Indira Allegra Explained

Indira Allegra
Birth Place:Detroit, Michigan, USA
Nationality:American
Known For:Performative Craft, Poetry, dance, weaving, sculpture, assemblage, installation art

Indira Allegra is a multidisciplinary American artist and writer based in Oakland, California.

Background and education

Allegra was born in Detroit, Michigan, and moved to Portland, Oregon, in the 1980s.[1] Allegra studied Biology at Yale University in the late 1990s but left and later completed an Associate of Applied Science degree in Sign Language Interpretation from Portland Community College in 2005 and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the California College of Arts in 2015.[1] Allegra has worked as a sign language interpreter, domestic violence advocate, union organizer, teaching artist, and in the service industry.[1]

Allegra self-identifies as a "woman of Cherokee, African and Irish descent."[2] Her mother's family comes from Georgia and Mississippi. Allegra has said that her mother's family is "Black— descendants of mixed tribal origin from peoples along the west coast of Africa who were forced into chattel slavery on Cherokee, Chicasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole, and Natchez land." She has said that her father's family is of Black, Native American, and European heritage, stating that they descended "from Cherokees living in Athens, Georgia and Bessemer City, North Carolina (two hours outside of Cherokee, NC)—they survived by mixing with non-Indians and learning how to assimilate into a growing, dominant white culture. My father’s people also come from African descendant foremothers raped by Irishmen while working on plantations and caring for white children in white homes."[3]

Art and awards

An African American artist,[4] Allegra makes work concerned with memorial and social tension. They work in a variety of genres and media, including performative craft, poetry, dance, weaving, sculpture, assemblage, and site-specific installations. Their work has been featured in exhibitions at the Museum of Arts and Design,[5] The University of Chicago's Arts Incubator,[6] John Michael Kohler Arts Center,[7] Yerba Buena Center for the Arts,[8] Mills College Art Museum,[9] Museum of the African Diaspora,[10] and SOMArts.[11] They have been awarded the United States Artists Award (2022),[12] YBCA 100 Honoree (2020),[13] Minnesota Street Project's California Black Voices Project Grant (2020),[14] the Museum of Arts and Design's Burke Prize (2019).[15] the Fleishhacker Foundation's Eureka Fellowship (2019),[16] the Artadia Award (2018),[17] the Mike Kelley Foundation Artist Project Grant (2018),[18] the MAP Fund (2018),[19] the Tosa Studio Award (2018),[20] the Windgate Craft Fellowship (2015),[21] and the San Francisco Foundation's Joseph Henry Jackson Literary Award (2014).[22]

Selected exhibitions

Writing

Allegra published Blackout with Sming Sming Books in 2017.[27] Their writing has appeared in American Craft,[28] Art Journal,[29] Foglifter Magazine,[30] Cream City Review[31] and Wordgathering: A Journal of Disability Poetry.[32] Their work has been anthologized in Dear Sister,[33] Red Indian Road West: Native American Poetry from California[34] and Sovereign Erotics: A Collection of Two-Spirit Literature[35] among others.

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: We Want The Airwaves 43: Indira Allegra. 2021-04-20. directory.libsyn.com. en.
  2. Web site: Berkeley Talks transcript: Poetry and the Senses: ‘Emergency is not separate from us’ . . 2024-07-31.
  3. Web site: INDIRA ALLEGRA: IN CONVERSATION WITH SARAH BISCARRA DILLEY . SFAQ . 2024-07-31.
  4. News: Valentine . Victoria L. . 2018-04-16 . The Week in African American Art: Zoé Whitley Named Curator of British Pavilion at 2019 Venice Biennale & More . 2024-05-31 . Culture Type . en-US.
  5. Web site: Burke Prize 2019 . . August 8, 2020 .
  6. Web site: The Petty Biennial . The University of Chicago Arts + Public Life . August 8, 2020 .
  7. Web site: Even thread [has] a speech ]. . August 8, 2020 .
  8. Web site: Take This Hammer: Art + Media Activism from the Bay Area . . August 8, 2020 .
  9. Web site: Press Release: 2018 Art+Process+Ideas Exhibition . Swartzman-Brosky . Jayna . April 9, 2018 . . August 8, 2020 .
  10. Web site: MoAD Emerging Artists presents Indira Allegra . . August 8, 2020 .
  11. Web site: Press release: But Tell Me What it Feels Like: The Erotic Practice of Liberation . . March 27, 2018 . August 8, 2020 .
  12. Web site: United States Artists » 2022 Fellows . 2022-06-28 . en-US.
  13. Web site: Indira Allegra. 2021-04-13. YBCA. en-US.
  14. Web site: The Grantees . Minnesota Street Project . March 30, 2021.
  15. Web site: Press Room . Museum of Arts and Design . March 30, 2021.
  16. Web site: Current Grantees . Fleishhacker Foundation . March 30, 2021.
  17. Web site: Indira Allegra . . 13 November 2018 . August 8, 2020.
  18. Web site: Mike Kelley Foundation For The Arts . Culture Type . April 23, 2021.
  19. Web site: 2018 Map Fund Grantees . Map Fund Blog . 22 May 2018 . April 23, 2021.
  20. Web site: Past Awardees . Tosa Studio Award . August 8, 2020.
  21. Web site: Grant Recipients Archive . Center for Craft . April 23, 2021.
  22. Web site: A Seat at the Writer's Table: Indira Allegra . Gee . Erika . . November 7, 2014 . August 8, 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150329175523/http://sff.org/a-seat-at-the-writers-table-indira-allegra/ . March 29, 2015.
  23. https://www.masonexhibitions.org/exhibitions/disrupt-and-resist Mason Exhibitions website
  24. Web site: 2022-03-11 . Indira Allegra: TEXERE: The Shape of Loss Is a Tapestry . 2022-06-28 . Minnesota Street Project . en.
  25. Web site: Indira Allegra—Even thread [has] a speech ]. December 4, 2019 . Vimeo. Digital video . August 8, 2020 .
  26. Web site: Take This Hammer: Art + Media Activism from the Bay Area . YBCA . May 5, 2021 .
  27. Web site: Indira Allegra: Blackout. 2021-04-20. Sming Sming Books. en.
  28. Web site: Indira Allegra: A Letter From Penelope. 2021-04-20. American Craft Council. en.
  29. Web site: Association. College Art. 2018-08-09. Explore the Latest Issue of Art Journal. 2021-04-20. CAA News College Art Association. en.
  30. Web site: Press. Foglifter. 2020-10-22. "excerpt from praxistexere" by Indira Allegra. 2021-04-20. Foglifter Journal and Press. en-US.
  31. Allegra. Indira. 2015. The 16th Letter. Cream City Review. 39. 1. 160–161. 10.1353/ccr.2015.0037. 2166-014X. subscription.
  32. Web site: Wordgathering: Allegra. 2021-04-20. wordgathering.syr.edu.
  33. Web site: Dear Sister – AK Press. 2021-04-23. en-US.
  34. Web site: Red Indian Road West – Scarlet Tanager Books. 2021-04-20. en-US.
  35. Web site: 2017-07-12. Sovereign Erotics. 2021-04-20. UAPress. en-US.

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