Arielle Twist

Arielle Twist is a Nehiyaw (Cree) multidisciplinary artist and sex educator based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. She is originally from George Gordon First Nation in Saskatchewan and describes herself as a Two-Spirit, transgender woman. They quickly became friends. During this time, she discovered poetry that resonated with her as a trans First Nation woman, such as the works of Katherena Vermette, inspiring her to write poetry that was representative of her interests and identity.

The institutions that have featured Twist's work include the Khyber Centre for the Arts, the Toronto Media Arts Centre, La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse, the Centre for Art Tapes, the Art Gallery of Mississauga, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and the Agnes Etherington Art Centre. She has also worked in visual and performance art. and the Dayne Ogilvie Prize in 2020. After publishing this collection, she began working as a sex educator at Venus Envy and became an MFA candidate at OCAD University in the Interdisciplinary Art, Media and Design graduate studies programme. Twist's work has been praised for its raw, vulnerable exploration of grief, trauma, and identity within Indigenous and trans spaces, bridging the gap between contemporary visual art, performance, and community-focused sex education.

Career

Writing Arielle Twist began writing in 2017 after being encouraged by her mentor Kai Cheng Thom Arielle met Billy-Ray Belcourt during her Banff Centre who guided her through her first manuscript. in her book Disintegrate / Dissociate published on June 4, 2019 by Arsenal Pulp Press. The book focuses on "human relationships, death, and metamorphosis". Her poems, which have been described as raw, confrontational, and eloquent, examine themes of colonization, kinship, displacement, and transmisogyny. and the Indigenous Voices Award for English poetry in 2020.

Short Works YearTitlePublished LocationType.2017"What It's Like to Be a Native Trans Woman on Thanksgiving"ThemEssay 2018"On Translating the Untranslatable"Canadian ArtEssay "Soakers"The FiddleheadPoem "Rework"This Magazine Poem "Contemporary Poetics of Trans Women of Colour Artists"Facilitated by: Kama La MackerelPerformance "Vacant Faces"Khyber Centre for the ArtsExhibit 2019"Together Apart Issue 2: Projections"Series "Poems for Impending Doom – Digital Exhibition"Halifax's Centre for Art TapesExhibit "Cumming Commons"SBC GalleryPerformance "Split Tooth"Canadian ArtReview 2020"Trancestry"Canadian ArtEssay "Post Emo Theory"Canadian ArtPoem 2021"How streaming video games on Twitch helped me find pure, unapologetic joy in the midst of a pandemic"CBC ArtsEssay