Jasmine Games

I am a Black and queer spoken word poet and theatre practitioner from Houston, Texas. As a theatre maker, I use drama-based pedagogy as a mode for self-introspection and positionality interrogation, partnering with schools, museums, and community-based organizations nationally. Recently, I produced, directed, and co-facilitated a ten week spoken word action-residency for high school youth, Courageous Cadence, which was celebrated with a final performance of shared poetry on race and gender (in)justices. I also partnered with GirlForward and The Blanton Museum of Art to co-produce, perform, and facilitate in Girl, Be Well!, a zoom interactive-play on wellness. 

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My thesis examines how practices from Black literary societies can change applied theatre and spoken word practices to further engage youth of color. Subsequently, I use Ghouldy Muhammad's Historically Responsive Literacy Framework as a lens to examine the ways Courageous Cadence critically engages youth participants in identity development and criticality.

 

I am the winner of the 2021 Sexton Prize for Poetry, awarded by The Black Spring Press Group, and I am the 2021 Winifred Ward Scholar, awarded by the American Alliance for Theatre and Education. I am the 2020 co-winner of the Texas Education Theatre Association's Founders' Scholarship for Graduate Theatre Students. I am a Provost fellow. I was a poet in residence at the Black Box Writer Residency twice, where I initially published "Double Dutch" and earlier versions of "Views from Wash Day" and "Winter Funeral," entitled “Over” and "Dead of Winter."

 

I hold a BA in English and Performance Studies from Texas A&M University (2018). I have an MFA in Drama and Theatre for Youth and Communities at The University of Texas at Austin (2022). Wielding my words, I am fiercely committed to complete and total justice for people who are marganlized in our society, especially youth of color.