Photo by J.D. Stokely

Cyrée Jarelle Johnson is a poet and writer from Piscataway, NJ. He holds an MFA from Columbia University. SLINGSHOT, Johnson’s first collection of poetry, was released in 2019 by Nightboat Books and has been reviewed in The New York Times, Ms. Magazine, and Lambda Literary Review. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Rewire News, Boston Review, Vice, and The Root. He has delivered lectures, recited poetry, and facilitated workshops at The White House, Whitney Museum of American Art, Interplanetary Festival, Performance Space NYC, and TEDxColumbia as well as colleges, youth groups, prisons, churches, and community spaces. Find out more about him at cyreejarellejohnson.com