Pamela Sneed

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Pamela Sneed is an American poet, performance artist, actress, activist, and teacher. Her book, "Funeral Diva", is a memoir in poetry and prose about growing up during the AIDS crisis.
Early life.
Sneed earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Lang College at The New School and a Masters of Fine Arts degree in New Media Art and Performance in 2008 at Long Island University.
Writing.
Sneed is the author of two collections of poetry, "Imagine Being More Afraid of Freedom Than Slavery" (Henry Holt, 1998), and "KONG And Other Works" (Vintage Entity Press, 2009) and the chapbook, "Lincoln" (2014). Her poem "Parable of the Sower" was anthologized in "The 100 Best African American Poems", edited by Nikki Giovanni. Her poem "Survivor 2014" appears in "Nepantla: An Anthology of Queer Poets of Color" (Nightboat Books, 2018). Her 2016 publications include work in "Best Monologues from Best American Short Plays" and "Future Perfect." Her poems "Born Frees" (2019), "Never Again" (2020), and "I Can't Breathe" (2020) have been published by the Academy of American Poets website, poets.org.
She published a remembrance of the artist and colleague Frederick Weston in Artforum.
Sneed's memoir", Funeral Diva," a poetry and prose book was published by City Lights Publishers in 2020. The book documents growing up in the midst of the AIDS crisis, and focuses specifically on the experiences of Black queer women.
Performances.
Sneed has held readings and performances at Center Stage at the Studio Museum in Harlem, P.S. 122, Creative Time @ The Brooklyn Anchorage, Exit Art, Lincoln Center Ex-Teresa in Mexico City, The Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, The Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow, Scotland, The Green Room in Manchester, England, Literatur Werkstat in Berlin. She also headlined the New Work Now Festival at Joe’s Pub/Public Theater in 2005. In 2018 she was a presenter at the 30th Annual Lambda Literary Awards.
Sneed was also involved in Dyke TV, a nationally broadcast grassroots lesbian television program, from its inception in 1993. She appeared weekly on the show as the presenter for the arts segment until 1996. 
Academic career.
An out lesbian, Sneed taught voice, performance and autobiographical writing at Long Island University. In 2012-2014 she taught writing for solo performance and solo performance at Sarah Lawrence College. She was the 2017 visiting critic at Yale and at Columbia University, and has been an adjunct assistant professor at the Columbia University School of the Arts. Sneed is an online lecturer in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's low-residency Master of Fine Arts program.
Sneed has mentored other writers, including a pairing with poet Tommy Pico in the 2011-2012 inaugural year of the Queer/Art/Mentors program founded by the filmmaker Ira Sachs. She has subsequently mentored Heather Lynn Johnson (2016-2017) and Erica Cardwell in the 2020-2021 cycle.