About Amber DiPietra

Amber DiPietra
amberdipietra@gmail.com
415-867-1124


Interdisciplinary poet and teaching artist, California- certified sexological bodyworker





Curriculum Vitae


This CV lists selected publications, collaborations, and other projects specific to my arts career and my work as a teaching artist/bodyworker. I have a separate resume that details my employment as a disability advocate and service provider. Please ask me for a copy of the latter if you would like to review it.



Performance art, poetry readings, interactive presentations


San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Pop-Up Poets Series: interpretive dance and poetry in response to a sculpture installation. This piece was also a commentary on nursing home conditions and the inert body. It invited gallery visitors to interact with my body and words, to actually become part of my ephemeral installation.


Axis Dance, an internationally known troupe of dancers with and without disability: volunteer performer as part of the Yerba Buena Gardens arts festival in San Francisco, CA. This piece was site-based and consisted of more than 50 dancers working with chance, flash mob, and adaptive postmodern dance techniques for differently-abled bodies.


Poetics of Healing Colloquium, a series of talks by doctors, scholars, and artists

Humboldt State University’s Critical, Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies conference

University of California Santa Cruz’s “Emergent Communities” conference

San Francisco State University’s Poetry Center as guest speaker for public practices class 

San Francisco Library for the Blind and Print Disabled as part of Litquake, an annual citywide literary festival

Fundraiser/performance for San Francisco's Center for Sex and Culture

Mills College, Oakland CA "Gender, Feminism, Poetry and Embodiment" panel

Narrow University, Boulder CA "Writing, Thinking, being" panel


Readings at various multidisciplinary arts venues in San Francisco, CA and the Tampa Bay Area: The Lab, Pegasus Books, The Green Arcade, Canessa Gallery, Books and Bookshelves. Tampa Public Library, Studio 620


Publications

The Force of What's Possible: Accessibility and the Avant-Garde. 2014: essay forthcoming in this anthology.

Waveform, 2011:  book of poetry/performance text, written with collaborator Denise Leto.

Somatic Engagement, 2011:  compilation of essays and poetry from various writers and performers who base their work on issues of embodiment.
 
Beauty is a Verb: The New Poetics of Disability, 2011: anthology of poetry from contemporary writers with disabilities.

Various literary journals: Eleven Eleven, RealPoetik, Wordgathering, Monday Night, Tarpaulin Sky, Dusie.



Teaching

Write To Connect, sensuality series: sessions with individuals to address erotic self-image, improving intimacy, and finding greater love and pleasure in one's own body. Using creative writing, journaling, meditation and breathwork in conjunction with certification as a sexological bodyowlkrer.


Write To Connect: classes and participatory art experiences that have been offered at senior centers, independent living centers, rehabilitation centers for the blind/visually impaired community, as a part of an adaptive yoga class for people with various disabilities, at a prison and rehab center for young women, and most recently, through one-on-one sessions for people seeking to connect their erotic and creative life.


Adjunct at New College of Florida: developed and lead a course on contemporary, avant-garde poets of the San Francisco Bay Area. This was an online class which involved close reading and creative writing for undergraduates. I was awarded this fellowship from the New College Alumni Association.

San Francisco School of the Arts: taught a creative writing summer session for junior high students preparing to apply for the arts charter high school.

Runaway with Words: co-created a series of poetry workshops for teenagers in juvenile detention centers, a school for teen mothers, and a preschool program in the inner city.


Other arts and writing -related jobs

VSA Florida: interviewed artists with disabilities across the state of Florida and wrote VSA quarterly newsletter.

Olimpias Collective: a disability culture performance and research group based at the University of Michigan; danced and created original poetry as part of the collective at multiple venues.

Proyecto Vision: a bilingual website for Latino youth with disabilities: wrote several success stories about youth from around the country.

Kelsey Street Press: an avant-garde feminist poetry press established in the 1970s; developmental editing for the publication of new books; blogging about new, experimental women's poetry; collaboration on sound project that collected the voices of women poets. 






Be in touch

amberdipietra@gmail.com
415-867-1124
@thebodypoetik
IG_thebodypoetik