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Current Work
Latasha is currently a member of an ensemble for a libretto entitled "In What Language". This piece is written and composed by Mike Ladd and Vijay Iyer. For more info go to www.vijay-iyer.com |
Short Bio
Born and raised in Harlem, writer and vocalist, Latasha N. Diggs rigorously explores sound through macaronic verse, language and electronic vocal processing. Her literary works have been featured in many publications including Ego Trip, The Source, Urb, Vibe, Drum Voices Review, Black Music Review (Japan), Authentic Hair, Long Shot, and Bum Rush the Page, Everything But the Burden, and Black Belt.
As a fellow of the Cave Canem Workshop for African American Poets, Diggs began to reinvent her poetry and what it meant to love both the word and the voice. She understood the importance of accomplishing the word on the page. However, coming up from the New York spoken word scene with the likes of Anti Pop Consortium and Mike Ladd, Latasha knew that the page, like the mic, had its limitations. She wanted other means for conveying human nature.
She began challenging herself by fusing sound and text and after several poetry collectives and collaborations with musicians, Latasha started to deal more with improvisation and language. Today, her poems are often mutated, processed, and performed in a collage of dialectics with preference towards Spanish and Japanese. The result is what can only be described as an eccentric, electronic spoken word cabaret of singing, screaming, speaking, cooing and whispering brilliance.
As a poet and vocalist, she has performed with DJ Little Louie Vega's Nuyorican Soul Orchestra at Central Park's Summer Stage, with the femme-fatale poetry/performance act Girl Group: An Afroglam Ethnography in collaboration with poet/playwright Carl Hancock Rux at Joe's Pub (The Public Theatre), and with Edwin Torres in a "sound" improvisation entitled Santeria Songs and Voudon Striptease Rituals. She has also worked with Vernon Reid, DJ Logic, Mike Ladd, Butch Morris, Burnt Sugar, DJ Jeannie Hopper, Guillermo E. Brown, Ori Kaplan, and Vijay Iyer, to name a few.
She has been featured on recordings by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Burnt Sugar, Towa Tei, The Yohimbe Brothers, Billy Bass, Domenico Ferrari, Guillermo E. Brown, Mike Ladd w/ Viajy Iyer, and the compilation Eargasms: Crucial Poetics, Volume 1.
Diggs performs in many spoken word venues in New York and abroad including Riker's Island, Berne, Switzerland, Sonar’s Electronic Music festival in Barcelona, The Asia Society, and The Ether Electronic Festival at the Royal Palace, London.
As founder of All Gods Play Chess Inc., a company geared towards promoting the arts Latasha has produced the events 4 umen and Les Sirens, which featured an assortment of talented women through the medium of song, performance, and word.
She is the author of two chap-books, Ichi-Ban: from the files of negríta muñeca linda and Ni-ban: Villa Misería and has just released an conceptual audio project simply called “Televisíon”.
Oh yeah…she’s usually employed as a yodeler and electronic vocalist while on the road or recording for the Zappa-esque jam band, The Yohimbe Brothers.
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Honors
Zora Neale Hurston Fellow, 2003, NYFA Fellow, 2003; Harvestworks Artist in Residence, 2002, Cave Canem Fellow, 2000-01 |
Artist Location
New York, NY
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Type of artist
Writer, Performer
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General Themes
Race/Ethnicity/Cultural Identity, Economics/Class, Feminism/Gender Issues, Mass Media/Pop Culture, Religion/Spirituality |
| Last updated on September 16th, 2005 |
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