Eugene Lang College faculty member Pamela Sneed Receives Black Artist Mentorship Award from Queer|Art
Eugene Lang College faculty member Pamela Sneed was recently awarded the inaugural Black Artist Mentorship Award for Artists and Organizers from Queer|Art. The mentorship award acknowledges Black artists and organizers “who uplift critical histories of Black queer mentorship and exemplify steadfast commitment to values shared by the QAM community,” according to a press release by Queer|Art, and provides a $10,000 cash award.
Sneed is a poet, writer, visual artist, and performer, and has long served as a mentor through Queer|Art’s fellowship program. She is the author of several books including the memoir Funeral Diva, a coming of age story during the AIDS crisis, which won the 2021 Lambda Award for Lesbian Poetry. Her other works include Imagine Being More Afraid of Freedom than Slavery (1998) and Kong and Other Works (2009), and the chapbooks Lincoln (2014), Gift (2015), and Sweet Dreams (2018). Her poetry has appeared in 100 Best African American Poems (edited by Nikki Giovanni, 2010), Best Monologues from Best American Short Plays (edited by William Demastes, 2013), and Zoe Leonard’s Transcript of a Rally (2016).
Sneed was selected by a jury that included the artists Maria Bauman, Felicita (Felli) Maynard, and Saeed Jones. In a statement, the jury said that new prize is meant to acknowledge that “mentorship itself is as beautiful, gorgeous, and vital as any other artistic discipline” and that they chose Sneed because of “her brilliance and accomplishments in the field of literary arts [and] her longstanding commitment to nurturing younger Black queer voices.”
As a Lang faculty member, this semester Sneed is teaching Writing the Essay II: Human Rights. She also teaches the First Year Seminar, required of all Lang students.