west Oakland to west Africa

West Oakland to West Africa connects members of the African diaspora and Africa through the exchange of renshi poetry. Through sharing narratives of the diaspora, we create a safe place for transparent healing and growth. Our readings and books facilitate the Sankofa journey, a return to retrieve what has been forgotten or lost. This year's exchanges included Oakland, Hawaii, Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana. https://westoaklandtowestafrica.com
IG: https://www.instagram.com/westoakland_westafrica/. Twitter: @WOakland2Africa. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WO2W

Standing in Our Black Rootedness

WO2WA (West Oakland to West Africa) is happy to represent both the East and West sides at the 2022 Beast Crawl. Reading selections from our upcoming book Black Rootedness: 54 Poets from Africa to America. This year WO2WA partnered with Patrice Lumumba Writing Collective, located at Eastside Arts Alliance, Cultural Intellectual Association in Lagos, Nigeria and Kistrech Poetry Festival in Kisii, Kenya. Poets exchanged writing on themes of identity, connections to the ancestors and experimented with forms such as narrative and renshi poetry.

ayodele nzinga M.F.A, Ph.D., is a writer, director, actress, lyricist, and producer living in Oakland, California. She is the author of SorrowLand Oracle and The Horse Eaters, available atwww.nomadicpress.org, as well as Incandescent available on Amazon Books. nzinga is the inaugural Poet Laureate of Oakland, CA.

Kevin Dublin is a writer of poetry, prose, scripts, and code. Currently Director of Litquake’s Elder Writing Project, Kevin serves on the board of Quiet Lightning and curates The Living Room Reading Series & Salon. He’s author of the chapbook How to Fall in Love in San Diego (Finishing Line Press) and holds an MFA from San Diego State.. Follow him on Twitter @PartEverything

Lisa D. Gray believes that it is necessary for black women and women of color to write and share our stories so that others do not erase or control our narratives. She is completing her first novel, Stolen Summer and you can find her poetry in the recently released Black Fire This Time and the Salmon Creek Journal. Follow her @randomlisasf

Nana Boateng (she/her) is a first generation Ghanaian-American poet, educator, and digital storyteller currently residing in Oakland, CA. She utilizes writing and audio to examine memory, otherness, and myths we tell ourselves. Her writing has been published in Connotation Press, WVXU, NPR, Sierra Magazine, Toe Good Poetry, and Cliterature Journal.

adrienne danyelle oliver is a poet-educator, hip-hop scholar. She has two chapbooks, collective madness (Finishing Line Press) and the body has memories (Nomadic Press). When she is not writing, adrienne is reading historical fiction or watching documentaries. She's also an intuitive creativity guide for other Black scholars.

DaJuan “DonJuan” Carter-Woodard is an Oakland native. He is a Youth Coordinator at Eastside Arts Alliance and has been an activist for 10+ years. His first published book was 2019’s Bleeding Between the Bars. He has been featured in a variety of publications and anthologies including Patrice Lumumba—An Anthology of Writers on Black Liberation.

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Venue: The Damel Leg: Two 5:30PM