Open Mic at MoAD is now virtual! All interested readers, please sign up to perform below. For those interested in being part of the audience, no need to rsvp.

Sign up to perform below. Everyone is welcome.

OPEN MIC THURSDAYS continue. Because we remain closed due to the global pandemic COVID-19, we will host our Open Mic online via ZOOM. Because we had such an awesome first virtual open mic, we will bring them to you TWICE per month instead of once. Look for MoAD Open Mic this month on the FIRST & THIRD THURSDAYS.

DONATIONS OF ANY AMOUNT ARE ALWAYS WELCOME, SO IF YOU ARE ABLE TO, PLEASE CONSIDER DONATING TO MOAD ONLINE HERE, OR DONATING THROUGH GIVE BY CELL BY TEXTING THE WORD: MOADSF TO THE NUMBER: 56512 ON YOUR CELL PHONE, THEN FOLLOW THE LINK PROVIDED TO MAKE A DONATION. ALL DONATIONS WILL GO TOWARDS SUPPORTING MOAD AND CONTINUING TO BRING YOU ENGAGING PROGRAMMING.

Here are the instructions for joining via ZOOM:

REGISTER IN ADVANCE VIA ZOOM TO RECEIVE A LINK TO JOIN THE PROGRAM

‍https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwpdu-ppzopE9TjhrkRrBXRmkF7exWQPhb7

Once you register, you will receive an email with the link to join the program.

‍Hosted by poet Nia McAllister, join us for an evening of spoken word, featuring amazing poets from throughout the Bay Area. Participate or just watch. Everyone is welcome.

‍Our Featured Artist: Aya de León

Aya de León directs the Poetry for the People program at UC Berkeley, teaching poetry and spoken word. In spring 2021, she will be a Visiting Professor in the creative writing MFA program at University of San Francisco. Kensington Books publishes her award-winning feminist heist series, which includes SIDE CHICK NATION, the first novel published about Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.

In May 2020, Aya published her first children’s chapter book, EQUALITY GIRLS AND THE PURPLE REFLECTO-RAY, about an Afro-Latina girl who uses her superpowers to confront the president’s sexism. In December 2020 Kensington will publish her first standalone novel, A SPY IN THE STRUGGLE, about FBI infiltration of an African-American eco-racial justice organization.

Aya is a founding blogger with The Daily Dose: Feminist Voices for the Green New Deal, and she organizes with the climate movement and the Movement for Black Lives. Her work has also appeared in Ebony, Guernica, Writers Digest, Bitch Magazine, Mutha Magazine, VICE, The Root, Ploughshares, and on Def Poetry. Aya is at work on a YA Black/Latina spy girl series for teens called GOING DARK.

She is an alumna of Cave Canem and VONA.

Visit her online at ayadeleon.com, on Twitter at @ayadeleon, Facebook or Instagram at @ayadeleonwrites, where she writes about race, class, gender, sexuality, culture and climate.

In 2021, Kensington will publish her latest novel, THE QUEEN OF URBAN PROPHECY.