Praise for Climbing poetree reviews from distinguished allies

"Each time I have the pleasure of attending a performance by Climbing PoeTree, I feel enriched, renewed, and inspired. Alixa and Naima insist that poetry can change the world--and it is true that the urgency, power and beauty of their words impel us to keep striving for the radical futures toward which they gesture."

~ Angela Y. Davis, political activist, scholar, Distinguished Professor Emerita, UCSC

"Climbing PoeTree is a soulful expression. Alixa Garcia and Naima Penniman are deep thinkers and gifted poets. I am moved profoundly by the power of their words!"

~ Cornel West, philosopher, academic, activist, author

"These stunning poems prove that there is something sacred, unyielding and deeply human in walking the path of rebellion. Climbing PoeTree offers us a language, a soundtrack, a heartbeat-rhythm for how to speak with courage." ~ Carlos Andrés Gómez, poet, actor, author

"With vision and rhythm, Naima and Alixa's poems stretch from souls-deep toward the radiant pulsing horizon. Look and listen—Climbing PoeTree might take you exactly where you need to go." ~ Jeff Chang, hip hop journalist and critic, author of Can't Stop Won't Stop

"This work is the glass shattering, a womb awakening, a brown scream. The exalted sound of a poet's heart. Warrior women, called writers. griots. our holders of truth and words and history. A book opening is also a birth. This is one child you will want to honor, rename and share with your tribe. This is the glory of water, a weight, a push of language we won't fear. This work is a long time coming." ~ jessica Care moore, poet, publisher, Moore Black Press

"Hurricane Season pounds with intensity and fierceness and love. Naima and Alixa are truly forces of nature, delivering a performance that will move you to tears and to action."

~ Tia Lessin & Carl Deal, Producers of “Fahrenheit 911” Directors of Academy Award nominated “Trouble The Water”

“Alixa and Naima create a wave of such intelligent soul-moving proportions that we will surely see its effects in catalyzing a radical shift in how our generation cares for the earth and all cultures of our human family.” ~ Michael Flynn, founder, Common Vision Who is climBING poetree? Alixa Garcia & Naima Penniman

Climbing PoeTree is the combined force of two boundary-breaking soul sisters who have sharpened their art as a tool for popular education, community organizing, and personal transformation. Alixa and Naima interweave spoken word, hip hop, and award-winning multimedia theater to expose injustice, channel hope into vision, and make a better future visible, immediate, and irresistible. With flawless cadence and impeccable lyricism, Alixa and Naima weave together their voices to tell powerful stories of love and liberation, state and personal violence, social, environmental, racial, and sexual justice, woman's empowerment, and human transcendence.

In 15 self-organized tours over the past 10 years, Climbing PoeTree has blazed stages in more than 70 cities across the U.S., and abroad from the UK to South Africa, Mexico to Cuba. At concert halls and conferences, classrooms and festivals, prisons and universities, Alixa and Naima's words inspire thousands of people to activate the transformation they wish to cultivate within themselves and their communities. Their soul-stirring performances have been featured alongside visionary leaders and artists such as Alicia Keys, Erykah Badu, Amiri Baraka, Cornel West, Angela Davis, Sonia Sanchez, Alice Walker, Vandana Shiva, Danny Glover, Joanna Macy, The Last Poets, and Dead Prez.

Amid their busy touring schedules, Alixa and Naima are committed organizers and educators. They lead workshops in state institutions from Rikers Island Prison to Clark County Juvenile Detention Center, and prestigious academies such as Cornell and Columbia Universities. One Common Unity recognized Climbing PoeTree with an award in 2010 for creating peace and lasting sustainable change in their communities through education, arts and media; and in 2012 Climbing PoeTree was featured on TEDx SIT for their work connecting communities, building bridges, and using their creativity at the service of their vision for a better world.

