Day Eight is pleased to announce the finalists in the 2024 DC Poet Project competition: Kiarra Patterson, Amuchechukwu Nwafor, Jeffrey ‘Big Homey’ Banks, and CanMan tha Poet. Day Eight’s annual open-to-all poetry competition, now in its eighth year, culminates in publication of a new book of poetry by the winning poet. Past books published within the project included 2023 winner Brandon Douglas’ Dipped In Cerulean, 2022 winner Dominic McDonald’s I’d Rather Be Called a Nerd, and 2021 winner Jenn Koiter’s So Much of Everything.
Come listen to the finalists perform their poetry at the culminating reading event, 2-3:30pm, May 4, 2024, at the Anacostia Library, 1800 Marion Barry Ave SE, DC, and then live vote to select the 2024 DC Poet Project winner.
Space is limited, the event is free for all, and advance registration is recommended. To register, reserve your ticket on eventbrite here.
The featured poets in the 2024 DC Poet Project reading series, who also served as judges selecting the finalists, included Courtney LeBlanc, Kim B Miller, Teri Cross Davis, Pi-anir the poet, Holly Karapetkova, Shaquetta Nelson, John Johnson, Brandon Douglas, Rebecca Bishophall, Khadijah Ali-Coleman, Regie Cabico, Indran Amirthanayagam, and Pacyinz Lyfoung. The 2024 Poet Project reading series was curated by Regie Cabico, hosted by Aaron Holmes, and funded in part by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
The 2024 DC Poet Project Finalists
Kiarra Patterson, known as Ki, was bred in Southeast DC. She is a graduate of the first degree granting HBCU, Lincoln University, and completed her dual masters at Widener University. Kiarra is currently a sexual assault counselor with a special focus on the military community. Creatively, she is a poet, self published author, and certified teaching artist but knows there is no limit to further developing her craft. Ki believes poetry is a healing power and continues to create the space for expression and release in inclusive spaces. Kiarra received the 2021 DC Mayor’s Art Award for Emerging Creative. She was also nominated for the DMV Renaissance Awards for Best New Poet in 2022.
Amuchechukwu Nwafor is a local 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. She considers her poems to be still life paintings of intimate experiences, emotions and observations. 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 Day Eight’s Mid Atlantic Review. Through her writing she aspires to heal, grow and inspire people from all different walks of life.
Jeffrey ‘Big Homey’ Banks has worked with America’s Got Talent champion Brandon Leake, New York Times best-selling author Jason Reynolds, and GRAMMY-Nominated artists Kevin Powell and Ethelbert Miller. He has performed nationwide, including at over 30 college campuses, and served as a Lead Teaching Artist with the DC Arts & Humanities Education Collaborative and Words, Beats and Life. He is co-editor, with Maritza Rivera, of Diaspora Café: D.C., an afro-latin poetry anthology. He was a finalist in the 2018 and 2021 DC Poet Project competitions, and hopes this will be an opportunity to produce his first full-length poetry collection.
CanMan Tha Poet is an emerging poet from Washington, DC. He graduated Luke C. Moore Academy SHS with the Eagle award for best character and NMTI with certifications in Swedish & Sports Massage. He’s overcome his share of hardships along the way, like losing his parents before the age of 21, which helped him develop a deep passion for poetry. His writing style is diverse and intricate, creating vivid imagery that will leave you spellbound. CanMan Tha Poet is a storyteller who weaves together diverse themes in his poetry. His raw and unfiltered poetry will take you on an enthralling journey through the urban landscapes of his words. Follow him @CanManEnterprises on all socials.
Register Your Child for Day Eight’s Summer Writing Camp for an Unforgettable Literary Adventure!
Looking for an extraordinary summer experience that sparks the imagination, cultivates creativity, and ignites a lifelong love for writing? Day Eight’s Writing Camp is a place for 6th-9th grade youth to embark on a journey of self-expression and literary exploration. Summer 2024, Day Eight will offer five week-long Writing Camp sessions: June 24-28, July 1-5, July 8-12, July 15-19, and July 22-26. Camp will be closed on July 4.
