Artist Biography
Shayna SheNess Israel, a Brooklyn native born to a Belizean mother and a Southern Black father,
Shayna S. Israel is an educator, organizer, artist (poet/rapper) and founder. It is her passion for social justice and commitment to constructing spaces for womyn to develop leadership, networks and distinct voice that threads her various commitments.
She has performed at the Nuyorican Café, Tritone, Rotunda, Black Women's Arts Festival, Mama's in the Hip Hop Kitchen, 2009 LGBTQ Womyn of Color Conference, Chico State University and Haverford, Swarthmore and Bryn Mawr Colleges. Her work can be found in an upcoming anthology on black womyn writers edited by Dr. Nagueyalti Warren of Emory University, JENdA—an African-American womyn’s journal—and Issue 10 of the Origami Condom Literary Journal.
Shayna SheNess Israel has released an audio compilation of her rap, poetry and teachings titled Da Ghetto Intellectual Mixtape and is the author of three self-published works of poetry printed by Xlibris: Just-Is: A Story, Project on Love & Chapbook Triad. Additionally, she co-heads a collective that hosts multimedia performances and streamlines resources particular to independent artists called the New Media Initiative (www.newmediainitiative.com).
Admitting her penchant for form poetry, which she notes is also found in rap, she advocates for apprenticeship-style, mentoring relationships between generations of artists as a way to continue poetry’s rich tradition in all of its forms—contemporary and ancient—a tradition that allows its practitioners to continue as well as transform its aesthetic. This vision is among many and more to come as Shayna opens herself as a conduit for the Muse, the Mother Spirit, the Ancestors to flow through and work.
Currently, Shayna SheNess Israel lives in Delaware County, working as program coordinator for a county wide college access center.
Shayna S. Israel is an educator, organizer, artist (poet/rapper) and founder. It is her passion for social justice and commitment to constructing spaces for womyn to develop leadership, networks and distinct voice that threads her various commitments.
She has performed at the Nuyorican Café, Tritone, Rotunda, Black Women's Arts Festival, Mama's in the Hip Hop Kitchen, 2009 LGBTQ Womyn of Color Conference, Chico State University and Haverford, Swarthmore and Bryn Mawr Colleges. Her work can be found in an upcoming anthology on black womyn writers edited by Dr. Nagueyalti Warren of Emory University, JENdA—an African-American womyn’s journal—and Issue 10 of the Origami Condom Literary Journal.
Shayna SheNess Israel has released an audio compilation of her rap, poetry and teachings titled Da Ghetto Intellectual Mixtape and is the author of three self-published works of poetry printed by Xlibris: Just-Is: A Story, Project on Love & Chapbook Triad. Additionally, she co-heads a collective that hosts multimedia performances and streamlines resources particular to independent artists called the New Media Initiative (www.newmediainitiative.com).
Admitting her penchant for form poetry, which she notes is also found in rap, she advocates for apprenticeship-style, mentoring relationships between generations of artists as a way to continue poetry’s rich tradition in all of its forms—contemporary and ancient—a tradition that allows its practitioners to continue as well as transform its aesthetic. This vision is among many and more to come as Shayna opens herself as a conduit for the Muse, the Mother Spirit, the Ancestors to flow through and work.
Currently, Shayna SheNess Israel lives in Delaware County, working as program coordinator for a county wide college access center.