One of Climbing PoeTree's ongoing projects is called S.T.I.T.C.H.E.D.—a collaborative truth- gathering endeavor wherein Alixa and Naima invite their audiences and workshop participants to write their Stories, Testimonies, Intentions, Truths, Confessions, Healing, Expressions, and Dreams on squares of fabric that they sew together into colorful prayer flags. Begun in 2005, S.T.I.T.C.H.E.D. is now over 5,000 submissions and hundreds of feet long. It has been featured at the Smithsonian Museum in DC, The African American Museum in Philadelphia, Museo Del Barrio in New York, and countless public spaces nationwide. Alixa and Naima use S.T.I.T.C.H.E.D to catalyze collective-healing, anti-oppression, and media justice workshops in communities across the country.

Climbing PoeTree’s latest production Hurricane Season: The Hidden Messages in Water interweaves spoken word poetry, shadow art, dance, film and animation to examine the unnatural disasters facing humanity on a daily basis through the kaleidoscope of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Through a massive orchestration that mobilized inter-generational, multi-racial, and cross-class communities countrywide, Alixa and Naima organized an eco- justice tour that obliterated the boundaries between performance and activism.

On the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Alixa and Naima set out with an all-women crew in a bus converted to run on recycled vegetable oil, on a mission to use the power of art to draw vital connections between shared struggles and common solutions in a time desperate for transformation and ripe with possibility. By the end of 2009, they had traveled over 11,000 miles, delivering Hurricane Season to thousands of people in more than 50 communities nationwide, and featured close to 200 grassroots organizations to garner support for their initiatives and give audience members access into local movements. Hurricane Season was selected for a month-long run at the world renowned National Black Theater in Harlem with a sold-out finale, and won “Best Director” by the Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival.

Since 2010, Climbing PoeTree has been working closely with a dynamic team of innovative educators to translate Hurricane Season into a year-long multimedia social justice curriculum. The Hurricane Season Curriculum is presently being piloted at Susquehanna University and Global Citizenship Experience, a pioneering high school in Chicago, and will soon be an invaluable teaching tool in learning environments nationwide. Through the curriculum, Alixa and Naima are committed to harnessing the power of art to build critical consciousness and build new leadership essential for fundamental social change. Testimonies from audience members

“Thank you so much for sharing your revolutionary voices with The Assaulted Women’s and Children’s Advocate Counselor Program in Toronto! It’s beyond thrilling to know there are visionaries like you spreading words of truth and peace with such loving conviction and strength. Your gifts of storytelling moved me in ways I cannot explain!” ~ Cheryl Fox, Toronto, ON

“Today at Berkeley High School I was blessed with art of the highest caliber of which I can humbly determine as both a teacher and a professional theater artist of close to fourteen years. Alixa and Naima’s work and sharing of their stories were courageous acts of deep catharsis and universal revelation.” ~ Rolando Morales, Berkeley, CA

“I am so deeply moved, inspired, healed and transformed by the love you make visible. Your work embodies the genius that Alice Walker describes as artists and as witnesses for the future...Trust that you are shifting universal consciousness.” ~ L’Erin Asanteewa, , GA

“Your performance moved me, touched me, and inspired me to create change, to start action that I have been contemplating for years.” ~ Chris Wiesner, Toronto, ON

"This was truly the most inspiring presentation I have ever been to. I felt as if I truly had been given the strength and motivation that I needed to not only stand for issues that I care about, but to live life freely and fully; to never let people or fears inhibit my actions; to recognize beauty in life itself; to embrace each day with wonder, curiosity, and most of all, empathy. Thank you for changing my life!” ~ Bonnie Ricord, Burlington, VT

“I had the pleasure of hearing you at the Black Repertory Theater and may I say that I have never been so moved in all of my life… The message you are sending is positive, fulfilling, heart-wrenching and motivational.” ~ I'Loner L. Weaver, Providence, RI

“I don't remember meeting more sincerely dedicated individuals than yourselves. Your spirit shines through your art form and glows like a beacon on a cloudless night.”

~ Ty Gray-El, Washington D.C.

