lyrical storytella & media pro
karen lee (she/her)
is an award-winning lyrical storyteller
& media pro, living in Tkaronto/Toronto.
in a world that hates the way our very hair grows from our natural heads, karen lee is a lyrical storyteller for us – especially Black wimmin who insist on straightening our backs against Black girl/voicelessness and racist/colonial violence. she sings feminist resistance legacies via powerful, distinctive poetry that resounds. her narrative, confessional rooms in the house of Afrikan-Caribbean orature, strive to contain the unspeakable; chant Joy. Beauty. Literary libations for Black liberatory imagination.
Fraser Collins Photography: @flipdascr!pt, https://www.frasercollins.com/.
Gorgeous, bright macrame Kaya Dua neckpiece by Eyiwaa, https://www.kayadua.com/
karen lee writes *powerful, distinctive poetry that resounds. Winner of a 2023 Cave Canem fellowship, Bread Loaf Katharine Bakeless Nason Contributor Award in Poetry, and the 2020 Pacific Spirit Poetry Grand Prize, PRISM international, her polyvocal refusals are published in Room, The Fiddlehead, The Malahat Review, The Humber Literary Review, Brick/Brickyard, anthologized in Watch Your Head: Writers and Artists Respond to the Climate Crisis, and shortlisted for the 2018 Small Axe Literary Prize. she attended Winter Tangerine Writer’s Workshop, 2018. Tekkin Back Tongue, her poetry manuscript in progress, is named after her self-directed writing residency in Ghana, Kenya (2018), courtesy of the Ontario Arts Council. she conducted self-directed writing residencies in Kenya (2021), Germany, France (2022), and Jamaica (2024), visiting Senegal with Rose Pan African Education that same year. She is grateful to the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Toronto Arts Council for their support.
lee supports accessibility and social justice as a fully accredited Jamaican Patois court interpreter (Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General Registry), voiceover artist, described video narrator, vocalist and actor.
*Iain Higgins, Editor, The Malahat Review.
selected publications
& audio/visual poems:
“say you gonna be my testimony” & “does it have a sound?”
Audio poems with transcripts for Obsidian Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora, as an inaugural O|Sessions 1.0 Black Listening Performance Masterclass fellow.
Generator TO + The Black Pledge
www.generatorto.com / www. theblackpledge.ca
@generatorto / @blackpledgecanada
“I coulda did Halle’s Hair in The Little Mermaid,” says Arlette Pender, Kitchen Beautician Turned Hairstylist to the Stars,” is commissioned by the Black Pledge in collaboration with Generator TO.
“The Black Pledge May Cause a Willingness to Be Inconvenienced,” is commissioned by The Black Pledge, and published here!
Generator TO + The Black Pledge
www.generatorto.com / www. theblackpledge.ca
@generatorto / @blackpledgecanada
The New Quarterly Digital Edition
“Finding the Form with Karen Lee,” The New Quarterly Digital Edition, Writers Resources. Musings on process while writing “This is Not a Poem.”
“This is Not a Poem,” a braided lyric essay is published here! The essay contains three poems: “COMPLETE EACH SENTENCE WITH THE CORRECT PHRASE. SOME SENTENCES ARE COMPLETE,” “quadrille: let what moves me carry you,” and “mango belly.”
The New Quarterly, Issue 165
Editor: Pamela Mulloy & the Editorial Board
@thenewquarterly
Room 45.2 Tipping Point
Editor: Lue Palmer & The Editorial Board
@RoomMagazine
“ginnal”
and “YUH HAIR IS YUH BEAUTY” are published here!
“as if you were never Goddess Blacktastic,”
“we hunger our way to wrinkled nipples, language story,”
and “pantoum: dry heave of all the way tired,” are published here!
The Fiddlehead BIPOC Solidarities No 290 Winter 2022
Poetry Editors: Rebecca Salazar, Phoebe Wang & the Poetry Editorial Board
@TheFiddlehd
PRISM International 59.3 Spring 2021
Editor: Emily Chou @prisminternational
“only the bottom left quadrant of my hair is full,” 2020 Pacific Spirit Poetry Grand Prize winner is published here!
Judge: Ariana Brown, @arianathepoet.
“blister” and “push” are published here!
The Malahat Review Issue 212
Editor: Iain Higgins & the Poetry Editorial Board, @malahatreview
Watch Your Head: Wrters & Artists Respond to the Climate Crisis
Editor: Kathryn Mockler & the editors, 2020.
@watchyrhead @coachhousebooks
“gLITTER” is published here!
