Katelyn Durst Rivas

Katelyn Durst Rivas is a poet, essayist, researcher, teaching artist, cultural organizer and mother who examines themes of Black girlhood, transracial adoption, motherhood, abolition and care for Black bodies through their creative work. In their cultural organizing and arts administrative work, Katelyn has worked in arts-based civic engagement, arts for community transformation and creative youth programming for over 15 years.She completed an MA from Eastern University in Urban Studies and Community Arts and has a BA in English and Writing and Art and Design from Northern Michigan University. In 2019, she published the chapbook “Radical Self-Care for Black Women” and founded the Detroit chapter of The Free Black Women’s Library. Their work has been featured in Michigan Quarterly, Khöra, Tayo Literary Magazine and others. Katelyn is currently at work on a memoir that is about their experience as a transracial adoptee composing their own definition of Blackness where she weaves personal and political narratives through braided essays that combine prose, verse and Black Feminist reproductive rights issues. When not writing she can be found adventuring with their daughter, laughing with friends and dreaming up a prairie garden.