Jon Sands – Curriculum Vitae
(646) 737-3690, jon@jonsands.com
Education
Ohio University – (Athens, OH), June 2006
BS/Education in Integrated Social Studies
Spanish Minor
Summa cum laude
Dean’s List 2001-2006
Major Featured Readings
Universities/High Schools:
Academy for Young Writers (Brooklyn, NY), University of Alaska Anchorage (Anchorage, AK),
Alfred University (Alfred, NY), University of Arkansas (Fayetteville, AR), Barker High School
(Spokane, WA), Berklee School of Music (Boston, MA), Boston University (Boston, MA), Bowling
Green University (Bowling Green, OH), Bronx Academy of Letters (Bronx, NY), University of
California Berkeley (Berkeley, CA), University of California Santa Cruz (Santa Cruz, CA), Cascadia
College (Bothell, WA), University of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, OH), CSU Chico (Chico, CA),
University of California San Diego (San Diego, CA), Clark University (Worcester, MA), Columbus
State Community College (Columbus, OH), Community High School (Ann Arbor, MI), Creighton
University (Omaha, NE), Drury High School (North Adams, MA), Eastern Michigan University (East
Lansing, MI), Emmerson College (Boston, MA), Evanston High School (Chicago, IL), Fairleigh
Dickenson University (Teaneck, NJ), Franklin & Marshall University (Lancaster, PA), Hampshire
College (Amherst, MA), Hightstown High School (Hightstown, NJ), Kalamazoo College (Kalamazoo,
MI), Lewis & Clark College (Portland, OR), Macalaster College (St. Paul, MI), University of Maryland
(College Park, Maryland), Miami University (Oxford, OH), The University of Michigan (Ann Arbor,
MI), Montrose High School (Montrose, CO), New Jersey City University (Jersey City, NJ), New York
University (New York, NY), Northern Arizona University (Flagstaff, AZ), North Country Community
College (Saranac Lake, NY), University of Osnabrück (Osnabrück, Germany), Pioneer High School
(Ann Arbor, MI), Progress High School (Brooklyn, NY), Sinclair Community College (Dayton, OH),
College of Staten Island (Staten Island, NY), Sycamore Junior High School (Cincinnati, OH),
Stuyvesant High School (New York, NY), University of Washington (Seattle, WA), Wesleyan
Univesity (Middletown, CT), Whitman College (Walla Walla, WA), Whitworth University (Spokane,
WA), University of Wisconsin (Madison, WI), and others
Literary/Performance Venues/Other
Adirondack Center for Writing (Paul Smiths, NY), Berkeley Poetry Slam (Berkeley, CA), Bus Boys &
Poets (Washington D.C.), Café Nuba (Denver, CO), The Cantab Lounge (Boston, MA), English
Theater (Frankfurt, Germany), Federal Correctional Institute Ray Brook (Ray Brook, NY), The Green
Mill (Chicago, IL), First Thursdays (Honolulu, HI), Literary Death Match (New York, NY), The
LouderARTS Project (New York, NY), Greenlight Bookstore (Brooklyn, NY), The Mercury Lounge
(Denver, CO), Montrose Pavilion (Montrose, CO), National Theater (Mainz, Germany), The Neutral
Zone (Ann Arbor, MI), The Nuyorican Poets Café (New York, NY), Da Poetry Lounge (Hollywood,
CA), Radio F.R.E.I. (Erfurt, Germany), Real Art Ways (Hartford, CT), The Seattle Poetry Slam
(Seattle, WA), Troy Arts Center (Troy, NY), Urban Mountain Voices – SLAMfest 2011 (Monroe
County, PA), QAS @ Webster Hall (New York, NY), and others
Festivals
Dancing Words Literary Festival (Athens, OH), Fort Greene Park Summer Literary Festival (Brooklyn,
NY), Get Lit! Festival (Spokane, WA), The Ill List V (Modesto, CA), Jackson Heights Poetry Festival
(Jackson Heights, NY), Kinetic Poetics Festival at The University of California Santa Cruz (Santa
Cruz, CA), Popsickle Festival (Brooklyn, NY), SLAMfest with Urban Mountain Voices (Stroudsburg,
PA), Passing the Mic (University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI), Sarah Lawrence College Poetry
Festival (Bronxville, NY), Village Building Convergence (Portland, OR), WAMfest at Fairleigh
Dickenson University (Teaneck, NJ), WordXWord Festival (Pittsfield, MA)
Other
Toured throughout Germany in 2010 in conjunction with the American Embassy.
