Meilani Clay
Meilani Clay (born January 11, 1988) is a conscious writer, educator and poetry slam champion from the San Francisco Bay Area, California. She emerged as part of Youth Speaks, a youth performance poetry and creative writing program founded in 1996, and served on SPOKES (Selected-Poets-Organizing-Kreating-&-Expanding-Spoken Word), a Youth Advisory Board and paid internship program.Clay also taught in an academic enrichment program, formerly known as Summerbridge National, which caters to urban youth with high potential but limited resources. She was a Bay Area representative at the Ninth Annual Brave New Voices (BNV) International Youth Poetry Slam Contest in New York City. Clay performed at the Grand Slam Finals in the world famous Apollo Theater and helped her team win the top prize.Clay graduated from Howard University in Washington, D.C. with a degree in English, and was a contributing editor for the university's Amistad literary magazine.