aboutAlyesha
Short Bio:
Alyesha Wise is a poet, arts educator, and writer from Camden, N.J. Currently residing in Los Angeles, Alyesha is the Director of Program Integration for Street Poets Inc. - a non-profit mostly serving juvenile injustice-impacted youth. Since 2018, Alyesha has been a regular, and guest, host at Da Poetry Lounge, where she served as the coach of the DPL slam team from 2017-18, co-coaching both teams to final stage at The National Poetry Slam, along with Matthew 'Cuban' Hernandez. Wise also served as the Get Lit-Words Ignite youth slam team co-coach from 2014-2017, along with head coach, 'Cuban.' Wise is a 2-time Women of the World Poetry Slam finalist and has been featured on different platforms and publications such as OWN, BET, Huffington Post, Afropunk, PBS, LA Times, Buzzfeed, Free Speech TV and more. She has collaborated with The Nantucket Project, the ACLU of Southern California, Brave New Films and additional major platforms, having featured in the Google Interstellar Project, in conjunction with the hit film Interstellar. A recipient of the 2025 Los Angeles Preservation Awards, Ron Howard once wrote about Alyesha's work, "Very Powerful."
Wise's latest book of poetry, My Older Brother, A Famous Rapper, is now available.
Additional Highlights
Alyesha has recently been featured in a few online publications, including "Look What I Did About Your Silence"by El Martillo Press, "Abolition Journal" a product of Abolition School, and another upcoming 2025 poetry anthology. For an extended list of publications, please scroll down.
A recent presenter at AWP 2025, Alyesha sat on the panel, "Outside of Academia: Poems Born In & For Community" organized by Desiree Dallagiacomo. Wise also sat on an AWP panel in 2022 titled, "Workshops for the Working Class."
In 2021, Alyesha was highlighted in the Los Angeles Times and featured on BET in a tribute to George Floyd.
Wise co-founded S.L.A.M. (Spoken Literature Art Movement) - an organization providing poetry education via extensive performance and writing programming. The program ran from 2017-2021, serving 300+ students, including 42 alumni.
Alyesha has appeared in the ACLU 2020 Virtual Gala hosted by Billy Porter, in which she delivered a tribute to the late Justice Ginsburg.
In early 2020, she was featured on OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) as a poetry instructor on the reality tv series Love Goals.
In 2019, Alyesha collaborated with the Nantucket Project twice, delivering a workshop and performance at their main gathering in Nantucket, MA and another of their events in Irvington, NY.
Alyesha has previously collaborated with the ACLU of Southern California, writing and performing for a number of their events since 2018. Early that same year, she was filmed for the new series The Assembly with Rosario Dawson.
Some additional collaborations include performing recorded work for Codeblack Films and featuring and writing for Brave New Films.
In 2015, Alyesha was a speaker for TEDxPasadenaWomen.
Also, in 2015, she was filmed by PBS/WHYY in Philadelphia, and later featured on the television show, Articulate, an arts magazine show exploring art and creativity in our everyday lives.
In 2014, Alyesha was selected to be part of a small group of artists featured in the Google Interstellar Project, specifically a "Time Capsule" documentary presented by Google Play and Christopher Nolan, in conjunction with the hit movie, Interstellar.
Wise was the 2014 Hollywood grand slam champion and a member of the 2014-2017 Hollywood slam teams.
In 2012, Alyesha was interviewed by Director and Film Producer, Ron Howard.
Also, in 2012, Wise was awarded the "Queens Inspire Kings Award" by Kings Rule Together in Philadelphia for her inspiration towards the youth and others via her poetry and community development.
Alyesha has also been featured on prominent online magazines and platforms such as Huffington Post, For Harriet, Blavity, Afropunk, Button Poetry, Buzzfeed, Bustle and more.
She is a 2-time Women of the World poetry slam finalist, a 2-time Philadelphia grand slam champion and a Southern Fried poetry slam team champion.
Arts Education and Teaching
Alyesha spends most of her time in arts education, including administration, arts-organizing, teaching, curriculum design and more. Alyesha is available to teach in classrooms, libraries, other public facilitates, detention centers and more. For more info, or to book Alyesha for a visit, click here.