Safia Elhillo is Sudanese by way of Washington, DC. A Cave Canem fellow and poetry editor at Kinfolks Quarterly, she received an MFA in poetry from the New School. Safia is co-winner of the 2015 Brunel University African Poetry Prize. Her work appears in several publications and in the anthologies “The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop” and “Again I Wait for This to Pull Apart.” She has shared her work at venues such as the New Amsterdam Theater on Broadway, the Kennedy Center, the South African State Theatre, and TEDxNewYork.
Representing DC at the National Poetry Slam this year will mark Joseph’s fifth return to the national team competition. He represented the Oneota slam team in 2005 and 2006 as their Grand Slam Champion, Slam Richmond in 2009, and DC’s Beltway Poetry Slam team in 2011. He also represented DC in 2011 at the Individual Poetry Slam, ranking 16th in the world. As a solo artist, Joseph has performed, hosted, and featured at venues and schools throughout the United States. As an actor, Joseph toured two and a half years to more than 200 high schools and professional theatres educating children and families with Theatre IV, the country’s largest in-school touring company. In 2007, his one-man show, “She Is,” was commissioned by the Upper Catskill Community Council of the Arts at the Wilbur Mansion in Oneonta, N.Y.
Joseph is the co-founder and Executive Director of poetryN.O.W., an after school creative writing program working with students throughout the DC metropolitan area. Joseph and poetryN.O.W., helped bring Louder Than a Bomb, a regional youth slam serving as a platform for young people to share their stories across boundaries, to the DMV. poetryN.O.W. also organizes the Hyper Bole, the largest individual poetry slam for high-school students in the Mid-Atlantic region. For more information please visit www.josephlmsgreen.com
Alison is a creature of the internet and a dog lover. She received her M.F.A. at George Mason University and resides in Arlington, VA. Her poems have appeared in Gigantic Sequins, The Seattle Review, Word For/ Word, and other fine publications. She can be reached via Google.
Location:
2438 18th Street in Adams Morgan
(south of Columbia Rd. on the west side of the street)
All readings are on third Sundays at 3 PM, Admission $5, FREE for DCAC members