Poetry Reading with Rio Cortez, Z. Yasmin Waheed, & Romeo Oriogun

O, Miami hosts an evening of poetry under the open sky at The Cleat Mia in No Name Harbor. Poets Rio Cortez, Z. Yasmin Waheed, and Romeo Oriogun will share their work in an intimate waterfront setting, bringing together works that inspire, challenge, and move us.

Rio Cortez is a Pushcart-nominated poet who has received fellowships from Poet's House, Cave Canem, and CantoMundo. She is also the New York Times–bestselling author of the picture books The ABCs of Black History (Workman, 2020) and The River Is My Sea (S&S, 2024). Her debut poetry collection, Golden Ax, was longlisted for the 2022 National Book Award for Poetry and the Pen America Open Book Award, was a finalist for Poetry Society of America's Norma Farber First Book Award and was a 2016 Cave Canem Chapbook winner.

Romeo Oriogun is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing and the author of Sacrament of Bodies (2020), Nomad (2021), and The Gathering of Bastards (2023). A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, he has been recognized with the Nigeria Prize for Literature, and The Nebraska Book Award for Poetry, among others. He has also been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for PoetryHis work has appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, American Poetry Review, The Nation, and other journals. He has also served as a juror for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature. He teaches Creative Writing, African and Postcolonial Poetics, The Poetics of Migration and Exile, and Gender and Sexuality in African Poetry at Florida Atlantic University.

Z. Yasmin Waheed, the current Poetry Coalition Fellow (2024-2025), brings her perspective as a writer, translator and artist born in Istanbul and raised in Miami. A summa cum laude graduate in English Literature from Florida International University, Waheed's experience spans book publishing, broadcast television and academic writing instruction.