Litquake San Francisco’s Literary Festival: An Afternoon with Mahogany Browne
Fri., October 9 | 4:30pm-5:30pm
@ Chapter 510
Calling all teens, educators and families! Take a breather between the busy school week and the weekend ahead at our whimsical center for creative writing. As part of our Write, Speak, Heal collaborative with Youth Speaks and Divine Radiance, join poet, playwright, organizer, and educator Mahogany L. Browne for an afternoon celebrating young people’s self-expression, resilience, and wellness.
Browne will read from her National Book Award–longlisted collection of stories and poems A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe, which Publishers Weekly calls a “love letter to New York City and its resilient teen population as they adjust to a changed world.”
Joining her will be Chapter 510 poet and Teaching Artist Belinda Bellinger, with opening performances by Youth Speaks Poets. Followed by a conversation around creativity, healing, and resilience moderated by Alie Jones.
Location: 546 9th St, Oakland, CA 94607
Date: October 9th, 2026
Time: 4:30pm-5:30pm. Doors open at 4pm.
About Alie Jones
Alie Jones is a writer, artist, and Creole mermaid. She is the author of Saltwater Moonshine, a poetry collection that honors her matrilineal Creole heritage through poetry, music, and reflections of love. Alie is passionate about centering our breath work as sacred and hopes to build a legacy of awareness and expression. She is the Director and Co-founder of Black Freighter Press, a revolutionary press committed to the exploration of liberation. Alie is the host of the podcast called Chit Chat with Aliecat, exploring self-care practices & journeys of self-love. She received her MPA from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies as well as a MFA from Mills College in Creative Writing.
About Belinda Bellinger
About Kristal Raheem
Belinda Bellinger is a writer, poet, and performance artist currently living in Oakland, CA. Their work has appeared in RaceBaitr and is forthcoming in Ebony Tomatoes, amongst other publications. Belinda enjoys writing about healing the ancestral wounds of our inner child. Their latest residency will occur in August 2025 at the Anaphora Writing Residency. Belinda is currently working on “Middle Set Seed,” a poetic bio-mythology about unsilencing Black nonbinary femme rage. When they are not writing, Belinda enjoys practicing patience with their clever starseed, photosynthesizing with their punctual canine, and rendering techni-colored dreams.
Kristal Raheem is a health journalist, poet, and sociologist from Oakland. Her work prioritizes the health and safety of Black women and girls, as well as other systematically oppressed communities around the world. Raheem is a graduate of the Oakland Voices Community Journalism Program and the KALW Radio Audio Academy. This year she completed the Data Institute with the Center for Journalism & Democracy and the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting. Her work has been published with local and national outlets including NPR, Non-Profit Quarterly Magazine, Oakland Post, Oaklandside, and SF BayView
Youth Speaks Poets
Aisha Rae McCulloch
Madisen Wofford
Aisha Rae McCulloch is a 17-year-old high school senior and San Francisco’s Vice Youth Poet Laureate. She loves writing in all forms and she has been telling stories since she was a young child. Besides writing, she cooks and competes in track and field. She was born and raised in San Francisco with a twin sister—the perfect partner for bouncing ideas off of. Her favorite places to write are tucked under her covers or in the Golden Gate Park Music Concourse.
Madisen Wofford uses poetry and art as ways to get to know herself through the process of creation and loving the outcome. They are learning astrology and somatics and hope to combine them in a holistic healing career. She enjoys exploring our reality through writing within the community to better understand others perspectives.