2024 Artist-in-Residence: Mazaré
Goals:
The Artist-in-Residence program at Grace Downtown was created as an opportunity for our church to:
1. engage the arts
2. experience God’s beauty
3. bridge outside the church
4. support an artist
This Year's Happenings:
- Creative Connection survey & event on April 20, 2024
- Poetry Reading & Open Mic Contest- Mazaré competed in this DC Poetry Project competition and won! Thanks to all in our church community who attended to cheer her on at the event on March 9, 2024. Read about it at the link above.
- "Warrior Songbirds" - Mazaré's original spoken word poem presented live at Grace Downtown's worship service on February 4, 2024.
This Year’s Artist:
The Grace Downtown Artist-in-Residence for January-August 2024 is Mazaré, a professional spoken word poet (and GDT church member) hailing from Durham, NC who describes herself as raw honey, "a teaspoon of brutal truth fresh from the comb--bold and thick with sweet.
Her love for God and words are intertwined. After graduating from the University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill with a degree in English and Creative Writing, Mazaré earned a Master of Divinity at Covenant Theological Seminary.
Mazaré presents her poetry everywhere from coffee shops to concerts and conferences. She has performed twice at both The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and The Gospel Coalition Women's Conference. Internationally, she performed at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Toronto, Canada before 8,000+ people from 81 countries around the globe.
As a teaching artist, Mazaré delights in facilitating experiences where people grow in self-awareness, move further along the paths of healing and growth, identify their unique literary voice, and cultivate their technical writing skills.
She recently collaborated with other writers to contribute poetry to the book Voices of Lament.
Mazaré's spoken word album Raw Honey features poetry about faith, her experience as a Black woman, her love for words, and more. Experience her album and more at Mazare.net.
Scope:
The artists of various disciplines are invited either from within or outside of our congregation to serve as the Artist-in-Residence who:
- connects with their own artistic interests and desires to express themselves more fully
- connects with our church community through the arts
- connects with those beyond our church who consider themselves irreligious or who practice other faiths.
The residency includes learning about the city of DC and/or creating and sharing art that would engage DC residents.
Previous Artists:
1st Artist-in-Residence: Nabil Ince aka “Seaux Chill", a rapper/producer/jazz pianist (2018)
2nd Artist-in-Residence: Paul Warner, a videographer (2019)
3rd Artist-in-Residence: Rex Daugherty, professional theatre artist and producer (2022).
Stay tuned for performances, events in the city, and arts content in our church newsletter!