nazelah jamison

Nazelah Jamison is a gifted author, performance poet, emcee, comedian and vocalist who has learned from and graced the stage with some of the finest people in entertainment today. She is the current Janice Mirikitani Poet Theologian-in-Residence at Glide Memorial Church SF. Nazelah has competed on and/or coached 12 National Poetry Slam teams; and has performed poetry & music across 3 continents. Until she retired in 2014, she hosted and co-produced The Oakland Poetry Slam & Open Mic, an on-going monthly poetry slam in Oakland, CA, as well as performing at venues around the SF Bay Area and the country. She has collaborated on music recording projects with the Rondo Brothers, and is embarking upon a career as a stand-up comedienne. Her first collection of poetry was evolutionary heart (Nomadic Press, 2016), and her work appears in several other publications, includng The Town: An Anthology of Oakland Poets (Nomadic Press, 2023). Nazelah is well-known and beloved for her work with Spearhead and the French music group, Les Nubians, and her love of hip-hop translates onto the stage.