Discipline: Literature – poetry

Rashaad Thomas

Discipline: Literature – poetry
Region: Phoenix, AZ
MacDowell Fellowships: 2017

Rashaad Thomas used his time as a MacDowell Fellow to complete his first poetry collection manuscript, Deliverance in the Blues. It is an autobiographical poetry collection about being a Black man overcoming homelessness, coping with mental illness, and using art and poetry to navigate the intersecting social constructions of America that affect his life.

Thomas is also a member of the Gutta Collective, “a Phoenix-based group committed to sharing a Black and Brown narrative through art and poetry, to giving a voice to the silent, isolated, and marginalized.”

Studios

Delta Omicron

Rashaad Thomas worked in the Delta Omicron studio.

Delta Omicron Studio was funded by members of the international musical fraternity in 1927. The building design is somewhat medieval in character, with an unusual cedar shingle pattern, a steeply pitched slate roof, intersecting gables, and small windows. After a 2016 deep-energy renovation, Delta Omicron is now one of the most energy efficient studio on the property…

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