Yesenia Montilla & Funto Omojola

Yesenia Montilla and Funto Omojola write poems that are rapturous and protean, as transformative as the brightest spells, visionary as day breaking on a world that spins in complex love.

With guest introductions from Sheila Maldonado and Sawako Nakayasu.

Yesenia Montilla is an Afro-Latina poet & a daughter of immigrants. She received her MFA from Drew University in Poetry & Poetry in translation. She is a CantoMundo graduate fellow and a 2020 NYFA fellow. Her work has been published in Academy of American Poets Poem-a-DayPrairie SchoonerGulf Coast and in Best of American Poetry 2021 and 2022. Her first collection The Pink Box is published by Willow Books & was longlisted for a PEN Open Book award. Her second collection Muse Found in a Colonized Body published by Four Way Books in 2022 was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. She lives in Harlem, NY.

Funto Omojola is a Nigerian American poet, performer, and visual artist based in New York. They are the founding editor of ẹwà, an online literary journal that publishes work exclusively by immigrant writers. They hold an MFA from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College.

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