Aziza Danielle Bailey Barnes (October 8, 1992 – December 15, 2024) was an American poet, screenwriter and playwright. Barnes frequently performed slam poetry and performed at the Da Poetry Lounge, Urban Word NYC,

PBS News Hour ''PBS News Hour'', previously stylized as ''PBS NewsHour'', is the news division of PBS and an American daily evening television news program broadcast on over 350 PBS member stations since October 20, 1975. It airs seven nights a week, and ...

and Nuyoricans Poets Café. They wrote for television shows, including ''

Snowfall Snow consists of individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water througho ...

'' and '' Teenage Bounty Hunters''.

Early life and education

Barnes was born in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

in October 1992 to Craig Barnes and Marchelle Bailey. Aziza had a younger sister and an older brother. They went to undergrad at the

New York University Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic, and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, as the School of the Arts at New York University, Tisch ...

. They received their MFA from the

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi (Epithet, byname Ole Miss) is a Public university, public research university in University, near Oxford, Mississippi, United States, with a University of Mississippi Medical Center, medical center in Jackson, Miss ...

Career

A performer, Barnes was a member of the Divine Fabrics Collective, alongside fellow writers Safia Elhillo, Camonghne Felix, and Sean "Mega" DesVignes. Barnes was the author of the

chapbook A chapbook is a type of small printed booklet that was a popular medium for street literature throughout early modern Europe. Chapbooks were usually produced cheaply, illustrated with crude woodcuts and printed on a single sheet folded into 8, 1 ...

''me Aunt Jemima and the nailgun'' (2013), which became the first book to ever win a prize from Button Poetry. Their full-length collection, ''i be but i ain’t'' (2016), won a

Pamet River The Pamet River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 river in Truro, Massachusetts on Cape Cod. It is named for the Paomet tribe. The river is primarily ...

Prize from YesYes Books. They were the co-founder of the ''Poetry Gods'' podcast and the co-founder of The Conversation Literary Festival. Barnes wrote the play ''BLKS'', which was played at

Steppenwolf Theatre Company Steppenwolf Theatre Company is a Chicago theater company founded in 1974 by Terry Kinney, Jeff Perry (American actor), Jeff Perry, and Gary Sinise in the Immaculate Conception grade school in Highland Park, Illinois and is now located in Chica ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. Their debut novel, ''The Blind Pig'', was published by Not A Cult on October 14, 2019. Barnes wrote the play ''Pues Nada'' (2020). Barnes also wrote for '' MEL''.

''BLKS''

''BLKS'' is the story of four black millennial friends, Octavia, June, Ry and Imani, who share a New York City apartment. The story is a " day in the life" style of work and was called "comedic social realism". The production was compared to the drama series ''

Girls A girl is a young female human, usually a child or an adolescent. While the term ''girl'' has other meanings, including ''young woman'',Dictionary.com, "Girl"'' Retrieved January 2, 2008. ''daughter'' or ''girlfriend'' regardless of age, ...

.'' ''BLKS'' was originally Barnes' final thesis project at NYU. Actresses Nora Carroll, Leea Ayers, Danielle Davis and Celeste M. Cooper performed in the Steppenwolf Theatre Company rendition of ''BLKS.'' The show was directed by Nataki Garrett. The show debuted on December 18, 2017, and ran through January 28, 2018. ''BLKS'' won the 2020 Antonyo Award in the Best Play category. Barnes was nominated for the

Lucille Lortel Award The Lucille Lortel Awards recognize excellence in New York Off-Broadway theatre. The Awards are named for Lucille Lortel, an actress and theater producer, and have been awarded since 1986. They are produced by the League of Off-Broadway Theatres ...

for the play that same year. Barnes made their acting debut in June 2024 with their play ''FKA I Am a Bad Blk Person'', which is a sequel to ''BLKS''.

Television

Barnes wrote for the series ''

'', '' Teenage Bounty Hunters'', '' Rap Sh!t'', and the upcoming ''

Game of Thrones ''Game of Thrones'' is an American Fantasy television, fantasy Drama (film and television), drama television series created by David Benioff and for HBO. It is an adaptation of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of high fantasy novels by ...

'' prequel, '' A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms''. At the time of their death, Barnes was working on an

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

adaptation of the novel ''

The Vanishing Half ''The Vanishing Half'' is a historical fiction novel by American author Brit Bennett. It is her second novel and was published by Riverhead Books in 2020. The novel debuted at number one on ''The New York Times'' fiction best-seller list. HBO ...

''.

Personal life and death

Barnes was black and identified as queer. They were from Los Angeles and lived in

Oxford, Mississippi Oxford is the List of municipalities in Mississippi, 14th most populous city in Mississippi, United States, and the county seat of Lafayette County, Mississippi, Lafayette County, southeast of Memphis, Tennessee, Memphis. A college town, Oxford ...

. They also lived in Bedford–Stuyvesant. Barnes was born with a polycystic ovary and as such grew facial hair. Barnes used they/their/them pronouns. Barnes died by suicide on December 15, 2024, at the age of 32.

Bibliography

* Barnes, Aziza (January 1, 2013). ''me Aunt Jemima and the nailgun.'' Exploding Pinecone Press. Button Poetry. . Published as an e-book by Button Poetry. (January 4, 2020. , .) * Barnes, Aziza (June 1, 2016). ''i be, but i ain't.''

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

: YesYes Books. . . * Barnes, Aziza (October 14, 2019). ''The Blind Pig.'' Not a Cult (First ed.). . . . * Barnes, Aziza (January 1, 2020). ''BLKS.''

Dramatists Play Service Dramatists Play Service is a theatrical-publishing and licensing house imprint of Broadway Licensing Global. Established in 1936 by members of the Dramatists Guild of America and the Society for Authors' Representatives, DPS publishes English-la ...

. . . * Barnes, Aziza. ''The Blind Pig (Dog-eared Edition).'' Not a Cult.

Awards and fellowships

* 2015 Winter Tangerine Award * 2013 NYU

Grey Art Gallery The Grey Art Museum, known until 2023 as the Grey Art Gallery, is New York University's fine art museum. As a university art museum, the Grey Art Gallery functions to collect, preserve, study, document, interpret, and exhibit the evidence of h ...

Prize for Radical Presence * Emerging Poets Fellowship at

Poets House Poets House is a national literary center and poetry library based in New York City, United States. It contains more than 80,000 volumes of poetry, and is free and open to the public. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, in November 2020, operations ...

* Cave Canem Foundation Fellow *

Callaloo Callaloo ( , ; many spelling variants, such as kallaloo, calaloo, calalloo, calaloux, or callalloo) is a plant used in popular dishes in many Caribbean countries, while for other Caribbean countries, a stew made with the plant is called call ...

Fellow

References

External links

* * * *
Aziza Barnes
at

BroadwayWorld BroadwayWorld is a theatre news website based in New York City, New York. Launched in 2003, the site covers Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional, and international theater productions, with sections devoted to particular countries, cities, or regi ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnes, Aziza 1992 births 2024 deaths 2024 suicides 21st-century American poets Poets from Los Angeles Screenwriters from Los Angeles People from Oxford, Mississippi People from Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tisch School of the Arts alumni University of Mississippi alumni American queer writers American LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights American LGBTQ poets American LGBTQ screenwriters Slam poets 21st-century American dramatists and playwrights PBS people