LOGAN PHILLIPS

“Poetry is holding the center, not hiding in the margins: we construct our world through words. Poetry is the art of putting into words all that which is otherwise unsayable, of constructing other ways of knowing.

No matter where I’m working––the DJ booth, the classroom, the art studio, the stage––I’m creating a poem; stringing together disparate elements to say something new, creating connections in collaboration with everyone in the room––

ee cummings said he was ‘overly fond of that precision which creates movement.’ Poetry is word precision, poetry moves the world forward.”
— LOGAN PHILLIPS

Logan Phillips works to create new opportunities for the intersection of poetry and wider society.

As a bilingual poet, performer and DJ he tours his art throughout the US, Latin America and beyond. Born to a family of Irish-Slavic descent and raised in the Arizona / Sonora borderlands, Phillips lived in and around Mexico City 2006-2011, where he contributed to organizing and hosting the country's first regular poetry slam series. 

Also in 2007 Logan began playing house parties and mezcalería-speakeasies in Cuernavaca as DJ Dirtyverbs. 

Phillips co-directs the transdisciplinary performance group Verbo•bala Spoken Video, recipient of a 2012 Artist Project Grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts for the performance piece Sonoran Strange. Sonoran Strange is also the title of Phillips' first full-length book, forthcoming from Albuquerque's West End Press.

Teaching and facilitating has been an important part of Phillips' artistic practice since 2005, serving as Cofounder & Codirector of Spoken Futures, Inc. whose programs included the Tucson Youth Poetry Slam, 2012-2019.

 

Logan Dirtyverbs Phillips

Bilingual poet, performer, DJ and educator
Tucson, Arizona

Selected performance history

  • 2017, 2015: Tucson Festival of Books, invited author, Tucson
  • 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014: Headlining DJ, Rialto Theatre New Years Eve, Tucson
  • 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014: Host & DJ, Gateway Stage, All Souls Procession, Tucson
  • 2016: Sonoran Strange, transdisciplinary theater / poetry, Borderlands Theater, Tucson
  • 2016: Headlining poet, Aspen Poets Society 10 Year Anniversary Celebration, Colorado
  • 2016: Invited artist “Shattering the Concrete: Artists, Activists & Instigators” Project Row Houses, Houston
  • 2012 to present: resident DJ and event producer of El Tambó, Hotel Congress, Tucson
  • 2014 Sonoran Strange, transdisciplinary theater piece, University of Rostock, Germany
  • 2013 Sonoran Strange, transdisciplinary theater piece, National Hispanic Cultural Center, Albuquerque
  • 2013 Change Your Mind, Change the World conference with the Dalai Lama, University of Wisconsin
  • 2012 Dios de Adrenalina, street theater collaboration, Iberoamerican Theater Festival, Bogotá
  • 2012 Featured poet, 8th Festival of New Poetry (all Spanish), New York City, USA
  • 2012 Headliner, 5th Encounter of Migrant Poets (all Spanish), San Luis Río Colorado, Mexico
  • 2011 Unreal City, performance installation, Phx Fringe Festival, Phoenix Art Museum
  • 2010 Border Remixeado, transdisciplinary theater piece, New York University, NYC
  • 2010 Rito Juárez, performance art, 1st Binational Encounter of New Art, Ciudad Juárez
  • 2008 Border Remixeado, NALAC Leadership Institute, Tucson Museum of Art
  • 2008, 2007 Border Remixeado, Poesía.en.Voz.Alta Festival, Casa del Lago, Mexico City
  • 2007 Featured poet, TipofyourTongue Festival, Penzance, UK
  • 2006 Featured poet, Paris Poetry Slam, Paris, France
  • 2002-2005 Competitor, National Poetry Slam, USA

Awards & Commissions

  • 2017: Finalist, Tucson Poet Laureate, Office of the Mayor, Tucson
  • 2016, 2015, 2014: Top 3 DJ’s in Tucson, Best of Tucson, Tucson Weekly
  • 2015: Top Pick, Southwest Books of the Year for Sonoran Strange, Pima County Public Library
  • 2014: Loop, commissioned poetic response to Julianne Swartz, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art
  • 2013: Best Danceparty: El Tambó, Best of Tucson, Tucson Weekly
  • 2012: 40 Under 40 award,Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Arizona Daily Star
  • 2012: Sonoran Strange, Artist Project Grant, Arizona Commission on the Arts
  • 2012: Sonoran Strange, New Works Grant, Arts Foundation for Tucson & Southern Arizona
  • 2008: Nobody Speaks, commission for the 28th Annual Tucson Poetry Festival