Teaching Experience
The Dialogue Arts Project - Facilitator - 2014 - Present
The City University of New York (CUNY): Adjunct Lecturer with York Early College Academy, 2010
- 2014
Positive Health Project, Harm Reduction Agency (New York, NY): Director of Poetry Education
Programming, 2008 – Present, (Director of weekly poetry workshops at this Syringe Exchange Center)
Bailey House, AIDS Service Agency (New York, NY): Poetry Workshop Program Coordinator, 2010 –
Present (Duties involve weekly workshop coordination with both adults and affected youth
populations)
Urban Word NYC: Youth Poetry Mentor, 2009 – Present (New York, NY): Involves regular
residencies and visits to high schools throughout greater New York City, as well as extended extracurricular workshop residencies in the Urban Word Office.
School Press Initiative (Columbia University-Teachers College): Group Leader of the “Spoken Stories”
and “Speaking Worlds” Projects, Spring, 2012
CitiWide Harm Reduction Agency (Bronx, NY): 15-week poetry and public speaking intensives, 2010
Organization sponsored workshops:
Dancing Words Literary Festival (Athens, OH), The Dreamyard Project Master Class (Bronx, NY),
Get Lit! Festival (Spokane, WA), Gotham Writers Workshop (New York, NY), MoHoLo Collective
(London, UK), National Poetry Slam 2011 (Professional Development for teaching artists), National
Poetry Slam (Boston, MA, 2011), North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition, Nottingham Writers
Studio (Nottingham, UK), Relationship Abuse Prevention Program (New York, NY), Young Chicago
Authors (Chicago, IL),Youth Speaks Hawaii (Honolulu, HI), Urban Mountain Voices (Stroudsburg,
PA), Urban Word NYC (New York, NY), and others.
Conferences, Speeches, & Panels:
Bringing Poetry to the People (panel) – Split This Rock Festival, Washington D.C., 2014
Ten Years of Write Bloody Publishing – AWP Conference, Seattle, WA, 2014
Workshopping the Workshop – NYU/Urban Word Preemptive Ed Conference, New York, NY, 2013
Bringing Poetry to the People (panel) – AWP Conference, Boston, MA, 2013
Poets in Unexpected Places – AWP Conferene, Boston, MA, 2013
Workshopping the Workshop – NYU/Urban Word Preemptive Ed Conference, New York, NY, 2012
Poetry¹s First Webseries: Verse, a Poetry Murder Mystery (panel) – AWP Conference, Chicago, IL,
2012
Workshopping the Workshop – NYU/Urban Word Preemptive Ed Conference, New York, NY, 2011
Workshopping the Workshop – National Poetry Slam, Boston, MA, 2011
How to Create Stable Writing Workshops in Unstable Environments – National Harm Reduction
Conference, Austin, TX, 2010
You mean we can DO This? – Performance Art as a Tool for Student Engagement and Social Identity
Work in Education – Urban Word’s Preemptive Education Training, New York, NY, 2010
The Wake of What I Love, Commencement Address – Bronx Academy of Letters, Bronx, NY, 2010
Examining Voice (panel), North Idaho College (Get Lit! Festival) Coeur D Alene, ID, 2010
History and Phenomenon that is Hip-Hop Past and Future (panel), Olive-Harvey Middle College,
Chicago, IL, 2009
Performance Art and Poetry’s Role in a Harm Reduction Facility, John Jay College - Safe Injection
Facilities of New York Conference, New York, NY, 2009
You mean we can DO This? – Performance Art as a Tool for Student Engagement in Post-Secondary
Education, University of Michigan – Intergroup Dialogue National Institute, Ann Arbor, MI, 2009
Publications (includes forthcoming)
Poetry Collection:
The New Clean, Write Bloody Press, 2011
Poem Publications (includes forthcoming):
The Best American Poetry 2014, Decoded, 2014
Uncommon Core, Red Beard Press, Love Poem, Dusk, Moons Over My Hammy, Alive, 2014
Hanging Loose Issue 103, Love Poem, 2014
Lumina (from Sarah Lawrence College), Palindrome and Poof, 2014
Learn Then Burn Anthology, Write Bloody Publishing, How I Remember It, 2014
