Poetry / Spoken Word
St. Paul, MN
August 2023, 4 weeks
Donte Collins is a neurodivergent afro-surrealist blues poet, playwright, and movement artist. They write poems that allow us to wander back to ourselves, to meet ourselves anew. Their work harbors the question, “how does it feel?” as opposed to, “what does it mean?” During the Anderson residency, Collins worked on revising a choreopoem entitled “Mercy.” The piece blends poetry and movement, verbal and non-verbal communication — it is about home and children’s need for a safe space to call their own and return to. Collins received the 2016 Aliki Perroti and Seth Frank Most Promising Young Poet Award for their poem “what the dead know by heart.”