We are excited to introduce November’s featured Poet of the Month: Kai Davis!
Kai will give a reading and lead us through a generative writing workshop from 7pm-8:30pm on November 4th, 2025 at 12Gates, located at 106 N 2nd St. Doors open at 6:30pm and close promptly at 7pm.
Curated by Sanam Sheriff, THE POETS' STUDIO is a monthly gathering for local poets who are interested in writing, sharing, and connecting through poetry. This event is free and open to all who are interested in engaging more deeply with lyric and the written word.
This Month’s Poet is Kai Davis, who will be giving a reading and leading us through this November’s writing workshop where poets will have the opportunity to generate and share new work.
Kai Davis is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and The Poet Laureate of Philadelphia. Her work
explores Blackness, Queerness, womanhood, grief and the many ways these themes converge.
Kai has performed for TED, CNN, BET, PBS, and NPR, among others. She is a two-time
international grand slam champion, winning Brave New Voices in 2011 and The College Union
Poetry Slam Invitational in 2016. In 2017 Kai received the Leeway Transformation Award for her
years of art for social change work in Philadelphia. She is currently a Co-Organizer and Creative
Director for THE LATE(ish) POETRY SHOW, which was awarded the Poetry Foundation’s
Equity in Verse Grant. Her work has been published by 2 Pens & Lint, The Offing, The Shade
Journal, and Mouths of Rain: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Thought among others.
Sanam Sheriff is a queer poet, artist, and educator from Bangalore, India. Their debut poetry collection “Hum ہم” (University of Nebraska Press) will be published in the fall of 2026. Sanam has received support from the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, Kundiman, Tin House, the Fine Arts Work Center, and The Watering Hole. Sanam’s work has been published or is forthcoming in POETRY, Indiana Review, The Rumpus, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Academy of American Poets, The Offing, Outlook India, and elsewhere. Sanam holds an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis. For the past three years, they served as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Bryn Mawr College where they organized the Reading Series. Sanam is currently Editor in Chief of the anthology ‘On Liminality’, forthcoming January 2026 with Seventh Wave.