Angelica Heaney is a poet - illustrator who explores themes of identity and blackness in a way that seems to reach out and touch that universal human spirit within us all; right through the computer screen. Discovering this artist, I was really impressed with the succinct and poignant ways she expressed herself with the pen, and equally impressed with how seamlessly that style found its home in the digital space of her website: angelicaheaneypoetry.com.
In talking with Angelica, I learned a lot about her story as a creator. She started performing poetry when she was 15, found an incredibly supportive artistic community called “WORD” while at the University of Illinois, and has just recently added digital illustrations to her creative arsenal.
I would be wasting words here to start to tell you about her motivation and inspiration for creating. Her website does that better and more succinctly than I ever could, all the while in a poet’s prose.
What I will tell you is that she has strong family influences. If it weren’t for the support of her family, we may not have the pleasure of being able to enjoy a angelicaheaneypoetry.com. Her family was instrumental in pushing her to package the contents of her notebook’s strivings and scribbles into pieces of timeless art that people like me can be lucky enough to stumble upon on the internet.
Angelica’s art is a “For The People” project after my own heart. In the same way that Ida B. Wells famously preferred to use smaller words and direct prose, Angelica’s art is intentional in trying to communicate with readers, as opposed to intimidating them.
Artists should take note of what Angelica is currently accomplishing with her website. She reflects the content and style of her art with the design choices of the site in a way that mimics offline experiences interacting with art. It speaks to the frustration that I face as an artist sometimes, that is: feeling like you have to compromise the authenticity and appearance of your art as it must be filtered and mediated through digital tools. With how she presents herself on her website, she gives me hope that this is not necessarily the case. -ZEN
From: “we became women”
Angelica is excited to be putting out a project later this year: a collection of poems and illustrations called “Put on a Face Mask & Heal Sis.”
Follow Angelica:
Twitter: twitter.com/anjellycaheaney
Instagram: instagram.com/anjellycaheaney
If you haven’t already, you’re going to want to click on this link: angelicaheaneypoetry.com
Follow the author, ZENtheRapper: instagram.com/winslowdonte