Musician/author/spoken word artist solidad decosta is an uppity Portuguese woman who isn’t afraid to claim her Black Latina maternal ancestry. Equal parts street journalist, storyteller and crone-ta-be with Leo moon credentials, her work spans the why and where of life outside the boxes in a label obsessed world, and the what, when, who and how of everything else.
Solidad has performed at a variety of venues across the United States, including St. Marks, ‘da Poetry Lounge, The Green Mill, Brava! Center for the Arts, Antioch University, SomARTS, City Lights and Bumpershoot. Her writing has appeared in Shampoo, Mirage #4, Street NOTES, The Angry Poet, Fireweed and The San Francisco Bay Guardian.
In addition, solidad has facilitated writing and performance workshops at Pitzer College, Macalester College, Cell Space, STARC, Dancing Tree, SF Juvenile Hall and Alameda County Youth Facility. She holds an MFA in Writing from California College of the Arts, and was the 2008 recipient of the Kari Edwards Scholarship at Naropa University’s Summer Writing Program. When she’s not banging out Brechtian improvisations or writing angry sestinas, she climbs trees and communes with tempermental crustacians.