Bio
Lyn Patterson is a storyteller and book art MFA student who lives in Oakland, CA. She is a deeply invigorated poet, specifically inspired to write about Black diaspora and those who have been systematically marginalized in society as a means of empowering future generations with their stories. For Patterson, storytelling is a sacred ancestral endeavor which can be used as a tool for paying homage and building future communities. Patterson often uses visual mediums to encapsulate her words and elevate the ways in which texts exist in conversation with one another. Her work has been published in Popshot Magazine and on KQED.
As a visual poet and book artist, I work in a few different mediums, but I am a storyteller first and foremost. For me, storytelling is sacred ancestral work. I first realized my love of stories through my grandmothers' as I grew up sitting in their laps and listening intently to the family folklore that they shared. Thus, when I first started exploring my voice, I often used embodied mediums like dance, music, photography, graphic design, and poetry to hold onto these stories. Simultaneously, I naturally gravitated toward book making from an early age. I have been binding my own journals and making zines since I was in 5th grade. My work often starts with the poem/story and then considers which “container” is most effective in facilitating an experience around that story. This has led me to creating conceptual book work, archives, prints, installations, and audio/digital experiences, in addition to traditional poetry publishing. My current work is an inquiry into world-building through poetry and leans into afro-futurism and afro-surrealism to imagine liberated Black communities.
Selected Work
