Out and About Newspaper (2006) writes: "Defiant, poignant and straightforward Mattison’s work hits you where you live and cuts to the very core with a razor sharp edge of rage at the policies of exclusion, apathy and greed that permeate out society. Unafraid to offend delicate sensibilities or coddle the faint-of-heart, Mattison tackles the issues of poverty, homophobia, gender issues, and civil rights with an unparalleled ferocity that challenges even the most stalwart of opposition."
Ami has performed at various art venues, festivals and conferences around the country, including the United States Social Forum (Atlanta, 2007), the Lesbian and Gay Medical Association Symposium (San Francisco, 2006), Homo-A-Go-Go (Olympia, 2004), National Women’s Studies Association Annual Conference (New Orleans, 2003), and Forword Girls (San Francisco, 2002). Some of the universities and colleges where she’s given speeches, held workshops, and performed are Cornell College (2006), UCLA (2005, 2006), University of Maryland-Baltimore County (2004), Emory University (2004), Georgia State University (2003), Agnes Scott College (2003), and Antioch College (2003, 2004).
Ami's demo CD, Strange and Potent Mixture, is described by Nashville Scene (2004) as "not for the faint of heart or those with sensibilities too delicate to confront tough issues straight on. Of the nine poetic performances on Strange and Potent Mixture, all deal with identity, all are political, and all but a couple rage against American antipathy toward people of color, women, homosexuals and the poor…her poems are broadsides against a hostile culture of hate and greed.”
Ami shares two co-writing credits and a featured performance on Nashville songwriter Ross Falzone’s debut CD Radical Heart (Poet People, 2004). Nashville Scene described Dyke Verse City--Ami’s collaboration with indie-rocker Sonia Tetlow(STB; Cowboy Mouth) and her longtime co-conspirator, the Atlanta-based poet Amand Kail—as “a kind of feminist Ramones combining mock-rock anthems with scathing political and social critique” (2004).
Born in New Orleans, LA and raised in Montgomery, AL, Ami lived in Atlanta, GA for nearly two decades before she moved in 2004 to the Midwest to serve as Visiting Assistant Professor in Women Studies at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. In 2005, she returned to her primary preoccupation with being a poet. Currently, she resides near Detroit, Michigan.
