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EDUCATION
Bachelor of Arts, English Literature, Howard University, Washington, D.C.


FELLOWSHIPS & AWARDS
2021 ONE Archives Foundation, Changemaker, Pride Publics: Words and Actions

2020 Certificate of Congressional Recognition, U.S. House of Representatives

2017 Avest Award for Literary Arts, The Women’s Building

2007 Certificate of Recognition, City of Los Angeles

2007 Poet Laureate, Watts Towers Arts Center

2003 Cave Canem Foundation Fellowship (2003, 1999, 1997)

1997 Jenny McKean Moore Workshop Fellowship, George Washington University

1997 Lannan Literary Fellowship, Folger Shakespeare Library (1997, 1996, 1995, 1994)

1994 John J. Wright Literary Award, Howard University


PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2025 Mixed-Media Portrait Commission, Karen Stuhr

2025 Featured Visual Artist & LGBT Artist Shaping Culture, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Heritage Month Calendar & Cultural Guide, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs

2025 Featured Visual Artist, African American Heritage Month Calendar & Cultural Guide, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs

2025 Featured Visual Artist, We Do Not Need Permission to Rise: LGBTQ+ Pride Poetry & Art Anthology, Beyond the Veil Press

2024 Librettist, Fire and Blue Sky, World Premiere, LA Opera’s 2023/24 Season, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion

2024 Featured Visual Artist & Poet, LGBTQ+ Survivor Stories, Braver Collective

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

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, Daniel Alexander Jones: Rites of Passage, UCLA Nimoy Theater, Center for the Art of Performance, University of California, Los Angeles

2024 Featured Visual Artist, African American Heritage Month Calendar & Cultural Guide, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs

2023 Featured Visual Artist & Poet, Beneath the Soil Volume II, Queer Survivors E-Zine, ​Time to Tell Project

2022 Featured Poet & Speaker: ONE Archives Foundation Queer Biennial, Hand in Hand
with Traci Kato-Kiriyama & Imani Tolliver

2022 Featured Visual Artist & Poet, Queer Diasporas: Lavender City of Dreams, a Virtual and Live Exhibition,
City of West Hollywood

2022 Featured Visual Artist, Spectrum: Spring Fantasy

2021 Featured Poet & Speaker, We Rise LA, 2021: Love Letters in Light, Short Film Documentary, Electric Park Films

2021 Featured Poet, Love Letters in Light, Public Art Project, LA County Library, Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health and We Rise LA

2021 Facilitator, Poetry & Visual Art Workshop, Virtual Poetry and Creative Arts Festival, West Chester University

2021 Facilitator, Poetry & Visual Art Workshop, International Women’s Writing Guild

2021 Facilitator, Poetry Workshop, Elysian Valley Art Collective

2018 Featured Poet, L.A. Times Festival of Books

2020-2007 Supervisor, Cultural & Fine Arts Division, Community Services, Department City of Buena Park Civic & Youth Theater, Concerts, Festivals, Large-Scale Special Events, Visual Art Exhibitions, Leisure Classes, Cultural Excursions

2016 Panelist, I Come to Witness: Writers as the Children of Audre Lorde and James Baldwin, Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference

2014 Keynote Speaker, Voice Music For Whole Living: Peter J. Harris & Imani Tolliver, Annual Multicultural Conference, Metropolitan State Hospital

2013 Keynote Speaker, Poetry is Not a Luxury: Exploring the Healing Nature of the Written Word, Annual Multicultural Conference, Metropolitan State Hospital

2011 Keynote Speaker, LGBTQ+ Pride Graduation Ceremony, California State University
Long Beach

2010-2008 Co-Facilitator & Co-Founder, ArtPod | Artists Relating to the Politics of Dreams: A Queer Normative Collective for Artists Dedicated to Social Justice with D’Lo and Imani Tolliver, Southern California Library

2009 Facilitator, Poetry Workshop, Department of Women's Studies California State University Long Beach (2009, 2007, 2006, 2005)

2008 Panelist, Queer Text(ures): Reading and Writing LGBTQ+ Community History, Department of Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles

2008 Panelist, Leimert Park Village Book Fair, The World Stage

2007 Guest Speaker, Images in Blackness, Bunche Library and Media Center, University of California, Los Angeles

2007 Facilitator, Poetry Workshop, Poetry at The Village, Ed Gould Plaza LA Gay and Lesbian Center

2007-2005 Director of Student Services, American Musical and Dramatic Academy

2005-2004 Director of Programming & Community Outreach, A Place Called Home

2004 Curator & Emcee|Host, Friday Nights at the Getty Presents: Pure, The Getty Center

2004-2002 Director, Independent Living Program, The Way In Youth Center, The Salvation Army

2003 Curator & Emcee|Host, Juneteenth Hip-Hop Poetry Slam: New School vs. Old School, The World Stage

2002 Facilitator & Emcee|Host, Wednesday Night Poetry Workshop, Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center

2002 Curator & Emcee|Host, Poetry Reading Featuring Rachel Kann and Charlotte Young, Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center

2002 Curator & Emcee|Host, Poetry Reading Featuring Jennifer Bowens and Tracy Holton, Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center

2002 Curator & Emcee|Host, Poetry Reading Featuring Aida Salazar and Alicia Vogl Saenz, Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center

