Leah Marché is an arts entrepreneur, performance poet and journalist/writer. In 2005, she co-founded BlackPoet Ventures, a Valley-based performance arts company that produces spoken word theatrical performances. To further its work, BPV received a surprise three-year seed grant from the New York-based Robert Rauschenberg Foundation in 2013. Critically acclaimed productions have been its 2008 presentation of Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When The Rainbow Is Enuf (South Mountain Community College/Phoenix AZ; ASU Kerr Cultural Center/Scottsdale AZ) and the 2009-2011 showings of Cool Like That: A Tribute To Miles Davis (Rhythm Room/Phoenix AZ; ASU Kerr Cultural Center), which was part of the PHX Fringe Festival and the inaugural St. Louis Fringe Festival.

 

With her company, she has written, arranged, adapted or performed in these other noted productions: EchoVerses: Black Poets Yesterday Today (Herberger Theater Center/Phoenix AZ, Tempe Center for the Arts/Tempe AZ; Carver Museum and Cultural Center/Phoenix AZ; Phoenix College/Phoenix AZ); Winners Have Yet To Be Announced: A Tribute To Donny Hathaway (Arts Exchange/Atlanta GA; Playhouse on the Park/Phoenix AZ); as well as a special tribute to Muhammad Ali (Carver Museum and Cultural Center; South Phoenix Youth Center). BPV co-promoted Black Theatre Troupe's 2008-2009 season production of Revenge of A King for which Leah served as assistant stage manager. The production was accepted to the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, NC.

 

She was part of the cast of BPV's special summer production of Suzan-Lori Park's The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World (Phoenix Center for the Arts, 2014) and performed in BTT's A Song For Coretta (Playhouse on the Park, 2012); both productions directed by Michael Traylor.

 

Leah has represented her native Phoenix on two National Poetry Slam teams (2007, 2011). She has participated in numerous community events and stage shows showcasing her spoken word poetry. She presented at: GreenBiz Forum; Arts & Business Council of Phoenix's Annual Breakfast themed "New Artittude"; Ignite Phoenix 10 with "So You THINK You Can Design?"; and TEDx Phoenix/Scottsdale sharing a poem and topic on "Starving Artists."

 

Part of the administrative staff at Herberger Theater Center and a freelance graphic designer, Leah is founding member/organizer for Convergent Arts, co-coordinator of the Several Lives Book Club and has been a contributing writer for BroadwayBlack.com and ValleyHype.com. She was selected to participate in the inaugural Community Ventures Program of SEED SPOT, a social entrepreneur incubator, for her poetry project Send-A-Poet. She has served on the entertainment committee for the Phoenix Festival of the Arts and hosted two weekly arts & culture programs ("The Bungalow Show" and "LIVE POETIC") on RadioPhoenix.org, an online community radio station. Leah Marché was the recipient of the inaugural Arizona Art Tank grant (2014) and a finalist in Phoenix New Times 2013 Big Brain Awards.