Lorelei Williams (accompanying poetry)

Lorelei Williams, writer and entrepreneur

For over fifteen years, Lorelei Williams has worked to empower African and Afro-descendent communities across the globe to achieve equity and justice. Currently, as a philanthropic strategist, she advises foundations and non-profit organizations on program design and organizational development.

Writing has always been Lorelei’s first love. Her work has been recognized through fellowships from the Breadloaf Young Writer’s Conference, Cave Canem and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She has performed at the Joe Papp Public Theater, Manenberg Jazz House in South Africa, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Nuyorican Poet’s Café, the Poet’s House, and other locations. Her senior thesis at Yale, Black Women in the Television Landscape, was awarded the William Pickens Prize. Lorelei’s writings have appeared in Essence Magazine, Meridians Journal on Feminism, Race and Transnationalism, and African Voices – and in the anthologies Be the Dream (Algonquin Books); Beyond the Frontier: African-American Poetry for the 21st Century (Black Classic Press); Cave Canem III (Black Classic Press); Daddy Can I Tell You Something (Sela Press); and Guerreras y Cimmaronas (University of Houston Arte Publico Press).

Lorelei earned a B.A. from Yale University in Political Science/African American Studies and a Masters Degree in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.