Once again collaborating with Mutual Mentorship for Musicians as interviewer and host of their gala, celebrating this latest cohort of women and non-binary jazz and creative artists, plus honoring Shanta Nurullah with M³’s inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award!

The festival will feature 19 past M³ artists and be held June 16, 17, 18, and 21 at Greenwich House Music School. Co-presented with Winter Jazz Fest (!) Register for free here.

The Gala is on June 22 and will feature screenings of the Winter 2021 cohort’s musical pieces, plus my interviews with them. Tickets here. More info below.

6pm: Reception (drinks & light fare)
7pm: Honoring Shanta Nurullah with M³ Lifetime Achievement Award
7:15pm: World premiere screenings of Winter Solstice 2021 Cohort duo commissions & interviews
8:30pm: Closing remarks

Tix: $25-$75 (perks include preferred seating and our Anthology Volumes 1 & 2)

I’ll be talking about my work and the work of other Black women writers, artists, and experimenters at this year’s AWP conference in Philadelphia on this panel, Four Women. Panel masterminded by Rochelle Spencer, and featuring me, Shay Youngblood, Chantal James, and Opal Moore.

122AB
Pennsylvania Convention Center
100 Level

Attendance and registration info available at awpwriter.org.

As part of Winter Jazz Fest/This Is A Movement’s convening of conversations about gender justice in jazz, I’ll be moderating a panel of dynamic women and non-binary musicians as part of M3’s (Mutual Mentorship for Musicians) weekend of discussions. Join me for the Deeper Dive: Bandstand conversation with musicians Samantha Boshnack, Miriam Elhajli, Cleo Reed, Michele Rosewoman, Sumi Tonooka, and Malika Zarra Sunday, January 16, from 2-3:30pm ET.

Attendance is virtual and FREE!

I’ll be giving a craft talk called “Everybody’s Got Multitudes” on incorporating your outside influences and other genres of writing into your nonfiction work.

http://donnakaz.com/creative-nonfiction-writers-conference/

Finally addressing why I’ve been in so many music videos at this live comedy show at Union Hall, hosted by Mike Brown and Dillon Stevenson. Featuring Kiana Fitzgerald and Chris Duffy.

Tix here!

Reading some of my #prosestylings along with 3 other nonfictionistas at the Miss Manhattan reading series. Join me and Sarah Fielding, Steven Jude Tietjen, and la homie Hafizah Geter on Monday, May 6, hosted by Elyssa Goodman. More info here. Free!

Reading with poet Shane McCrae as part of the Writers Speak Wednesdays series at Stony Brook’s MFA program. Free and open to the public.

6:30 pm, Reception
7 pm, Reading

Duke Lecture Hall, First floor of Chancellors Hall
239 Montauk Highway, Southampton, NY 11968

Join me and two other Cave Canem poets at the Brooklyn Museum for Target First Saturdays! I’ll be reading poems alongside Ama Codjoe and S. Erin Batiste.

200 Eastern Parkway
Luce Center for American Art, 5th Floor

I’ll be moderating a conversation between poets Jacqueline Johnson and Iain Haley Pollock about their work and the legacy of Langston Hughes at the 10th annual Langston Hughes Literary Arts Festival at the Langston Hughes Community and Cultural Center in Corona, Queens. Free!

Join me and Kathleen Alcott, Sarah Bridgins, Aparna Nancherla (!) and Karen Rinaldi on 9/28 at Ramona for the Freya Project, a benefit reading series that supports causes that help women in need. This month, the theme is "A Secret I Couldn't Keep" (ooh...) and all ticket proceeds and a portion of the bar will support the North Dakota Women in Need Abortion Access Fund.

Click to learn more about the event and the Freya Project.

Come have an interdisciplinary experience with me! I'll be reading an excerpt from my memoir-in-progress, alongside dancers from the Dance Theatre of Harlem School, The Harlem Chamber Players, and RudduR Dance.

More info here :)

$15 General Admission
$10 Seniors/Children/Students w/ID.

Dance Theatre of Harlem - Everett Center for the Performing Arts
466 West 152nd Street (between Amsterdam and St. Nicholas Avenues)
Telephone: 212-690-2800

Hey! Come hear National Book Award winners & finalists/Cave Canem faculty members Terrance Hayes, Yusef Komunyakaa and Marilyn Nelson read and discuss their work with moi, next month at this Brooklyn Book Festival Bookend event. They're all lovely legends and I can't wait to ask them stuff!