“Two wise and beautiful souls spouting the truth in such a way that makes one cry and laugh and rage and hope all in a matter of hours… You two create, something so raw, and so inspiring. I hope your message will be heard by all.” ~ Michelle Pizzuli, Cleveland, OH WHERE WE'VE BEEN Climbing PoeTree CV

FEATURED PERFORMERS AT

Local & International Festivals (including but not limited to):

2013 Life is Living Festival, Oakland, CA Symbiosis Gathering, Oakdale, CA New Seeds Festival, Tampa, FL Hip Hop Beyond Gender Festival, Berkeley, CA Re:Frame International Film Festival, Peterborough, CA Casa de Arte en Movimiento, Chiapas, Mexico 2012 Work*Rock*Sword Festival of Women's Music, New York, NY Clear Creek Festival, Rockcastle County, KY Womyn’s Music Festival, Oceana County, MI Mujeres De Maiz 15th Annual Festival, , CA UCC National Youth Event, West Lafayette, IN Half The Sky Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY 3 Rivers Art Festival, Groton, MA 10th Annual Terry P. Maine Poetry Festival, Augusta, ME 2011 Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, Oceana County, MI Esalen International Arts Festival, Big Sur, CA Blaktino Performance Festival, Bronx, NY 18th Annual Red Hook Waterfront Arts Festival, Brooklyn, NY 2010 Injuco Convention, Goa, India Third Eye Open 11th Annual Hip Hop Festival, New Bedford, MA Esalen International Arts Festival, Big Sur, CA 2009 Afro‐Latin Soul, Montreal, QC Mayworks Festival, Toronto, ON Aloha Music Fest, Honolulu, HI Green Fest, , CA Kona Pride Festival, Kona, HI Sheep Dog Festival, Maui, HI 2007 Guelph Festival of Art and Human Rights, Guelph, ON Blaktino Performance Festival, Bronx, NY Prisoners Justice Film Festival, Toronto, ON Lilikoi Fair, Honolulu, Big Island & Kauai, HI LadyFest Toronto, Toronto, CA One Love South Africa, New York, NY 2006 Sound Session Music Festival, Providence, RI National Pride for Women who Love Women, Atlanta, GA Ladyfest South, San Antonio, TX 2005 Ground Breakers, Durban & Johannesburg, South Africa 2004 International African Arts Festival, Brooklyn, NY Women Center Stage, New York, NY Cultural Exchange International Art and Music Festival, Portland, ME One World Fair, Cummington, MA Female Flavor: Women in Hip Hop, Bronx, NY 2003 National Blacks Arts Festival, Atlanta, GA Colleges & Universities (Including but not limited to):

