Oxy Arts, 4757 York Blvd. LA CA 90042
Presented by Occidental's Intercultural Community Center (ICC) in celebration of Women's History Month, join us for a powerful evening honoring Los Angeles-based, femme poets of color. These remarkable artists will take the stage to share their stories, struggles, triumphs, and dreams. This event is an ode to all femmes, a bold declaration that we’re here, we ain't going nowhere. Together, we'll elevate the voices of those who have long been underrepresented, proving that no one can take away our words.
Attire: Formal with hues of purple—come dressed in your finest and ready to celebrate.
Featured Poets:
Yesika Salgado
Alyesha Wise Hernandez
Aman Batra
Bay Davis
Tiffany Ike
Sponsored by the English Department, Remsen Bird, ICC, and Oxy Arts.
Alyesha Wise is an award-winning, published poet, educator & speaker from Camden, N.J. Currently residing in LA, she is the Director of Programming for Street Poets, Inc., an organization mostly serving juvenile injustice-involved youth with mentorship and arts programming. Alyesha has been featured on platforms and in publications such as OWN TV, BET, LA Times, Bustle, Afropunk, PBS, Buzzfeed and more. Other collabs include the ACLU, The Shabazz Center, The Nantucket Project, Brave New Films and the Google Interstellar Project. Ron Howard once wrote about Alyesha's work, "Very Powerful."
Aman K. Batra is a Punjabi-American poet from Artesia, CA. She received her MFA in poetry from Antioch University, and graduated from UCLA with a BA in Creative Writing. She is a TEDx speaker, a National Poetry Slam finalist, and has toured colleges, universities, and poetry venues across the country. Aman’s poetry is heavily tied to her commitment as an educator and an activist. Her work has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, All Def Poetry, Button Poetry, The Huffington Post, and the Fight Evil With Poetry Anthology. For more, follow her on socials @amankbatra and her website: amankbatra.com.
Tiffany Ike is a multidisciplinary artist and scholar from Houston, TX. From her visual work showcased in spaces such as the African American Museum; to performing spoken word poetry at Tedx Houston; to putting up a theatrical production exploring the socialization of blackness and masculinity that toured Wisconsin; and directing a musical short film about Black womanhood, Tiffany has utilized different mediums to discuss faith, history, and liberation in all of its forms. She is a University of Wisconsin - Madison First Wave hip hop scholar and she received MFA in Writing & Producing for Television from Loyola Marymount University. Currently serves as a screenwriting professor at her alma mater. In her free time, Tiffany examines film and tv as a historical record, ice cream is her meal of choice, and every once in a while she relives her hoop dreams in the gym.
Yesika Salgado is a Los Angeles-born Salvadoran poet who writes about her family, her culture, her city, and her fat body.Salgado is a two-time National Poetry Slam finalist and the recipient of the 2020 International Latino Book Award in Poetry. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Teen Vogue, Univision, CNN, NPR, and many other platforms.
Bay Davis, a South Central native
Rooted in liberation abolition and love
Explores communal disparities, structural racism, and gender identity
Through the lens of her own experiences and ancestrally informed wordsmanship
From organizing and street corners to classrooms and slam stages
An internationally recognized trans advocate and powerhouse
Bay ultimately utilizes her work to weave the tools of her own survival as offerings to challenge, heal, and question the systems and climate we exist in today
