IONE

IONE is an author, a playwright, a director, and an improvising text-sound artist. She has taught and performed throughout the world with her partner and spouse of 30 years, Pauline Oliveros. Pauline and IONE have created four large music theatre works together uncluding Njinga the Queen King; The Return of a Warrior (BAM’s Next Wave Festival); IO and Her and the Trouble With Him, a dance-opera in primeval time; U of Wisconsin’s Union Theater and The Lunar Opera: Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Oracle Bones; Mirror Dreams; and the film Dreams of the Jungfrau. 

Oliveros and Ione's The Nubian Word for Flower, a Phantom Opera, opened to critical acclaim at Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn, November, 2017. The opera is an international collaboration including the United States, European and Egyptian artists. Also forthcoming: The Nubian Word for Flowers, a Phantom Opera, in collaboration with The International Contemporary Ensemble. IONE's memoir, Pride of Family; Four Generations of American Women of Color, was a New York Times notable book on its publication.  A journalist for many years IONE, published in major magazines and newspapers throughout the 80s including The Village Voice, The Gannett Chain, and Vogue. Other works include Listening in Dreams, Piramida Negra, Nile Night, and Spell Breaking 1 and 2 Anthologies. She was Artistic Director of Deep Listening Institute, Ltd. for 15 years and currently is a Deep Listening Certification Instructor at the Center for Deep Listening in Troy, New York. As Founding Director of M.o.M., Inc. (The Ministry of Maåt), in Kingston, New York since 1997, IONE teaches workshops and seminars throughout the world, encouraging and supporting women’s well-being and sustaining a vibrant international community of writers, visual artists, and musicians.  

Photo: Michael Kirby Smith