Join the Frye and Moved by Words as we celebrate 10 years of poetry project New Voices of Color with a special reading at the Frye Art Museum, honoring both a decade of emerging talent and the closing of current exhibition Kelly Akashi: Formations. Headlining the program, Zaji Cox will offer a special reading from her recently published book of essays Plums for Months, which explores life growing up mixed race in the outskirts of Portland, Oregon. Other participating artists include Maryam Imam Gabriel, Stacy D Flood, Prashant Kakad, and more special guests!

This public program marks the culmination of a multiday, multi-venue, annual celebration: New Voices of Color invites emerging authors and poets to workshop, connect, share works, and get inspired. Participating poets will have spent the day at the museum with Moved by Words founder Skyler Reed, touring the galleries to absorb Akashi’s work. Their responses will be shared during the reading, highlighting the special symbiosis between the visual and literary arts.

About the Presenters

Zaji Cox wrote her first short story at age nine. A dancer, model, and artist, she has performed at the PDX Poetry Festival, Survival of the Feminist reading series, Corporeal Writing’s LOOP, and the Northwest Folklife Festival. She holds a bachelor's degree in English and her writing can be found in Pathos Literary Magazine, Entropy, The Portland Metrozine, Cultural Daily, CARE Covid Art REsource, and the anthology 2020: The Year of the Asterisk (University of Hell Press).

Skyler Reed (Skyler / Skylers / he / him / they / their) is a Sycan River Paiute (PIE-YOOT) artist, writer, and musician of the duo Lark & Raven currently living under the troll bridge in Sia’hl (SEE-AL-TH) on Duwamish (DOO-WAU-MISH) Tribal Lands. The founder of Moved By Words and a recipient of the Dean’s Residential Fellowship at the UW Information School, Skyler is the author of two chapbooks, And All Ampersands (2016) and Sex & Wikipedia (2017).

Founded by Skyler Reed, Moved By Words is a project dedicated to connecting new writers with writing workshops and community outreach. In 2020, Skyler hosted and organized the first ever free-of-charge women and queer folk of color writers' workshops and reading series, in community collaboration with the women and queer folk of Northwest Native Writers Circle and of the Whitenoise Reading Series community.