2002 Curator & Emcee|Host, Juneteenth Poetry Slam: Harlem Renaissance vs. Black Arts Movement, Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center

2002-1999 Program Director, Weingart Youth Center, The Salvation Army

2001 Co-Curator, The World Beyond Poetry Festival, Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center

2001-1999 Assistant Program Director & Academic Director, South Central Youth Project, The Salvation Army

2000 Editor, Stories: The Life of Ellen Cook, Autry Museum of the American West

1999-1997 Language Arts Teacher, Marcus Garvey School

1997 Facilitator, Storytelling Workshop, Bringing African Storytelling to the Classroom, District of Columbia Public Schools

1997-1996 Co-Coordinator, Tellin’ Stories Project

1996 Editor, Women, Words and Other Wonders: Writings from The Dinner Program for Homeless Women, WritersCorps/AmeriCorps National Service (1996-1995)

1996 Editor, The Office of the President, William Jefferson Clinton

1996 Facilitator, Poetry Workshop, African American Poetry Lecture Series, Higher Achievement Program (1996, 1995)

1996-1994 Instructor, Creative Writing, WritersCorps/AmeriCorps National Service

1995 Editor, Janus Literary Journal, Howard University


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

2024 LGBTQ+ Survivor Stories, Braver Collective

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

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

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

2023 SKEW 4: Black Embodiment, Level Ground Magazine

2023 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Heritage Month Calendar & Cultural Guide, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017)

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

2023 Visual Art & Poetry | Beneath the Soil Volume II, Queer Survivors E-Zine,​ Time to Tell Project

2022 Nonwhite and Woman, Woodhall Press

2022 African American Heritage Month Calendar & Cultural Guide, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (2022, 2021, 2020, 2019)

2022 The Library Love Letter: Letters One

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

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

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

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

2020 Public Intellectuals

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

2017 Voices From Leimert Park: Redux, Harriet Tubman Press

2017 Cultural Daily

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

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

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

2007 HIS RIB: Poems, Stories & Essays by Her

2006 Voices from Leimert Park: A Poetry Anthology

2006 Poetry Super Highway, 8th Annual Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance Day

2006 Hand Tooth Nail

2005 Get Underground

2004 All About Jazz

2004 Poetic Diversity

2003 My Man: Love Poems Chapbook

2002 San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly Vol. 17

2002 Beyond the Frontier, Black Classics Press

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

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

2000 Drum Voices Review, Eugene Redmond

1999 Cave Canem VIII, Cave Canem Publishing

1999 Black Love, Beyond Baroque Books

1998 Jones Juke Joint Magic, Jones Juke Joint Still Press

1997 Cave Canem II, Cave Canem Publishing

1997 The Drumming Between Us, Peter J. Harris Publications

1996 Poets Mama Didn't Raise, Smirna Press

1995 Artistic Pedigree Magazine

1994 The Flow: New Black Poetry in Motion, ECA Associates Press


INTERVIEWS
2021 ONE Archives, Pride Publics: Summer is an Elegy with Traci Kato-Kiriyama

2021 Spectrum News 1, Love Letters in Light Hopes to Bring Angelenos Together Through Poetry By David Mendez

2020 Ukulele Magazine, The Story of Lift Every Voice and Sing and its Lasting Impact By Heidi Swedberg

2020 Voyage LA, Meet Imani Tolliver

2017 Los Angeles Review of Books Podcast, A Conversation with Janice Rhoshalle Littlejohn & Imani Tolliver

2017 Los Angeles Review of Books, I Didn’t Live a Manageable Life By Janice Rhoshalle Littlejohn

2013 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

2008 Nigerian Times, The African American Writer with a DifferenceBy Sumaila Umaisha

2005 KPFK 90.7, The Beautiful Struggle

2003 KPFK 90.7, Beneath the Surface

2003 KPFK 90.7, The Morning Show

2002 National Black Arts Festival

2000 Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center, Po Ho One: The Poetry Hosting Conclave

1997 Howard University, D.C. Area Writing Project: An Institute for Master Teachers

1995 National Public Radio, Talk of the Nation, WritersCorps/AmeriCorps National Service

1995 WPFW FM, The Poet and the Poem, WritersCorps/AmeriCorps National Service

1995 The Washington Home of Stewart Mott, Kitchen Table Press, The Importance of a Women of Color Press


SKILLS
Management
Local Government Management
Community Outreach
Partnership Development
Public Policy
Risk Management
Facility Management
Non-Profit Management
Volunteer Management
Training

EVENT PRODUCTION
Civic Theater
Youth Theater
Special Events
Concerts in the Park
Art & Holiday Festivals
Municipality Christmas Tree Lightings
Visual Art Exhibitions
Cultural Excursions

MARKETING | PROMOTION
Digital & Print Media
Social Media
Video Content
Analytics
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Layout & Design
Press Releases​

WORKSHOP FACILITATION
Poetry & Creative Writing
Visual Arts
Storytelling

WRITING | EDITING
Creative Writing
Web Content
Copywriting
Copyediting
Proposals & Presentations
Grant Writing & Reporting

PUBLIC SPEAKING
Film, Television & Radio
Keynote Speaker
Panelist
Emcee|Event Host
Wedding Officiant

COMPUTER | WEB
Apple & PC
Microsoft Office Suite
Google Suite
Website Building & Design
Canva
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Zoom



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