Porsha Olayiwola

Porsha Olayiwola is a writer, performer, educator, and curator. Originally from Chicago, Olayiwola earned a BA in African American studies and gender and women’s studies from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and earned an MFA from Emerson College.

Olayiwola is the author of the collection i shimmer sometimes, too (Button Poetry, 2019). She is an Individual World Poetry Slam Champion.

Olayiwola was Brown University’s 2019 Heimark artist in residence as well as the 2021 artist in residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. She also served as the artistic director at MassLEAP, a literary youth organization. Olayiwola, who founded the Roxbury Poetry Festival, is the current poet laureate for the city of Boston.

Read about Porsha Olayiwola’s 2020 Poets Laureate Fellowship project.