Stacy Hardy Explained

Stacy Hardy
Nationality:South African
Known For:Writer
Notable Works:Because the Night, An Archaeology of Holes
Awards:Best Experimental Film 2006at the Festival Chileno Internacional del Cortometraje de Santiago Brittle Paper Award for Fiction 2018, Fedora Prize for Opera 2020

Stacy M. Hardy is a writer, a teacher, a researcher, and an editor at Chimurenga, a pan-African journal.

Since 2014, Hardy is a lecturer in the Creative Writing Department at Wits University, South Africa, and has taught creative writing in informal and non-academic contexts.

Hardy is a partner in Saseni,[1] a creative writing teaching initiative that connects higher education and the creative arts in Africa, and the founder of Ukuthula,[2] a pan-African initiative that develops new writing from and against gender-based violence. She has hosted interdisciplinary workshops and writing intensives in diverse locations, including Dakar, Kigali, Cairo, Tombwa (Angola), Nairobi, Lagos, Berlin, New York, and online, and facilitated graduate seminars and writing workshops worldwide. Hardy's writing has appeared in various publications worldwide, including The Johannesburg Review of Books,[3] New Contrasts,[4] the New Orleans Review,[5] The Evergreen Review, and many more.

Published works

Her published works include Because the Night, a collection of short fiction published by Pocko Books, London, in 2015.[6] [7] [8] In 2022, a new collection of her short fiction, Archéologie des Trous,[9] [10] was published in French translation by Rot-Bo-Krik, Paris, and the English version was released by Bridge Books, Chicago in 2023.

Awards

She has won multiple awards for her work, including the 2018 Brittle Paper Award for Fiction,[11] and has been a finalist or semifinalist for many others, such as the 2022 Noemi Press Book Award and the 2018 Caine Prize.[12] In addition to her writing, Hardy is also involved in the production of multimedia works. She collaborates with Angolan composer, performer, and instrument designer Victor Gama, and their works have been performed at various venues, including the Harris Theatre in Chicago, USA, the Department of Music Stanford University in Stanford, CA, USA, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin.[13] In July 2022, a new iteration of their collaboration received a Prince Claus Fund Award for Cultural and Artistic Responses to Environmental Change award to open a pop up art laboratory in the Namib desert in Angola.[14] [15] Hardy’s one-woman performance piece, Museum of Lungs, which she created together with Egyptian director Laila Soliman and musicians Neo Muyanga and Nancy Mounir, premiered at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg in September 2018. It went on to have an extensive European tour from 2018 to 2019, including dates at Kaserne in Basel and Spielart in Munich.[16] [17] [18] [19]

Opera

Hardy wrote the libretto for Woman at Point Zero a new opera with composer Bushra El-Turk and director Laila Soliman, which won the prestigious Fedora - Generali Prize for Opera 2020.[20] The opera premiered at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in 2022 and received critical acclaim. Future performances include appearances at the All Arias festival in deSingel Antwerpen,[21] Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Concertgebouw Brugge, Muziekcentrum De Bijloke Gent, Royal Opera House London, Shubbak Festival London, and Snape Maltings UK in 2023.[22]

Networks and projects

In addition to her artistic pursuits, Hardy is involved in numerous interdisciplinary networks and research projects. She is a member of Connectors, an international network that brings together academics and organisations playing important roles at the intersection of engagement between health and research. She is also one of the organisers of “Planetary Health and Postcolonial Dis-Ease,” an international research project focused on the multi-sited politics of environment and health, hosted by the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Vienna.[23] Currently, Hardy is a research fellow at the University of Chicago, where she is working on a research-and-performance-based collaborative endeavour with anthropologist Kaushik Sunder Rajan, musician Neo Muyanga, and poet Daniel Borzutsky. Their project explores the politics and poetics of breath through a focus on colonial histories and postcolonial politics.[24] [25]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Africa in Words .
  2. Web site: Open Book Festival .
  3. Web site: Hardy . Stacy . The day the white people walked into the seaThe Johannesburg Review of Books . The Johannesburg Review of Books . 19 June 2023.
  4. Web site: New Contrasts . 19 June 2023.
  5. Web site: Hardy . Stacy . A Butcher Fantasy . The New Orleans Review . Department of English at Loyola University New Orleans . 19 June 2023.
  6. Web site: Holland . Noy . Because the Night review . Rain Taxi . 19 June 2023.
  7. Web site: Kumar . Anu . A Review of Stacy Hardy’s Because the Night . Africa in Words . 19 June 2023.
  8. Web site: Jobson . Liesl . Archive Book Review: Because the Night . Business Live . 19 June 2023.
  9. Web site: Alimeck . Michel . Conseil de lecture : Rot-bo-Krik, une anthropologie du soi . Pied-de-biche Marque . 19 June 2023.
  10. Web site: Slama . Ahmed . Trouble (Politique) Dans Le Corps . Litteralutte . 19 June 2023.
  11. Web site: The 2018 Brittle Paper Awards: The Winners . Brittle Paper . 19 June 2023.
  12. Web site: 2018 Caine Prize Shortlist Announced . Caine Prize . 19 June 2023.
  13. Web site: Vela 6911 - A Multimedia Piece by Victor Gama . Stanford Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) i . 19 June 2023.
  14. Web site: Recipients of Cultural and Artistic Responses to Environmental Change . Prince Claus Fund . 19 June 2023.
  15. Web site: PangeiArt presents tectonik: Tombwa – Café Mito da Utopia, Angola . Art Africa . 19 June 2023.
  16. Web site: Laila Soliman / Nancy Mounir / Neo Muyanga / Stacy Hardy – Museum of Lungs . produktionsDOCK . 19 June 2023.
  17. Web site: Manabe . Nkhensani . Museum of Lungs: A fight to survive . Mail & Guardian . 19 June 2023.
  18. Web site: Stacy Hardy, Nancy Mounir, Neo Muyanga, Laila Soliman (Cape Town/Cairo) Museum of Lungs . Kaserne . 19 June 2023.
  19. Web site: Multinational collaboration Museum of Lungs premieres in Johannesburg and Cape Town . prohelvetia . 19 June 2023.
  20. Web site: Fedora - Generali Prize for Opera 2020 . Fedora . 19 June 2023.
  21. Web site: All Arias . Lod.
  22. Web site: Woman at Point Zero Lod / Laila Soliman, Bushra El-Turk & Stacy Hardy . Lod . 19 June 2023.
  23. Web site: Environmental Dis-ease. Co-productions of Toxic Politics . Association for Anthropology and Medicine . 19 June 2023.
  24. Web site: Stacy Hardy . Neubauer Collegium, University of Chicago . 19 June 2023.
  25. Web site: Pulmonographies . Neubauer Collegium . 19 June 2023.