Hunter, Deborah J

Deborah J. Hunter, poet, spoken word artist and actor, has facilitated poetry workshops and worked as a poet-in-residence in schools and community programs since 1997. Her Word Weaver poetry workshops, speaking and storytelling skills capture the imagination and interest of children from preschool through high school. Urban Tulsa Weekly listed Hunter as one of its “Hot 100 Picks” for 2007, naming her “Poet Extraordinaire”. She was presented with the $5000 Jingle Feldman Artist Award in 2000. On several occasions, she has performed with world-renowned Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko and facilitated workshops for the Nimrod International Literary Journal’s annual Writer’s Conference. Hunter is currently Poet-In-Residence in the Art of Healing program at Hillcrest Medical Center. Deborah has acted in local stage productions, including Theater North’s award-winning 2000-2001 ensemble cast of “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf”, the 2007 Broken Arrow Community Playhouse production of the musical, “Quilters”, Thunder Road’s "Woman Who Was Captured By Ghosts", Nightingale Theater’s "Down the Ol’ Hole" and the University of Tulsa’s "Vagina Monologues". She directed "The Old Settler" in June 2003, and wrote the10-minute play, "Feverish Whisper" for the SummerStage 2003 OKREP 24-hour Play Festival. Her one-woman, spoken word performance piece, “Amazons, Gypsies and Wandering Minstrels,” about women dealing with mental illness, homelessness and other trauma, has received critical and audience praise. Her experiences as the mother of an adult daughter with schizophrenia and as a former case manager at the Tulsa Day Center for the Homeless inform the monologues she has created. She has won local poetry slams and self-published four poetry chapbooks, among them, The Red Shoes and other poems from the edge. Hunter’s poems have been published in Aroostook Review, Nimrod, Curbside Review, Another Sun (U.K.), The Pagan’s Muse, and other publications and anthologies. Ms. Hunter was a faculty member and fellow of the 1999 Community Arts Training Institute, sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa and facilitated by Mr. William Cleveland, founder and Director of the Center for the Study of Art and Community, based in Minneapolis. An assertive advocate for people with mental illnesses, Deborah is a board member of NAMI-Tulsa, T.K. Wolf, Inc. and the Mental Health Association in Tulsa, and serves on the Oklahoma Mental Health Planning and Advisory Council.