Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) and Youth Speaks are teaming up to highlight some of the Bay Area’s most talented youth poets! This year’s Community Voices: Poets Speak series is all about youth voices.  

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This five-week series joins poets and the visual arts for a captivating experience! Eight Bay Area youth poets will share new poems created in response to MoAD’s current exhibition, The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion. Join us in the MoAD galleries to experience creativity at the intersection of visual art and poetry.

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Every Thursday at 5pm from January 12-February 9th the poets will perform original work leading up to the group reading and celebration on Thursday February 9th at 6pm.

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Upcoming Community Voices: Poets Speak Readings

1/19 5-6pm Community Voices: Poets Speak-Myra Estrada & Sahara Frett

1/26 5-6pm Community Voices: Poets Speak-Zouhair Mussa & Aleja Cobarruviaz

2/2 5-6pm Community Voices: Poets Speak-Christell Victoria Roach & Niambi Walker

2/9 6-8pm Community Voices: Poets Speak-Closing Reception

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Featured Poets

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Reggie Edmonds (They/Them) is a poet, educator, and cultural curator based out of Oakland, CA. They are the co-founder of Rich Oak Events which organizes the Oakland Poetry Slam, the Berkeley Poetry Slam, the Rich Oak Alchemy Slam, and the online platform Bay Poets Unite. They have been awarded various fellowships and awards from organizations like Nomadic Press, the Afro Urban Society, Shuffle Collective and others. Their work can be found in Rigorous Magazine, Foglifter Journal, Stentorian Bitch and two self published chapbooks, I’m Too Black For this Shxt (2017) and SadBoi (2019). ig and twitter: @Reggiepoetry

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Collin Edmonds, also known as “The Artist Formerly Known as Cornrow Collin, is an activist, singer, and poet hailing from Richmond,Ca. He is one fourth of the Rich Oak Alchemy Slam and Oakland Poetry Slam organizing crew. In his spare time he enjoys writing poetry (duh), critiquing societal norms, listening to loud hip hop music in affluent white neighborhoods, and shattering expectations of black men in America.

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