Today we’d like to introduce you to Nancey B. Price.
Hi Nancey B., so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My story began with paper. Or maybe even trees. As someone who grew up in the country (Girard, GA to be exact), I spent a lot of time outdoors among the fields on family land, beneath the shade of trees and climbing throughout their branches. I found peace and escape in these places. So it makes sense that I also found peace in escape in their byproducts. My creative journey first started with writing my story in the pages of my childhood journals, then it quickly evolved into writing fiction and eventually with paper dolls. That was my early childhood.
As I grew older, my child-like creativity was replaced with a drive to achieve a career that was more socially-acceptable. And throughout my teen years and early adulthood, I did the things I thought I was supposed to do to achieve a achieve a career I thought I was supposed to have. All the while, my creativity lay dormant, patiently waiting for me to remember the ways of my youth. That re-memory came after I graduated college and decided to step away from the dream I thought I wanted to live, which created space for the dream I’m currently living.
Today, I can confidently call myself a storyteller. I tell visual stories through analog collage, written stories through flash fiction, and audio stories with my podcast, Dreaming in Color with Nancey B. Price. In each of my creative pursuits, I seek to build worlds in with Black people can exist in all of their beauty and complexity from the fields of rural America to the stars in the night sky and everywhere in between. I’ve illustrated for a number of book covers and nationally-recognized publications, including O, the Oprah Magazine, Garden&Gun Magazine, and Southern Cultures. My work has also been highlighted in Black Collagists: The Book, BlackJoy at Reckon News, and Motif Magazine.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The hardest part of my journey thus far has been fully accepting that the life I live is the life that’s 100% for me. For a large part of my creative journey, I shied away from this idea that I could live a life that was sustained by my creativity. In fact, that’s one of the reasons I initially chose to pursue a more socially-acceptable career path. The security of a steady paycheck, a retirement, a set schedule—all of those things appealed to me. However, I eventually had to accept that having those things alone will not bring fulfillment to my life. And that taking the road less-traveled is part of my destiny. That was a really hard pill to swallow, especially as someone who wasn’t prone to taking risks. But once I accepted what the Universe was trying to show me, that’s when everything started to come into focus for me.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a storyteller. A Black collagist. A writer. A podcaster. An entrepreneur. I’m everything. I create worlds and safe spaces where Black people can exist freely in all their beauty and complexity. As a collage artist, I center and celebrate images of Blackness. As a writer, I invoke magical realism and the southern gothic tradition to tell stories of rural Black folks. As a podcaster, I create space for Black dream stories, our collective subconscious and our relationship with both. As a workshop facilitator, I invite participants to explore their own stories with collage and the written word in order to build a community centered on creative safety and security.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
Most people might not know that I wrote my first novel when I was just 14 years old. Before that, I had written a series of short stories that—though unfinished—helped build my confidence as a writer. The idea for the novel first came to me when I was in first grade, and now, looking back on the seven-year journey it took to complete it, I realize that finishing a creative project of that scale at such a young age was an early sign of my deep commitment to storytelling. That dedication continues to fuel my art to this day.
Pricing:
- Commissioned Artwork: starting at $250
- Collage Workshops: $150/hour + travel
- Speaking: prices vary
Contact Info:
- Website: https://nanceybprice.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nanceybprice/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancey-b-price-b67a33192/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@nanceybprice
