Arsimmer McCoy

Arsimmer McCoy is a writer, international poet, educator, creative programmer and cultural worker from Richmond Heights, Fla. McCoy’s work covers conversations about identity, self-reflection, human connectivity, legacy, validation, and transparency. McCoy’s writings delve into her experiences of growing up in Miami; oftentimes exploring its underpinnings and community threading, through storytelling. Currently, McCoy is the acting Director of Programming for Bookleggers Library, a nonprofit mobile book store, designed to distribute and exchange free literature, of all genres, throughout the city.

McCoy has been a teaching artist for 5+ years, working alongside veteran educators in public schools, with the goal of intertwining creative programming and state-based curriculum. She has worked with organizations such as Scrap paper Inc, O,Miami Sunroom Poetry school, Honeyshine Camp, Urgent Inc., and Miami-Dade public library. McCoy creates and facilitates workshops in creative writing as well.

McCoy has just completed the summer cohort artist residency at Bakehouse Art Complex, and looks forward to her AIRIE fellowship residency taking place in 2022. McCoy is the recipient of the 2021 Miami Foundation racial equity grant, and Locust Project’s 2021 Wavemaker grant. Arsimmer’s work has been featured in RootWork Journal, Mixed Magazine, The Lighthouse Review, Creatures Mag, and Opal Literary. “You can always come home,” a film produced by Monica Sorelle and directed by Juan Matos (for Architect/artist Germane Barnes) narrated via a joint piece written by McCoy and visual artist Reginald O’Neal, premiered at the New Orleans Film festival in November 2021. Arsimmer was also a featured poet in sculptor GeoVanna Gonzalez’s art film “How to: Look at you.” When Arsimmer is not writing or performing, she is working on her passion project of turning her home into an exhibition space (entitled Ms. Mary’s House|The Carol City Museum) and mothering her 11-year-old daughter who dances like fire.

McCoy holds a BA in English from Florida Memorial University in Miami Gardens, Florida.