bio:
isaiah a. hines is a poet and PhD student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY.
As a scholar of communication and media, they study the challenges associated with race and colonial language in media saturated societies. They focus on people of the African diaspora, cultural politics, technology, rhetoric, performance, government and public policy, and international affairs. Their writing has been published by Obsidian: Arts & Literature in the African Diaspora, and FLAT Journal along with books by Slope Editions and Roof Books. They are a graduate assistant at the New York State Council on Developmental Disabilities. Their debut collection null landing was the recipient of the 2020 Slope Editions Book Prize and a finalist for the 2023 Legacy Award in Poetry from the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation.
Academic subfields: Critical Communication and Cultural Studies, Black/African American Rhetorics, Science and Technology Studies
Degrees:
B.A., Communication, Brooklyn College, City University of New York, 2022
M.S., Communication & Rhetoric, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 2024
Ph.D., Communication & Rhetoric, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (exp. 2028)
photograph by Shayla Kerr-Munsie
writing:
2025
- Anything with Spirit (Roof Books, April 2025) [order!]
2024
- "The butterfly's effect," Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora, Issue 49.1 [read here]
- "thinking with null data," Root Work Journal, Volume 2, Issue 2: Between The Forest + The Trees [forthcoming]
2023
- "seeing xin/gs, or why i write about transparency," FLAT Journal (UCLA)—Issue 03: After Tomorrow [read here]
2022
- null landing (Slope Editions, November 2022) [purchase!]
2021
- artist statement #n [read here]
2020
- engaging black poetics: authors and interns—parts 1 & 2 (Nightboat Books, Summer 2020) [read here & here]
2011
- The Magic Book of Poems, a scrap/chap book (South Burlington: May 2011) [read here]*
2010
- Sky thief (The Burlington Free Press: June 9, 2010) [read here]*
*i've included these works from my childhood just for fun, but also because i think they speak to important aspects of my creative practice, my identity as a writer, idiosyncrasies, et cetera :-)
performance:
2024
- Remembering Reuben Jackson reading/performance: Rajnii Eddins, Toussaint St. Negritude, LN Berthea, and isaiah a. hines - Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, VT
- segue reading series: isaiah a. hines & Elizabeth Robinson - ARTISTS SPACE, 11 Cortlandt Alley & online [watch]
2021
- poetry salon : on fragile ground - 1-54 Forum London 2021 [watch] or [listen]
- talkwalkpoem : multiple locations [listen]
2020
- "(re)surface : a poetics of fish/flesh" - JAGfest 4.0, White River Junction, VT [watch]
sound/image:
2021
- "source myth : a visual poem" [watch]
2020
- "source myth : soundscape" [listen]