Leslie was first introduced to Ntozake Shange in the eighth grade (2004), and around this time she began writing poetry and later performing as a spoken-word poet. Leslie has performed at open mics on stages across the United States and as a featured guest poet at events such as Fort Worth Opera’s Black Night of Excellence and the Leadership Celebration of the strategic narrative-building organization, ReFrame, in New York, NY. When taking the open mic stage these days, she uses the moniker Byzantine Hoodoo. 

In 2019, Leslie expanded her writing, returning to the once-desired goal of writing choreopoems and establishing herself in the theater world as a playwright and choreopoet. Since then, she has conducted research with the Shange archives at Barnard College in New York, NY, and over the past five years has completed two residencies and received three grants, enabling her to further explore the method within her performance practice and academic scholarship. Leslie has technical and liturgical dance experience, which she incorporates into her choreopoem performances alongside Afro-Indigenous movement. She is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at Howard University in Washington, DC, with a final project exploring the choreopoem as a form of preaching in the public square. 

Leslie says that “my attraction to this method is the way Shange not only adjusted the gaze of American theater from traditional playwriting through her writing form, but also how she insisted that movement /dance and music were integral to the Diasporic tradition and therefore the choreopoem because of how they invite ancestral presence, and by which they become their own characters.” 

Leslie’s choreopoems are now being written and produced under Plenty Good Room Productions.

Shange; 8” × 10” mixed-media collage on paper; fabric, gold leaf, found jewelry