BIOGRAPHY
a sound poet experimenting on the outer rim of ultrasonic soul
|
|
|
|
|
Born and raised in Harlem, Latasha first
began her journey as a visual art major at Laguardia High School
of the Arts. It was when Latasha was a dancer for musical groups
like Deee-Lite and Heavy D, however, that she took to writing
poetry and music reviews. As a journalist, she has been published
in several magazines including Vibe, The Source, and Urb. Her
poetry has been featured in a wider array of publications from
Long Shot, Drum Voices Review, and Bum Rush the Page.
|
|
|
As a fellow of the Cave Canem Workshop for
African American Poets, Diggs began a rigorous exploration to
reinvent her poetry and what it meant for her to love both the
word and the voice. She understood the importance of accomplishing
the word on page. However, coming up from the downtown spoken
word scene with the likes of Anti Pop Consortium and Mike Ladd,
Latasha knew that the page, like the mic, had its limitations
and she had other means of conveying that same emotion. She wanted
to challenge herself by fusing sound and text. Thus, after several
poetry collectives and collaborations with musicians, Latasha
started to deal more with improvisation and language. Today,
her poems are often mutated, processed, and performed in a collage
of dialectics; a 'deconstructo manifesto' journalist, essayist,
and musician Greg Tate coined "Japanglish". The result
is what can only be described as an eccentric, electronic spoken
word cabaret of singing, screaming, speaking, cooing and whispering
brilliance.
|
|
|
In addition to being published, Diggs performs
in many spoken word venues in New York and abroad including Riker's
Island and Switzerland. As a poet and vocalist, she has performed
with DJ Little Louie Vega's Nuyorican Soul Orchestra at Central
Park's Summer Stage, the femme-fatale poetry/performance act
Girl Group: An Afroglam Ethnography directed and conceived by
poet/playwright Carl Hancock Rux at Joe's Pub (The Public Theatre),
and collaborated in a "sound" improvisation entitled
Santeria Songs and Voudon Striptease Rituals with poet Edwin
Torres. She has also been featured as such on recordings by Vernon
Reid (Yohimbe Brothers), Domenico Ferrari (Commute), Guillermo
E. Brown (Soul at the Hands of the Machine), Greg Tate (Burnt
Sugar: That Depends of What You Know), Ryuichi Sakamoto (Sweet
Revenge), Towa Tei (Future Listening!), and Eargasms: Hip-Hop
Poetics, Volume 1.
|
|
|
As founder of All Gods Play Chess Inc.,
a company geared towards promoting the arts Latasha has produced
the events 4 umen and Les Sirens, which featured an assortment
of talented women through the medium of song, performance, and
word. She has published two chapbooks, Ichi-Ban: from the files
of negrita muneca morena linda and Ni-Ban: Villa Miseria. She
is currently an artist in residence at the Harvestworks Digital
Media Arts Center working on her debut album.
|
|
| If you'd
like to contact latasha, please use this contact
form. |
| If you
are interested in posting your information on this website, please contact
us. |
 |
|