Rachel Bagby

Rachel Bagby is a US-based, award-winning performance artist, author, poet, composer, and vocalist.

Biography
Rachel Bagby, J.D. (Stanford Law School) is the originator of the poetic form she calls Dekaaz™; a form consisting of ten syllables in three-lines. The first line is 2 syllables, the second is 3 syllables and the last line is 5 syllables. The name comes from the Greek root of the word ten (deka) + the letters "a" and "z" to signify the range of human experience that can be expressed in "just ten/syllables/...three lines 2/3/5." To complete the process of creating a Dekaaz, you must speak it out loud to another living being.

Bagby is also the author of Divine Daughters: Liberating the Power and Passion of Women's Voices (Harper San Francisco, 1999). Her publications include articles about sustainability in Natural Home, The Wall Street Journal   , Time, Ms. Magazine , Women of Power, and others, as well as poetry in literary journals. Her anthologized contributions can be found in Nature and the Human Spirit: Toward an Expanded Land Management Ethic, (Venture Publishing, State College, PA, 1995); Circles of Strength: Community Alternatives to Alienation, (New Society Publishing, Philadelphia, PA 1993); Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism, (Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, CA 1990); and Healing the Wounds (New Society Publishing, Santa Cruz, CA: 1989).

She has released two recordings of her compositions, Full and Reach Across the Lines. Full features her soundtrack for the Emmy Award-winning documentary, Dialogues with Madwomen.

Bagby has established Singing Farm, a solar-powered, 20-acre organic farm and musical learning center in Central Virginia.

Honors

 * Donella Meadows Sustainability Institute Fellow (2009–2010)
 * Arts and Healing Network Artist of the Year Award (2008)
 * Bioneers Award (2003)
 * Advisory Council for the River of Words program, co-founded by former US Poet Laureate Robert Haas

Discography

 * Full (1993)
 * Reach Across the Lines (1989 and 2006)