In this weekly summer series, eight Bay Area poets share new poems created in response to the current exhibitions. They will also describe the processes they employ in writing ekphrastic work. Come and see, come and listen, come and experience the art that moves your spirit to consider power and liberation.‍

June 6 - August 1 feature individual performances.These readings and discussions culminate in the MoAD Salon with an evening of wine and performance by all the poets in this series on August 8.Community Voices: Poets Speak is curated by Raina J. León.

The exhibition on view is Coffee, Rhum, Sugar & Gold: A Postcolonial Paradox.

Coffee, Rhum, Sugar & Gold: A Postcolonial Paradox looks at the legacy of European colonialism in the Caribbean through the work of 10 contemporary artists. Whether connected to the Caribbean by birth or focused on the region by choice, the exhibiting artists use their work as a means of examining the relationship between the power structure, those who are controlled by it, those who benefit from it, and those who actively seek to liberate themselves from it. A key driver of the exhibition is the theory that colonialism has continued to exist in other forms, and is in fact spreading through the export of soft power, the use of military force, the control of international financial and banking mechanisms, as well as the increase in globalization.

Featured Poet

Marvin K.  White

Marvin K. White MDiv, is a graduate of the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley CA, and the interim minister of celebration at GLIDE Memorial Church in San Francisco. Marvin was the inaugural "First Church Berkeley 2017-2018 Public Theologian in Residence." He is currently an arts liaison and a co-facilitator of the "Faith Leaders Round Table" at The Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society.

He is the author of four collections of poetry published by RedBone Press: Our Name Be Witness, Status and the two Lammy-nominated collections, last rights and nothin’ ugly fly. As a public theologian and community-based artist, he is articulating a vision of social, prophetic and creative justice through being a poet, artist, teacher, facilitator, activist, community organizer, preacher, homemaker, cake baker, and Facebook Statustician.

SPD is the only non-profit literary distributor in the US. Founded in 1969, everything we do is aimed at helping essential but underrepresented literary communities participate fully in the marketplace and in the culture at large. We do this by offering book distribution, information services, and public advocacy programs to hundreds of small publishers. Ultimately, we work to connect readers with writers through independently publishers literature, getting books into the hands of those who want to read them.

Public programs at MoAD are supported in part by Target.