“Plantain Woman,” is published here!
The Humber Literary Review Volume 6 Issue 1 fall + winter 2018/19
Poetry Editor: Canisia Lubrin, @humberliteraryreview
Karen Lee at See You Again Arts Festival @WatchYrHead,
“gLITTER,” and “as if you were never Goddess Blacktastic,” live at Oculus Common, October 2, 2021.
Video courtesy: Fraser Collins, @flipdascr1pt, https://www.frasercollins.com/.
“This is How We Die,” “Sankofa,” and “Yellow,” for brick audio archives.
Curated by Adebe DeRango-Adem for Brick Books, 2019, @Brick.Books.
voice & reels:
I love sound.
I specialize in voice.
I articulate creative vision.
karen lee's voice is lifestyle; her vocals, a rich, deep, soulful register. From a boom chika wa wa voice tag to fizzy drink jingle; voicing eLearning videos to video game bruisers, lee has wrapped her voice around radio, television, film, commercial, corporate, animation and live productions including, Scotiabank International, Call Me Fitz (2010), Axe Deodorant, Subaru, Shiseido, Kenwood, SONY, Bloody Roar 4 (2003) and Dark Canvas: Blood and Stone (2013). lee supports accessible media as a described video narrator. She is a member of ACTRA and SOCAN.
Demo & coaching: Tracey Hoyt, http://www.traceyhoyt.com/.
Thumbnail ID: Me, a Black woman in metallic headwrap and cow-neck jacket, looks directly at camera against a wall painted with panthers. Top left, ‘play’ button, “karen lee”/ Karen Lee - Commercial Demo. Top right, “Soundcloud” and logo / ‘Share’ button. Waveform across bottom of screen, “1:22” on the right. “Cookie Policy” on bottom left-hand corner.
With Metis musician Conlin Delbaere-Sawchuk, @cdelchukl, at AGO Friday Nights, Toronto: Tributes + Tributaries, 1971-1989. A clip of Asa’s “Jailer” and my commissioned dub poem, “Housekeeping.”
Thumbnail ID: My hair is rolled in a natural poof. I wear gold hoop earrings and a belted dress. The mic is in my right hand, my left is a raised fist. Conlin has short curly hair, beard, jacket and tie. He plays electric guitar while looking at me amidst music stands and a bust in a doorway. Top left, profile picture of me / “klee w conlin AGO Friday Nights FB version”. Top right, “Watch later” and “share” beneath respective logos. “Watch on YouTube” with logo on bottom left corner.
Video courtesy: Gesilayefa Azorbo, @silafaen, http://www.gesilaazorbo.com/.
Most memorable audition booked:
“Boom chika waa waa.” (Axe Deodorant)
karen lee tucks her voice into zippers, animates electronics, lowers cholesterol, morphs her voice into cartoons, storybooks & video games; makes page numbers for language presses & exam questions for airlines exponentially more interesting. She has done top secret voiceover for self-defence forces in the Land of the Rising Sun, sucked the guilt out of credit cards - major bank! & tagged a popular deodorant for pheremonal humans.
lee hypes up corporate parties and sings jingles, live or in-studio. Resonant lower tones and melodiously soulful, she has sung, spoken, grunted & powered messages for industry giants in English, Japanese and Jamaican Patwah.
Favourite radio commercial tune sung:
“Angels Watching Over Me,” with an intro blurb in Japanese. (Kenwood)
Most concentration required:
Narrating page numbers. (Abax Press.)
Gotta keep each page number exciting, new, yet predictable!
clients I’ve done voiceover / sung for:
headshots:
Fraser Collins understood the assignment! (headshots 1 through 5) @flipdascr1pt; https://www.frasercollins.com/.
Kristen G brought the face make, styled the hair! (headshots 1 through 5) @kristengmakeup; https://kristengmakeup.com/.
Gorgeous green macrame neckpiece by Eyiwaa: @kayaduastudio; https://www.kayadua.com/.
Oyin Olalekan and my iPhone 7 work magic in headshot 6; @okay.oyin.
Self-styled with a touch of vintage. (no vintage in tank top headshot)
contact:
Black woman with a top knot, a cardigan over a semi-sweetheart neckline top, and large brass necklace, sits on a subway train car looking slightly to the right.
“Listening In, Listening Out,” illustration of me courtesy visual artist, Bushra Junaid, @rhabush7604.
Representation
NOBLE CAPLAN ABRAMS
Height
5’7”"
Weight
just right
Hair Color
Black
Eye Color
Brown