My Truth

Monira Foundation Virtual Stage presents My Truth: an evening of performances for Instagram Live, featuring Miriam Parker with Merche Blasco, Rashad Wright and Rijah. The event accompanies an exhibition of 19 female-identifying and non-binary emerging and mid-career artists, organized by Mashonda Tifrere and hosted by Urban Zen, 705 Greenwich St. New York.

Read more about the program here

Artists biographies:

Miriam Parker is an interdisciplinary artist who uses movement, paint, media and sculpture/installation who lives and works in New York. Her work has been influenced by her experience as a dancer, her study of Buddhism and phenomenology, and her connection to the free jazz tradition. Parker is a CBA Fellow ’21 in collaboration with Marisa Michelson. She has performed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; PS1 MoMA, New York; The Fridman Gallery, New York; a residency at École Normale Supérieure, Paris; at the Every Women Biennial, New York; Survey Dover Plains, NY; at Vision Festival through consecutive years; the Satellite Art Fair, in Miami, FL; Clement Soto Velez Cultural and Education Center, New York; Whitebox ArtCenter, New York; a month residency at Governors Island in the House of Poetics curated by Cooper Union; among others. 

She has previously collaborated with Jo Wood-Brown, Christina Smiros and Luke Stewart, among others. She is co-founder and collaborator of Lost Voyage, a multimedia collaborative work led by seven women artists, as well as Inner City Projects, a multimedia collaborative work group with Jo Wood Brown, based in New York. They have performed in WhiteBox New York, NY; Five Myles, in Brooklyn, NY; and Roulette Intermedium, Brooklyn, NY.

Merche Blasco is a multimedia artist and composer based in New York. She designs and builds imprecise technological assemblages that catalyze embodied forms of live electroacoustic composition and new modes of listening. Through her constructed devices, Blasco attempts to establish a more horizontal relationship with other entities, distancing herself from parameters of precision, power, and control. As an alternative form of performance, she engineers collaborative spaces with instruments that are given their own agency, in compositions where her body and the live exploration of organic materials are central elements.

Blasco has presented her performances and installations at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Sonar Festival in Barcelona, La Biennale di Venezia, NIME conferences, Tsonami International Sound Art Festival in Chile, The High Line in New York, SONIC Festival, Mapping Festival (Geneva), Queens Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Santiago de Chile, among others. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Wire magazine.

Rashad Wright is the former poet laureate of Jersey City, New Jersey. He is a graduate of New Jersey City University, receiving his BA in English: Creative Writing. He is the author of Romeo’s Whiskey, published via Rebel Ink.

Rashad’s poetry has been heard from both local and national stages via slam poetry. He is the only person to be titled the “Grandslam Champion of Jersey City Slam” twice. He has competed in Slams in the Tristate area, Oakland, San Diego, Spokane, and Denver, once ranking 25th in the country at the 2019 Individual World Poetry Slam. He has coached Jersey City Slam, the UACHS Poetry Club, and 6th Borough Slam whom placed 10th in the world at Brave New Voices 2019. Rashad has also been awarded First Place at the Walter Glospie American Academy of Poets Prize, being inducted into the Academy of American Poets. 

Outside of poetry Rashad’s work expands into memoir, fiction, short story, performance art, music, film, and theatre with the completion of two one-man plays. His work can be found in multiple online journals and magazines. Rashad has performed alongside Amiri Baraka, Rudy Francisco, Tyehimba Jess, Emi Mahmoud, and many others. He currently is working on a sophomore book entitled, Working Definition: Dictionary & Thesaurus. 

Rijah is a 17 year old singer/songwriter based in Jersey City, New Jersey. She is currently enrolled at High Tech High School as a Music/ Audio Technology major. She has constantly been surrounded by music growing up in a family full of musicians and artists. Some of her biggest inspirations include Allen Stone, Tori Kelly, Stevie Wonder, Amy Winehouse, H.E.R., and many more. She has drawn inspiration from all of these artists combining pop, r&b, and soul music to create her own unique style and sound.