Sharing works that delight, provoke, inspire and rouse, the monthly Poetic Tuesdays series runs from May through October, turning lunchtime into an oasis of creative expression. Lighting up Jessie Square with a fabulously curated line-up of poets and musicians, Poetic Tuesdays offer a vivifying midday breather for neighborhood groups, students, office workers on break and out-of-towners looking for respite from The City’s hustle and bustle.

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This month's featured artists include Daniel B. Summerhill, Umniya Najaer, Darius Rashad Parker, Maya Raveneau-Bey, and Jean Nangwala.

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Featured Artists

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Daniel B. Summerhill is the author of Divine, Divine, Divine (2021), a semi-finalist for the Charles B. Wheeler and Saturnalia Poetry Prizes and Mausoleum of Flowers (2022). His poems and essays appear in Columbia Journal, Obsidian, Ploughshares, Callaloo, Academy of American Poets and elsewhere. Summerhill has earned fellowships from Baldwin for the Arts and The Watering hole. An Oakland native, Summerhill is Assistant Professor of Poetry at Santa Clara University and is the Inaugural Poet Laureate of Monterey County. His latest project, Praying for Rain converses with James Baldwin's legacy, poetics and relationships. Daniel believes in the liberation of oppressed peoples everywhere, especially through the dissolution of empire.

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Umniya Najaer is a black studies scholar, interdisciplinary writer, and PhD candidate at Stanford University.  She is interested in radically synergetic relations of being with each other and working towards a "humanism made to the measure of the world".  Her chapbook Armeika was published by Akashic press and other publications appear in Mizna, the Nation, and the So We Can Know Anthology by Boa Editions.  

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Darius Rashad Parker Is a Queer Black Scholar, Activist, Poet, and Performer born and raised in Chicago, IL. Darius is a graduate of Northern Illinois University where he received his Bachelor's in Journalism and a minor in Black Studies. Darius’ teaching, research, performance, and activism has grown out of his commitment to social justice, focusing on arts, culture, race and gender inequities in education, and performance art.  He is particularly concerned with the relationship of educational practices, and the politics of Queer & racial identities and the intersections between community and academia. His previous role included contributing to an educational model that will build transformative schools, where students, parents and their communities play a key role in public education.  He is active in multiple coalitions of educators, artists, activists, and community organizations Darius demonstrates a commitment to centering the whole person in a way that involves both children, family, individuals and community partners at the core. Globally, Darius contributes frequently to forums of parents and teachers, as well as locally facilitates opportunities for youth and their families to engage with Social Justice work through arts and culture.  Darius collaborates with an array of national collectives and organizations enabling him to produce large scale culturally relevant programming. His work in arts and culture has contributed to local dialogues on topics of educational injustices, and Hip Hop Ed praxi. As of late Darius has led multiple workshops and Think Tanks on Anti-Racist Education and on how educators can show up at their best for students. Darius hopes to empower youth through the arts and to make any experience involving youth, art, and poetry one infused with love, liberation, and truth. Darius received his Master’s Degree in Critical Ethnic Studies from DePaul University in the Spring of 2020. Where he currently serves as an adjunct Professor in the Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies Department. Darius is a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc. and serves as the National President of Delta Phi Delta Dance Fraternity Inc. Darius currently serves as the Director of Creative Youth Development and Arts In Education (CYDAIÉ) at the Mighty Youth Speaks.

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Maya Raveneau-Bey is a senior at Oakland School for the Arts. Maya, a 2023 and 2024 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate Finalist, 2023 YouthSpeaks Slam competition Finalist, and member of the Chapter 510 Youth Advisory board, is a learning poet. She assumed she was suffering from seeing the world in an upside down perspective, poetry introduced itself to her as a repetitive inconvenience. School was structured to indoctrinate a language of practicality into her that confined her creativity. It made it difficult to fit into a unidirectional system and she lost sight of a gift that was left in waiting. The reality was that she could see a poetic dimension to life, and this power with words bled into her early years and showed in birthday cards to personal essays to poems. As she continues to learn the parallels of who she is and what she chooses to speak, her craft refines, her writing layers, and her voice grows spirited.  

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Jean Nangwala is a singer, survivor-advocate, and host of the YouTube Channel, Tales of a Black Girl. She inspires joy and celebration in the beauty of her Zambian culture by weaving together her Afrocentric sound with her international perspective. Jean's dynamic voice powerfully weaves together her dialects of Bemba, Nyanja and English to bring awareness to the diverse stories of African women. Her unique sound is an experiential journey—a bridge between cultures, a balm healing life's pain, a remedy of hope and possibility. With themes inspired by self-love and celebration, justice and enlightenment, strength and beauty, pain and joy, Jean's authentic and transcendent voice forges a new pathway. Her music inspires others to find liberation through their stories.  

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About the Curator

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Nia McAllister is an award-winning poet, writer, and environmental justice advocate working at the intersection of art, activism, and public engagement. As Senior Public Programs Manager at the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco, Nia creates participatory spaces for creative expression and literary dialogue. Nia’s writing and poetry have been featured on Poets of Color Podcast, Bay Poets | KALW Public Media, and published in Doek! Literary Magazine, Radicle Magazine, Meridians Journal and Painting the Streets: Oakland Uprising in the Time of Rebellion (Nomadic Press, 2022). She is a recipient of the 2023 San Francisco Foundation/Nomadic Press Literary Awards.

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This program is co-presented by the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival. The event will be hosted in-person at Jessie Square located directly across the street from the Yerba Buena Gardens and is part of Yerba Buena Gardens Festival's Poetic Tuesday series. For the full program schedule, visit www.ybgfestival.org.‍

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