AIRIE Fellow
AIRIE Residency Coordinator
Arsimmer McCoy
2022 February
Poetry / Spoken Word
Miami, Florida
BIO
Arsimmer McCoy is a Miami Gardens, Florida-based storyteller, collaborative artist, educator, and cultural worker, who has been dedicated to these disciplines for over a decade. Raised in Richmond Heights, Florida, McCoy earned her Bachelor’s degree of Arts and literature at Florida Memorial University. She has performed around the world, alongside artists of multiple disciplines and considers it her obligation to bring back the knowledge and stories to her students in South Florida. McCoy produces work in the form of poetry, short story literature, creative writing, performance, educational workshops, and creative direction.
ARTIST STATEMENT
About their work from the photo series The Skin Your Ancestry Adorned You With, 2022, from Passages at the Nest
In the photo, McCoy stands in “The River of Grass”, in Shark Valley, holding the portrait of her Great Grandmother, Arsimmer Bailey, and one of her mother, Arsimmer Wilder McCoy. These striking visuals of Arsimmer steeped in the Swamp water of the Florida Everglades were created originally as an homage to her namesake, the power of naming, and the lineage of land. The first viewing of the works included an install curated by McCoy called "The Florida Room", which included personal archives (furniture, sculpture, photo, & media), and expanded the conversation to include commentary on the gimmick advertising, class baiting, racist, and "bootstrap narrative" that are enveloped in the tourism marketing culture of South Florida. That culture has been a perpetual harm to Black communities across South Florida and has had violent effects on Florida's ecosystem. To McCoy, all of this has made it difficult for Black people to feel connected to the land. The photo descriptions are excerpts from McCoy's original poem "The Ghost Dance"; a poetic response to when the poet is asked how she feels about climate change. The power of spirit and ancestry as it pertains to survival are illustrated through language, image, & archive in this work.
In her project, ‘Homecoming,' McCoy invites voices from her Black community to connect with the voices of the Indigenous communities in the Everglades in a round table discussion. The conversation will examine connections between the two communities and their relationship to Land.
“Embracing the silence and stillness of the Everglades is a process when you are from a major city. I had to practice letting go in order to fully immerse myself in the silence and stillness. The most impactful part of the residency was the moment this work paid off and I was able to settle into the space, the slower pace, the vast silence, and still beauty of the Everglades. Knowing that possibility exists and how to access it will support my practice as an artist, poet, connector and cultural worker.” - Arsimmer McCoy on her time in Everglades National Park
In The News
Arsimmer McCoy spoke at Harvard Divinity School’s 7th Black Religion Spirituality and Culture Conference held on February 16 - 17th, 2023. Hosted by AIRIE supporter and past board member, T. Robertson Carter, Arsimmer was a collaborator for a creative think tank in which the theme was ‘The Black Gaze: Arts, Environment, and Technology.’ Excerpt: “The Black Creative Think Tank will envision nuanced narratives around arts, environment, and technology. Through engagement of imaginative landscapes, philanthropy, and themes of Afro-Futurism, we will explore the creation of space for abundant belonging guided by themes of “reclamation”, “Black liberation” and “revisioning of the past, and predictions of the future through a Black Diasporic cultural lens”. Our experts will engage participants in critical conversations around the arts as a spiritual, healing, and restorative justice tool to liberate minds.” Learn more.