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 LadiRev, Dāshaun Washington, Niambi Walker, Sylvia Blalock, and Ayo Brame.

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Featured Artists

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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Dāshaun Washington (@dashaundub) is a poet living in San Francisco and a 2023-2025 Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford University. His work has been supported by Yaddo, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Lighthouse Works, Ucross Foundation, The Watering Hole, and beyond. His poems have appeared in New England Review, Poetry, The Nation, Poem-a-Day, American Poetry Review, and elsewhere.

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Niambi Walker (@niambees) is a black, queer, writer from Atlanta, Georgia. She is the author of "Accidentally Ordered and Espresso", has featured and championed several poetry spaces and was a member of the 2023 Berkeley Poetry Slam Team. You can find them loud in the back cheering on all the poets at your local slams, or grooving on any dancefloor she can find.

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Sylvia L. Blalock (@sylvia.blalock) is the author of "Uprising: A book of Poetry" and the founder of Queendom.Network. She has been featured on open mics both online and in person around the Bay Area. She was the commissioned artist for the UC Berkeley 39th Annual Empowering Womxn Of Color Conference in March 2024. She has been a featured poet at the Pi Day celebration at the Exploratorium from 2022-2024. She designed the graphics for "The SquareRoot of ARTivism" project with KyleeliseTHT in memory of her dear friend, the late John Sims. Sylvia is also a public speaker and mentor.  

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Born In San Francisco and raised in the eclectic San Francisco Bay Area including Oakland and Contra Costa County, Sylvia is a purpose driven artist who has worked in paint, charcoals, pixels, words, music, business and love. She adds creativity, vision and purposeful action to the projects that she undertakes. Sylvia Blalock is extending the reach of the  poetry, art and fellowship through collaboration with local organizations as well as through promotion on her websites, www.queendom.network, www.voicesthatcarry.org , www.sblalock.com and the Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/authorsylvialblalock/. Her vision is to use poetry and art to counterprogram negative rhetoric. Sylvia is engaged to marry the love of her life, Stevan Edgecombe.

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Ayo Brame (@ayobrame.music) is a 17year old up and coming Tenor Saxophone Jazz musician out of Oakland, California. He is a student of Jazz Great Richard Howell by way of Oaktown Jazz Workshops. He considers himself a purist when it comes to jazz as he channels late greats such as John Coltrane, and Wayne Shorter. Embraced by the jazz community, he has been very lucky in acquiring additional mentors that influence and challenge him on a regular basis such as Kev Choice, Marcus Shelby, Howard Wiley and  Stacy Dillard,  He has been fortunate to share the stage with so many accomplished musicians at venues such as the Black Cat in San Francisco, Brownstone Jazz in Brooklyn Jazz, Geoffrey’s Inner Circle in Oakland, CA, the Nash in Phoenix, Az., GR Noir in Grand Rapids, MI, Dizzy’s Coca Cola Room & Sour Mouse in Manhattan, NY, and Small’s Legendary Jazz Club in The Village, NY.  In addition to the saxophone, he plays the clarinet, bass guitar, drums, and music production where he's beginning to lay original tracks.  

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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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