Day Eight’s 2026 DC Poet Project poetry series will begin Thursday, February 12th, 2026. The series, curated by Regie Cabico, is set to feature twelve exceptional DC-area poets in four reading series events.
The overarching theme of the 2026 Poet Project series is “Celebrating the Rainbow.” Each of the reading series events has its own focus reflecting the rainbow of experience: Red, Blue, Green and Purple. Series curator Regie Cabico wrote, “As we enter a new year of unprecedented upheavals, the featured poets in this series will offer poems of compassion and lyrical artistry, retaining community and solace against the backdrop of a government that views the world through a stark black-and-white imperialistic lens. These intergenerational poets come from diverse styles and many have graced the pages of the Mid-Atlantic Review. We invite you to join us online or in person to share your voice and to spread the word.”
Series curator Regie Cabico is a Filipino American poet and spoken word artist. An editor of the Mid-Atlantic Review, his first book, A Rabbit in Search of a Rolex, was published in 2023 by Day Eight. Cabico won top prizes in the three National Poetry Slams and his poetry appears in over 30 anthologies including Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Café, Spoken Word Revolution and Slam. He is recipient of Fellowship support from the DC Arts Commission and the New York Foundation for the Arts and currently serves as executive director of the literary non-profit, Gathering of the Tribes.
Each DC Poet Project event includes 30 minutes of poetry by the featured poets followed by an open mic. Priority in the open mic is given to DC residents. At the end of each event, the featured poets select one open mic participant as the winner to receive a $250 cash prize and an invitation to compete in the culminating reading series event to win a $1,000 book contract.
The 2026 DC Poet Project series is hosted by Aaron Holmes and made possible through individual donors to Day Eight and support from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and partnership with the Anacostia Coordinating Council and the DC Public Library. Read below for featured poet bios and event details.
Red: poems of Love in all its Forms featuring Kristin Kowalski-Ferragut, Amuche Nwafor, and Teri Cross Davis, Thursday, February 12, 7-8:30pm on zoom [Link to Register-TK]
Inspired by Blue featuring Susan Scheid, Brandon Douglas, and Micki Topham, Thursday, February 26, 7-8:30pm on zoom [Link to Register-TK]
Green: Nature poems featuring Anne Becker, Malachi Byrd, and Susan Mockler, Sunday, March 15th 2-3:30pm at the Anacostia Library [Link to Register-TK]
Purple: poems of Sprituality and Majesty featuring Ishanee Chanda, Jenn Koiter, and Nico Penaranda, Sunday, March 29th 2-3:30pm at the Anacostia Library [Link to Register-TK]
Culminating reading event featuring the open-mic winners from the prior reading events, Sunday, May 3, 2-3:30pm at Anacostia Library
2026 Poet Project Series Featured Poet Bios
Event 1
Kristin Kowalski Ferragut writes poetry, songs, short stories and essays. She lives in Maryland where she teaches, plays guitar, sings, rides her bike, and hosts the DiVerse Gaithersburg Poetry Reading and Open Mic. She is author of the full-length poetry collections Escape Velocity (Kelsay Books, 2021) and Love Letters from Cuckold Creek (Cyberwit.net, 2025), and the children’s book Becoming the Enchantress (Loving Healing Press, 2021). Her poetry has appeared in Beltway Quarterly, Bourgeon, Anti-Heroin Chic, Fledgling Rag, Little Patuxent Review, and Gargoyle Magazine among others.
Amuchechukwu Nwafor is the 2024 winner of the DC Poet Project and the author of the book, Salt Water Roots (Day Eight, 2024.) A writer, educator and teaching artist in the Washington, D.C metropolitan area, she is a first-generation born Black American whose poetry touches on the diaspora, mental health, and the female experience. Amuchechukwu has performed at Towson University, Pentagon City Fashion Mall, the Show Place Arena and many other places in the DMV. Her poems were recently published in the Maryland Bards Anthology and the Mid-Atlantic Review.
Teri Ellen Cross Davis is the author of A More Perfect Union, 2019 winner of The Journal/Charles B. Wheeler Poetry Prize and Haint, winner of the 2017 Ohioana Book Award for Poetry. She is the 2022 recipient of a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award and the Poetry Society of America’s 2020 Robert H. Winner Memorial Prize. Her work has appeared in print, online, and in many journals and anthologies including: Harvard Review, PANK, Poetry Ireland Review, and Kenyon Review. Until recently, she served as the O.B. Hardison Poetry Series Curator and Poetry Programs manager for the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C.