2013 Yale University, New Haven, CT University of Texas, Austin, TX Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA International University, Miami, FL University of Oregon, Eugene, OR University of Arizona, Tuscon, AZ University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA California State University, San Bernadino, CA Providence College, Providence, RI University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, MA Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, IL State University of New York, Plattsburgh, NY 2012 Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR University of North Carolina, Asheville, NC Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY Roger Williams University, Bristol, RI Mass College of Art, Boston, MA Smith College, Northampton, MA Emmanuel College, Boston, MA Providence College, Providence, RI Augusta College, Augusta, ME Macalaster College, Saint Paul, MN UC Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA University of Oregon, Eugene, OR Marymount College New York, NY SUNY Purchase College, Purchase, NY 2011 Depaul University, Chicago, IL Loyola University, Chicago, IL University of Vermont, Burlington, VT SUNY Plattsburg, Plattsburg, NY Mass Art College, Boston, MA Smith College, Northampton, MA College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, ME Boston College, Boston, MA Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA Pace University, Pleasantville, NY University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI Oberlin College, Bowling Green, OH Scripps College, Claremont, CA University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA University of Wisconsin, Duluth, WI 2010 Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ University of Southern California, Los Angeles CA Sacramento State University, Sacramento, CA Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, MI Smith College, Northampton, MA University of Chicago, Chicago, IL Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA Brown University, Providence, RI Providence College, Providence, RI Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI Columbia University, New York, NY Loyola University, Chicago, IL 2009 Hampshire College, Amherst, MA Keene State College, Keene, NH Boston College, Boston, MA College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, ME Unity College, Unity, ME University of California, Santa Cruz, CA New York University, New York, NY Cornell University, New York, NY 2008 Western Washington, Bellingham, WA University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI Humboldt State College, Arcata, CA 2007 Mills College, Oakland, CA Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA Amherst College, Amherst, MA Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY Boston College, Boston, MA SUNY Ulster College, Stone Ridge, NY Concordia College, Moorhead, MI Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL University Of Wisconsin, Madison, WI Mills College, Oakland, CA 2006 Milikin University, Decatur, IL University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI University of Houston Downtown, Houston, TX Florida International University, Miami, FL George Brown College, Toronto, CA Mills College, Oakland, CA Hobart William and Smith College, Geneva, NY Wesleyan College, Middleton, CT New Paltz College, New Paltz, NY Medgar Evers College, Brooklyn, NY 2005 Bard College, Hudson, NY Boston College, Boston, MA University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA Hampshire College, Amherst, MA University of Rhode Island, Providence, RI Brown University, Providence, RI University or Maryland, Baltimore, MD 2004 University of Pennsylvania, State College, PA University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI Depaul University, Chicago, IL Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, IL Performance Venues (including but not limited to):

2013 The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Center, New York, NY La Peña, Berkeley, CA 88 Days of Fortune, Toronto, ON EDELO, Chiapas, Mexico La Casa Libre, Tuscon, AZ The Tangent Gallery, , MI Fire Historical and Cultural Arts Collaborative, Kalamazoo, MI Frontier, Austin, TX 2012 Smithsonian, African American Museum, Washington DC National Museum of the American Indian, Rasmussen Theater, DC Washington Hall, Seattle, WA Center for the Arts, Jackson Hole, WY Portland Stage, Portland, ME La Peña, Oakland, CA Madrone Studios, San Francisco, CA 2011 Brooklyn Academy Of Music, Brooklyn, NY Center On Halsted, Chicago, IL BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Bronx, NY Esalen Institute, Big Sur, CA Museo Del Barrio, Harlem, NY Historic Capitol Theater, Olympia, WA The African American Museum, Philadelphia, PA 2010 Brooklyn Art Museum, Brooklyn, NY Esalen Institute, Big Sur, CA La Peña, Oakland, CA Temple, San Francisco, CA US Social Forum, Detroit, MI 92 Y Tribeca, New York, NY Passage Theater, Trenton, NJ 2009 The National Black Theatre, Harlem, NY (Month‐long run) Newark Symphony Hall, Newark, NJ Riverside Theater, New York, NY The Hawaii Theater, Oahu, HI Passage Theatre, Trenton, NJ Women’s Building, San Francisco, CA Montreal Afro Latin Soul, Montreal, ON Les Contes a Rendre, Montreal, ON 2008 The Nuyorican Poets' Café, New York, NY The Martin Luther King Unification Center, Washington DC anitAFRIKA! Dub Theater, Toronto, ON The Black Repertory Theatre, Providence, RI Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center, Seattle, WA Big Sur Spirit Garden, Big Sur, CA National Black Theater, Harlem, NY 12 Mile West Theater, Bloomfield, NJ 2007 Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn NY Veye‐Yo, Miami, FL Da Poetry Lounge, Los Angeles, CA Women’s Building, San Francisco CA Ong King Arts Center, Honolulu, HI The House of Storms, Oakland CA Cell Space, San Francisco, CA 2006 Bronx Academy of Art and Dance, Bronx, NY The Knitting Factory, New York, NY The Regency Ballroom, San Francisco Spoken Soul Sessions, New Orleans, LA 2005 Casa de Hermanos Raiz, Santiago de Cuba Mega Music, Johannesburg, South Africa The Black Repertory, Providence College, RI La Peña Cultural Center, Oakland, CA

