Nazelah Jamison

Nazelah Jamison, who brought her considerable talents to our west coast cast, is a gifted author, performance poet, emcee, comedian and vocalist. She is the Janice Mirikitani Poet Theologian-in-Residence at Glide Memorial Church SF. Nazelah has competed on and/or coached 12 National Poetry Slam teams and has performed poetry and music across three continents.

Until she retired in 2014, she hosted and co-produced The Oakland Poetry Slam & Open Mic, an on-going monthly poetry slam in Oakland, CA, as well as performing at venues around the San Francisco Bay Area and across the country. She has collaborated on music recording projects with the Rondo Brothers, and is embarking upon a career as a stand-up comedienne. Her first collection of poetry was evolutionary heart (Nomadic Press, 2016), and her work appears in several other publications, including The Town: An Anthology of Oakland Poets (Nomadic Press, 2023). Nazelah is well-known and beloved for her work with Spearhead and the French music group, Les Nubians, and her love of hip-hop translates onto the stage.