The camp day runs 10am to 4pm, Monday through Friday, at the Shepherd Park / Juanita Thornton Library, 7420 Georgia Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. Thursday morning of each week the campers will take a literary field trip. Friday afternoon each week the campers host a reading of their work — open to families and the community!
Thanks to support from Learn24, the Friends of the Shepherd Park Library, and individual donors to Day Eight, our summer 2024 camp is FREE for DC residents. The camp is open to rising 6th – 9th graders, only.
To ensure equitable access, each youth may enroll for 1 or 2 weeks of Writing Camp. Campers enrolled for 2 weeks may request to be added to the waitlist for additional weeks and if space is available will be permitted to attend a third or fourth week. From past experience, we do not expect that will occur. A maximum of 14 campers are enrolled per week.
Each week of our Summer 2024 Writing Camp is organized around the presence of a Writer in Residence. Those writers will share their books and writing process as models. Select writing by youth at the camp will be collected and published online in Day Eight’s literary magazine, the Mid-Atlantic Review.
Summer 2024 Writers in Residence
- Week 1: Rebecca Bishophall, author of Breaking the Blank
- Week 2: Brandon Douglass, author of Dipped in Cerulean
- Week 3: Regie Cabico, author of Rabbit in Search of a Rolex
- Week 4: Jessica Simon, author of Built of All I Shape and Name
- Week 5: Casey Catherine Moore, author of Psyche.
Through engaging workshops, interactive activities, and hands-on writing and art exercises, your child will unlock their unique voice and discover the magic of storytelling. At our Summer Writing Camp, creativity knows no bounds! From daily poetry open mics to collaborative co-creating sessions, our campers engage in dynamic and fun-filled activities that unleash their creative potential. They experiment with literary techniques, wordplay, and embrace the joy of language, discovering the infinite possibilities within their own words.
To enroll, submit the online registration request form linked below. After completing the form, you will be emailed additional forms required to complete enrollment.
Day Eight’s is excited to announce the winner of our 13th annual DC-area College Student Arts Journalism Competition, Georgetown University’s Leah Cohen. Cohen is currently a junior studying English with a minor in journalism. Day Eight produces an annual competition for undergraduates enrolled or recently enrolled in universities in the D.C. area to identify and support talented college age arts journalists.
The judges for the 2023 competition were David Smith, DC Bureau Chief for the Guardian (UK), and Rebecca Cooper, Arts and Food editor at DCist/WAMU. From a strong slate of finalists the judges selected Cohen’s article, “School, Studio, and Back for DC Rapper Lightshow,” as the winner. The finalists included Sagun Shrestha (“Laufey’s spell-binding Bewitched is akin to a storybook fairytale”), Ebenezer Nkunda (“Ballerina Misty Copeland Focuses Lens on Social Issues in ‘Flower’”), and Maanasi Chintamani (“Prince Harry’s Spare re-rehashes the past”). All four finalists have been published in Day Eight’s online magazine, The Mid-Atlantic Review, and a $250 dollar prize was provided to the winner.
2023 winner Cohen said, “I write arts journalism because it’s important to give artists, big or small, a platform to share more about their work.…I hope when people read this story they will get to know [Lightshow] beyond his music and gain a deeper understanding of who Lightshow is and what DC means to him.”
Evaluating the winning entry, David Smith wrote, “A terrific interview, elegantly written with some real flair…The author clearly knows newspapers and is already mastering the style required.” And Rebecca Cooper commented, “The piece was a great read! I felt like I really got to know the subject.”
Whether considering music or theater, visual art or books–arts journalism provides a crucial link between the artist and the audience. Well-written arts journalism is uniquely impactful, and the competition was created to encourage top young writers towards the field. Congratulations to the finalists and thanks to the judges and all of the students who entered. We hope you’ll read the winner’s and finalists’ pieces in The Mid-Atlantic Review. The contest is over for this year, but our support for arts journalism continues; we accept applications for Day Eight Arts Writing Fellowship ongoing here.