Staceyann ChinNEW YORK:
JAMAICAN STACEYANN Chin is one of nine poets now performing live on Broadway in 'Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam'.
The Broadway presentation, which showcases 'unique and entertaining spoken word performances done to music,' is an offshoot of the Home Box Office (HBO) original series, 'Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry'.
Mr. Simmons, CEO of Rush Communications and his partner Stan Lathan, capitalised on the popularity of one of the United States' fastest rising forms of artistic expression, def poetry, to create a theatrical production.
"In this show, I am the only accented voice, I am the only one not born in this country. In a very real sense I represent an immigrant voice that has transcended the boundaries of geography," Ms. Chin said.
She began performing four years ago, gracing stages in the Caribbean, Europe and the United States. Born in Montego Bay, she studied Bio-Chemistry and Physics at Shortwood Teachers College in Kingston and Philosophy and Literature at the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies.
She relocated to New York City in 1997 and began performing the next year. Her work has been featured in a host of American media, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Pittsburgh Post, New York Newsday, The Village Voice, Drum Voices, Showtime at the Apollo and on the popular news magazine show 60 Minutes. In addition, Miss Chin has penned four books; Wildcat Woman, Skyscrapers, Taxis and Tampons and Role Call.
In 2000, she starred in her first one-woman play Hands Afire, which ran for ten weeks at the Bleecker Theatre in Greenwich Village, New York. She returned to that very same theatre a year later in her second show, Unspeakable Things before taking it to Copenhagen, Denmark for a limited run.
Ms. Chin has enjoyed great international success with much lauded performances in London, Germany, Scandinavia and New York's annual Central Park Summer Stage series.
Prior to this appearance on Broadway, she was featured in the documentary Between the Lines, which delved into her experiences of being a writer, female and Asian-Jamaican.
A self-described 'lover of words', she said that, '...most days, I fancy myself a writer'. Therefore, it does not come as a surprise that in addition to her work on Broadway, where she does approximately eight shows per week, Ms. Chin is hard at work on yet another book. It is a project close to her heart as it focuses on the women who raised her.
Def Poetry Jam on Broadway is currently running at the historic Longacre Theatre in the heart of Manhattan's theatre district and thus far has garnered much praise from the New York critics.
