Crystal Valentine
Instructor
About Crystal
Crystal Valentine (she/her) is a nationally and internationally acclaimed poet, educator and curator. She is a two-time winner of the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational and a finalist of the Women of the World Poetry Slam. Crystal has traveled across seas performing on platforms in Paris, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa and elsewhere. She was named Glamour Magazine’s 2016 College Woman of the Year, Teen Vogue’s Rising Young Black Thought Leader, and was the recipient of the National Conference of College Women Student Leaders Woman’s Distinction Award. A Callaloo Fellow, former New York City Youth Poet Laureate, and author of her first book, Not Everything is a Eulogy (Penmanship Books), Crystal’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Academy of American Poets, TriQuarterly Magazine, BreakBeat Poets Vol. 2: Black Girl Magic Anthology (Haymarket Books), Muzzle Magazine and elsewhere. Currently, she is an English professor at Curry College as well as the Festival Manager of the Mass Poetry Festival. A generator and fierce protector of Black joy, when Crystal isn’t writing or agonizing over line breaks, you can find her watching anime and dreaming.