Photo Credit: Tabia Parker
Red Summer is a multifaceted poet, performance artist, activist, filmmaker, writer and publisher who has made a career of speaking up and speaking out. She hails from Chicago’s South side where she was able to hone her talent with organizations such as POW WOW and Young Chicago Authors. She’s was listed among the top twelve poets in the world as designated by the Women of the World Poetry Slam and has prevailed in numerous dramatic and poetic competitions. Red Summer’s performance covers a range of emotions as she poetically describes incidents of injustice, complexities of relationships and the joys of life. She is the fresh voice we’ve all been waiting for.
With a highly requested travel and performance schedule, Red Summer keeps her center in Atlanta where you can find her gracing the stage of numerous coffee houses, colleges, high schools and theatres. She’s an advocate for youth empowerment and offers a series of workshops to college and high school students, called Verbal Remedies.
Red Summer is a Jane-of-all-trades. Her background in Musical Theater, Interdisciplinary Art, Song-Writing, Spoken Word Poetry, Film Production and both Secondary and Post-Secondary Education, makes her a force to be reckoned with. She is a performance artist, activist, motivational speaker and published writer, originally from Chicago, and currently residing in the Atlanta area. She has a B.A. degree in Speech, Theatre and Communications Education from Grambling State University in Louisiana and an M.A. degree in Interdisciplinary Art from Columbia College in Chicago.
“Highly touted as the next major voice of social change,
Welcome to the stage everyone…Red Summer!”
Her work has taken her all over the country where she’s been able to speak on a variety of issues covering gender equality, human rights, relationships, religion and education. In the Fall of 2008, she left a career as an educator to pursue her dream as a fulltime performance artist, writer and filmmaker. She has traveled across the country, promoting her first collection of poetry entitled, First Person. She continues to grow her international audience with travels to Cuba, Spain, France, England and various countries in Africa. While on tour, she makes time to interact with local communities by conducting workshops and performances at high schools, colleges, coffee houses and other venues. This interaction has helped to establish a loyal fan base who support her at performances and festivals around the country.
As a multifaceted artist, Red Summer is working on her first independent film project entitled, Chasing Summer. Chasing Summer is a virtual shotgun ride about a personal journey that is sure to be as elaborate as Red Summer herself. Her love for poetry and music intertwines to make this experience an artistic journey, while her passion for history, travel and culture drives a spiritual mission to overcome the past and redefine the future. With each city she visits, Chicago Film Director, Carlos Saqiid, captures the essence of the people and their perspectives on their city’s unique history evolving around music, food and culture. Through the director’s lens, a collaboration of artistic works beautifully quilted together, tell the entire story of the Red Summer experience.
Additionally, the creators of Chasing Summer have designed an interactive outreach program that engages high school and college students in writing, public speaking and performance art. They have partnered with organizations like Young Chicago Authors and Verbal Remedies in writing workshops for youth in urban areas. They also provide self-esteem workshops and programs around topics such as; college readiness, life-skills, entrepreneurship, social history/activism and career education. Red Summer and her team truly believe in giving back to young people by “watering their dreams” and empowering them with the tools they need to be successful.