Climbing PoeTree is the expression of a growing movement for radical social change. Poets,performers, print-makers, dancers, muralists, and designers, Alixa and Naima have sharpened their art as a tool for popular education, community organizing, and personal transformation. With roots in Haiti and Colombia, Alixa and Naima reside in Brooklyn and track footprints across the country and globe on a mission to overcome destruction with creativity.
In five self-organized independent tours, Climbing PoeTree has catalyzed over 500 crowds in more than 70 cities from Oakland to Atlanta, Johannesburg to Havana with artists such as Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, Danny Glover, The Last Poets, and Dead Prez. Alixa and Naima have led more than 100 arts-based political education, anti-racism, and entrepreneurial workshops in institutions from Cornell University to Rikers Island. And they have painted murals on walls from the Bronx to Santiago, Toronto to Jamaica. Through compelling artistry, these multitalented, tireless, and driven young women expose injustice, help us heal from violence, and make a better future visible, immediate, and irresistible.