JHPF Feature Poet
Tara Betts
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Tara Betts is the author of the book Arc and Hue. Tara is a lecturer in creative writing at Rutgers University and Cave Canem fellow. She is co-editing Bop, Strut, and Dance, a collection of Bop poems, with Afaa M. Weaver. Her work appears in numerous anthologies and journals, including Gathering Ground, Bum Rush the Page, and the upcoming A Face to Meet the Faces and Villanelles. Tara appeared on HBO's "Def Poetry Jam." She represented Chicago twice at the National Poetry Slam. Her work has been adapted for Steppenwolf Theater's "Words on Fire," "Fingernails Across a Chalkboard" at the National Black Theater, and several productions of "That Takes Ovaries!" In 2011, she was commissioned by the Peggy Choy Dance Company to write a short libretto inspired by the brief friendship of Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali. |