A Funny Thing Happened While Updating My Bio

In the class I teach for Southern New Hampshire University, I teach students to write their author bio for the first time. Sometimes they start with some one-liner about how they have nothing to offer. Others go on a tangent about everything in their life that has nothing to do with writing. I tell them to think about what inspires them to write, how they learned to write creatively, and what they plan to do in the future. The course material leads them to add a sentence about their home life: "When ____ is not writing great stories, she _______ at home with her ________ and kids and their ____ cats."

I started to update my bio. I tend to do this every couple of years. I have different bios. There is the blurb reserved for folks introducing me when I'm scheduled to read or speak. There's the slightly longer, more teaching-based one for my CV. My bios used to be written to get people to ask me to feature at their poetry venue. Later they were meant to land me a teaching gig. Sometimes bios are for the backs of books; Something for the reader still deciding if they should buy.

Tonight's bio was different. It was more like a culmination of everything. It was this beating heart that began to sprout and grow and manifest into something new. This bio was long enough for Wikipedia or an obituary. As I read it, I thought about who I was before the bio - a seven-year-old who wrote poems and essays, who loved Barbies and hated wearing stockings, who felt proud when folding the flag or ringing the church bell at school. A fifth grader who wasn't chosen for the Young Writers Conference for the first time since first grade, and she was mad, and swung her skinny legs back and forth, kicking the cubbies, telling her buddy that she didn't need this writing thing; She was going to be a pop star anyway; The high school student who didn't know depression's name but knew she went to bed with it at night and woke up with it each morning; The college kid, who had yet to find fame, and wasn't too sure she wanted it anymore after spending her first months at school being bullied by girls who didn't think she was black enough or enough for anything at all.

Tonight I used a short bio I'd already had and expanded it, leaving behind that little girl who used to have nightmares about having to change her face to please the black girls at school, and used to have dreams about singing to huge crowds in sparkling dresses with long side slits and deep necklines. Tonight's bio was all about what I've done for the last 25 years - not each individual student I taught or any accolades I got from the College or the Chamber of Commerce or the community organizations - This bio was my growth from spoken word artist, to professional writer, to entrepreneur, to artivist, scholar, producer. This bio ended with my husband and boys but was me - all me from blessing the mic in '94 to blessing the family at my cousin's funeral this past weekend. And all I can say is, I am so happy with my choices. I am so happy with the woman and artist that I have become. That is huge when you think about the hurdles my self-esteem had to scale to get to this place. On this, my 49th year, I am proud to be me.

Wait till you see what I do with the next 25 years.

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BIO

Maria James-Thiaw is a performance poet and playwright with nearly 20 years of experience as both a professor of writing and a community teaching artist. This graduate of Shippensburg University (1996/2003) and Goddard College’s MFA in Creative Writing program (2009) teaches courses for Southern New Hampshire University and the Young Writers’ Conference at Messiah University.

Maria is known for her dynamic spoken word performances and powerful poetry collections, and her fourth book, Count Each Breath, was published by Wild Ink Publishing in September '22. Count Each Breath recounts her life as a Black mother whose husband is trapped overseas, while she’s dealing with chronic illness and the Covid19 pandemic. It explores issues of healthcare disparities, racism, and sexism.

In 2018, Maria wrote and produced Reclaiming My Time: The American Griot Project using oral histories of women who lived through the Civil Rights Movement as inspiration for her poetry. She coined the phrase "historiographic poetics," meaning “a form of poetry that sheds light on historical events and raises consciousness about social justice issues.” In 2020 she released RMT 2.0, a Zoom version of the play. Her 2023 choreopoem, HairStory: Reclaiming Our Crown, was performed at Gamut Theatre in Harrisburg, PA, and was called “An immensely moving and powerful work of art…” by BroadwayWorld.com.

In addition to teaching, Maria serves on the poetry board of Philadelphia Stories Magazine and writes for the Young Professionals of Color podcast, Black NewsBeat with Dr. Kimeka Campbell. Her business, Reclaim Arts, LLC produces her choreopoems and provides affordable arts programming for schools in her community.

When Maria isn't writing and performing, she enjoys coloring, painting, and listening to audiobooks at home in South Central PA where she lives with her husband and two beloved boys.