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Indira Allegra

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Indira Allegra
Reading at the San Francisco Public Library in 2014
Bornc. 1980
Detroit, Michigan, United States
Alma materCalifornia College of the Arts (BA)
Known forPerformative craft, poetry, dance, weaving, sculpture, assemblage, installation art
Notable work
  • BODYWARP
  • Blackout
AwardsUnited States Artists Award
2022

Burke Prize
2019

Joseph Henry Jackson Literary Award
2014
Websiteindiraallegra.com

Indira Allegra (born c. 1980) is a multidisciplinary American artist and writer based in Oakland, California.

Background and education

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Allegra was born in Detroit, 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 the 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

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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

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  • 2016 Blackout, YBCA, San Francisco, California[23]
  • 2018 Art+Practice+Ideas, Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, California[9]
  • 2018 BODYWARP, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, California[10]
  • 2019 Burke Prize Exhibition, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York[5]
  • 2019 Even Thread [has] a Speech, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin[24]
  • 2022 TEXERE: The Shape of Loss is A Tapestry, Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco, California[25]
  • 2023 Disrupt and Resist, Mason Exhibitions Center in Arlington, VA.[26]

Writing

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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

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References

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  1. 1 2 3 "We Want The Airwaves 43: Indira Allegra". directory.libsyn.com. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
  2. ↑ "Berkeley Talks transcript: Poetry and the Senses: 'Emergency is not separate from us'". Berkeley News. February 28, 2020. Retrieved July 31, 2024.
  3. ↑ "Indira Allegra: In Conversation with Sarah Biscarra Dilley". SFAQ. May 28, 2016. Retrieved July 31, 2024.
  4. ↑ Valentine, Victoria L. (April 16, 2018). "The Week in African American Art: Zoé Whitley Named Curator of British Pavilion at 2019 Venice Biennale & More". Culture Type. Retrieved May 31, 2024.
  5. 1 2 "Burke Prize 2019". Museum of Arts and Design. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  6. ↑ "The Petty Biennial". The University of Chicago Arts + Public Life. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  7. ↑ "Even thread [has] a speech". John Michael Kohler Arts Center. Archived from the original on August 11, 2020. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  8. ↑ "Take This Hammer: Art + Media Activism from the Bay Area". Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  9. 1 2 Swartzman-Brosky, Jayna (April 9, 2018). "Press Release: 2018 Art+Process+Ideas Exhibition" (PDF). Mills College Art Museum. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  10. 1 2 "MoAD Emerging Artists presents Indira Allegra". Museum of the African Diaspora. Archived from the original on September 20, 2020. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  11. ↑ "Press release: But Tell Me What it Feels Like: The Erotic Practice of Liberation". SOMArts. March 27, 2018. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  12. ↑ "United States Artists » 2022 Fellows". Retrieved June 28, 2022.
  13. ↑ "Indira Allegra". YBCA. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
  14. ↑ "The Grantees". Minnesota Street Project. Archived from the original on May 13, 2021. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  15. ↑ "Press Room". Museum of Arts and Design. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  16. ↑ "Current Grantees". Fleishhacker Foundation. Archived from the original on June 18, 2021. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  17. ↑ "Indira Allegra". Artadia. November 13, 2018. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  18. ↑ "Mike Kelley Foundation For The Arts" (PDF). Culture Type. Retrieved April 23, 2021.
  19. ↑ "2018 Map Fund Grantees". Map Fund Blog. May 22, 2018. Retrieved April 23, 2021.
  20. ↑ "Past Awardees". Tosa Studio Award. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  21. ↑ "Grant Recipients Archive". Center for Craft. Retrieved April 23, 2021.
  22. ↑ Gee, Erika (November 7, 2014). "A Seat at the Writer's Table: Indira Allegra". The San Francisco Foundation. Archived from the original on March 29, 2015. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  23. ↑ "Take This Hammer: Art + Media Activism from the Bay Area". YBCA. Retrieved May 5, 2021.
  24. ↑ "Indira Allegra—Even thread [has] a speech". Vimeo: John Michael Kohler Arts Center (Digital video). December 4, 2019. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  25. ↑ "Indira Allegra: TEXERE: The Shape of Loss Is a Tapestry". Minnesota Street Project. March 11, 2022. Retrieved June 28, 2022.
  26. ↑ Mason Exhibitions website
  27. ↑ "Indira Allegra: Blackout". Sming Sming Books. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
  28. ↑ "Indira Allegra: A Letter From Penelope". American Craft Council. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
  29. ↑ Association, College Art (August 9, 2018). "Explore the Latest Issue of Art Journal". CAA News | College Art Association. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
  30. ↑ Press, Foglifter (October 22, 2020). ""excerpt from praxistexere" by Indira Allegra". Foglifter Journal and Press. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
  31. ↑ Allegra, Indira (2015). "The 16th Letter". Cream City Review. 39 (1): 160–161. doi:10.1353/ccr.2015.0037. ISSN 2166-014X.
  32. ↑ "Wordgathering: Allegra". wordgathering.syr.edu. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
  33. ↑ "Dear Sister – AK Press". Retrieved April 23, 2021.
  34. ↑ "Red Indian Road West – Scarlet Tanager Books". Retrieved April 20, 2021.
  35. ↑ "Sovereign Erotics". UAPress. July 12, 2017. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
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