BIOGRAPHY
"...hope we can continue bringing you back so that more students can benefit from your expertise!"
- The Writers Week Team (GCHS)
To book a workshop or performance please navigate to the Booking & Contact page.
Mojdeh is an internationally touring and award winning writer, performer, speaker, educator, and visual artist! She's performed in front of thousands as a poet, comedic storyteller, musician and has lead slam teams to finals stages! She’s been called "The Margret Cho of Poetry," so you know you’ll laugh when she channels her eccentric immigrant parents and you will have conversations with your own empathy when she explores the resilience of a nerdy bi-racial child who was constantly afraid of impending homelessness. She's been likened to SunRa for her deep dives into AfroFuturism.
Mojdeh has served as the Education Director for Chicago Slam Works and the Chicago Poetry Center designing unique and innovative programs for children as young as 5 years old through university and beyond!
She’s represented Chicago multiple times at the National Poetry Slam, Individual World Poetry Slam, Rustbelt Poetry Slam, & Southern Fried Slam in addition to coaching youth competing in Louder Than A Bomb, and executive produced festivals like the 29th National Poetry Slam, Lethal Poetry's Nights of Sight & Sound, Art On Track (the world's largest mobile art show), and PSi certified slams, through Lethal Poetry.
She burst into the performance scene at 14, and has been invited to share stages with folks like John Legend, Saul Williams, Pere Ubu, Genesis P Oridge, Neil Hilborn, Rainn Wilson, and Xiu Xiu since. Her photography, writing, and contributions as a community commentator have been published by Button Poetry, the BBC, SlamFind, NPR (WBEZ), Vocalo, Alarm Press, Chicago Now, and Muzzle Magazine, among others. She's released 6 albums of music & poetry independently and as a member of »radiant devices«, recently published her first book "born into dissonance," and has an album on the way.
Mojdeh received her BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is the founder of Interfaith Poets, Lethal Poetry Inc and LUCID Art Lab, and is Co-Executive Director of Surviving The Mic - arts organizations that activate artists as social servants. She is interested in how the arts can effect social and cognitive development among youth and populations who've experienced trauma. When she's not being a creative savant and community leader, she is engaged in HIV prevention research at the University of Illinois at Chicago's School of Public Health.
"...hope we can continue bringing you back so that more students can benefit from your expertise!"
- The Writers Week Team (GCHS)
To book a workshop or performance please navigate to the Booking & Contact page.
Mojdeh is an internationally touring and award winning writer, performer, speaker, educator, and visual artist! She's performed in front of thousands as a poet, comedic storyteller, musician and has lead slam teams to finals stages! She’s been called "The Margret Cho of Poetry," so you know you’ll laugh when she channels her eccentric immigrant parents and you will have conversations with your own empathy when she explores the resilience of a nerdy bi-racial child who was constantly afraid of impending homelessness. She's been likened to SunRa for her deep dives into AfroFuturism.
Mojdeh has served as the Education Director for Chicago Slam Works and the Chicago Poetry Center designing unique and innovative programs for children as young as 5 years old through university and beyond!
She’s represented Chicago multiple times at the National Poetry Slam, Individual World Poetry Slam, Rustbelt Poetry Slam, & Southern Fried Slam in addition to coaching youth competing in Louder Than A Bomb, and executive produced festivals like the 29th National Poetry Slam, Lethal Poetry's Nights of Sight & Sound, Art On Track (the world's largest mobile art show), and PSi certified slams, through Lethal Poetry.
She burst into the performance scene at 14, and has been invited to share stages with folks like John Legend, Saul Williams, Pere Ubu, Genesis P Oridge, Neil Hilborn, Rainn Wilson, and Xiu Xiu since. Her photography, writing, and contributions as a community commentator have been published by Button Poetry, the BBC, SlamFind, NPR (WBEZ), Vocalo, Alarm Press, Chicago Now, and Muzzle Magazine, among others. She's released 6 albums of music & poetry independently and as a member of »radiant devices«, recently published her first book "born into dissonance," and has an album on the way.