FEATURED PANELIST/PRESENTERS AT

Conferences (including but not limited to):

2013 The 24th Annual National Bioneers Conference: Turning Vision Into Action, San Rafael, CA 6th Annual Hip Hop for Change Conference, Piece By Peace, Oakland, CA Social Justice, Real Justice Conference, Eugene, OR Martin Luther King and Human Rights Conference, Iowa City, IA The 4th Annual Environmental Law and Justice Symposium, Empowering Environmental Justice Communities Locally and Globally, Orlando, FL United States Student Association, Grassroots Legislative Conference and National Student Lobby Day, Washington DC The Allied Media Conference, Detroit, MI 2012 TEDx “Building Bridges Connecting Our communities”, Brattleboro, VT Public Interest Environmental Law Conference, Miami, FL Hip Hop Arts Education, Palo Alto, CA OuterSpace: Power in the Margins, Bellingham, WA Latin@s in Hip Hop, Oceana County, MI Battered Women’s Justice: CLSSP 2012 Institute, New Orleans, LA I Was, I Am, I Will Be: Resistance and Liberation, Saint Paul, MN 2011 International & Comparative Dimensions of Environmental Justice, Miami, FL The NYC Climate Justice Youth Summit, New York, NY, PeaceWorks, Olympia, WA Preventing Violence Promoting Justice, New York, NY UCSB Students Of Color Conference, Santa Barbara, CA 2010 The Tenth National Black Writers' Conference, Brooklyn, NY, United Methodist Assembly 2010, St. Louis, MO US Social Forum, Detroit, MI, The Allied Media Conference, Detroit, MI Zami '10: Haiti, Hope, and Homeland, New York, NY US Social Forum, Detroit, MI 2009 Three Degrees: The Law of Climate Change and Human Rights Conference, Seattle, WA Bioneers: Connecting for Change, New Bedford, MA Pulse of the Green, San Francisco, CA 2008 The 23rd Annual Empowering Women of Color Conference, Berkeley, CA Bioneers: Connecting for Change, New Bedford, MA Decolonizing Creativity, Berkeley, CA Speaking Fierce, Berkeley, CA 2007 United States Social Forum, Atlanta, GA Hip Hop Congress,” Moorhead, MN Making Money Make Change, Whitakers, NC Creating Institutional Change, Madison, WI Bioneers By the Bay, Marion, MA Beyond Walls, Building Bridges, Yellow Spring, OH Hip Hop Congress, Moorhead, MN Prison Justice Film Festival, Toronto, CA 2006 Race, Privilege, & Cultural Competence: Creating Inclusive Communities in A Post‐Katrina World, Iowa City, IO Creating Institutional Change, Madison, WI Allied Media Conference, Bowling Green, OH The National Lawyers Guild, “Law For the People Convention, Austin, TX Just Say Know, SSDP International Conference, Washington D.C. North American Student Cooperative Organization Conference, Ann Arbor, MI Social Justice Center, Albany NY 2005 Dreams Deferred: The Criminalization of America, Northampton, MA The Miseducation of Hip Hop, Chicago, IL, Wielding Hammers: Women's Art and Liberation, Ann Arbor, MI North American Student Cooperative Organization Conference, Ann Arbor, MI National Spoken Word Symposium, Iowa City, IA National Black Writers Conference, Brooklyn, NY

SHORT TERM RESIDENCIES & WORKSHOP SERIES AT

Colleges & Universities, (including but not limited to):

2013 University of Texas, Austin, TX University of Oregon, Eugene, OR Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI 2012 University of Illinois, Urbana, IL Center For The Arts, Jackson Hole, WY 2011 University of Wisconsin, Duluth, WI University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 2010 UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, MI Humboldt University, Arcata, CA Smith College, Northampton, MA 2008 University of Illinois, Champaign, IL Columbia College, Chicago, IL 2006 University of Illinois, Urbana, IL University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI George Brown College, Toronto, ON 2005 Brown University, Providence, RI Northern Iowa University, Cedar Falls, IO Hampshire College, Northampton, MA 2004 Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 2003 Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