Curatorial & Organizational Experience

  • 2007 to present: Co-Artistic Director and Co-Founder, Verbo•bala Spoken Video transdisciplinary performance group blending live video projections, bilingual poetry and performance art.
  • 2013 to present: Director and Founder, El Tambó.
  • 2010 to present: Codirector, [Spoken Futures, Inc.][1], Tucson Youth Poetry Slam. Youth-centered organization focused on writing, performance, civic engagement and social justice education.
  • 2011: Lead Co-Organizer, Arizona Between Nosotros Mexican performance art & video festival.
  • 2010: Coordinator, Nuestra Voz latino youth leadership initiative, YWCA Tucson Racial Justice Program. After school poetry & social justice workshops at Sunnyside HS, Pueblo HS and Palo Verde HS, Tucson.

Education & Training

  • 2014, 2009 Conference participant, Hemispheric Encuentro of Performance & Politics, Hosted by New York University. Bogotá / Montreal
  • 2013, 2010 La Pocha Nostra International Performance Workshop, Tucson / Oaxaca, Mexico
  • 2012 Inaugural Arts & Culture Fellow, Rockwood Leadership Institute, California
  • 2011 Cohort member, CultureStr/ke Delegation, NYC / Tucson
  • 2005 B.A. Cum Laude, Spanish with English minor, Northern Arizona University

Teaching, Facilitation and Consultancy

  • 2016 to present: Advisor, Opera America Civic Action Group, New York City
  • 2016: Teaching Artist Professional Development Facilitator, State University of Morelos, Cuernavaca, Mexico.
  • 2014 to present: Teaching Artist, Eastpointe High School, alternative public charter, Tucson. Semester-long seminars on poetry writing and performance with students 14-22 years old.
  • 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014: Teaching Artist in residence, Aspen Words, Roaring Fork Valley, Colorado. Annual project with a team of three other poets; assemblies and workshops across 18 schools, bridging cultural divides and cultivating audiences through bilingual spoken work poetry.
  • 2010 to present: Teaching artist and chapbook editor, Spoken Futures, Inc. / Tucson Youth Poetry Slam
  • 2007 to present: Bilingual performance poetry workshop leader at over 85 K-12 schools, universities, libraries and other facilities across the United States, as well as in Mexico, Canada, Colombia, the United Kingdom and Germany.
  • 2011-2016: Teaching Artist, Poetry Out Loud, The University of Arizona Poetry Center, Tucson.
  • 2007: Professor of Letters, Universidad Internacional, Cuernavaca, Mexico. Courses taught: English Literature I, Hispanic-American Literature II, Advanced Translation, Translation Resources, Latin American History & Culture.
  • 2006 Elementary School teacher, Escuela Britania, 3rd & 4th grade English, Cuernavaca, Mexico

Residencies

  • 2018: Writer in Residence, Pima County Public Library
  • 2010 Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latinoamericana, National Performance Network, San Jose, CA

Publications

  • Hustlin’ Hermanas, editor and designer, poetry chapbook by Araceli Montaño and Alexia Vazquez, Spoken Futures Press, Tucson, 2017.
  • The Sonoran Desert: A Literary Field Guide, anthology, 216 pages, The University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 2016.
  • Sonoran Strange, full length book of poems, 110 pages, West End Press, Albuquerque, 2015.
  • Notes on Starting an Urban Microfarm in the Santa Cruz River Valley, poem published in Edible Baja Arizona magazine, fall 2015.
  • Forming Galaxies, editor and designer, chapbook by Zack Taylor, Spoken Futures Press, Tucson, 2015.
  • Tortoise Boy Says, editor and designer, chapbook by Enrique García Naranjo, Spoken Futures Press, Tucson, 2014.
  • TO NEITHER CONFIRM NOR DENY, poem commissioned and published by The Dictionary Project, Tucson, 2013.
  • Cylindropuntia fulgida: Jumping cholla, poem commissioned and published by Spiral Orb, Tucson, Spring 2012.
  • NoVOGRAFÍAS: Silt Behind Hydroelectric Sky, chapbook, 22 pages, Artspeak Press, Tucson, 2012.
  • Arroyo Ink, chapbook, 56 pages, Artspeak Press, Tucson, 2009.
  • Where Do Airplanes Build Their Nests?, chapbook, 44 pages, Artspeak Press, Cuernavaca, Mexico, 2007.
  • This Line Drawn Across Footprints, chapbook, 44 pages, Artspeak Press, Cuernavaca, Mexico, 2007.