DADA Literary Café: Solar Year Celebration

Solar Year Celebration: featuring readings from books-in-process by poets and fiction writers, hosted by emily brandt

Alex Cuff is learning to metabolize grief into a presence that keeps her in relationship to herself and community. She’s a high school teacher, an editor at No, Dear, and author of the poetry collection Common Amnesias (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2024).Alex Cuff is a high school teacher, an editor at No, Dear, and author of the Common Amnesias (Ugly Duckling Presse), Family, a Natural Wonder (Reality Beach) and I Try Out A Sentence to See Whether I Believe (Ghost Proposal).

Marisa Mandabach (she/they) has a Ph.D. in Art History and is writing a first collection of poetry. Her poems explore intersections of nature, history, motherhood, capitalism, and imperial violence.

Yomalis Rosario (she/her) is a Black Dominican poet & teacher who was born and raised in Washington Heights, NYC. She is currently studying in the 2025 Brooklyn Poets Mentorship Program and serves as the Managing Editor for WE THE SOIL.

Born at home to midwife Mama Nonkululeko Tyehemba, and caught by midwife Mama Nakawe Cuebas, Nzingha Nomsa Taiwo Tyehemba grew up on 130th Street and Saint Nick in Harlem, NY. She is a poet, healing artist, and operations professional with experiences spanning Western Massachusetts, Senegal, Ghana, New Orleans, and Cuba. She holds a Bachelor's in Black Studies from Amherst College and a Master's in Adolescent Special Education from CUNY-Hunter College. In 2020, Nzingha led production and translation of A Fearless Spring, a twenty-eight-part poem which exists now in Spanish, Kreyol, Wolof, Asante-Twi, Amharic, French, and GriotLite ( a combination of African American Vernacular English and visual cues rendered by the poet Gia Anansi-Shakur). A kidney transplant survivor and facilitator of healing circles, Nzingha is committed to holistic health, wellness, and collective fellowship. Her publications and productions include: The Feminist Wire, Collective Fallout, each other’s harvest: an afternoon of poetry, community, and address from Cave Canem at the National Museum of African-American History & Culture, and Def Dance Jam Workshop – PONO Movement Performance. Nzingha has received fellowships, grants, and awards from the Laundromat Project and Dance / NYC as well as recognitions from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, Citizens Committee of New York City, and Northfield Mount Hermon’s Vivian Dandridge White Prize. She lives and makes life with her husband, John "Of All Trades" Hazelton, and multiple frond; including a six foot tall bird of paradise, two money trees, two fiddle leaf figs, a ZZ plant...and well, this list could go on.

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