Discipline/Field: Poetry

Based in: Los Angeles

About: Amber West is the author of two books of poetry as well as a variety of “puppet poems.” A native of San Luis Obispo, California with sharecropper roots in Tennessee and Oklahoma, West is a community arts and public humanities producer who lives in North Hollywood with her husband and their two sons, and teaches writing at UCLA. 

Project Title: Lite Town Minstrels explores intersections of gender, class, and white racial identity, and the significant yet little discussed ways that whiteness shapes America(ns). West’s aim is to finish the poetry manuscript and subsequently adapt it for the stage in a production set in a henhouse and incorporating human actors, video projections, and puppetry.

Relevant Links: Facebook: amberiwest; Instagram: @amberiwest; Twitter: @amberiwest; YouTube: The Super Luke Show; websites: http://amberiwest.com, http://whitmania.ucla.edu; hashtag: #eggup