ABOUT SARAH, THE SHORT VERSION:
Sarah M. Duncan is a queer, femme, neurodivergent, white, cis, settler, playwright, poet, educator, performer, and community organizer.
ABOUT SARAH, THE LONG VERSION:
Sarah Duncan grew up in Normal, Illinois, in the heart of the Midwest. Throughout her primary and secondary schooling, she was avidly involved in theatre (plays and musical theatre), orchestra (viola), dance (jazz and ballet), creative writing (poetry and plays), and her high school's speech team. Little wonder, then, that she'd grow into an adult who spends most of her time expressing, connecting, and creating. Sarah graduated Normal Community West High School in 2005. She went on to study at Bradley University where she pursued acting, playing roles like Horatio in Hamlet, Lady Rosaline in Love's Labour's Lost, Harper in Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, Clytemnestra in The Oresteia, and Maud/Lin in Cloud 9. In 2009, she graduated Bradley University with a degree in Theatre Performance. After she graduated college, she spent a year working and traveling in New Zealand.
New York 2011-2016
After moving to New York City in 2011, Sarah spent five years there thriving at the intersection of arts, activism, and community. She performed and had her work produced in a variety of venues, including The Wild Project, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, The Cherry Lane Theatre, and The Gym at Judson. As an arts organizer in NYC, she curated and hosted many poetry shows around crucial themes, and she co-created and organized three theatre festivals under the foundational title, Occupy the Empty Space. More details on her work and projects during her time in NYC can be found on the pages for Poetry, Playwrighting, Arts Organizing, and Looking Back: Occupy the Empty Space.
Wyoming 2016-2018
In 2016, Sarah left her beloved New York City to build a new home and community in Laramie, Wyoming, where she began her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Wyoming. There, she focused on multi-genre and hybrid creative work, archival & political art, and queer and critical race studies. She also focused on creative writing and visual projects surrounding whiteness: the construction of it, the violence and terrorism of it, and how to dismantle it. Additionally, Sarah participated in grassroots organizing movements in Laramie. She helped organize local racial, queer, and immigrant justice campaigns (in particular the #WyoSayNo campaign). She graduated with her MFA in Creative Writing in May of 2018.
During her MFA, Sarah was given the opportunity to teach an English composition to undergraduates at the University of Wyoming for two years (four separate classes). While she'd taught (and loved teaching!) high school students in NYC for multiple years, she had not yet experienced teaching in a university. During those two years, Sarah fell in love with teaching at the college level. Then as much as now, Sarah continues to be dedicated to connecting and guiding her students towards critical thinking, participating in the world, consistent questioning, and motivated, research-based writing. At the end of her time working for the UW English Department, she was presented with the Slater Award for Excellence in Teaching.
In the summer of before she left Wyoming in 2018, Sarah was honored to teach a seminar course on spoken word poetry and arts activism as part of the Summer High School Institute at the University of Wyoming. She taught multiple groups of students, each of which wrote their own poems and planned their own creative activist projects. At least 15 out of the 100 or so students performed their poems for the rest of the students at the end of the program!
BOSTON 2018 -- Who knows?
In 2018, Sarah moved to Boston to pursue a second Master's degree in American Studies at UMass Boston in Dorchester; degree expected in May 2020. She is currently working on her thesis, which examines how the concept of the "time-loop" is used as a narrative device in film and TV, and what this use can illuminate about alternative temporalities, particularly crip, trauma, queer, Black, and addict temporailities. In addition to taking classes as a full time student, Sarah is a teaching assistant for multiple courses. She has guest taught courses on Feminism in the 1980s, Indigenous Contemporary Poetry, and Dis/ability Activism in the 1980s.
Upon graduating, Sarah plans to teach. Her goal is to teach writing and/or American Studies like courses (multiple history classes, pop culture, queer theory, etc) full time at a community college or to teach high school students.
When she isn't working on her degree, Sarah is dedicated to creating and performing. In 2018, her chapbook entitled "Week/End" was published by Headmistress Press. Sarah also began performing stand-up comedy in Boston. She last performed at The Stand Up Jam at Improv Boston in September of 2019. She can also sometimes be spotted busking around Boston with her extremely talented friend, Rachel Ravina, in a little band they've affectionately named, "Well Meaning Religious Parents."