Mojdeh received her BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is the founder of Interfaith Poets, Lethal Poetry Inc and LUCID Art Lab, and is Co-Executive Director of Surviving The Mic - arts organizations that activate artists as social servants. She is interested in how the arts can effect social and cognitive development among youth and populations who've experienced trauma. When she's not being a creative savant and community leader, she is engaged in HIV prevention research at the University of Illinois at Chicago's School of Public Health.
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Notable Residencies, Competitions, and Awards:
* Chicago Poet Laureate Finalist 2023 * Resident Teacher 2021-2023 (Writing Workshops for CAASE) * Constellation Resident (Trauma-Informed Teachers Residency) 2021-2022, Ingenuity Inc * Best Spoken Word Artist 2021, nominee (Chicago Music Awards) * Art Works Fund 2021 (Juror) * Best Slam Team 2019 (National Spoken Word Awards) Lethal Poetry * Writer to Watch 2019 (Guild Literary Complex) * Best Spoken Word Artist 2019, nominee (Chicago Music Awards) * Once City One Poet: 2019-20 Artist Residency * Elastic Arts: 2019 Dark Matter Artist Residency * Rustbelt Poetry Slam 2019 * Once City One Poet: 2019 Chapbook Competition (Juror) * Featured Poet: Sept 15 to Oct 15 2019 (Underline Poetry) * Spirit of the Slam Award 2019 (Poetry Slam Inc) * National Poetry Slam 2018 (Director) * Rustbelt Poetry Slam 2018 (Bout Staff) * Woman of The World Slam 2018 (Bout Staff) * Individual World Poetry Slam 2017 * National Poetry Slam 2017 * College Union Poetry Slam Invitational 2017 (Emcee, Bout Staff) * Great Plains Poetry Pile Up 2016 * Rustbelt Poetry Slam 2016 * Louder Than A Bomb Coaches Slam Winner 2016 (w. Theresa Mathew) * Gwendolyn Brooks Awards, Finalist, 2nd Place 2014 (Guild Literary Complex) * National Poetry Slam 2014, Group Finalists * Rustbelt Poetry Slam2014 * National Poetry Slam 2013 * Individual World Poetry Slam 2013 * Southern Fried Slam 2012 * National Poetry Slam 2011 * Suburban Prairie Literary Fest (Awards: 1st place Fiction, 2nd Place Poetry, 3rd Place Poetry) |
Selected Conferences & Festivals:
* Arise Conference 2023 * National Association of Community and Restorative Justice 2022 * Black and Native Conference 2022 * AfroFuturist Weekend 2019 / 2021 * Printers Row Lit Fest 2019 / 2021 * Poetry Foundation's Teacher's Institute 2019 / 2021 * {Re}Claiming Our Love 2021 * Black Punk Virtual World Tour 2020 * Still I Rise (UK) 2019 * BBC Proms (UK) 2018 * World's Fair 2018: Utopia * One City One Poet Festival 2018 / 2019 * Greyslake High School Writer's Week Festival 2018 / 2019 * Light of Unity Festival 2017 * MUSE Fest 2017 * Frontwoman Fest 2017 * Art In Response To Violence Conference 2016 * Odyssey Fine Arts Festival 2016 * Illinois Interfaith Conference 2016 / 2017 * Color Of Violence Conference 2015 * Allied Media Conference 2015 * Heartland Baha'i Conference 2005 / 2015 * Illinois English Teachers Association Conference 2014 * Artopia Fest Chicago 2013 * Chicago Calling Festival 2010 * Humboldt Park Art Fest 2008 / 2009 / 2010 * Nights Of Sight & Sound 2008 / 2009 / 2010 * Art On Track 2008 * EstroJam / Decibelle Fest 2007 |
