Writer and performer Zedeka Poindexter shares her passion for community and stories, and talks about her poems, essays, and performances that draw on complexities of race, class, struggle, and joy. Poindexter shares how that creative expression now is, in the form of a choreopoem, unearthing the lived experience of healthcare disparities encountered by black women. She also reads a couple of poems for us.

Zedeka Poindexter is a North Omaha-born writer and performer and is co-executive director with Gina Tranisi of Nebraska Writers Collective. Poindexter’s body of poems and essays draws on all five physical senses to connect with readers and listeners. By sharing stories of people in her community, she creates a relationship with her audience and guides them through the world as she sees and experiences it. Poindexter has earned numerous awards and accolades including the Best Performance Poet award from Omaha Entertainment & Arts; a Public Impact Grant from Amplify Arts, being awarded The Union for Contemporary Arts Inside/Outside Fellowship Prize; and being recognized as a Nebraska Arts Council: Artists In Schools Recipient.