Angel Nafis (born December 1988) is an American poet and spoken word artist. She is the author of ''BlackGirl Mansion'' (Red Beard Press / New School Poetics, 2012). She lives in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

Early life

Nafis grew up in

Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County, Michigan, Washtenaw County. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851. It is the principal city of the Ann Arbor ...

, where she attended Huron High School. She struggled through school, but graduated in 2006. She was on the Ann Arbor Youth

Poetry Slam A poetry slam is a competitive art event in which poets perform spoken word poetry before a live audience and a panel of judges. While formats can vary, slams are often loud and lively, with audience participation, cheering and dramatic delivery. ...

Team in 2005 and 2006. She was raised

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

. Her mother died when she was young, so she was raised by her father. Her father's family was from

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. Her mother's family was from

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

Education

Nafis earned her BA at

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

, and is an MFA candidate in poetry at

Warren Wilson College Warren Wilson College (WWC) is a private liberal arts college in Swannanoa, North Carolina. It is known for its curriculum that combines academics, work, and service as every student must complete a requisite course of study, work an on-campus ...

Career

686 Fulton Street Brooklyn NY assorted photos near Fulton Street 26 Greenlight Bookstore

Nafis is a

Cave Canem Beware of the dog (also rendered as Beware of dog) is a warning sign indicating that a dangerous dog is within. Such signs may be placed to deter burglary even if there is no dog. History Warning signs of this sort have been found in Ancien ...

fellow, the recipient of a

Millay Colony Millay Arts, formerly the Millay Colony for the Arts, is an arts community offering residency-retreats and workshops in Austerlitz, New York, and free arts programs in local public schools. Housed on the former property of feminist/activist poet ...

residency, and the founder and curator of the Greenlight Bookstore Poetry Salon's readings and writing workshops. With poet Morgan Parker, she runs ''The Other Black Girl Collective'', a Black feminist poetry duo that tours internationally. Her work has appeared in outlets including the '' BreakBeat Poets Anthology'', ''

Buzzfeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ken ...

Reader'', the ''Rumpus'', ''

Poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

'', ''

FOUND Magazine ''Found Magazine'', created by Davy Rothbart and Jason Bitner and based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, collected and cataloged found notes, photos, and other ephemera, publishing them in an irregularly issued magazine, in books, and on its website ...

’s Requiem for a Paper Bag'', ''Decibels'', ''The Rattling Wall'', ''Union Station Magazine'', ''The Bear River Review'', ''MUZZLE Magazine'', ''Prelude Mag'', ''Sixth Finch'', and ''Mosaic Magazine''.

Personal life

Nafis lives in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

with artist, writer, and musician Shira Erlichman, with whom she is in a relationship. Together, they toured for the "Odes for You" tour. In June 2020, Nafis and hundreds of other poets signed an open letter to the

Poetry Foundation The Poetry Foundation is an American literary society that seeks to promote poetry and lyricism in the wider culture. It was formed from ''Poetry'' magazine, which it continues to publish, with a 2003 gift of $200 million from philanthropist Rut ...

asking for the immediate resignation of both president

Henry Bienen Henry Samuel Bienen (born 1939) is an American academic and administrator. He was named President of the Poetry Foundation in 2015, and is President Emeritus of Northwestern University, where he served from 1995 to 2009. Life and career Bienen re ...

and board of trustees chair Willard Bunn III, as well as other demands relating to the foundation's response to the

murder of George Floyd On , George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was murdered in the U.S. city of Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer. Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's n ...

Awards and honors

* Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from the

(2016) * NEA Creative Writing fellowship

Bibliography

Books

* ''BlackGirl Mansion'' (Red Beard Press/ New School Poetics, 2012).''''

Selected list of published poems

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nafis, Angel Poets from Michigan Writers from Ann Arbor, Michigan African-American poets Hunter College alumni LGBT African Americans 1988 births Living people Writers from Brooklyn American LGBT poets Slam poets 21st-century American poets American spoken word artists 21st-century African-American educators 21st-century American educators LGBT people from Michigan LGBT women 21st-century African-American women writers 21st-century American women writers 21st-century African-American writers African-American feminists LGBT feminists American feminist writers American Muslims Muslim poets African-American Muslims LGBT Muslims African-American women musicians 20th-century African-American people 21st-century American LGBT people 20th-century African-American women