Imani's poems are anthems to family, love and freedom. Tolliver offers windows and mirrors in her poetry--open vision and multifaceted interior reflection. If you can go as deep as she does in this work, you'll experience
a profoundly lyrical voice and a wise one, too.



ELOISE KLEIN HEALY, INAUGURAL POET LAUREATE OF LOS ANGELES,

AWARD-WINNING POET, FOUNDING EDITOR OF ARKTOI BOOKS,

FOUNDING CHAIR OF THE MFA IN CREATIVE WRITING AT ANTIOCH UNIVERSITY, AND DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR OF CREATIVE WRITING EMERITA,

ANTIOCH UNIVERSITY LOS ANGELES



FEATURED VISUAL ARTIST

LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER, QUEER, INTERSEX, ASEXUAL+ HERITAGE MONTH CALENDAR & CULTURAL GUIDE, CITY OF LOS ANGELES DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS, 2026



FEATURED VISUAL ARTIST

AFRICAN AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH CALENDAR & CULTURAL GUIDE, CITY OF LOS ANGELES DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS, 2026



FEATURED VISUAL ARTIST

LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER HERITAGE MONTH CALENDAR & CULTURAL GUIDE, CITY OF LOS ANGELES DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS, 2025



FEATURED VISUAL ARTIST

LA Time Capsule: Art Block Zine Vol. 10, DSTL Arts, 2025


FEATURED VISUAL ARTIST

WE DO NOT NEED PERMISSION TO RISE: LGBTQ+ PRIDE POETRY & ART ANTHOLOGY, BEYOND THE VEIL PRESS, 2025


FEATURED VISUAL ARTIST

AFRICAN AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH CALENDAR & CULTURAL GUIDE, CITY OF LOS ANGELES DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS, 2025



FEATURED POET

Good/Evil: Art Block Zine Vol. 9, DSTL Arts, 2024


FEATURED VISUAL ARTIST & POET

Beneath the Soil Volume III: Queer Survivors E-Zine, Time to Tell Project, 2024


FEATURED VISUAL ARTIST & POET

BRAVER COLLECTIVE LGBTQ+ SURVIVOR STORIES, 2024


FEATURED VISUAL ARTIST

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Heritage Month Calendar & Cultural Guide, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, 2024



BROADSIDE ILLUSTRATOR

RITES OF PASSAGE, CURATED BY DANIEL ALEXANDER JONES, UCLA NIMOY THEATER
2024



FEATURED VISUAL ARTIST

AFRICAN AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH CALENDAR & CULTURAL GUIDE, CITY OF LOS ANGELES DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS
2024



FEATURED VISUAL ARTIST & POET

BENEATH THE SOIL VOLUME II: QUEER SURVIVORS E-ZINE, TIME TO TELL PROJECT
2023



FEATURED POET

Intertextuality Starts Here: Art Block Zine Vol. 8, DSTL Arts, 2023



FEATURED POET

SKEW 04: Black Embodiment, Level Ground Magazine, 2023



FEATURED POET

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Heritage Month Calendar & Cultural Guide, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, 2023



FEATURED POET

Beneath the Soil Volume II: Queer Survivors E-Zine, Time to Tell Project, 2023


FEATURED POET

Nonwhite and Woman, Woodhall Press, 2022



FEATURED POET

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Heritage Month Calendar & Cultural Guide, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, 2022



FEATURED POET

Scenes of Southern California Vol.2: Poetry of Places, Four Feathers Press, 2022



FEATURED POET

The Library Love Letter: Letters One, 2022



FEATURED POET

African American Heritage Month Calendar & Cultural Guide, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, 2022



FEATURED POET

SKEW 3: Black Abundance A Celebration of Blackness as an Extravaganza of/in Black Beings, Expressions and Revolutions, Level Ground Magazine, 2021



ART TUTORIAL

LACMA Unframed I See Myself In You. Personal Essay and Self-Portrait Tutorial Inspired by the Black American Portraits Exhibition. unframed.lacma.org, 2021



FEATURED POET

Beneath the Soil: Queer Survivor's E-Zine, Time to Tell Project, 2021



FEATURED POET

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Heritage Month Calendar & Cultural Guide, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, 2021



FEATURED POET

African American Heritage Month Calendar & Cultural Guide, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, 2021



FEATURED POET

Love Letters in Light Public Poetry Project, Los Angeles County Library & Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health's WE RISE, 2021


FEATURED POET

PublicIntellectuals.org, 2020



FEATURED POET

African American Heritage Month Calendar & Cultural Guide, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, 2020



FEATURED POET

African American Heritage Month Calendar & Cultural Guide, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, 2019



FEATURED POET

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Heritage Month Calendar & Cultural Guide, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, 2019



FEATURED POET

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Heritage Month Calendar & Cultural Guide, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, 2018



AUTHOR

Runaway: A Memoir in Verse, World Stage Press, 2017



FEATURED POET

CulturalDaily.com, 2017



FEATURED POET

Voices From Leimert Park: Redux,
Harriet Tubman Press, 2017



FEATURED POET

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Heritage Month Calendar and Cultural Guide, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, 2017 



FEATURED POET

Corners of the Mouth: A Celebration of Thirty Years at the Annual San Luis Obispo Poetry Festival, Deer Tree Press, 2015



DIALOGUE

Her Kind, A Literary Community Powered By Vida: Women in Literary Arts, Hair as Storyteller and Reimaginator: A Conversation with Imani Tolliver and Beth Gilstrap, 2013



FEATURED POET

Don’t Blame the Ugly Mug, Moon Tide Press, 2011



FEATURED POET

Van Gogh’s Ear #7: The Supernatural Edition, 2009 



FEATURED POET

HIS RIB: Poems, Stories & Essays by Her, 2007



FEATURED POET

Voices from Leimert Park, 2006



FEATURED POET

PoetrySuper Highway.com, Eighth Annual Yom Hashoah Holocaust Remembrance Day Issue, 2006



FEATURED POET

HandToothNail.com, 2006



FEATURED POET

GetUnderground.com, 2005



FEATURED POET

AllAboutJazz.com, 2004



FEATURED POET

PoeticDiversity.org, 2004



FEATURED POET

My Man: Love Poems Chapbook, 2003



FEATURED POET

San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly Vol. 17, 2002



FEATURED POET

Beyond the Frontier, Black Classic Press, 2002



FEATURED POET

Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam, Russell Simmons Productions, 2001



FEATURED POET

Step into a World: A Global Anthology of the New Black Literature, Wiley and Sons, 2000



FEATURED POET

Drum Voices Review, Eugene Redmond, 2000



FEATURED POET

Cave Canem VIII, Cave Canem Publishing, 1999



FEATURED POET

Cave Canem IV, Cave Canem Publishing, 1999



FEATURED POET

Black Love, Beyond Baroque Books, 1999



FEATURED POET

Jones Juke Joint Magic, Jones Juke Joint Still Press, 1998



FEATURED POET

Cave Canem II, Cave Canem Publishing, 1997



FEATURED POET

The Drumming Between Us, Peter J. Harris Publications, 1997



FEATURED POET

Poets Mama Didn't Raise, Smirna Press, 1996



FEATURED POET

Artistic Pedigree Magazine, 1995



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