Conversations on Sound & Image with Poet Mia Tomé

Title – Voices, Sounds and the Spoken Word:“There Is a Herbarium in the Desert”

Synopsis – This work is rooted in the poetry of Emily Dickinson, in both English and Portuguese, with translations by Portuguese poet Ana Luísa Amaral. In this poetry album, we find musical interpretations of Dickinson’s poems that explore the soundscape of the desert, the plasticity of sound, and the resonance of the word, inspired by landscapes from the Sonoran Desert. With a particular focus on the Portuguese language, this project celebrates the Word, Natural World, and Feminine Poetry.

Bio – Mia Tomé is an Actress, Singer, and Voice Artist, she trained at The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York with a scholarship from the Gulbenkian Foundation. She holds a degree in “Theatre” from the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema, and a Master’s in Arts Education from the Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade de Lisboa.

Mia developed projects focused on feminine poetry, such as Projeto Natália, which led to international performances in Washington DC, Boston, New York, and a presentation at Dartmouth.

In 2021, she began her professional connection with Arizona during an artist residency funded by FLAD, focusing on “Women Artists of the West” through the intersection of music, poetry, and moving image. She built, then, a project based on Emily Dickinson’s poetry, in Portuguese, collaborated with producer Francis Kelly and recorded “Há um Herbário no Deserto” at Oracle Recording Studio.

She has performed on stages such as the Harvard Club (Manhattan), Dartmouth (Massachusetts), and Fast Forward (Dresden, Germany). She has collaborated with artists such as Luísa Sequeira, Alex & The Moondaze, Noiserv, Elisa Rodrigues and Clara Lacerda.