Poetic Reform Party
Poetic Reform Party (PRP) is one of the leading organizations for literary arts event production for SoCal artists. Formed in Orange County, CA. 1999 by Marcus Omari, PRP is dedicated to promoting literacy, expanding the poetic arts, strengthening the communities artists call home, and bending the horizon of our shared social landscape toward a brighter future. Working together as a team of dedicated artists, PRP focuses on curating diverse, impactful, creative programming for various organizations and agencies in Southern California. Sponsored events feature workshops, readings, and performances by local and nationally recognized professional writers. Poetic Reform Party believes in the indispensable value of the poetic arts in the new American culture.
Natalie Graham • Danielle Mitchell • Marcus Omari
P.R.P. Mission
The Poetic Reform Party mission is promoting the emergence of fresh poetic voices engaged in literary arts, encourage the professional development of artists through community based initiatives and cultivate an environment in which poetic artistry is appreciated and accessible to the widest possible public.
P.R.P. Workshop
Poetic Reform Party coordinates poetic writing workshops for organizations impacting underserved populations, such as foster youth facilities, homeless shelters, battered women’s shelters, half-way houses, nursing homes, and senior care centers. Participating poet/teachers have included Aisha Duncan, Propaganda, Danielle Mitchell, Jonathan Davis, Natalie Graham, and Lady Narrator.
Marcus Omari is a dedicated poet, writer and performer. Marcus has been a featured poet on VERSES & FLOW on TV One, has authored several poetry chapbooks and contributed poetic vocals for various multi-genre music albums. Marcus now lives in Santa Ana, CA. where he teaches in the Creative Writing Conservatory at Orange County School of the Arts, co-directs the annual Boca de Oro Literary Festival and heads the rowdy artistic-activist collective: Poetic Reform Party.
Danielle Mitchell is an American poet, blogger, and community organizer. She is founding director of The Poetry Lab in Long Beach, California where she teaches free community workshops. Danielle is the author of Makes the Daughter-in-Law Cry (Tebot Bach 2017), selected by Gail Wronsky for the Clockwise Chapbook Prize. Her poetry has appeared in literary journals such as apt, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Eleven Eleven, Nailed Magazine, and her essays have appeared on DIY MFA and Women Who Submit.
Danielle is a two time Pushcart Prize nominee as well as winner of the Mary Editor’s Prize and the Editor’s Choice Award from The Mas Tequila Review.
Natalie Graham is a native of Gainesville, Florida. Natalie earned her M.F.A. in Creative Writing at the University of Florida and completed her Ph.D. in American Studies at Michigan State University as a University Distinguished Fellow. Her poems have appeared in Callaloo, New England Review, Valley Voices: A Literary Review and Southern Humanities Review; and her articles have appeared in The Journal of Popular Culture and Transition. She is a Cave Canem fellow and assistant professor of African American Studies at California State University, Fullerton. Begin with a Failed Body, her first full-length collection of poems, won the 2016 Cave Canem Poetry Prize and is forthcoming from University of Georgia Press.
Marcus Omari leads a Poetry Workshop @ Villa Fundamental Intermediate