“Courageous. Writing and singing full-frontal.” —NPR 

"There are artists who make music. And there are artists who create worlds. Licity Collins belongs to this second breed. What Collins does isn't just art. 
It's emotional alchemy." —CR Indie

Licity Collins is fearless. A multidimensional genre-busting artist, she creates Classical Chamber Music, Funky-folky Songs, and Jazzy Instrumentals, as well as Flow State Meditation Music. She collaborates with artists from around the world in her genre-mixed SynchroLicity Collective.

Passionate about the power of music, Licity was named the inaugural Music Fellowship at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, and a Sozo Arts Fellow. Licity also served on the BRAVO Community and Education Committee of the prestigious Ojai Music Festival. Licity’s newest work-in-progress is a spoken-sung Opera titled One Death in Seven Doorways, which was awarded a prestigious Creative Heights grant from the Oregon Community foundation. 

As a composer Licity leans into a deep emotionality that pushes performers to bring their own personal narratives into the performance of her works. She is deeply collaborative and offers her musicians a great deal of “permission” which is the meaning of her name. Licity grew up in the cello section of the Washington DC Youth Orchestra and hears the world like a symphony.

As a song and spoken-prose writer Licity pushes boundaries in all directions. Her funky-folky albums combine folk intimacy, classic rock bravado, and intimate spoken prose into a genre-defying, captivating experience. Her unique spoken prose paired with collaboratively composed music creates a fresh sonic partnership. 

As a singer, guitarist, and performer, Licity’s raw and rhythmic style draw audiences deeply into the vulnerability of her voice—as real as it gets. She has been described as “perfectly delicious. moving...genuinely heartfelt,” and “shaped by emotion, confidence and shared vulnerability...more than a show—giving listeners a sense of uplift.” (VC Reporter) and “Courageous. Writing and singing full-frontal.” (NPR)

Licity’s passion for theatre prompted her to co-found the Portland, Oregon boundary-pushing consensus-based defunkt theatre company, where she also designed award-winning found-object sets. She helped create community-based scripts with Cornerstone Theater in Los Angeles. She designed and founded the Women’s Theatre Project in Providence Rhode Island which brought theatre as a tool of expression and healing to women in prison and is now a national model.

As a conceptual artist, her works utilize installation, assemblage, and performance in the gallery, museum, on the stage, and in the street, with tools from house paint to audio, to hand-sewn textiles, to electrical devices, to her own body—often incorporating sound as part of the experience. Licity was one of a handful of trailblazing artists to manipulate the nascent internet, creating satirical culturally interrogatory work that dissected racism. She is the author of two related satirical humor books one which gained an Honorable Mention from The Gustavus Meyers Center for The Study of Bigotry and Human Rights. This body of work gained world-wide attention, received awards, and was featured in numerous stories on NPR, and Public Radio International and is cited in several art history books and classroom courses worldwide.

Licity holds a bachelor’s degree from Brown University in American Civilization and Public Policy. She received a Master of Fine Art from Portland State University after a successful launch as a self-taught artist. Having lived in Washington DC, Providence, Chicago, and Ojai, California, Licity is currently based in Portland Oregon.