2018-2019 DOCUMENTARY
Tish
& Khary
TISH JONES
Founder & Executive Director of TruArtSpeaks, Tish Jones is a poet, performer, educator and organizer from Saint Paul, Minnesota. She has performed at CBGB, Kaplan Theater, The Walker Art Center, Intermedia Arts, The Cedar Cultural Center and more. Her work can be found in the Minnesota Humanities Center’s anthology entitled, Blues Vision: African American Writing from Minnesota (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2015), the 2011 and 2013 Saint Paul Almanac, and the Loft Literary Center’s Nation of Immigrants audio CD.
Jones has always had a passion for bridging arts & culture, civic engagement and youth development. Her work explores the ways in which art can function as a tool for social transformation, liberation and education. When you think of Tish Jones, know that she is somewhere dismantling age old systems of oppression, putting on for Hip Hop culture and creating new art to move the conversations forward.
KHARY JACKSON
Khary Jackson is a poet, playwright, dancer and musician. He is an alumnus of Cave Canem, the esteemed writing fellowship for black writers. He has written several plays, one of which (Water) was produced in 2009 at Ink and Pulp Theatre in Chicago.
He has been a recipient of several grants, including the 2016 McKnight Artist Fellowship in Writing, the Minnesota State Arts Board’s 2012 Cultural Community Partnership Grant and 2010 Artist Initiative Grant for Poetry, as well as the 2009 VERVE Spoken Word Grant from Intermedia Arts. His first poetry book, Any Psalm You Want, was published with Write Bloody Publishing in the spring of 2013.