Thrush: Before the Bloom, 2013
Rattle: Decoded, 2013
Muzzle: Moons Over My Hammy, 2012
The Rattling Wall: And It Will Be a Beautiful Song, 2012
The Rattling Wall: Internet as a Concept is Not Inspiring, 2012
The Rattling Wall: If I Am All that I Have, 2012
Word Riot: Epithalamion, 2011
Kill Author: White Boy, 2010
Kill Author: The Day Time Left, 2010
Kill Author: “Grab a Snack, Enjoy the Space, But if You’re Not Supporting Us, Time to Split,” 2010
decomP: Empty, 2010
Muzzle: Not About Me, 2010
Muzzle: Passover (or Thursday), 2010
The Literary Bohemian: The Fishermen, 2010
The Literary Bohemian: The Monster I’m Hiding Under My Bed Says, 2010
Suss: Another Literary Journal: Glory, 2009
Suss: Another Literary Journal: Party & Bullshit, 2009
decomP: A Working List of Things I Will Never Tell You, 2009
Lamplighter Review: I Want a God Small Enough to Keep Inside My Pocket, 2009
The November 3rd Club: Highway 71, 2009
Spindle Magazine: Got a Letter from Midtown, 2009
Conducted Interview Publications
Union Station: The Conversation: An Interview with Geoff Kagan-Trenchard, 2014
Union Station: The Conversation: An Interview with Patricia Smith, 2012
Union Station: The Conversation: An Interview with Aracelis Girmay, 2012
Union Station: The Conversation: An Interview with Willie Perdomo, 2012
Union Station: The Conversation: An Interview with Mindy Nettifee, 2011
Union Station: The Conversation: An Interview with Jack McCarthy, 2010
Union Station: The Conversation: An Interview with Mahogany L. Browne, 2010
Louderarts.com: Interview with Shira Erlichman, 2009
Interview Publications
The The Poetry Blog: In the Dark Room: Jon Sands, 2012
L Magazine: The L Mag Questionnaire for Writer Types: Jon Sands, 2011
Shapes and Disfigurements Interview, 2010
Essays
The Millions: So That If I Died It Mattered, 2013
The Millions: The Wake of What I Love, a Commencement Speech, 2010
Audio:
Indiefeed Performance Poetry Channel:
The Shoreline, 2013
Moons Over My Hammy, 2013
Yo!/Mirror Mayor of Back Talk City/Yo!, 2011
On the Bus in Queens, 2011
Epithalamion: For Mollie and My Brother Jacob, 2011
Being Human Being, 2010
My Gender Identity Timeline, Volume I: The Early Childhood Years, 2010
Party & Bullshit, 2009
Night Light, 2009
Turbulence, 2009
Patriot Act, 2008
Am, 2008
Editor:
BlackGirl Mansion, Angel Nafis, The Neutral Zone/Red Beard Press/ New School Poetics, 2012
Ten For Faheem, Adam Falkner, Penmanship, 2012
Phati’tude Literary Magazine, Spring, 2010
Racing Hummingbirds (Silver Medalist, Independent Book Publisher’s Award), Jeanann Verlee.
Write Bloody Publishing, 2010
Administrative Experience
The SpillJoy Ensemble (with Jon Sands, Ken Arkind, Danny Sherrard, and Shira Erlichman),
National Tour, 2009
Founder, Member, and Touring Manager
4 members, 29 Shows
The Whirlwind Company (with Jon Sands, Mindy Nettifee, Brian S. Ellis, and Mighty Mike McGee),
National Tour, 2011, 2012
Founding Member, Co-Touring Manager
4 Members, 22 Shows
Poets in Unexpected Places, Co-Founder, Curator
2010 – Present
Honors and Awards
Residency
Blue Mountain Center, Artist Resident, Blue Mountain, NY, 2014
Blue Mountain Center, Artist Resident, Blue Mountain, NY, 2012
Urban Word Summer Institute for Social Justice and Applied Poetics, Artist in Residence, New York,
NY, 2012
Grants
Face Out Author Grant - From the Jerome Foundation & CLMP, 2014
LouderARTS Project – Fellowship Grant Recipient, 2009
Awards
National Poetry Slam – Team Semi-Finalist (NYC – LouderARTS), 2011
LouderARTS Project – Poetry Slam Team Member, 2011
National Poetry Slam –Team Semi-finalist (NYC - Urbana), 2009
Urbana Poetry Slam – Poetry Slam Team Member, 2009
National Poetry Slam –Team Finalist (NYC - LouderARTS), 2007
LouderARTS Project – Poetry Slam Team Member, 2007
References available upon request