A snapshot of curation, hosting & community facilitation.
2026–Ongoing
- Poems for the Get-Through 2026 | Curator & Letter-Writer | April 1–30, 2026 | Curated poem and letter to your inbox every day during the month of April. Each week of poems will be curated by a member of the Chicago Poetry Center board with a different theme each week. This year, the board draws inspiration from "Paul Robeson" by Gwendolyn Brooks.
- Maajhi | A Year of Walking with Loss | Jan–Dec 2026 | Co-Facilitator | 2026: Sliding scale; registrations open. This offering is for those of us finding our way back, to that place in us that once knew how to feel honestly, before intellect or external norms stepped in. Before grief became something silent, solitary, & sanitized. We invite you to begin, or begin again, from where you are.
- In Surreal Life | Community Fellow | 2025–2027: Each session features dynamic prompts, incredible visiting artists & a community for a life-time (truly, no one like the ISL Afterlifers).
- Write & Give-Back Workshop Series | Chicago Poetry Center | Co-curator, Facilitator | 2024–Ongoing: As part of this fundraising series we have run several collab workshops, virtually & in-person (Food & Gathering, Golden Shovel, Word as Art, Foraged poems & more).
2020–2025
- Poems for the Get-Through | Chicago Poetry Center | Co-curator, Writer, Facilitator | 2025: A Poem‑a‑Day series inspired by Andrew Gibson’s Angels of the Get‑Through: 3 curators, 3 themes, 30 poems, 1 workshop, & a whole lot of tenderness.
- Blooming Through Barriers | Loyola University | Loyola University Chicago | Feature & Host | 2025: Social Justice Week at Loyola University Chicago: Blooming through Barriers - Roses of Resistance was an open mic centered around helping students & community members with a safe space for healing & processing.
- Do Your Worst Poetry Slam | Bramble Arts Loft | Creator & Host | 2024: Also my birthday. Congrats to Darshita Jain, Fatima Hashmi & Cory Sutter - the best worst poets of the night.
- Mindful Poetry Moments | The Well | The Well | Facilitator | 2024: A meditation-poetry workshop exploring: What is a place you go to in hope or hunger? What is the shape of your grief: a museum, a bird, a door, a road? If your room was a museum, what would your things say?
- Relationships Between 9-5 | Podcast | 2020: confused covid podcaster era
2015–2020
- Paperweight | Helm | Founder & Host | 2016–21: Paperweight was an experiment born out of a performance artist’s need to not always be performing. To have a platform without a stage, and an audience without a mic.
- The Everyday Series | Helm of Eight | Co-Creator & Host | 2016–19: This workshop series was designed to help individuals overcome the impact of childhood conditioning on their daily interactions. We explored conditioned behaviors, their effects & co-created tailored strategies.
- Alif’s Underground Album Launch | Alif | Concept & Curation | 2018: An immersive experience into the music of Alif music by performing a set of unreleased spoken and sung poetry & sharing stories of released work.
- Gulabi Guftagoo | गुलाबी गुफ्तगू | Helm of Eight | Curator & Host | 2018: An exploration of gender identity through music and poetry. It brings together a Hindustani vocalist along with a poet to speak, to converse; to allow a space to re-look at the body, the construct of the identity and perceptions of the self.
- Words Out Loud | Helm of Eight | Host | 2018: Mixed genre open-mic for individual & ensemble acts.
- Jungle in the City Festival | Helm of Eight | Co-creator & Host | 2017: A two day event that brought together the creatures of the city with the beings of the forest. With equal participation from the Adivasis, Musicians, Poets, Graffiti Artists.
- Hack the Paper | Hack the Paper | Co-creator & Host | 2016: This was a movement aimed at changing the conversation around science. Its goal was to liberate ideas from scientific journals, papers from conferences, and research from labs and remix them into a digestible format.
Image Credits: Kelly Sikkema