About Janea

Baltimore City - Station North A&E District
Janea Kelly is a later bloomer who lives in Baltimore, Maryland. Janea is one of those people who took the long way around and is better off for it. As a child with a heavy yet happy heart and ant-like strength, Janea was drawn to poetry and sprawling her complaints and hopes in sea green crayons. Ever since she was made to memorize a Langston Hughes poem for a primary school recital, Janea was aware of the power of speaking poetry, of its performance. After a long battle with trauma and mental… more

We Are Beautiful Here & Every Where It Hurts

We Are Beautiful Here & Every Where It Hurts is the first and beginning of a trilogy of self-published poetry zines that Janea wrote the bulk of the material after a heartbreaking incident and deals with her internal discourse regarding love, forgiveness, and biology. From fearing her mother in her reflection to romantizing Griffon Eagles, Janea confronts her issues with intimacy at a lower rate than a therapist. It's a collection of poetry that took 5 years to comply and includes new and old work.
  • We Are Beautiful Here & Everywhere It Hurts
    We Are Beautiful Here & Everywhere It Hurts
    We Are Beautiful Here & Everywhere It Hurts, cover page and a photograph the artist took years ago while on a walk alone after a panic attack.
  • Fields Festival Write Up
    Fields Festival Write Up
    Janea performed at a local festival in Maryland called Fields Festival. A quote from her poem "Leap" was included in the write. "Leap" is found inside of "We Are Beautiful Here & Everywhere It Hurts."
  • we are beautiful here and everywhere.pdf
    The full zine of the collection "We Are Beautiful Here & Everywhere." It contains the poems "Leap" and "Teenage Scavenger."

It Hurts 2B Born

The second installment in a trilogy on intimacy and sexual trauma. It's 
  • hurts 2 b .jpeg
    hurts 2 b .jpeg
    The cover page to the second zine "It Hurts 2b Born"
  • Hurts2b Born.pdf

It Hurts 2B Touched

The final installment in a trilogy on intimacy, trauma, and what it means to hope to re-do the way we create narratives. It's the stickiness of existence and the mythology that is created when we hurdle over the impossible. It's heartbreak, it's the grief of losing and the aftershocks of depression. It's how we, to take from Toni Morrison, re-memorize hurt and pain expresses and how we work through it. 
  • touched.JPG
    touched.JPG
    The cover page of the zine "It Hurts 2B Touched."
  • Touche d.pdf
    The full zine "It Hurts 2B Touched." This is the final installment in the trilogy.

Tender.FM

Tender FM is a poetry and performance night held at The Crown, a Korean restaurant and venue, in Baltimore, Maryland. It was conceived when two poets, with desire to build community and run an electric current of softness through Baltimore's new emerging entertainment and arts scene and give refuge for vulnerability. It's a series for everyone, a sanctuary to creative expression, that's curated and hosted by Janea Kelly and Anna K Crooks. 

It's a beautiful evening of poetry from MFA and nervous to prolific and formally unequipped. It's about the human and ugly parts of our souls, the hurt pieces that draw us together. It's what we can see in each other that makes us think "same, similar, me." 
  • Tender x Artscape
    Tender x Artscape
    Tender FM's Janea Kelly and Anna K Crook's were asked to curate a poetry and performance pop-up at Artscape in 2016. This is Janea Kelly performing.
  • Hosts
    Hosts
    Janea Kelly and Anna K Crooks hosting Tender FM (photograph by Brian O'Doherty). Janea and Anna are co-hosts and curators.
  • Flyer One.jpg
    Flyer One.jpg
    A flyer by Anna K Crooks for the first Tender FM
  • Flyer4
    Flyer4
    The 4th poster for Tender FM (art by Anna K Crooks)
  • Best Poetry Series
    Best Poetry Series
    Tender Fm won "Best Poetry Series"
  • Screen Shot 2017-01-23 at 4.43.25 PM.png
    Screen Shot 2017-01-23 at 4.43.25 PM.png
    Due to efforts in Tender.FM and performing locally, Janea Kelly earned the award of "Best Poet" from The Baltimore City Paper.