1619 Speaks (In-Person)

On Friday, February 25th at 7 pm, the Sims Library of Poetry will be featuring the masterful poetry of Tommy Domino, Flyy High, Hiram Sims, Yani, & Aiyana. Hosted by Woodrow Bailey. $10 at the door, no one turned away for lack of funds.

Woodrow Bailey was born New Orleans and raised in South Central Los Angeles. His creativity took flight when his mother taught him how to write at age three. His philanthropy, his career, and his writing represent those with no voice or choice in this society. Woodrow Bailey uses the words as a prose into his environment; he sees those who are left with little to no option as his audience. His writing is their testimony as he observes social issues. As the same streets he grew up on continue to be his composition book, those life lessons fuel what he stands for: Peace and Faith.

Aiyana “Sha’niel'' Da'Briel is a 19-year-old Black poet born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She has been writing for six years, beginning at Hamilton High School, where she wrote and performed on the school’s poetry team, Hamlit. She has performed and featured for various open mics, like Da Poetry Lounge, Palms Up Academy, Junior High LA, Get Lit mic, Sunday Jump, Art Is My Drug, House of Chaos, and others. Sha’niel is working toward releasing her first collection of poems, titled “Little Black Poetry Book'' before the end of 2022.

Tommy Domino, an Alumni from the Community Literature Initiative is a spoken blues poet raised in Northwest Pasadena. Member of the Stillwater’s Writers Collective since (2012). His work is featured in two Anthologies: Sounds for the Water (2013) & Poets, Allies for Resistance (2015) and Black Minds Publishing (2021). Co-Founder of Poetry Friends & Drinks in 2016. His book Switches, Hot wheel Tracks & Extensions Cords was published by World Stage Press (2018). He has performed at tributes for: The 50th Anniversary of The Watts Writers Workshop of 1965, The Watts Prophets and The Last Poets. Served as a member of Diverse Verses and Co-Producer of The Annual Pan African Film Spoken Word Festival from (2017-2021). He is a member of the poetry collective @NeverSpeakLB. Facilitates the Long Beach poetry cohorts for the Community Literature Initiative (2020-Pres.)

Born and raised in various parts of Los Angeles, Hiram Sims is a poet, essayist, and Creative Writing Professor teaching with The Community Literature Initiative. He graduated from the University of Southern California and received a B.A. in English: Creative Writing, and a Masters of Professional Writing in Poetry. In addition to teaching essay writing, creative writing, and literature, he has published three collections of poetry, including Poems of a Young, Troubled Mind (2007), Write or Die: An Anthology of Poetry from the Urban Poet's Workshop (2008), and PHOTOETRY: Poetry and Photography from South Central (2013), and his creative writing textbook, These Pages Speak (2015). He is the co-founder of World Stage Press, and founder of The Sims Library of Poetry, boasting the largest collection of poetry in Los Angeles.