Announcing
AGOTT Leadership Transition
A letter from Executive Director, Chavisa Woods
A Gathering of the Tribes community members,
After four amazing years of serving as the Executive Director of AGOTT, I have decided it is time for me to pass the torch, so that I can spend the coming year focusing on my health and my own literary work. I am formally announcing my resignation, effective March 31st, 2024. I am proud to be leaving the future of AGOTT in the board’s capable hands, all of whom are artists and writers I deeply respect.
AGOTT programs are still active, and the board will continue to build on AGOTT’s 30+ years of history.
During my time as E.D., AGOTT has achieved our mission of supporting traditionally under-represented artists and writers, and honoring our founder’s legacy.
In 2022, we partnered with our longtime board member, David Hammons, to design an exhibit celebrating our organization’s history, and Steve Cannon’s immeasurable impact on our community, at the 2022 Whitney Biennial, Quiet as It’s Kept. The exhibition, which re-imagined Steve Cannon’s 285 East 3rd Street living room, and the original Tribes Gallery space, was on view for eight months, reaching hundreds of thousands of museum-goers. We are deeply grateful to curator Adrienne Edwards for this incomparable opportunity.
As a participating group in the Whitney Biennial, AGOTT presented workshops through the Whitney Museum Education Department, and hosted three live readings, including a Whitney Pride event, and a poetry marathon that brought in an audience of more than 2,000 people.
In addition to this, I am proud to have re-launched and formalized four ongoing programs including: AGOTT Magazine Online, Tribes Journal (print), Fiscal Sponsorships, and Tribes’ live readings.
From 2020 to 2024, AGOTT Magazine Online published poetry, short fiction and essays, under the direction of former editors Quincy Troupe, Danny Shot, Sheila Maldonado, and Sannina Clark, with Editors at Large reg e gaines and Eva H.D.with the help of our amazing Editorial Assistants, Max Steele, Rosalind Ramirez, Effy Guzman, Andrew Tye, and Alli Salwen.
In 2023, we published Tribes 16: The Black Lives Matter Issue, edited by Ishmael Reed and Danny Simmons, with Assistant Editor Margaret Porter-Troupe, and art curation assistance from Garon Peterson. This full-color issue featured work by 80+traditionally underrepresented artists and writers.
In 2020 we relaunched Our Fiscal Sponsorship Program, which provides low-threshold sponsorships to individual artists and unincorporated groups.
Our Live Readings and Events have included Tribes Spotlight Series, which I had the honor of curating and hosting, annual participation in the New York City Poetry Festival, spearheaded by AGOTT editor, Danny Shot, and our annual Pride event, Gathering Fire, led by Board member, Regie Cabico. These, and many other events brought in thousands of audience members, provided financial stipends to our diverse readers and promoted the work of traditionally under-represented writers.
David Hammons’ Tribes Wall at the 2022 Whitney Biennial
All of this work was held together by longtime Tribes artist, Special Project Manager, Tracie Williams, without whom, the last four years of programming would not have been possible. I am especially grateful to Tracie for the exceptional effort put into the Tribes Gallery archives, which are currently held by NYU’s Fales library, and for her invaluable collaboration on the Whitney Biennial exhibition.
I would also like to thank longtime board member, Bob Holman, for guiding so much of this work, and for repeatedly making the beautiful Bowery Poetry Club space available to our authors.
I am grateful to our dedicated institutional donors including, Poets and Writers, Amazon Literary Partnership, CLMP, NYSCA, and the Christopher and David Murray Fund of Stonewall Community Foundation, as well as our CoSA funders, The Tieger Foundation, The Henry Luce Foundation and the Willem De Kooning Foundation.
I am deeply grateful to the repeated individual and major donors who made the last four years of programming possible, including: David Hammons, Kati Duncan, Hilary Maslon, Andy Mims, Bob Holman, John Morace, Luanne Smith, Jane Fuentos, Paul Beatty, Regie Cabico, David Lusenhop, Francis Greenberger, and Nina KUO.
Please consider supporting AGOTT’s ongoing programming, by making a donation today.
And finally, to the artists and writers we serve, thank you all for being a part of AGOTT. It’s a community like no other. Steve would be proud we are still supporting one another.
-Chavisa Woods
Quincy Troupe and Chavisa Woods Interview in The Poetry Project Newsletter