Join MoAD for a culminating reading and celebration of the 2024 Poets-in-Residence program. We invite you to an afternoon of poetry by Poet-in-Residence reelaviolette botts-ward. The program will feature a live reading from the poet, a moderated conversation about her experience in the residency, and a reception.

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The culminating reading with 2024 Poet-in-Residence Reggie Edmonds-Vasquez will take place at MoAD on Sunday, December 15 from 2:30-3:30pm.

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About the Poet

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reelaviolette botts-ward, PhD, (@dr.reelaviolette) is a homegirl, artist, and community curator from Philadelphia, PA. ree is a poet, a professor, a lover of life, a writer, and a dreamer.

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She is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow with the REPAIR Project at the University of California, San Francisco, and will begin a UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship there in the fall. At UCSF, ree brings radical Black feminist healing arts to healthcare and medical science spaces. She is also the founder of blackwomxnhealing, where she curates courses, exhibits, publications, and performances for and by Black womxn.

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Her first book, mourning my inner[blackgirl]child, was published with Nomadic Press in 2021, and she has published articles, book chapters, and creative works with the Harvard Journal of African American Public Policy, Routledge Press, and Medical Anthropology Quarterly, among others. She also serves as a Contributor in Residence for Columbia University’s Synapsis: a Journal for Health Humanities, where she writes about art, spirituality, and healing for practitioners and community audiences.

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ree received her PhD in African Diaspora Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, her MA in African American studies from UCLA, and her BA in Sociology and Anthropology from Spelman College. She has also taught courses in the African American Studies department at Merritt Community College in Oakland, California, and a course called #BlackFeministHealingArts in UCSF’s Medical Anthropology department. For more on ree’s work, visit blackwomxnhealing.com / @blackwomxnhealing / @dr.reelaviolette on instagram.

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About the Poets-in-Residence Program

The Museum of the African Diaspora Poets-in-Residence program was founded in 2018. The program provides writers with opportunities to respond to contemporary art of the African Diaspora and extend the reach of the museum through programming and educational workshops with local high school students. The residency welcomes writers to pursue their own writing projects in addition to responding to the current exhibitions on view at MoAD. As part of the residency, writers implement a school-based writing program in partnership with high school students in the Spoken Arts Department at Ruth Asawa School of the Arts.

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This program is presented in conjunction with Thrive@MoAD sponsored by Kaiser Permanente with additional support from the Yerba Buena Community Benefit District.

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