GUEST SPEAKER
Kleaver Cruz
Kleaver Cruz is an Uptown native of NYC, a writer, dreamer and lover of travel. His work has been featured in La Galería and African Voices Magazine as well as on Vibe.com and the Huffington Post among others. Cruz is also one half of the poetic duo, The Delta, which has performed at The Nuyorican Poet’s Café, Bowery Poetry Club as well served as judges for the Wordat4F Poetry Slam. He is an alum of the VONA/Voices of Our Nation Foundation's Emerging Writer's Workshop where he studied essay writing. Cruz has presented and conducted his work across the African Diaspora in South Africa, France, Brazil and other countries.
Kleaver is the creator of The Black Joy Project, a digital and real-world movement to center Black joy as a form of resistance. He is a member of We Are All Dominican--A U.S.-based grassroots collective that amplifies the voices of and supports the work of Dominicans of Haitian Descent and Haitian migrants in the Dominican Republic. Cruz loves being Black, Queer, Dominican and the myriad of elements that comprise who he is with the understanding that they are all parts of a whole. Kleaver believes in the power of words because they allow him to write what did not exist when he needed it the most. For more information visit: kleavercruz.com/biography/ |