avenue, Por Innocencio, and A Woman Beside the Sun. An acapella vocalist, her song styles range from gospel to country to ballads to jazz. "My bio says everybody from Bonnie Raitt to Aretha Franklin. I try to sing songs that with the aim of the poetry and the feeling I get from the crowd. A playwright as well, her work For Every Sister Who Played with Fire and Got Burned was performed at the University of Northern Colorado. Her play Fannie's Girls: A 4-1-1 in 5-Part Attitude won the Colorado Women's Playwriting Festival. She was the Artist-in-Residence for the state of Colorado for six years and was featured on the Educational Performances Program list (both out of the Colorado Council of the Arts) for four. She is former coach of the Colorado Springs Thin Air Slam Poetry team and former director of the San Avelino Youth Guild Choir in San Luis, Colorado. Ms Dyson is the Poet Laureate for Imagination Celebration (Colorado Springs) and the CEO/lead poet of DragonsWing, a women's art consortium. Currently touring, performing, doing program design, and presenting workshops in poetry and acappella music, Ms Dyson's future projects include getting back into the studio this fall to record a new CD, touring individually and with DragonsWing, and making plans for performances abroad.

A sampling of Stacy's poetry:

The black woman is forever

Symbolled

As strong, brassy, bold

Independent

Does anyone understand

That I need to cry sometimes?

This is not weakness

This is survival

The intelligence of acquiescing

To life’s caprice

Without buckling under the strain

Because if I go down, who will

Care for

My house

My heart

Everybody else?

The black woman is

Forever declared as

Fearless, brave

Courageous

Does anybody understand

That I am afraid sometimes?

This is not weakness

It is survival

The necessary decline

Into the protecting shadows

Because if I give in

Who will make a change?

Make a way

Forward?

Verbal, free of speech, declarative

The black woman is forever painted

In pose of articulate, lively

Vocalization

Does anyone understand

That I cannot always use

My voice,

Sometimes my action is required alone

Words would only defeat the purpose

Of necessary interpretation

Because if I cannot be silent

Who will dare to sing

To question

To scream outrage?

My way is older than civilization

Slightly younger than the dawn

Of what men call

Time

Too impatient to exist by other definitions

I live inside a world that needs me able

Does anyone understand

In order to do those hours justice, to create

And speak to effect, I must

Know where to speak

How to be afraid

When it is my duty to myself

To cry

Because if I fail

Who will care for



anything?