Biography

Isabella Calisi Wagner is an interdisciplinary artist/poet, social activist, and educator. Born and reared in Flushing, she lived in Fresh Meadows for many years before moving to the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Isabella is a member of IAWA (Italian-American Writers Association) and 100 Thousand Poets for Change. Her poetry appears in The Wingless Dreamer Journal, Book of Black and is archived online in the NYPL Pandemic Diaries (2021.) Her writings about women sculptors appear on the www.womensactivism.nyc website.

She is a member of Thursday Morning Poets, a prompt-based poetry group formed through the Queens Borough Public Library and Queens Poet Laureate Maria Lisella’s online writing events.

In addition, her AARP/New York and Islip Arts Council-produced Art to Graffiti Poetry Master Class series is on the Islip Arts Council website: www.isliparts.org. She also conducts weekly Meditation Drawing and Poetry workshops for her UWS community association, BAiP (Bloomingdale Aging in Place.) In addition, she serves as a volunteer Zoom host for various other BAiP programs.

Giustina (vimeo.com/170552004), Isabella’s co-authored short film screenplay, won over 25 national/international awards, including The Focus Awards and The NY Focus Film Best Short in 1980 and was broadcast on HBO and PBS.

Isabella’s pencil drawing entitled Duty will appear in the March 2022 edition of the American Journal of Nursing.

Isabella has an MFA from New York University School of the Arts and an M.S. Ed. from Queens College. She is a retired social studies and library teacher, working for over 27 years in Flushing. She recruited and organized annual school-wide ReadAloud programs with 50+ volunteer readers from all walks of NY political, media, cultural groups. Her ReadAloud programs included outreach, fundraising, networking events, and student usher programs.