Climbing Poetree

Book excerpt: Poetry. Latino/Latina Studies. African American Studies. CLIMBING POETREE is the combined force of two boundary-breaking soul sisters who have sharpened their art as a tool to expose injustice, channel hope into vision, and make a better future visible, immediate, and irresistible. With roots in Colombia and Haiti, Alixa and Naima reside in Brooklyn and track footprints across the country and globe, weaving together their voices to tell powerful stories that expose injustice, dissolve apathy with hope, and help heal our inner trauma so that we may begin to cope with the issues facing our communities. Since their debut as a duo in 2003, CLIMBING POETREE has organized 25 national and international tours that have taken them to hundreds of venues from Los Angeles to London, Honolulu to Havana, Chiapas to Chicago, Goa to Johannesburg. Alixa and Naima have rocked concert halls, festivals, prisons, and classrooms interweaving spoken word, hip hop, and award-winning multimedia theater; and have been honorary keynote presenters at conferences and universities nationwide. Their soul-stirring performances have been featured alongside visionaries such as Angela Davis, Alicia Keys, Erykah Badu, Amiri Baraka, Alice Walker, Cornel West, Sonia Sanchez, Vandana Shiva, Danny Glover, and The Last Poets. Alixa and Naima are committed organizers and renowned educators who have lead workshops from state institutions like Rikers Island Prison, to prestigious academies such as Harvard and Columbia Universities. With the conviction that creativity is the antidote to destruction, Alixa and Naima's artistry is deeply rooted in movements for women's power, queer rights, Haitian solidarity, prison abolition, political education, and social, environmental, racial, and sexual justice. "With vision and rhythm, Naima and Alixa's poems stretch from souls deep toward the radiant pulsing horizon. Look and listen CLIMBING POETREE might take you exactly where you need to go." Jeff Chang, hip hop journalist and critic "CLIMBING POETREE is a soulful expression. Alixa Garcia and Naima Penniman are deep thinkers and gifted poets. I am moved profoundly by the power of their words " Cornel West "Each time I have the pleasure of attending a performance by CLIMBING POETREE, I feel enriched, renewed, and inspired. Alixa and Naima insist that poetry can change the world and it is true that the urgency, power and beauty of their words impel us to keep striving for the radical futures toward which they gesture." Angela Davis"