Messy Conversations celebrates April's National Poetry Month with provocative poetic offerings and a rich conversation on how the current climate informs poetry. Facilitated by Clarence R Williams, with poets Dorthy Randall Gray and Traci Kato-Kiriyama sharing works of resistance.
Dorothy Randall Gray is author of the acclaimed bestseller, Soul Between The Lines, a recent volume of poetry, Sharing the Same Sky and is contributor to a number of anthologies including 2020 The Year That Changed America and Voices - an Eve Ensler/Aja Monet theatrical production. She is a master teacher, award-winning artist and was twice designated LA Poet-in-Residence. Her evolutionary creative workshops have inspired populations from death row inmates and at-risk youth, to graduate students and beginning writers.
Dorothy is a Hedgebrook Fellow, co-founder of Women Writers and Artists Matrix, former board member of the International Women's Writing Guild, one-time UNESCO delegate, and recent West Hollywood National Poetry Month representative. She believes in healing the world one word at a time, has shared the dais with the Dalai Lama and her works in Iceland, India, China, Brazil and Canada.
traci kato-kiriyama (they+she), multi/transdisciplinary artist, educator, principal writer/performer of PULLproject Ensemble, author of SIGNALING (2010) and Navigating With(out) Instruments (2021), director/founder of Tuesday Night Project. Poetry most recently featured in the Penguin Classics’ Literature of Japanese American Incarceration (2024) and The Gate of Memory poetry anthology (2025).
easiest way to stay in touch - @traciakemi1 on Instagram