Middle & High Schools, (including but not limited to):

2013 Global Citizenship Experience, Chicago, IL Acorn High School, Brooklyn, NY 2012 Saint John Technical High, ST Augustine, FL Global Citizenship Experience, Chicago, IL Loring Nicollet Alternative High School, Minneapolis, MN Jackson Hole High, Jackson Hole, WY Summit High, Jackson Hole, WY Detroit Future Youth Network, Detroit, MI Woolman Semester, Nevada City, CA Tennyson High School, Hayward, CA Castlemont High School, Oakland, CA Berkeley High School, Berkeley, CA 2011 Berkeley High School, Berkeley, CA Nease High School, Ponte Vedra, FL Joshua Johnston Charter School of Arts and Design, Chicago, IL John Technical High School, St Augustine, FL Loring Nicollet Alternative High School, Minneapolis, MN Global Citizenship Exchange High, Chicago, IL 2010 Pacific Palisades High School, Los Angeles, CA Wildwood High School, Los Angeles, CA Urban Assembly School for Green Careers, New York, NY The Facing History School, New York, NY 2007 Washington Irving High, New York, NY Phillips Andover Academy, Andover, MA Hoopa Valley High, Hoopa, CA La Follette High, Madison, WI Ella Baker High, New York, NY 2006 YSWI Memorial High School, Madison, WI Watts High School, Los Angeles, CA Ella Baker High, New York, NY Crenshaw High, Los Angeles, CA Jordan Senior High, Los Angeles, CA Harriet Tubman Free School, Albany, NY La Follette High, Madison, WI 2005 MATCH School, Boston, MA Albany Free School, Albany, NY Ella Baker High, New York, NY Stevenson High, Bronx, NY Smith High, Bronx, NY Lehman High, Bronx, NY 2004 University Park Campus, Worcester, MA Lehman High, Bronx, NY Smith High, Bronx, NY Stevenson High, Bronx, NY Ella Baker High, New York, NY 2003 Renaissance High, Watsonville, CA University High School, Champaign, IL

Correctional & State Institutions

2013 San Francisco County Jail, San Francisco, CA 2010 Jamal's Place, Chicago, IL 2009 Rikers Island Prison Complex, New York, NY 2007 Clark County Juvenile Detention Center, Springfield, OH Rikers Island Prison Complex, New York, NY 2005 Women’s Correctional Association, New York, NY Job Corpse, Washington D.C. Oak Hill Youth Facility, Laurel, MD Rikers Island Prison Complex, New York, NY 2004 New Haven Correctional Center, New Haven, CT La Casita (substance abuse treatment residential program), Bronx, NY Rikers Island Prison Complex, New York, NY 2002-2003 Valhalla Jail, Valhalla, NY

Youth Programs (including but not limited to);

