Since her first step onto the stage at the 1994 Cultural Explosion at Shippensburg University, Maria James-Thiaw has been moving audiences with her powerful poetic performances. Today, she continues to read her work and also creates choreopoems that are performed by other dynamic actors.

In 2018, her first choreopoem, Reclaiming My Time: An American Griot Project won the Art of Protest Award from Penn State University. During the shutdown in 2020 it was made into a digital Zoom play called RMT 2.0. In 2019 she teamed up with Sankofa African American Theater in Harrisburg to create the play, Bridge {the Gap} with the incredible Sharia Benn. Her latest choreopoem, HairStory: Reclaiming Our Crown has inspired hundreds to think about the need to combat hair texture bias that impacts people of African descent.

For more information on these and other shows, visit http://www.ReclaimArts.org.

Support indie bookstores, and purchase the Maria James-Thiaw collection here: https://bookshop.org/shop/Maria-James-Thiaw

Wild Ink Publishing Presents the Count Each Breath book launch at Open Stage of Harrisburg! To watch the event, click here: https://fb.watch/fL9jaVAs-p/

To book a reading, talk, or book-signing, send a request to poetryprof74@gmail.com