dolphinphotos

@cavecanempoets , i love you i love you i love you. thank you for the poetic rejuvenation, the spirit invigoration, for the rigor, the (severe) lack of sleep, the love, abundant in every second, every moment. this is my family, y’all. and for my family? to the moon and back. whatever whenever. forever and ever. my heart, my heart, overblooming 🥰❤️‍🔥🥰

Happy birthday-pub-day CRUEL/CRUEL! A pisces birthed a pisces book and I genuinely couldn’t be any happier about it. I love you so much. My first lil book baby. Thank you for believing in yourself before I did. Thank you for not getting out of my head (for real…damn). Thank you for proving a lot of shit to myself. I needed that. I needed you. Everything from here on out is for *you*. I love you I love you I love you. More life. More Blackness. More Queerness. More light. More art. More poetry. CRUEL/CRUEL: available NOW! online, in your local bookstore, library, any of my relatives bookshelves, etc etc— Xoxo, 🐬💙 ps: thanks to @briiankiim for a lot of these BEAUTIFUL pics! ❣️

feeling very 50K FOR A VERSE; NO ALBUM OUT 👸🏾 still buzzing from a fantastic, fulfilling reading with @14poems earlier today. check out that fresh new work (the absence of you) & a special sneak peak at a piece from C/C (interlude beta) in my reelzzz‼️ i love my lil book baby boo so much 🥰

grateful grateful grateful #endoccupation

CRUEL/CRUEL is a finalist for the 2024 @ohioanalibrary Book Award 🥹 C/C’s first finalist pick and it’s from my HOME STATE! a huge thanks to @nightboat_books , and to my editors @fosterpoet and @tuhreesha for all your help in making this moment possible (and so many more). also a great time to share that you can find CRUEL/CRUEL in San Francisco and now Oakland libraries! some amazing people have the copies checked out right now! 🥹🥹 so many more thanks to give but you know who you are. a special shoutout to my twin @taylorbyaspoet who is ALSO nominated! sharing this moment with you makes it all the more special. 🥹❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥 also also also… OHIOOO! 216 baby!! Lake Erie dolphin forever!!! ☯️🐬 and as always. #freepalestine🇵🇸 #freesudan🇸🇩 #freecongo🇨🇩 #endoccupation everywhere. do not be willfully ignorant to the movements of this world.

playing catch up: in April yr dolphin officially became a candidate for the Doctorate in Philosophy at thee university of Cincinnati. still a pre-phd hottie, but now it’s: ABD (all but dissertation) pre-phd hottie 💅🏾 the grandest of thanks to my advisor, mentor, and confidant @feliciazamorapoet for keeping me inspired, focused, and motivated. you’re the real champ! a huge thanks to my dear beloved Dr. @yes_simonesavannah . meant so much to have you witness this moment. likewise, big shoutout to Jay for staying on my neck 🥲😂 and Dr. Faruque for fostering + shepherding my wildwild interests into spiritual revelation and innovative theory. and of course thanks to ppl like my different-font-twin @taylorbyaspoet (and so many others, yall know who you are) for keeping me afloat as i stress pulled out all my hair writing those damn exam responses 😁 it takes a mf village… ONE MORE YEAR, BABY! until then— school’s out 4 summer 😌 #afk

hey beautiful 🖤 see you tonight? @somesuchandco + @colbo.nyc in #NYC wine. poetry. DJs. vibes. some old work, some new. an outfit im v excited about. see you there? (rsvp!)

CRUEL/CRUEL celebrated its FIRST birthday last week (3/14) and i’m sooo grateful we got to bring it back to the beautiful land that held me down as i molded this book from dream to urgent reality. i don’t have a lot of words these days cause im reading fifteen thousand books as i prepare for these phd comp exams (pls pray for me) but… to C/C; you were that last infinity stone i needed in order to push myself outta that (wretched) Saturn Return. you’d be the ‘Confidence’ stone, largely in thanks to all the ways in which you had me looking at myself and saying “YOU did this, baby!!” this has been one of the greatest, longest, most beautiful/exhausting/exhilarating years of my creative life, and i owe it all to you and the people across the globe who’ve been impacted, in some way, by the reckoning you bring forth from the page. and to everyone who has bought, shared, loaned from the library, requested i come to your city, sent me a kind DM etc etc etc, i thank you from the bottom of my piscean heart. cheers to GROWTH, CONFIDENCE, CREATIVITY and LOVE. and to another beautiful year around the sun with my firstborn! and to the mf OCEAN that roars within me. 🥰❤️‍🔥🖤🤍☯️

hello 👋🏾 reading alert 🚨 so excited to be sharing space with the gorgeous minds of @lochnorsemagazine at @nkuedu this Thursday! 🐞 students are the best. they have the absolute greatest insights to share / ask about / challenge. i’m always left in awe of the power of a (young) mind at work. 🎯 & i get to be in convo with the sensational @jobannon16 ❗️ lastly , yes,, the wild hair has returned. the reading will match that energy. 🤪 Cincinnati / NKY, i hope to see you there. 🫶🏾 Free Congo. Free Sudan. Free Palestine. 🙏🏾

AWP! 😅 wow. to think, just a few days prior, i was sitting up in my room (lol) talking to Taylor about maybe not going. what a mistake that woulda been. one of my absolute favorite things about poetry, about art, are the good, kind, incredible people that you connect with along the way. here are a few of those bright souls. here is my cheesy goober smile. here is some unbridled joy. also— Kansas City… again, i apologize! you really are cute! also x2– FREE PALESTINE. ALL DAY. EVERYDAY. EVERYWHERE. 🇵🇸 until next year. xoxo, an extremely exhausted dolphin ❤️‍🔥🐬 #awp #awp24

pre-AWP vibes w/ a throwback from a reading at @skylightbooks to celebrate @taylorbyaspoet and their debut I DONE CLICKED MY HEELS THREE TIMES (which you need if you don’t already have and i’m not playing w/ you) 🫵🏾🫵🏾🫵🏾 shoutout to the incredible @briiankiim for these photos 😍 ++ big love to @dare_williams13 & @sfeycreates for lighting the stage up 🔥 Kansas City, i’m omw! 🛵

hey y’all— see you this week @ AWP! 🐬 🔥 📖 catch me at either of these magnificent panels! 🎰 or the sure-to-be poppin poets party at Missie B’s! 💃🏾 and/or/most importantly… i would love to sign your copy of CRUEL/CRUEL and have a chat :) ☯️ #poetrycommunity #awp #awp24 #lgbtqwriters