Thandiwe Shiphrah

Thandiwe Shiphrah is a multidisciplinary artist whose creative practice includes poetry, theater, painting, collage, assemblage, installation, concert recitation, and video storytelling. As a teaching artist and practitioner of arts learning and community engagement, much of her work is dedicated to using the arts — particularly poetry — to activate creativity for collective problem solving and Earth renewal. She is founder of the Line Breaks Literary Reading Series, a Nashville-based arts and humanities program dedicated to supporting local poets and storytellers and building bridges of understanding across cultural differences. From 2002-2020, Thandiwe served as curator and host of the program, which is now sponsored by the Global Education Center.

Thandiwe’s poetry has been published in print, online, and in public transit projects in two cities. Anthologies that contain her work include Beyond the Frontier: African American Poetry for the 21st Century; Cabin Fever: Poets at Joaquin Miller Cabin 1984-2001; Fast Talk, Full Volume: Anthology of African American Poetry; You say. Say; Very Large Array: Poems; and Why to These Rocks: A Community of Writers. She is a recipient of a Tennessee Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship (2022), a Jubilation Foundation Teaching Artist Fellowship (2011-12), and project grants and funding awards from Alternate ROOTS, Metro Nashville Arts Commission, and Puffin Foundation among others. Read more →