CLARA SALA

CLARA SALA is a poet, educator and native New Yorker. Her exquisitely honed images cut into the boundary areas of race, sex and identity to expose the breaking heart of our diverse, shared humanity, and the crucial choices we make in this harsh, transformative era. Fusing strong acting ability with a naked emotional stage presence, Clara delivers a spoken word performance of searing grace and power. Raw, lyrical, and sensual, her words evoke her HIV experience, the courageous journey she takes through sex, death, awakening, and ultimately love. Clara has performed her work in venues from Lincoln Center to the Bowery Poetry Club and at colleges throughout the country. She was recently the feature performer for International AIDS Day at Vassar College and The University of Massachusetts. She is a recipient of the 2003 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry, as well as two Pen American Center Grants for Writers and Editors with AIDS, in 2000 and 2001. She has been published in numerous journals, and is currently working on her first book of poetry, The Edge of Creation. As an educator, Clara has taught poetry, spoken word performance and hip-hop lyric writing to children, young adults and elders, in schools, prisons, libraries and homeless shelters throughout New York City.

What people are saying about CLARA SALA:

" Clara's poems are flowing tapestries of ecstatic rhythms and fluorescent colors. Her performances are a down to earth, funky quest to connect soul to flesh, mind to chakra. Ms. Sala is a griot who performs poetry with the fire of one wounded by the global atrocities that splinter nationalities and isolate individuals. She is of two parts: a modern day Rumi and a nomadic Emily D. Ms. Sala takes solitude and spirituality to quixotic heights.

-- Regie Cobico, 1999 Nuyorican Grand Slam Champion

"Clara's work is daring and passionate, balancing literary excellence with lively performance. Through her work she connects personally and intimately with her audience, making her both an exceptional teacher and an engaging reader. "

-- Jen Abrams, Poets House

"She is a dynamic and caring teacher and offers tremendous insight to emerging writers. She herself is a powerful writer and performer with extreme dedication to her craft. Her work speaks to many social and personal issues with passion and honesty."

--Bonnie Rose Marcus, Director, Readings/Workshops Poets & Writers

"Sala's words cut like a razor into the boundary areas of race and sex to expose the larger issues of humanity. Uncovering the racial tensions of her Brooklyn neighborhood, expressing the anger of a woman harassed on the street, sketching in mark metaphor the beauty and pain of interracial love, revealing the loneliness of being young, single and HIV+, Clara's work holds our shadow areas up to the light."

-- Vassar College, AIDS Action Committee

"An HIV+ Poet, Activist and Actress. Clara gives voice to the HIV+ experience and works to dispel the ignorance which surrounds it."

-- University of Massachusetts, Stonewall Center