rachel j. atakpa
(1999 — )
is and changes.
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Atakpa is a 2022-2024 Charlotte Street Foundation Studio Resident, the 2023 Lawrence Arts Center Zinn Writing Resident and instructor, and the 2023 poetry fellow at Heartland Arts KC.
rae is a member of Charlotte Street’s Art Writing Intensive inagural cohort (2023), a gardener at Common Ground Incubator Farm (2020— ), a figure model for University of Kansas, Johnson County Community College, and Valley Lane Studio (2021— ), and a member of the Douglas County Extension Council’s committee for Community Health and Wellness (2022-2024).
rae is a Tobacco Treatment Specialist (KUMC ‘23), Kansas Board Certified Nurse Aid (Mid-America College of Health Sciences ‘21), and certified in Basic Life Support and Mental Health First Aid. rae is a Master Food Volunteer (KState Extension) and volunteers at the Drop In and Rest (DARE) center in Lawrence, KS.
rae has served as a literacy para at the Academy for Integrated Arts (2019-2020), a Community Resource Navigator contracted by Heartland Community Health Center and the Lawrence Douglas County Health Department (2021-2022), and a KU Writing Center consultant, workshop developer, and professional development leader (2016-2019).
In 2019, rae earned a B.A. in English with minors in Spanish and Environmental Studies at the University of Kansas and became a member of Phi Beta Kappa society. While at KU, rae was a member of the Honors Program (2015-2019), Multicultural Scholars Program (2015-2019), Hall Center Scholar (2016-2017), editor for the Undergraduate Research Journal for the Humanities (2016-2019), a Ronald E. McNair Scholar (2017-2019), co-facilitator of the Undergraduate Reading Series (2018-2019), and Teaching Assistant to Dr. Mary Klayder (2018) and Dr. Dave Tell (2019). rae facilitated and participated in numerous panels, open mics, and readings hosted by The Commons, The History of Black Writing, and various community-facing organizations.
In 2018, rae was a University of Michigan Emerging Research Scholar and a John Lewis Fellow at the University of Georgia through Humanity in Action. The same year, rae was awarded the Langston Hughes Award for poetry, becoming the youngest person to ever win the award. rae was awarded the Brosseau Creative Award for Writing by the Spencer Museum of Art in 2018 and was a finalist in 2019. rae won the Paretsky Award for Creativity from KU Honors in 2018 and received numerous awards for their essays and poetry from KU English department. rae was a Truman Scholarship nominee in 2017.
rae began their arts career in 2013 as a studio assistant at Vance Music Studios in Wichita, KS where they were trained in classical piano.