2013 Young Chicago Authors, Chicago, IL Sista-2-Sista's 6th Annual Youth Summit, Brooklyn, NY Exploration School, New Haven, CT Asian Pacific Islander & African Youth Summit, Des Moines, IA Dwyer Cultural Center, New York, NY 2012 Brooklyn Children’s Museum, Brooklyn, NY NYC Climate Justice Youth Summit, New York, NY Flip The Table Coalition, Brooklyn, NY Girls Hit The Streets, Brooklyn, NY FIERCE, New York, NY 2011 Flip The Table, Youth Food Council, Brooklyn, NY Streetwise and Safe, New York, NY FIERCE, New York, NY YWCA Young Women's Group, Duluth, WI NYC Climate Justice Youth Summit, New York, NY 2010 Urban Arts Partnership, Brooklyn, NY Green City Force, Brooklyn, NY Youth Climate Justice Summit, New York, NY Live Arts Media Project, Detroit, MI 2009 Make the Road By Walking, Brooklyn, NY 2007 History of the Word, Vineyard Theatre, New York, NY Youth Speaks, Honolulu, HI Be the Change: Youth Environmental Leadership Training, Detroit, MI Green Teen Community Gardening Program, Beacon, NY What it Means to be Latina/o Symposium, Milwaukee, WI 2006 SKETCH Art Studio for Street Youth, Toronto, ON The Osborne Association, Brooklyn, NY Time and Space Media Arts Camp, Hudson, NY Mission Urban Arts, San Francisco, CA USI Digital Youth Network, Chicago, IL Detroit Summer, Detroit, MI Alternatives for Girls, Detroit, MI Project Row, Houston, TX Urban Word, New York, NY 2005 Bronx Institute, Bronx, NY Time and Space Media Arts Camp, Hudson, NY The Osborne Association, New York, NY 2004 YMCA, Roxbury, MA East Harlem Tutorial Program, NY, NY Incarcerated Mothers Program, NY, NY Beacon Summer Camp, Beacon, NY Bronx Institute, Bronx, NY Casa Atabex Aché, Bronx, NY Audre Lorde Project, Brooklyn, NY 2003 Youth Opportunity Center, Philadelphia, PA

PUBLISHED

In print

Climbing PoeTree, book of poems published by Whit Press, 2013, Subversiones, Mexico 2013; Variopinto, Mexico, 2012, Pixelating: Black in New Dimensions, Museum of Contemporary African Diasporic Arts, 2012; The Poetry of Yoga, One Common Unity, 2011; Whole Thinking Journal, The Center for Whole Communities, 2010; The Matrix, Humboldt State University’s Women’s Resource Center, 2009; Left Turn Magazine, Left Turn Collective, 2008; Colorlines Magazine, Applied Research Center, 2008; African Magazine, Edinam Oton Printing, 2007; Clamour Magazine, 2007; Sabor Latin@ Living Literature, Boston College, 2007; Nexus Magazine, UMASS Amherst, 2006; Affinity by Naima, self‐published poetry book, 2005; Ala by Alixa, self‐published poetry book, 2005; One World Freedom Journal, Firestarter Press, 2005; Altar Magazine Issue 2, Spring 2003; UpRising by Naima, self‐ published, 2003; re''cent by Alixa, self‐published, 2003; Dark Phrases Volumes 11 and 13, and The Sarah Lawrence Review, Sarah Lawrence College, 2003

Audio Recordings and Radio Features:

Subversiones, Mexico 2013; The Visionary Activist, Caroline Casey's Radio Show, KPFA, 2013; Variopinto, Mexico, 2012; TV and Radio Davey D KPFA, 2012; Brooklyn Arts Council's Black Brooklyn Renaissance Digital Archive, 2010; KPFA’s The Morning Show and Hard Knock Radio, 2008; Ammunition (Alixa and Naima’s debut album) 2006, The We That Sets Us Free (compilation produced by Justice Now, Oakland) 2006; Rhymes and Royalties (compilation produced by Mo Amper Sounds) 2005; Stethoscope (Alixa and Naima’s EP) 2004; Manic Expressive (spoken word poetry compilation produced by JP AS220) 2004

Video Recordings and Television Appearances:

Microphone Fiends, Manhattan Neighborhood Network, 2013; Subversiones, Mexico 2013; Variopinto, Mexico, 2012; Street Inc Media, 2012; Signified Series, NYC, 2012; Democracy Now "Music Breaks," National, 2006‐present; Ancestors Watching, music video Executively Produced by Warrington Hudlin, Black Filmmakers Foundation, 2006; LoveLife: GroundBreakers, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2005; MTV's The Next, Music Television, 2004 CONTACT Climbing PoeTree

booking inquiries: [email protected] general inquiries: [email protected]

web: www.climbingpoetree.com www.hurricaneseasontour.com

social media: Climbing PoeTree

phone: 347.729.6762