Instagram story viewer> @dionnarama> Posts

Dionna Vereen

@dionnarama

307

posts

1.3K

followers

2024

following

• ● •• ● • • ● •• ● • • ● •• ● •
Poet & teacher : ) | currently: doing the Poetry MFA thang + working as a college instructor 🙏🏽 | @sungroundnj 🦁🌻

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Download All

24

0

2 months ago

37

4

2 months ago

[Intro Love —> “Wanna Sing You”] • Ahhh! Okay okay, not too much to say here, I think the video's got me, but! So happy to have been a part of this shindig, thank you Mahogany Paradise Productions. Also grateful for the unexpected Black sisterhood I was enveloped in that day, & the family support from near & far ~ ya'll are my role models & rocks. And shoutout to PERFORMING. Just as a concept. LOL. I love it. It's always beautiful to return to it (though I never reeeally feel like I leave it ~~) Check it out ya'll 💜 ⠀⠀Ps, I'll be sharing a couple more excerpts from this performance throughout the week (yay!), so slide on by, slide on by. ⠀⠀(& yes, we are at a bar. Just imagine the bar noise is a part of the poem 😉)⠀⠀ 5.17.26⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Wanna sing you ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀ a grandma / gold memory⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ by @dionnarama

37

11

2 months ago

texture ⠀⠀⠀ Happy Sunday 🌻 by @dionnarama

10

0

2 months ago

texture ⠀⠀⠀ Happy Sunday 🌻 by @dionnarama

7

0

2 months ago

I am grateful, bewildered, drained, expanded. I am processing. Life is large, & intimately intricate.⠀⠀& Language is a funny thing ~~~⠀⠀So uh. Grad school. Sheeeesh. I was a college professor these last 9 months. I was neck-deep in poetry & poetry-making these last 9 months. Pushed to my capacity, reminded of what I value, what I'm here for (keep discovering + unraveling this!), what I'm NOT here for, and what I'm willing to create + advocate for when an absence is noticed.⠀⠀Shoutout to my grad school community, just as wild & crazy as I am (HOW are we doing the things we're doing?!! You're all incredible & so inspiring damn it). I will miss working so intimately with those who recently graduated. & here comes a new wave of poetic souls ~~~⠀⠀• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •⠀⠀In these post-semester weeks, I am connecting back to myself without all the hustle & hype. I am letting my mind empty itself & wander. I am giving my body the movement it needs, + needed over the last 9 months, the water I forgot to drink, the healthy meals I didn't have the capacity to prep, the friends & family & community I energetically could not routinely gather or communicate with —⠀⠀I am also doing some writing to process what tools I've gathered, and some envisioning work to begin to understand & lay down a useful framework so that I can steadily move towards these poetry projects throughout the summer months and my remaining time here in the Temple MFA Poetry Program. I am so energized by these projects. It is the work I need to be doing right now. I can feel it in my bones. And I so look forward to sharing it with you in its entirety when it's time.⠀⠀For now, it's just nice to get on here & share with you this afternoon. The photo above is one of the earlier steeps of tea from an outdoor sesh yesterday, early eve. An Yiwu. Ah, Yiwu. Warming, bright, penetrating.⠀⠀Happy Sunday lovely people 🌻 I love you. by @dionnarama

32

9

2 months ago

(Take 2!) Today.💜💜💜 by @dionnarama

29

8

4 months ago

Hey 💜 I cut myself off here, & want to redirect you to the fuller video I just successfully posted. : ) by @dionnarama

48

10

4 months ago

I just taught my first college class. I .... just taught... my first college class. I'm in grad school at Temple University for poetry. POETRY. Surprise!! Can you believe it!! And I am TEACHING a semester long course called "English 802: Analytical Reading & Writing" and I sure could write a whooole thing ya'll, but really, if you know me, you know I am bursting with joy right now. So there it is. A dream. I just spent about 6 hours in my office (my office!!!) reflecting on the class, answering emails, and working on the game plan for the next week as a poet & a teacher here. And now, I'm going to go grocery shopping and watch the sunset. (And yes, I am trying to get my students to call me Professor D 🙃) (I'll keep you updated on how it goes) by @dionnarama

121

48

a year ago

I had a great freakin time at @paletteandpoetry on Sunday!! Yo sometimes I forget how nourishing it is to be in open mic/poetry/visual art/community spaces and just. Agh. Saturated. Warm. Honest. Funky. Feels like gospel sometimes. Shoutout to the homies who make this thing possible! There's a lotta love here. Out here supporting my man @smoothwaffle, always, fr, you really know how to shape the spaces you move in. Had some beautiful & intriguing art conversations with @namelikegold (first two pics!), @cassidyjanae.photos, @pfrank.art, @okaytiggy, + not pictured but just as energizing, @hailstef_art, @simonesgallery, @minthescribe, @expressiveillustrations & @bazzarhippie. Check em out! Lez go! Thank yall for talking w me about your art. You inspire me. Overall, a happy camper. I'll be back 💘✊🏽 by @dionnarama

36

0

a year ago

Happy 4th 🙂 (on the 6th) … I don't usually make space to acknowledge this holiday, America is a very tricky country. There are strong and deep divisions here that fuel violence, distrust, dehumanization. (Stick with me here, this is all said in a very cool-toned voice today)To have conversations across these divides is rare. Notice I said conversation. I didn't say argument, I didn't say screaming match, I didn't say blood bath. To have a conversation where we sit down across division and express our beliefs while looking each other in the eyes.. is rare. And yes, it is emotional, and yes, it is fucking difficult. And powerful. And important. …And fucking difficult.I was a part of this kind of rare conversation recently. It was an unprompted & unexpected, 4-hour, intimate conversation on gender, and eventually race, where I witnessed people across perspective + identity talk, share, disagree, challenge, question, clarify, weaponize, diminish, make space for, misunderstand, leave, push back against, disregard, circle back to, embrace, try to understand, confront and address these core ways of seeing the world and moving through the world for each of us.It was tiring. It was uncomfortable. It was productive. People left when they needed to. There were support systems where necessary. We breathed. We cried. I am sorry it caught all of us by surprise, I am sorry for the pain it caused, I am grateful for the conversation.This experience felt necessary to share with you all. Thank you for reading, and this is how I'll close out this post:- It takes a lot of time & energy to see people as people and not as an inconvenience. It takes a lot of time & energy to *want* to see people in their wholeness. And yes, it can feel as though it costs you. - It takes a lot of time & energy to appreciate where people are in their belief systems — we hold our deepest beliefs for a reason, whatever those beliefs may be, & our stories don't change overnight. Everyone is where they are, give us time to change. *a few more closing thoughts in the comments, please read if you've made it this far 🙏🏽* by @dionnarama

76

8

a year ago

SO. So. So. So. Beardfest, right. This mesmerizing festival that Keith & I have been going to & falling deeper in love with each year for almost TEN YEARS, guess what. We're hosting a tea workshop this year :) yeeeah!⠀⠀⠀⠀After almost a year of hosting sweet tea gatherings in our home (like the beautiful one captured in this video), we are honored to create a space to sit down for some tea with the Beardfest community 💕💕 ⠀⠀⠀⠀It's been a beautiful challenge to create this thing with you @kmdonaghue! a lot of love to all the radiant homies who have come through ODT and spent some gorgeous tea time with us, & thank you thank you Beard family (@beardfestnj) for the opportunity to share the things we love in a space we love, and to continue deepening into this community. Yall rock. (an understatement)⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Alright. Open door tea. Here we go ~ 💘 by @dionnarama

30

2

a year ago