Lives
—in the zeitgeist—
The 2021 Distinguished DeMott Lectureship at Amherst College
“Happy to Listen” a broadcast for the 2020 Tanz Im August Festival in Berlin
—ON THE AIR—
—on tour—
—in the press—
The “Rihanna of Poetry” on Frank Ocean and Enjambment
Loved the closing performance of the National Book Awards? Check out these writer-musicians
When Frank Ocean's visual album Endless unexpectedly dropped in the twilight hours of August 19th, 2016, Salon reached out to me for an up-to-the minute contextual analysis of the Ocean's reemergence after a five-year hiatus (Spoiler alert: I weave digital culture into Foucault's Panopticon.).
How Frank Ocean Became One Portland Poet’s Muse: Shayla Lawson reflects on the mixtape, the message, the man.
Wrote the script for contemporary dance company Moving Collective's touring performance iD, section "i am a pretty girl." (covered in USA TODAY)
—IN REVIEW—
Expanding the waters of love.— Asterix Journal, I THINK I’M READY TO SEE FRANK OCEAN
A hilarious, heartbreaking, and endlessly entertaining homage to black women’s resilience and excellence.— Kirkus Reviews, THIS IS MAJOR
Trained as an architect, Lawson is an artist who works across mediums and has a keen eye for design. The chapbook is slick and glamorous. A limited edition run of it came with a perfume Lawson created in collaboration with Age of Earth Collective. The charisma of the chapbook fits given that the poems engage with surfaces—the color of surfaces, the significance of surfaces, and how nothing is “just a surface.”— Tupelo Quartlery, PANTONE
