Artist Statement
Photo by Images of Papillon
Stacey Allen is a performance artist, curator, and advocate for arts education, educational equity, and reproductive justice all while being a wife and mother to three beautiful children. Maintaining her artistic practice while navigating Motherhood has come with challenges, but integrating the art of mothering with her insistence on telling Black stories through movement and material culture has been worth the while. From starting with Urban Souls Dance Company to co-founding Pretty Cultured to founding and directing Nia’s Daughters Movement Collective, her work is to be delivered back to the people. Nia’s Daughters Movement Collective received a Congressional Recognition for their mission aligned work of creating and supporting art and wellness initiatives through the lens of Black women and girls. Stacey wrote the children’s book “A Little Optimism Goes a Long Way '' and created "The Fairytale Project," a dance theater production centering the Texas Freedom Colony, Shankleville, that is currently touring. Other recent works include "Formed in My Grandmother’s Womb" (2019), "A Single Thread Weaves a Future" (2021), and “it’s about our FREEDOM” (2022), “Aesthetic Inheritances” (2023) and more. Stacey Allen, based in Houston, TX, holds a BA in Dance from Sam Houston State University and a MA in Cross Cultural Studies from University of Houston-Clear Lake. Learn more about her work at www.staceyallencde.com IG: @theblackartysmom.