bio & work(s)

Bio

Marlanda Dekine-Sapient Soul (she/her/they/them) is a poet, social worker, and fourth-generation descendant of Black land stewards living on family land in Plantersville, South Carolina. She is the author and recording artist of i am from a punch & a kiss. Her poetry and music can be heard on digital streaming platforms, including Soundcloud & Bandcamp. Currently, Marlanda serves as 2020 Healing Justice Fellow with Gender Benders.
Marlanda is the Founder & former Executive Director of Speaking Down Barriers. She has served communities as a child therapist, crisis therapist, community trainer, and as a child abuse forensic evaluator. Marlanda began her MFA in Poetry with NYU’s Low-Residency Writers’ Workshop in Paris, and she is excited to continue with Converse College’s Low-Residency MFA program. 

List of Works

Forthcoming

  • UMOJA, an album created by music producer, JAH FREEDOM, in response to artwork by Cedric Umoja, 2020
  • Ars Poetica, a collaboration with composer, Douglas Boyce, and ensemble, counter)induction, 2021
  • thresh & hold, Gullah Preservation Society & The Rice Museum, 2021

Completed

  • “Acres of Ancestry", a commissioned poem for Acres of Ancestry & shared by Emergence Magazine, 2020
  • “black history is…”, a collaboration with Waccamaw High School Jazz Band, 2020 [Performance]
  •  “To listen”, chosen as finalist by Naomi Shihab Nye at Wick Poetry Center Call for Poems on Peace & Conflict Transformation, January 2020 [Publication]
  • “The Moon”, published by Shuddhashar Magazine in Norway with audio recording of poem streaming on digital streaming platforms, December 2019 [Publication]
  • “Getting Lighter”, published by Spark & Echo Arts in New York, November 2019 [Publication]
  • “what if?” from self-published book, i am from a punch & a kiss published in the anthology “Ecological Solidarities: Mobilizing Faith and Justice for an Entangled World”, Penn State University Press, November 2019 [Publication]
  • “i am from a punch & a kiss”, Religion Studies & English curricula at Wofford University, Spartanburg, SC; University of South Carolina College of Social Work curricula, Columbia, SC; Goose Creek High School English curricula, 2017-Present
  • Fresh Voice of the Year Governor’s Award, SC Humanities, Columbia, SC, October 2019
  • “Paris”, song and poem with audio recording streaming on digital streaming platforms, October 2019 [Publication]
  •  “Mami Wata: An Evening of Transformation featuring Natalie Daise’s, ‘Becoming Harriet Tubman’, DJ SCrib, Miya Fowler, & Sara Makeba Daise, Speaking Down Barriers, Spartanburg, SC, October 2019 [Organizer & Host]
  • “Healing through Writing”, Riverside Baptist Church, New York City, NY, August 2019 [Teaching Artist]
  • Completed second residency with New York University’s Low-Residency in Paris, July 2019
  • “Ubuntu”, HIV Prevention & Education Summit, Philadelphia FIGHT, Philadelphia, PA, July 2019 [Performance]
  • “Radical Leadership: Are You Letting Yourself Be Yourself?”, Unitarian Universalist Church of Spartanburg, May 2019 [Teaching Artist]
  • Keller Cushing Freeman Scholarship, Emrys Foundation, Greenville, SC, April 2019
  • Oral Historian, USC Upstate’s LGBTQ Oral History Project, Spartanburg, SC, March 2019
  • “We Real Cool” on Gwendolyn Brooks & Mick Jenkin’s, “Gwendolyn’s Apprehension”, Tapp’s Center for the Arts, Columbia, SC, March 2019 [Teaching Artist]
  • “black history is…” from book, i am from a punch & a kiss with Dan Hazard playing upright bass, Voices in American Art with Dr. Tuliza Fleming of National Museum of African-American History sponsored by The Johnson Collection, The Chapman Cultural Center, February 2019 [Performance]
  • Writers Well Fellowship Retreat, 2016-2019 [Co-Founder & Teaching Artist]
  • Furman University Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, “What Is Spoken Word?”, 2015 [Teaching Artist]
  • Hub City Writers Project Bookshop & Press, 2013-2018 [Board Member]
  • “i am from a punch & a kiss”, 2017, 2018, [Author & Recording Artist]
  • Hub City Writers Project Bookshop & Press, Poetry Out Loud Regional Competition: Region I, 2017 [Judge]
  • The Watering Hole, “The Art of Activism”, 2015 [Teaching Artist]
  • Spartanburg Soaring! Poetry Day, 2015, 2014 [Organizer & Host]
  • Slam Madness Poetry Slam Tournament, 2011-2014 [Co-Founder]
  •  Poetry Out Loud Regional Competition: Region I, 2014 [Judge]
  • Spoken Word Spartanburg, 2013-2016 [Founder & Event Organizer]
  • Hub-Bub, 2011 [Performer & Volunteer]
  • Wits End Poetry, 2006-2014 [Performer & Volunteer]
  • Triune Mercy Center for the Homeless, 2007 [Teaching Artist & Volunteer]