Event 2
Susan Scheid is the author of the poetry books True Blue (Finishing Line Press, 2026) and After Enchantment. Scheid’s poetry has appeared in The Southern Quill, Blue Heron Review, The Mid-Atlantic Review, The Orchards Poetry Journal, Burgeon Press, Gargoyle, About Place Journal, Truth to Power, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Little Patuxent Review, The Sligo Journal, Silver Birch Press, Tidal Basin Review, and other journals. Her work is also included in the anthologies, Poetic Art, Enchantment of the Ordinary, and Dear Vaccine: Global Voices Speak to the Pandemic. Scheid served for a number of years as the Board co-chair for Split This Rock. She lives in the Brookland neighborhood of Washington, DC.
Brandon Douglas is the 2023 winner of The DC Poet Project and author of the book Dipped in Cerulean (Day Eight, 2023.) Father of two young girls, Douglas works as a poet educator in schools, detention centers, and community centers. He began writing raps in middle school and later melded poetry and hip hop into spoken word compositions. Prince George’s County poet laureate Khadijah Ali-Coleman described Dipped in Cerulean, “Navigates the waters of deep parental love, social justice, and the Black experience with gentle honesty, thoughtful reflection and jolting sensitivity.”
Micki Topham is a poet and spoken word artist originally from a rural, one-stoplight town in Utah. Micki uses her creativity to explore themes of identity, faith, family, and mental health. She won the 2022 S’more Poetry Slam and the 2023 Smooth Grooves and Spoken Word Poetry Slam. In 2024, she found the courage to come out as a trans woman and that same year she and her 3-year-old border collie braved the 2,400 mile drive to Washington D.C. where she is living her dream life as a big city girl. In 2025 she joined the Mid-Atlantic Review as an assistant editor.
Event 3
Anne Becker is author of three books of poetry, Human Animal, The Good Body, and The Transmutation Notebooks: Poems in the Voices of Charles and Emma Darwin. She was Poet Laureate of Takoma Park, MD, for four years and then, Poet-in-Residence at Pyramid Atlantic Arts Center. An editor of the Mid-Atlantic Review, she was recently commissioned by Carl Banner, director of Washington Musica Viva, to write the long poem “The Jamie Raskin Oratorio,” which was set to music by composer Noam Faingold and premiered September, 2024, with Carl Banner on piano and Chris Royal on trumpet accompanying her reading.
Malachi Byrd is the 2025 winner of the DC Poet Project and the author of the book Until We Gone (Day Eight, 2025.) The artist known as MalPractice is a poet, teacher, battle rapper, songwriter, and arts advocate from the District of Columbia. He is the former youth Poet Laureate of Washington, D.C. and a graduate of Princeton University. A full-time artist, he has taught in over 100 schools in the DMV.
Susan Bucci Mockler was a writer in residence at Rocky Mountain National Park in the summer of 2025. Her poetry has appeared in the Mid-Atlantic Review, Maryland Literary Review, peachvelvet, Maximum Tilt, Pilgrimage Press, Crab Orchard Review, Poet Lore, The Northern Virginia Review, Gargoyle, The Delmarva Review, The Paterson Literary Review, Lunch Ticket, and numerous others, as well as in several anthologies. Her full-length poetry collection, Covenant (With) was published by Kelsay books in 2022. She teaches writing at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
Event 4
Jenn Koiter is the 2021 winner of the DC Poet Project and the author of So Much of Everything (Day Eight, 2021.) She wrote and produced the short film “Birds of the Air,” which screened at twelve film festivals, won three awards, and will be distributed by iWomanTV. Her poems and essays have appeared in Barrelhouse, Copper Nickel, Smartish Pace, the Mid-Atlantic Review, and other journals. She is an ADHD and writing coach specializing in writer’s block.
Nicholas (Nico) Penaranda is a Lecturer in Writing at Howard University. He earned his MFA in Creative Writing at American University in May 2022, and his Bachelor’s degree in English with a focus in Creative Writing from James Madison University in 2020. As an undergraduate student, he earned the Stanley Rhy Say Scholarship in 2019 and the Award for Excellence in the Study of African American Literature in 2020.
Ishanee Chanda is a prose writer and poet from Dallas, Texas. She has been published on The Huffington Post, the Eckleberg Project, and ThoughtCatalog. Ishanee is a past winner of the Gordone Award for Creative Writing, and has participated in the Blackbox Writer’s Residency program. In 2024 she was one of five writers commissioned by Day Eight as part of the “DC AAPI Voices” project, created through support from the DC Mayor’s Office of AAPI Affairs.
To learn more about past Poet Project reading series, view the webpage here.