After spending a semester connecting with the San Francisco Museum of the African Diaspora and its two poets-in-residence, young poets share their hearts and creativity with the world. With poems that evoke legacy, history, loss, and hope for a better world, their power and voices are loudly heard. Sharing dreams, defining words, providing self-portraits, and writing apologies and advice, hear their words.

— Simon Traub-Epstein, International Library of Young Authors

About the 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 educational workshops with local high school students and public programming. This annual four-month paid residency provides two poets of African descent the opportunity to further develop their writing and respond to the current exhibitions on view at MoAD. Residents work in partnership to facilitate school-based writing workshops with high school students in the Writing Departments at Ruth Asawa School of the Arts in San Francisco. The 2024 Poets in Residence are dr. reelaviolette botts-ward and Reggie Edmonds-Vasquez.