Danielle P Williams
Danielle P. Williams is a Black and Chamorro poet, translator, essayist, and spoken word artist from Columbia, South Carolina. She received her Bachelor's degree in Arts Administration from Elon University and MFA in poetry from George Mason University. Her chapbook, "Who All Gon’ Be There?" was a finalist for the Button Poetry Chapbook Contest and selected from the Backbone Press 3rd Annual Chapbook Competition for publication in fall 2021. She lives in Los Angeles, where she works as a copywriter and creative strategist.
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Awards: The Watering Hole Poetry Fellow, Open Mouth Poetry Retreat Fellow, 2021 Langston Hughes Fellow - Palm Beach Poetry Festival, 2019 MFA Travel Fellow - Alan Cheuse Writers Center, Finalist for Button Poetry 2021 Chapbook Contest, Ninth Letter 2020 Literary Award, 2020 Virginia Downs Poetry Award, 2021 Langston Hughes Fellow - Palm Beach Poetry Festival, 2019 MFA Travel Fellow - Alan Cheuse Writers Center
Communities: LGBTQ+, African American, Indigenous or Native American, Neurodivergent
Danielle P. Williams
Chamorrita Song
For poet and spoken-word artist Danielle P. Williams, Kantan Chamorrita is more than just the ancient craft of Chamorro folk song. It is also a return and a homecoming. This impromptu style of communal call-and response performance art forms the spokes for Williams’s debut collection.
Rooted in oral tradition, Chamorrita Song pays homage to Black and Chamorro cultures, honoring the artistic expressions that these communities have created to reconcile lifetimes of imposed trauma. Bearing witness to these many narratives, Williams intertwines spoken word poetry and gospel music with Chamorro storytelling, weaving together the nuanced histories of queer, Black, and Indigenous existence and literature.
Here Williams reveals capacious contemporary forms that speak to the future as well as to the past and that further ground lineages in homelands, finding strength and beauty in collective pain and triumph. These poems transform and spread the messages of those long silenced. They act as song and prayer.
University of Arizona Press, Booth #247 (Seats 1)
Sat, Mar 14, 10:00 am - 10:50 am
Poetry
Author:
Danielle Williams
Sing, Slam, Shout!
From the musical incantation of lyric to the political rhythms of slam, what role does performance play in bringing poems to life? Join three electrifying poets who expertly translate their words from the printed page to the human voice and hear them discuss their approaches to enacting language.
Student Union Kiva (Seats 100)
Sat, Mar 14, 1:00 pm - 1:55 pm
Poetry
Signing area: Sales & Signing Area - UA Campus Store Main Floor (following presentation)
Panelists:
Logan Phillips,
Sophia Terazawa,
Danielle Williams
Moderator: Cameron Quan
Sponsor: Session made possible courtesy of Max McCauslin and John Smith
Poetry vs. the Patriarchy
A viral headline recently asked, "Did Women Ruin the Workplace?" In yet another era of sexism and misogyny, what kind of intervention can poetry make? Hear from three visionary poets who confront everyday injustices and cultural crises in their writing to affirm a more equal world.
Student Union Kiva (Seats 100)
Sun, Mar 15, 11:30 am - 12:25 pm
Poetry
Signing area: Sales & Signing Area - UA Campus Store Main Floor (following presentation)
Panelists:
Jami Macarty,
Danielle Williams,
Felicia Zamora
Moderator: Estella Gonzalez
Sponsor: Session made possible courtesy of Max McCauslin and John Smith
Book:
Chamorrita Song
Poetry
University of Arizona Press
January 2026
ISBN 9780816555161
92 pages
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