Originally from Indianapolis, Indiana, Letta is a Black lesbian playwright, performer, poet, mother, teacher and community activist who has been involved in progressive, anti-racist and queer liberation movements all her adult life. Her work focuses on the connections and intersections of queerness, Blackness, and awareness.
Learn more:
goodreads | Mass Cultural Council | LinkedIn | Fort Point Theatre Channel
Meet Letta.
Letta’s first play, Hamartia Blues, was produced by The Theater Offensive at the Boston Center for the Arts in 2002 and received two IRNE [Independent Reviewers of New England] award nominations. Her plays "Last Rites" and "Shackles & Sugar" have been produced in Boston, Philly, and Los Angeles. In addition to the chapbooks: gawd and alluh huh sistahs and When We Were Mud, Letta has written two books of poetry, Juba and Here (Wildheart Press), which were both finalists for the Lambda Literary Awards. Her literary work has been included in numerous anthologies, literary journals and magazines including Through the Cracks; Sinister Wisdom; Common Lives, Lesbian Lives; Rag Shock; African Voices, Rap Pages, Catch the Fire, Does Your Mama Know, and Roll Call—a Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature & Art. As a member of the Traces/ Remain Ensemble with Deen Rawlins-Harris, she collaborated with Toshi Reagon's Emerson College residency: Parable Path Boston to develop the Seed to Harvest Book Project.
Letta is also a co-artistic director for Fort Point Theatre Channel. She is the editor and scriptwriter of Ife Franklin's "The Slave Narratives of Willie Mae" (book and film). Letta hosts FireWater Poetics (a hybrid open mic w/ feature) at Emerson College each month. She directed Renita Martin's play, "Unmasked" for Revolution of Values, produced by Greg Allen. She is NEFA grant recipient of both Collective Imagination for Spatial Justice and Public Art for Spatial Justice funding. Letta recently took on the role as Makayla in Lyralyn Kaye's AFAB (Assigned Female at Birth) an award winning web series. Finally, Letta is the Associate Director of Programs at Apprentice Learning. She, along with Greg Allen, are current LAB grant recipients and are in the process of creating a one-person show, “Pulling It All Into The Current”.
Grants
Boston Ujima Project 2022 Ashe Ashe Grantee
Title: Project Misik: Unleashing Freedom
By: Letta Neely + Kera Washington
NEFA Public Art for Spatial Justice Grant 2021
Title: We hold these TRUTHS
Excerpt: 'We HOLD these TRUTHS', is a multidisciplinary response by 25 artists in 5 locations to the lies told by our society that we've been force fed or tricked into loving with regard to racism, homophobia, misogyny and other structural underpinnings as well as a celebration of the truths we've held close to our hearts that have allowed us to persevere. Each location will feature a stand-alone performance; however, each will be filmed and edited later as a finished collection of work which can be projected in outside locations on the wall(s) of a building.
Live Arts Boston 2022 Recipient
Title: Pulling it All into the Current
By: Letta Neely + Greg Allen
Excerpt: "Pulling It All Into the Current" will be a one-person (many characters) theatre/spoken word piece focusing on the duplicity of the U.S. as both HOME and a political/spiritual/literal Minefield.
NEFA Collective Imagination for Spatial Justice 2021
Title: Trees that have never known lynching
Excerpt: Our goal is to imagine a social intervention that supports the idea of TREES THAT HAVE NEVER KNOWN LYNCHING. Implicit in this idea to create expanding spaces (physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually) we experience being nurtured, seen, valued, celebrated, respected, and loved
Prizes, Awards and Acknowledgements
Artist in Residence at Salon Black Walnut, 2020
Forth Fund recipient, Nation Performance Network, 2014
The Root’s Faves: Top 30 Black Performance Poets, 2011
The Theater Offensive Resident Playwright, 2005-2006
Best Local Author, Boston Phoenix, 2001
Astraea National Lesbian Writer Award Finalist, 1999
Artist in Residence at The Sustainable Guild, 2018
NEFA Expedition Program Grant Recipient, 2012
Garderev Center
Residency, 2011
IRNE Awards Nomination, 2002
Artist in Residence at Salon Black Walnut, 2020
Lambda Literary Award
Finalist, 1998
Pat Parker Award
Lifted Brow, Experimental
Non-Fiction Shortlist, 2017
National Performance Network Creation Fund Award, 2012
Boston Arts Academy Residency, 2009
Massachusetts Cultural Council Poetry Award Grant Finalist, 2002
Outwrite National Poetry Slam Champion, 1998
Barbara Deming Money for Women Award
Listen To Your Mother, 2016
Brother Thomas Fellowship Finalist, 2011
Massachusetts Cultural Council Playwriting Fellowship, 2007
Triangle Award Finalist, 2001
Lambda Literary Award
Finalist, 2001
Outwrite Poetry Slam Champion, Boston, MA 1996
New York Foundation for the Arts Poetry Fellowship, 1995
Plays Produced
Hamartia Blues
Out on the Edge Theater Festival, The Theater Offensive
Boston, MA, 2002
Last Rites
Out on the Edge Theater Festival, The Theater Offensive
Boston, MA, 2004
Last Rites
New Works Performances, National Performance Network
Los Angeles, CA, 2004
Last Rites
Painted Bride Art Center
Philadelphia, PA, 2005
Staged Readings + Workshop Productions
On the Rooftop
Boston Instant Fringe Festival
Boston, MA, 2001
Shackles + Sugar
Out on the Edge Plays at Work, The Theater Offensive
Boston, MA, 2005, 2006
Hamartia Blues
Out on the Edge Plays at Work, The Theater Offensive
Boston, MA, 1997
99% Stone
The Theater Offensive
Boston, MA, 2014
Last Rites
Out on the Edge Plays at Work, The Theater Offensive
Boston, MA, 2002, 2003
Shackles + Sugar
She Said Festival, Boston Center for the Arts
Boston, MA, 2019
Last Rites
Blacksmyths Theatre Lab, Mark Taper Forum
Los Angeles, CA, 2004
Tempest Reconfigured: On the Brink
Fort Point Theatre Channel
Boston, MA, 2019
Anthologies Featuring My Work
Father Poems (Lunar Offensive Press, 1995)
Does Your Mamma Know (Redbone
Press, 1997)
Catch the Fire: A Cross-Generational Anthology of Contemporary African-American Poetry (Riverhead Books, 1998)
A Woman Like That: Lesbian and Bisexual Writers Tell Their Coming Out Stories (Avon Books, 1999)
Best Lesbian Erotica 1999 (Cleis Press, 1999)
The World in US: Lesbian and Gay Poetry of the Next
Wave (St. Martin’s Press, 2000)
Step Into A World: A Global Anthology of New Black Literature (John Wiley & Sons, 2000)
bum rush the page: a def poetry jam (Three Rivers Press, 2001)
Roll Call — A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature & Art (Third World Press, 2001)
Mother Tongues (Literary Exchange, 2004)
Voices Rising: Celebrating 20 Years of Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Writing (Redbone Press, 2007)
Mighty Real: An Anthology of African-American Same Gender Loving Writing (Effusess/Sangha Publishing, 2010)