Kai Naima Williams

Kai is a multidisciplinary writer and performing artist based in Harlem. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks, He Tried To Drown The Ocean, I Waved (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2018) and Tomorrow Maps (The Hunger Press, 2023), and the children’s picture book The Bridges Yuri Built: How Yuri Kochiyama Marched Across Movements (Kaepernick Publishing, 2024).

Her work has appeared in outlets like DRØME Magazine, Louisiana Literature, Stirring Lit, Abolition Is, CRWN Magazine, Literary Manhattan, and the anthology We Are Each Other’s Liberation: Black and Asian Feminist Solidarities (Haymarket Press, 2025). She has presented work with organizations such as the Bowery Poetry Club, Planned Parenthood, Densho, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, and the Japanese American National Museum. She is is a Bandung Resident (MoCADA / Asian American Arts Alliance) and recipient of several awards including the Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival Grand Prize in Fiction. She was a co-founder of Eat At The Table Theatre Company, where she wrote, produced and directed original performance work.

At Woodward, Kai will be working on a literary fiction project that combines her research on practical magic with critical explorations of pop culture and internet communities.