Finally, Sarah works hard to prioritize participating in immigrant justice work and prison abolition work. From Winter 2018- Fall 2019 she worked with BIJAN (Pronounced "Beyond"; Boston Immigrant Justice Accompaniment Network) on their Housing Team, a team that works to find short and long term housing for immigrants released from ICE detention. In the Fall of 2019, she began working with SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice) Boston and their Prison Abolition Action Partnership group and Mass POWER on Mass POWER's campaign to Restore the #Right2Vote to people who are currently incarcerated in MA. This work continues! Check out the links to learn more, plug in, and support the work!
Sarah Duncan is a proud, dynamic, authentic, expressive queer cis settler white neurodivergent dis/abled (chronic illness) woman who spends her time growing, learning, teaching, creating, performing, healing, building and loving community, and fighting for the liberation of all. Sarah believes there is power and freedom in the recognition that most (if not all) of the world (the joyful and the violent and all in-between) around us is invented. What does the prevalence of invention mean for reinvention and un-invention?
What can we unmake? The violence and oppression of this world!
What can we make? Ourselves! Art! Beloved communities! Another world!
"Sarah Duncan's writing sees the forest for the trees. It gracefully, honestly, and with tactful nuance, attacks society's ills while offering a hearty dose of medicine, usually in the form of advising self-reflection, an open heart and open ears, and a willingness to be guided outside of one's comfort zone."
-- Taylor Steele, award winning NYC Spoken Word Artist
“A brave look at vulnerability and sexuality, Bees and Lions by Sarah M. Duncan explores the consequences of challenging celebrity as it enjoys its New York City premiere. Duncan won a spot with Sanguine after competing against nearly 100 submissions in Sanguine’s Project Playwright this past January. Sanguine's Bees and Lions successfully pushes the limits of commercial theatre and takes the audience on a dark and interesting ride. A big congratulations to the Sanguine Theatre Company, Sarah M. Duncan (thank you for being brave), and the cast and crew.”
--Elle T, Reviewer for Fistful of Words
“Sarah Duncan is a poet of distinction - an original, intuitive and insightful writer whose words are as stunning in their artistry as they are penetrating in their political will. An elegant voice on the page, on the stage, and in the streets, her cry for justice in the nation and in the world manifests itself dazzlingly in word and deed.”
--Kia Corthron, Acclaimed Playwright
“Sarah Duncan has been a steadfast coordinator since 2011. She has an unparalleled ability to network and outreach while, simultaneously, attending to the minutest details of event management. The combination of "people person" and thorough event manager makes her the perfect choice to bill, promote and execute any event.”
--Kate Foster, Musician and Creative Partner on Occupy the Empty Space
-- Taylor Steele, award winning NYC Spoken Word Artist
“A brave look at vulnerability and sexuality, Bees and Lions by Sarah M. Duncan explores the consequences of challenging celebrity as it enjoys its New York City premiere. Duncan won a spot with Sanguine after competing against nearly 100 submissions in Sanguine’s Project Playwright this past January. Sanguine's Bees and Lions successfully pushes the limits of commercial theatre and takes the audience on a dark and interesting ride. A big congratulations to the Sanguine Theatre Company, Sarah M. Duncan (thank you for being brave), and the cast and crew.”
--Elle T, Reviewer for Fistful of Words
“Sarah Duncan is a poet of distinction - an original, intuitive and insightful writer whose words are as stunning in their artistry as they are penetrating in their political will. An elegant voice on the page, on the stage, and in the streets, her cry for justice in the nation and in the world manifests itself dazzlingly in word and deed.”
--Kia Corthron, Acclaimed Playwright
“Sarah Duncan has been a steadfast coordinator since 2011. She has an unparalleled ability to network and outreach while, simultaneously, attending to the minutest details of event management. The combination of "people person" and thorough event manager makes her the perfect choice to bill, promote and execute any event.”
--Kate Foster, Musician and Creative Partner on Occupy the Empty Space
