Amanda Shea is an International multidisciplinary artist residing in Boston, Massachusetts.
Amanda Shea is a two-time Boston Music Award-winning Spoken Word Artist. Shea is an artist, performer, educator, artivist, publicist, host, and curator. She has hosted and produced numerous intergenerational poetry/hip hop events as well as performed at festivals; including Boston Calling, BAMSFest (Boston Art & Music Soul Festival), and the Jos Literary Festival in Nigeria. She co-founded and curated six iterations of Activating ARTivism, a community festival to amplify POC through art, activism, and resistance. In 2021, she was named one of WBUR The ARTery's 25 Artists of Color: Transforming the Cultural Landscape. Shea was a featured artist for 2022 Thought Artist for SOLSTICE: Reflections on Winter Light at Mount Auburn Cemetery. Her work can be found in the Museum of Fine Arts, The Boston Globe, TEDX, TEDXRoxbury, Netflix, Prime Video, BBC News, and much more. Shea will be releasing her first book, “Pieces of Shea” in the Fall of 2023. Amanda's work examines her personal life experiences, social justice issues, and healing through trauma utilizing art as the tool.
Selected Profiles
New England Hip Hop Woman of the Year
“I don’t even know Amanda all that well. All I know is that she deserves the heck out of this award and she is a ray of light to ALL those in the hip hop industry: and probably to a lot who lost their light. I don’t need to have met Amanda to see she is a selfless giver, and to see she does it unconditionally.” - Shawn Patel
Boston Music Awards 2022 Spoken Word Artist of the Year
“It’s overdue, but so important,” Shea said. “I don’t think people knew how much, on a local level, that poets were collaborating with rappers and musicians and R&B artists [...] we are utilized a lot for our voices because it’s our instrument.”
Shea emphasizes the importance of recognizing the connection between poetry and music. “Before some of your favorite rappers were rappers, they were poets," she said. "I think that’s why it’s super important to not only, like, highlight and amplify the work that spoken artists in the city are doing and beyond, but also understanding, like, we are an art form.”