Holly Bass facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Holly Bass
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| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | writer, journalist |
Holly Bass is a talented artist from Washington DC. She is a poet, writer, and journalist. She also teaches and works to make art and culture more accessible to everyone.
Holly's School Days
Holly Bass went to Sarah Lawrence College. There, she studied modern dance with a famous dancer named Viola Farber. She also learned how to write creatively. She even gave a speech when she graduated in 1993! Later, in 1994, she earned a Master's degree in Journalism from Columbia University.
What Holly Bass Does
Holly Bass creates amazing performances that combine dance and spoken words. Her art often explores ideas about how we look at art and people. She has performed her unique pieces all over the United States and in other countries too.
Holly is a special member of the Cave Canem Foundation, which supports Black poets. Her poems, essays, and articles have appeared in many well-known places. These include the Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. In 1999, she was the first person to write about "Hip-Hop Theater."
Art Installations
One of her artworks is an installation called Black Space. You can see it at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington DC. This art piece includes a small house placed on a map of the city. It makes people think about the tiny house movement and housing challenges in DC.
Dance and Theater Pieces
In 2005, Holly wrote and performed a one-person dance show called Diary of a Baby Diva. This show was about growing up in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Critics from The Washington Post said she had a "wicked sense of humor." They also noted her beautiful, poetic way of telling stories.
In 2012, the Washington City Paper voted Holly Bass the Best Performance Artist.
In 2018, she wrote and performed The Trans-Atlantic Time Traveling Company. This show was about three women who travel through time. They go from the present day back to the 1860s, a time when many enslaved people became free. The play explores what it means to truly be free.
More recently, in 2020, Holly performed Moneymaker in New York City. This piece is part political message and part celebration of social dance. Moneymaker connects the history of Black artistry with a clever look at how Black women have been treated in art and society.
Her performance art piece, American Woman, was chosen for a special exhibition. It was featured in the 2022 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition at the National Portrait Gallery.
