Join MoAD and Black Freighter Press for the final event in our four-week Community Voices: Poets Speak series. This group reading and celebration will feature six poets sharing original poetry written in response to the current exhibitions on view at MoAD. Featured poets include Briana Grogan, D'mani Thomas, Porsche Veu, LadiRev, Raymond Nat Turner, and Duane Horton. Light refreshments will be served.

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About the Poets

Briana Grogan (she/they) is a Black queer femme from Southern California. Her poetry found form in San Francisco, where they currently live and work as a community doula. She is a 2023 SFA grant recipient of the San Francisco Artist Commission. They received their MFA in Poetry from Mills College. Her writing explores the silence in grief and rejoice in healing. They were an artist in residence at Art House San Clemente, the Guest Poetry Editor for Foglifter Journal Vol. 8, and a finalist for the 2021 Button Poetry Chapbook Contest. Her work can be found in Foglifter Journal, The Ana, Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora, and is upcoming in When We Exhale.

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D'mani Thomas (he \ they) is a writer, nerd and aspiring filmmaker based in Oakland, California (Ohlone territory). He’s interested in the tiny moments that capture attention spans. He has received invitations to fellowship from The Watering Hole, Foglifter, Afro Urban Society, and UC Berkeley’s Art & Research Center via The Engaging the Senses Foundation. In 2023, they became a finalist for the 2022 Penrose Poetry Prize, and were awarded an emerging voices fellowship through PEN America for the 2023 cycle. D’mani’s debut chapbook, “Grown-up Elementary”, was published earlier this year through Nomadic Press (now available through Black Lawrence Press). Outside of poetry, catch them studying horror movies, dancing, and eating too many fries.

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Porsche Veu (pronounced Por-shuh Vay-ooo) aka The Poetic Activist is an author, speaker, and artist from Oakland, CA. She has been invited to speak, perform, and teach in a variety of spaces including NAACP, Ted Talk, Apple, Google, Center for Independent Living, & Public Advocates. Passionate about faith, social justice, Black & women empowerment, and mental health, Porsche aims to bridge the gap between faith & social justice, create atmospheres for uncomfortable yet important conversations, and inspire others to tell their own stories through motivational speaking, workshops, poetry and music.

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LadiRevolutionary (LadiRev) is an educator/spoken word artist from Bayview Hunters Point. Her poetry is a reflection of personal growth along with values learned from family and community. LadiRev is passionate about community, education, and healing. She is the host of Talkn Owt Da Side of Da Necc Podcast, which focuses on individual healing practices. She is set to release her first book, Heal, in 2023. “It only takes one person to make a stand but it takes a community to make a change” LadiRev.

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“The Town Crier,” Raymond Nat Turner, is a NYC poet privileged to have read at the Harriet Tubman Centennial Symposium. He is Artistic Director of the stalwart JazzPoetry Ensemble UpSurge!NYC and has appeared at numerous festivals and venues including the Monterey Jazz Festival and Panafest in Ghana West Africa. He currently is Poet-in-Residence at Black Agenda Report. Turner's work has also been anthologized and published in other online and print  publications. He is former Co-Chair of the New York Chapter of the National Writers Union (NWU). Turner has opened for such people as James Baldwin, sportswriter Dave Zirin and CA Congresswoman Barbara Lee following her lone vote against attacking Afghanistan.

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Duane Horton is a black queer fantasy writer who currently resides in the Bay Area. He believes in writing his intersection of identity into his fantasy stories so that those who share his intersection of identity can see themselves represented on the page. Duane graduated with his MFA in Creative Writing from Mill College in 2019 and since then, he has been featured in Free Spirit literature magazine, Green Mountains Review, Sea Glass Literary, Sapphire Hues Press and more. Duane is an avid reader, anime watcher and a huge Buffy the Vampire fan and can be found watching reruns on Hulu.

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This program series is presented in partnership with Black Freighter Press. Black Freighter Press publishes revolutionary books. They are committed to the exploration of liberation, using art to transform consciousness.  A platform for Black and Brown writers to honor ancestry and propel radical imagination.