•Want to hear a poem?

Reading the Sealey Challenge, August, 2021

31 days, 31 books.

The Sealey Challenge, started by poet Nicole Sealey, asks you to read a book of poetry every day during the month of August.

I decided to take on this challenge in August 2021, but wanted it to be something I shared. Reading is often so solitary, and readings can be inaccessible to people not already “in the know.” Every weekend I read a book aloud in the storefront of common AREA maintenance in Seattle and amplified it onto the street.

Chairs set up outside let people stay and listen for as long as they wanted, encountering poetry in an unexpected way. What developed was an ecosystem of strangers who decided to stick around.

By slightly altering the landscape with poetry and a few chairs on the street, we were able to create spontaneous relationships between listeners, readers, and writers. Creating and sharing space to let people experience art on their terms.

•Telegram Text, 2016

Programmed a Raspberry Pi to translate morse code from a telegraph and send a text anyone, anonymously.

Participants were encouraged to send an anonymous text to a person of their choosing, but they had to do it through morse code. What we take for granted becomes an act of labor.

Created during Post Disciplinary Text(s), a 17-day residency part of Cornish College of the Arts “Arts Incubator” program.

•Ravel, 2016

Ravel was an installation designed and built by Whitney Bashaw & Syl Va for the exhibition series BRTHDAYGRL. The interior of the structure was wrapped in string and participants could alter the design as they desired. With each person building upon or dismantling what came before them, they created order or chaos with their decisions.