2025 DC Poet Project - Culminating Reading Event

Come listen to the 2025 DC Poet Project finalists -- Malachi Byrd, Amoja Sumler, Addy Lugo and Micki Topham -- perform at the culminating reading event, 2-3:30pm, Sunday May 4, 2024, at the Anacostia Library, 1800 Marion Barry Ave SE, DC.

At the end of the reading the attending audience will live-vote to select one of the finalists the 2025 DC Poet Project winner, to receive a $1,000 book contract.

Space is limited, the event is free for all, and advance registration is recommended.

The 2025 DC Poet Project series was curated by Regie Cabico and hosted by Aaron Holmes. The featured poets in the 2025 DC Poet Project reading series, who also served as judges selecting the finalists, included: Maggie Rosen, Sean Felix, Anne-Marie Maloney, Gregory Luce, Joseph Ross, Serena Agusto-Cox, Brandon Douglas (2023 DC Poet Project winner), Patience Rowe, Dwayne Lawson-Brown, Pacyinz Lyfoung, Nico Penaranda, and Amuchechukwu Nwafor (2024 DC Poet Project winner.)

The 2025 DC Poet Project was made possibly with support from individual donors to Day Eight, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and partnership with the Anacostia Coordinating Council.

Malachi Byrd (finalist/featured poet)is an African-American artist, author, and educator from Northeast Washington, D.C. A two-time member of the DC Youth Poetry Slam Team, including team member on the 2014 Brave New Voices International Poetry Festival winning team, in 2016 Byrd was selected the District’s inaugural Youth Poet Laureate. A graduate of Princeton University and full-time artist, Malachi has committed his craft and career to guiding students through language and performance. Having taught in over 100 schools in the DMV, Byrd’s aspirations include opening his own performing arts school in the area. He uses his efforts to tackle problems of inequality and inequity in inner cities.

Amoja Sumler (finalist/featured poet)is a poet, essayist and emerging voice of leftist intersectional social advocacy. A Watering Hole graduate fellow and 2020 MFA recipient, Sumler was recognized by Poetry Slam Inc as a “Legend of the South.” Their essays discuss topics from the role of law enforcement to the value of capitalism and they are best known for fusing the art of the intellectual into the familiar. Sumler has featured at poetry festivals including the Austin International Poetry Festival, the Bridgewater International Poetry Festival, Write NOLA in New Orleans and Rock the Republic in Texas. Sumler’s work appears in the Pierian Literary Journal, Muddy Ford Press, Swimming With Elephants, FreezeRay Poetry, the Antigonish Review and other magazines and journals.

Addy Lugo (finalist/featured poet)is a mestiza poet from Charlotte, North Carolina. A graduate of Guilford College, AmeriCorps, and FEMA Corps, she was Austin Poetry Slam’s Women’s Individual Champion in 2018 a member of Austin Poetry Slam’s first all femme, all queer-identifying slam team, the Freshfemme Class. She lives in Washington, D.C. and works for the Smithsonian Science Education Center as an Inclusion Program Specialist. A believer in service, she hopes she can represent her community with her actions, accountability and, most of all, her words. She has been published in the Greenleaf Review and additional magazines.

Micki Topham (finalist/featured poet)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.