Aziza Danielle Bailey Barnes (October 8, 1992 – December 15, 2024) was an American poet, screenwriter and playwright.
Early life and education
Barnes was born in
Los Angeles in October 1992 to Craig Barnes and Marchelle Bailey. Aziza had a younger sister and an older brother.
They went to undergrad at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts.
They received their MFA from the University of Mississippi.
Career
A performer, Barnes was a member of the Divine Fabrics Collective, alongside fellow writers Safia Elhillo, Camonghne Felix, and Sean "Mega" DesVignes. Barnes was the author of the
chapbook me Aunt Jemima and the nailgun (2013), which became the first book to ever win a prize from
Button Poetry.
Their full-length collection,
i be but i ain’t (2016), won a
Pamet River Prize from YesYes Books.
They were the co-founder of the
Poetry Gods podcast and the co-founder of The Conversation Literary Festival.
Barnes wrote the play
BLKS, which was played at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in
Chicago.
Their debut novel,
The Blind Pig, was published by Not A Cult on October 14, 2019.
Barnes wrote the play
Pues Nada (2020).
Barnes also wrote for
MEL.
BLKS
BLKS is the story of four black millennial friends, Octavia, June, Ry and Imani, who share a New York City apartment.
The story is a "day in the life" style of work and was called "comedic social realism".
The production was compared to the drama series
Girls. was originally Barnes' final thesis project at NYU.
Actresses Nora Carroll, Leea Ayers, Danielle Davis and Celeste M. Cooper performed in the Steppenwolf Theatre Company rendition of BLKS.
BLKS won the 2020 Antonyo Award in the Best Play category.
Barnes made their acting debut in June 2024 with their play FKA I Am a Bad Blk Person, which is a sequel to BLKS.
Television
Barnes wrote for the series
Snowfall,
Teenage Bounty Hunters,
Rap Sh!t, and the upcoming
Game of Thrones prequel,
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
At the time of their death, Barnes was working on an
HBO adaptation of the novel
The Vanishing Half.
Personal life and death
Barnes was black and identified as queer.
They were from Los Angeles and lived in Oxford, Mississippi.
They also lived in Bedford–Stuyvesant.
Barnes was born with a polycystic ovary and as such grew facial hair. Barnes used they/their/them pronouns.
Barnes died by suicide on December 15, 2024, at the age of 32.
Bibliography
-
Barnes, Aziza (January 1, 2013). me Aunt Jemima and the nailgun. Exploding Pinecone Press. Button Poetry. . Published as an e-book by Button Poetry. (January 4, 2020. , .)
-
Barnes, Aziza (June 1, 2016). i be, but i ain't. Portland, Oregon: YesYes Books. . .
-
Barnes, Aziza (October 14, 2019). The Blind Pig. Not a Cult (First ed.). . . .
-
Barnes, Aziza (January 1, 2020). BLKS. Dramatists Play Service. . .
-
Barnes, Aziza. The Blind Pig (Dog-eared Edition). Not a Cult.
Awards and fellowships
-
2015 Winter Tangerine Award
-
2013 NYU Grey Art Gallery Prize for Radical Presence
-
Emerging Poets Fellowship at Poets House
-
Cave Canem Foundation Fellow
-
Callaloo Fellow
External links
