About

Pacia Elaine Anderson has always had a fascination with words. As a child, she would spend hours writing, speaking, reading, and drawing as an early meditative practice that would serve as a precursor to her creative work as an adult; one which draws from the artistry inherent in language to connect, to make sense of the world around her, and to tell a good story.

Pacia Elaine's poetic work is a charismatic blend of rhyme, layered imagery, and fantasy, all of which are used to explore a diversity of  subject matter and co-create visceral, emotive experiences for readers and listeners alike. Pacia's visual work serves as a conduit for moving us to contemplation, and for channeling infinite possibilities of reshaping ideas, color, space, line, and the imagination to both remind and affirm the connectedness of and divinity in us all.

The written, spoken, visual, and teaching Word Artist’s professional work meets at the intersection of arts-learning and community development, with a focus on youth advocacy and the reclamation of the cultural practices, traditions, and customs of the African Diaspora.

Pacia Elaine is a graduate of the Community Arts Training Institute, an Urban Bush Women SLI alumnus, a 2020 New Leaders Council-St. Louis fellow, and a founding member of the youth-based art camp Cherokee Street Reach. She is also Creative Director of the St. Louis Brick City Poetry Festival and a Missouri Regional Coordinator for the NEA-sponsored Poetry Out Loud youth recitation competition. In 2020, Pacia became the St. Louis Visionary Awards’ “Community Impact Artist” Honoree.

Liaison for the Great Rivers Greenway Artists of Color Council, Pacia is a consulting artist and national workshop facilitator with Americans for the Arts’ Artists at the Community Development Table initiative. An artist deeply invested in the neighborhood where she lives, Pacia has played key roles in the development of the Gravois-Jefferson Historic Neighborhoods Plan, and as a Cherokee Street Development League board member. 

Additionally, Pacia has served as Curation Assistant to inaugural St. Louis Poet Laureate Dr. Michael Castro, and a Springboard to Learning professional development facilitator for teaching artists in the Regional Arts' Commission's Teaching Artist Institute. She collaborates as a teaching artist, creative consultant, and community development and engagement strategist with numerous academic, non-profit, civic, and community-based organizations and institutions, both locally and nationally. She firmly supports the youth development work of Freedom Arts Education Center, URB Arts, and Good Journey Development Foundation. 

In 2016, Pacia released her first spoken word poetry album titled circa.ep. Her work has been published in Drumvoices Revue, Crossing the Divide, ArtsLink, and All the Art, among others. She continues to write, speak, read, and draw nationally. Her first collection of poetry and is forthcoming.