Imani Mason Jordan with Farida Amadou, Enjoy Jazz Festival (2023)
Imani Mason Jordan (b. 1992, London) is an interdisciplinary writer, artist, editor and curator interested in poetics and performance.
Imani has written numerous articles, reviews, essays, poems, plays and love letters, some of which they have published. Since 2016, they have developed a keen interest in poetics, oration, experimentation and practices of reading aloud, from which they have synthesised a performance practice that centres writing and collaboration as well as using the speaking voice as an instrument.
Imani is currently working on their debut poetry collection, THE BOOK OF SLASH POEMS and their solo performance work TREAD/MILL. Recent performance/audio projects include: EARTHLY ACCOMPLICE (2023) with Felix Taylor at MACBA, Barcelona & Crosness Pumping Station, London; ATLANTIC RAILTON: LIVE (2021) with Ain Bailey at Serpentine Pavilion, London & WELCOME NOTE IN A WELCOME SPEECH (2019) with Libita Sibungu at Gasworks, London & Spike Island, Bristol.
After completing their MA in Forensic Architecture at Goldsmiths in 2019, their pamphlet OBJECTS WHO TESTIFY was published by Taylor Le Melle at PSS. Imani is Director of PAPERFLESH PUBLISHING, a multi-genre small press and editing studio for the intellectually rigorous, politically minded black writer. Since 2018, Imani has curated various exhibitions and public programmes alongside Rabz Lansiquot as Languid Hands (2019-) and SYFU (2018).
Imani Mason Jordan, performance still, TREAD/MILL [WIP] (2021), Somerset House Studios
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IN EVERY SITUATION, performance at TRANSMISSIONS Festival, curated by Moor Mother, Ravenna, Italy. (2024);
THE BOOK OF SLASH POEMS, performance/reading at CALL CENTRE, London, UK. (2024);
RADIO WEB MACBA Son[i]a #395 w. Imani Mason Jordan (2024);
Reducing Harm (As prompt, As practice) w. Tamara Oyola-Santiago. Vera List Center For Art and Politics @ The New School, NYC. (2024);
VITORIA : BURACO, by Ebun Sodipo. Director. LIVE COLLISION, Dublin, Ireland. (2023-);
IMPACT DRIVER by Eve Stainton, Performer (2023-4);
1-1: Imani Mason Jordan on Ellen Gallagher, for Close Looking: Collection Studies from the Roberts Institute of Art, Cromwell Place (2023);
In Conversation with RIP Germain @ ICA London, London (2023);
Poetry reading at Page65, Liberia Books, London (2023);
EARTHLY ACCOMPLICE w. Felix Taylor @ MACBA, Barcelona, & Crossness Pumping Station, Bexley (2023);
Dyke Hands Reading Series (2023- ); 198 CAL (2023);
Poetry Workshop with Ebun Sodipo at IMMA, Dublin (2023);
Poetry Workshop with Farida Amadou & Moor Mother, Enjoy Jazz Festival, Frankfurt (2023);
Poetry reading with Leila Weefur, Grant Williams-Yackel & Sin Wai Kin and at Et Al Books, San Fransisco (2023);
Performer - constellation piece by Serafine1369, Fest on Fest, London. (2022);
NO FACE IS YOUR REAL FACE / Open Letter to Sin Wai Kin, Channel / Somerset House (2022);
Mouth Mantras after Rachel Jones’ ‘SMIIILLLLEEEE’, Björk’s ‘Vulnicura’, Harold Offeh’s ‘Smile’ & Saidiya Hartman’s ‘Venus in Two Acts’ presented at Thaddaeus Ropac (2022);
Sonia Boyce’s Performances Defy Easy Categorisation, Frieze (2022);
ATLANTIC RAILTON: LIVE with Ain Bailey, a live extension of Bailey’s new sound work, Atlantic Railton presented at Serpentine Pavilion (2021);
Abolition: In Defence of Translation, a four-week programme of events curated with Lola Olufemi at Somerset House Studios (2021);
DINNER TIME, commissioned by Orsod Malik for The Imagined Futures Series, Stuart Hall Foundation (2021);
THIS WORLD MAKES US SICK, a night of readings and reflections about illness, work, care, love and doing nothing with Raisa Kabir, D Mortimer and SWARM. Curated by bare minimum for ICA London (2021);
“FAULTY FALSE MATHEMATICS”: In Conversation with R.I.P Germain in How to Sleep Faster #11: REPRESENTATION, Arcadia Missa (2020);
Healing and/as/in/from/with/because neurodivergent practice, Disability Arts Online (2020);
“Towards an Abolitionist Drug Policy Reform”, Buxton, J., Margo, G. and Burger, L. (Ed.) The Impact of Global Drug Policy on Women: Shifting the Needle, Emerald Publishing Limited, pp. 259-269.
“Black Women For Each Other”: Rebecca Bellantoni and Imani Robinson in Conversation, Gelatina Festival (2020);
This is your turf even, TURF Projects, Artists Feedback Session (2020);
Review: Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments by Saidiya Hartman in Wasafiri Issue 101 with Ebun Sodipo (2020);
“Dying Declarations” in Oreet Ashery’s HOW WE DIE IS HOW WE LIVE ONLY MORE SO, Mousse Publishing (2019);
Towards a Black Testimony: Prayer/Protest/Peace, a film by Languid Hands (2019);
Objects Who Testify, a pamphlet published by PSS featuring sketches by artist Dominique White (2019);
“GOLD/TWO HEADS” in Sin Wai Kin’s Dream Babes 2.0, PSS (2019);
WELCOME NOTE IN A WELCOME SPEECH, a collaborative performance with artist Libita Clayton (2019);
SOME OF US DID NOT DIE, a group exhibition and residency curated by Imani Robinson with artists Matice Moore, Tsai Tung Li and Laurèl Hadleigh at ONCA Gallery, Brighton (2018);
“MY BLACKNESS / YOUR SAFETY” in How to Sleep Faster #9: CONTEMPT, Arcadia Missa (2018);
Rearticulating Safety: Notes on Blackness and Regulation, a video installation (2018);
Ditto & Ditto Take a Trip to Port Authority, a moving image work made with artist Halima Haruna (2018);
The Black (D)rift, an ongoing series of workshops and performances exploring black geographies and the psychic afterlives of transatlantic slavery (2015-2018).