Cave Canem at the National Book Awards
Terrance Hayes, Yusef Komunyakaa & Marilyn Nelson. Kyla Marshell, moderator
Wednesday, September 14, 7 pm
Weekville Heritage Center
158 Buffalo Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11213
FREE

I'll be sharing work from my book-in-progress as part of Catapult's workshop reading series, alongside writers Saxon Baird, Jason Choi, Shaunacy Ferro and Alisson Wood, headlined and emceed by awesome teacher, writer & BinderCon co-founder Leigh Stein!

WOOT.

Catapult Workshop Reading Series
Thursday, July 14, 7 pm
Sid's Gold Request Room
New York, NY 10001
FREE.
RSVP on the 'book.

On Saturday, June 25 in York, PA, I'll be part of Big Idea Saturday, a day-long symposium of the IMPACT Arts & Culture Conference. I'll be talking about how writing and the arts can positively influence your life, and I'll also be leading an all-ages workshop. This event is organized by Abigail Kageni, the 14-year-old founder of Tiered Innovations Initiative, a youth program that nurtures teens towards global citizenry through creative arts.

If you or someone you love is in the York area, please register and attend this fabulous day of free events! Register for the workshop here.

Writing, Comics & You (Click for more info)
Saturday, June 25
3-5 pm
Martin Library - Family Place
159 East Market Street 17401

No, Dear Magazine, a limited edition journal that publishes the work of New York poets, is launching its new issue DOCUMENT this month. I'll be reading at Over the Eight with contributors Rae Leone Allen, Rachel Bennett, Yana Calou, Joseph Cuillier, Anna Gurton-Wachter, zakia henderson-brown, Candice Iloh, Citron Kelly, Ben Krusling, Montana Ray, MJ Santiago, Chris Slaughter, Marina Weiss and Candace Williams. Ooh, and editors Emily Brandt, Alex Cuff, t'ai freedom ford, and Leila Ortiz.

Come thru. :-)

It's Black History Month and I'm still Black, so come out to this fiyah reading hosted by le awesome online Black lady literary community, Well-Read Black Girl! This is gonna be a poetry-fiction-nonfiction mashup, meaning something for everyone. As long as they like books and stuff. Featuring Ashley C. Ford, Jenna Wortham, Morgan Parker, Camille Rankine, Nicole Sealey, Bsrat Mezghebe, Nicole Dennis-Benn, and Kyla Marshell (that's me!)

It's free and it's lit.

Thursday, February 25, 7pm
Housing Works Bookstore Cafe
126 Crosby St. NYC.

Curated by novelist Vica Miller, these bi-monthly salons feature writers of all genres in an intimate art gallery setting. November's nonfiction salon will feature Melissa Febos, Amy Fusselman, Tré Miller Rodriguez & Kyla Marshell (ME!) Come out, there will be sentence-writers & wine.

November 18, 7pm
Susan Eley Fine Art
46 W. 90th St, 2nd Floor (b/w Central Park West & Columbus Ave)
New York, NY 10024

RSVP: info@vicamillersalons.com

A monthly installation of ideas, conversations, poetry and music. This month's theme is startup culture, entrepreneurship and the business ecosystem as a whole, especially amongst people of color.

$7 in advance. $10 at the door. Purchase tickets here.

Music: Kim Mayo, Olivia Harris, Osekre (acoustic set).
Poetry: Kyla Marshell (that's me!!)
DJ: Soleil
Panelists:
Esosa Ighodaro (CoSign)
Yoliswa Cele Luthuli (Ndosi Strategies)
Kwame Dougan (Iya ventures)

I'll be kicking off this month's BROTHERS & SISTERS salon with a word libation. Come thru! Art! Poetry! People! Wine!

Founded in fellowship and designed as a space to propel conversation, Brothers & Sisters arrives as a remix to the fabled literary salons of 1920s Harlem. A mix of readings and discussion, Brothers & Sisters will act as a forum where art, political ideology, religious belief, and personal conviction coexist as a means to inform and challenge attendees. Each month, a different theme—typically surrounding a current news item—will be introduced in an effort to thread discussion together.

This month's theme: POLITICS

BookCourt, 163 Court St, Brooklyn, NY. Reading with Porochista Khakpour, Sara Wallace, Ethan Sirotko, and Victoria Matsui.