Speaking & Performances
Facilitator
“A Dream Returned” Soultry Sisters Summer SOULstice Festival (June 2022)
”Mutual Aid” Futures Without Violence Economic Empowerment Series (November 2021
“Mutual Aid & Dreamwork” University of San Diego Ethnic Studies (November 2021)
”The Nonprofit Industrial Complex” Borrowed Knowledge Community Learrning Circle (September 2021)
“Disrupting and Making Space: Access and Anti-Oppression” Homegrown Youth Collaborative (July 2021)
”Black Womxn & Activism” University of San Diego African American Women’s History (April 2021)
“Transformative Justice in Action” CoFed Build Unlearn and Decolonize Fellowship (October 2020)
Keynote Speaker
Panelist
“Body Politics Talk Back” Black Arts Matter Festival (March 2022)
“Collective Liberation” Asian Solidarity Collective Portal To Liberation (August 2021)
“Borderlands & Activism“ San Diego Mesa College (October 2020)
“Mutual Aid: Strength in Community” San Diego Grantmakers COVID 19 Webinar (June 2020)
“Womxn” Healing Dialogues with Dr. Jessica J Williams (June 2020)
”Finding Your Place in the Movement” Black SD Magazine (June 2020)
”Awakening to Wokeness” RISE San Diego RISE Now Series (June 2020)
Featured Performer
National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance Fat Liberation Month 2022 Virtual Mixer (August 2022)
Women’s Museum of California Women’s Equity Day Festival (August 2022)
Diversionary Theater Reproductive Justice Fundraiser (June 2022)
rupi kaur World Tour (June 2022)
ACLU California Action Conference Closing Celebration (May 2022)
San Diego Communty College District National Poetry Month Event (April 2022)
Second Saturday’s @ Brickhouse Art Gallery (April 2022)
Luna’s Cafe Open Mic (April 2022)
Cafe X: By Any Beans Necessary Grand Opening (February 2022)
Palabra Open Mic (December 2021)
Rising Arts Leaders San Diego Arts Fest (September 2021)
San Diego African American Musuem “Keepers of the Culture: Bring Your Own Story” (February 2020)
Slam Accolades
Womxn of The World Poetry Slam 2022 - 13th Place
Black Arts Matter Poetry Slam 2022 - 8th Place, Final Stage Performer
Stonewall International Poetry Slam 2021- 7th Place, Final Stage Performer
San Diego Poetry Slam Grand Slam Finalist 2018
Media & Accolades
Media
“Covering 75 Years of San Diego Magazine” San Diego Magazine (February 2023)
“Women’s Museum puts voting in the spotlight with its first Women’s Equality Day Festival” San Diego Union Tribune (August 2022)
Black Girls Have Anxiety Too Podcast (July 2021)
”She is On a Mission at the Intersection of Blackness and Queerness” Black SD Magazine (July 2021)
“SDSU, Black Community Groups Organize Events Focused On Healing” KPBS (June 2020)
“March for Black Women San Diego is ‘love letter’ to local black women” San Diego Union Tribune (March 2020)
“Culture Report: Open Mics and Open Mouths” (November 2019)
“A Weekend Summit, March To Honor Black Women In San Diego” KPBS (March 2019)
”March For Black Women Draws Diverse Crowd” San Diego Voice & Viewpoint (March 2019)
Publications
“Grandmamas Whisper to Me in Midst of Panic Attack” VAST Press (February 2022)
Features
Awards
Reclamation Ventures Spring 2021 Impact Grant Recipient
“Activist of The Year” Black SD Magazine (2020)
Young Black & N Business Blacks That Impact San Diego (2020)
Fellowships
RISE San Diego Urban Leadership Fellowship (2018)
Baldwin House Urban Writers Residency (2021)
Projects & Productions
Creative universes
Black Dream Experiment
A creative social research project and multidisciplinary exploration of Black Dreamwork. The working thesis of Black Dream Experiment is:
Black dreamwork as an ancestral, wellness and liberation practice. White failurism and it’s unlegendary children (misogyny, ableism, transphobia, fatphobia etc…) work to disconnect us from our dream space by emphasizing that the reality in front of us is the only thing that is and will be. When we are taught that survival is a privilege, dreaming feels inaccessible and pointless. We can return to our dream space through self and community care, honoring our innate gifts and skills, and revoking consent from the white imagination.
BDE Soundtrack
Social Media Productions
Kelse Reads (2020 - Present)
An online reading practice that engages with sociological text, Black feminist literature, blog posts and more in a transformative and accessible way. In addition to reading on lives, I have also maintained a reading list with notes and references online.
A panel discussion exploring the limitations of body positivity, the micro and macro systemic violence of fatphobia, and the possibility of a fat liberation that holds space for all.
Field Notes From The Dream Space (2021-Present)
A social media reflection series building out theoretical framework of dreamwork hosted on Black Dream Experiment
Curated Events
Black Dream Experiment LIVE (2022-Present)
A variety show and mutual aid fundraiser exploring Black dreaming as a collective wellness and liberation practice.
The Sit In: A Black Healing Space (2020-2021)
A weekly virtual processing group for Black folks launched at the height of the pandemic and “uprising” as a place of healing and protest.
A venue that reimagines what creative community that prioritizes connection over perfection could look like while providing a platform for experienced and emerging artists.
The Check In (2018)
A 3 part event series for San Diego creative community to hold space for one another, speak to the unspoken inspirations that affect their work and be solution oriented in creating spaces that benefit the whole artist.
Creative Projects
”Dream Shit” a short play produced by SoulKiss Theater (July 2022)
”Dream Forget Return” a self published chapbook (April 2022)
“You Thought: 28 Beginnings and Middles From My 28th Year” a self published chapbook (September 2019)
Collaborative Work
We All We Got San Diego (2020-2022)
I was a founding member of We All We Got San Diego, a mutual aid organization aimed at addressing the needs of San Diegans during the COVID-19 crisis. During my time I helped to establish the guiding principles of the organization while establishing and maintaining the Facebook group that facilitated skill and resource sharing and provided political education. I represented the organization in several virtual events discussing mutual aid, transformative justice and abolition and facilitated an Instagram Live event called “This Shit Ain’t Normal.” Along with two other organizers I compiled a San Diego Post Election Safety Guide to offer community members resource in the event of civil unrest.
Black lives matter san diego(2020-2021)
In the summer of 2020, I helped to organize a county wide caravan that uplifted the violence Black folks experience by the state on a National and local level. I crafted social media campaigns that lifted up Black siblings whose lives were stolen, critiqued anti Black institutions/neighborhoods, and interrogated performative ally ship. My work also included curating spaces of celebration and self determination and I spearheaded a Juneteenth Black Joy Jumpoff virtual celebration and a Build Black Futures back to school drive.
March for black womxn san diego (2018-2021)
I co-organized the annual March For Black Womxn San Diego for 3 years and coordinated online programming during the height of the pandemic. During my time with M4BWSD I founded the Black Womxn Save My Life Summit and established a mutual aid fund called Black Womxn Deserve that redistributed $200,000 in 6 months to Black womxn and femmes in San Diego facing economic hardships during the height of COVID-19.
Photo Credit: Edgar Ontiveros