Sandy Diamond and Quasimodo & the Bellringers
Sandy Diamond studied literature at Brandeis University and earned a BFA from Columbia University’s School of the Arts as a Painting Fellow. Her life motifs are manic depression and a fractured spine; she traded painting for poetry, writing about the broken body and mind. Her first book, “Miss Coffin & Mrs. Blood: Poems of Art & Madness,” was published by Creative Arts Book Company in 1994. While writing her second book, “The Hunchback,” at Centrum Arts in Port Townsend, Diamond feared her subject matter would be too sad, and so hooked up with some simpatico jazz/blues musicians. Thus Quasimodo & the Bellringers was born. The group has performed at Bumbershoot, the Blue Moon Tavern, Elliott Bay Book Co., on NPR’s West Coast Live, and regularly at the Upstage Theater in Port Townsend. Diamond has also read solo at prisons, high schools, and organizations for the mentally ill.
Artist Support Program 2005: Recorded the album Still Life
