De'Ashia Wallace AJ P.R.
Writing and performance rooted in grief, family, survival, identity, healing, memory, community, and the truths people are often afraid to say aloud.
Read the work. Hear the voice. Explore programs built for real audiences. Bring AJ P.R. into your school, library, college, organization, community, or event.
Some experiences are difficult to name. She finds the words.
What kind of audience are you planning for?
De'Ashia's work can meet audiences in very different places. Start with the room you are building, then explore the programs most relevant to that community.
Oh — she does that too.
Author & Published Poet
Books, poetry, literary work, features, and developing projects.
Spoken-Word Performer
Live poetry, featured readings, performance, panels, and community conversation.
Recording Artist
Spoken-word audio, recorded performance, music, and developing artist work.
Community & Teaching Artist
Youth, literacy, writing, identity, healing, prevention, and community-centered programming.
Founder
My Pen Still Has Ink LLC is the creative and community platform behind the expanding work.
The Hug I Wish I Gave You
A poetry and creative nonfiction collection exploring grief, family, love, survival, memory, trauma, and the complicated work of healing.
De'Ashia writes into the places where memory, loss, family, anger, tenderness, and survival meet.
Hear the poetry first.
For someone considering AJ P.R. for a poetry performance, workshop, reading, or conversation, the voice should come before anything else.
De'Ashia's spoken-word work brings breath, cadence, tension, vulnerability, and presence to writing that begins on the page.
Casket Sharp
A powerful spoken-word piece about Black boyhood, stereotypes, gun violence, and the danger of a child being judged as a threat before he is allowed to simply be a child.
Start with what your audience needs.
De'Ashia works across schools, libraries, colleges, nonprofits, cultural organizations, advocacy programs, and community spaces.
Voice, Literacy & Identity
Writing and spoken-word programming helping young people explore voice, identity, memory, and creative expression.
Support, Safety & Healing
Trauma-informed programs centered on listening, belief, boundaries, support, agency, and survivor voice.
Youth, Community & Gun Violence
Poetry and conversation about violence, identity, stereotypes, prevention, grief, and the lives behind the statistics.
Memory, Caregiving & Resilience
Programs exploring illness, caregiving, loss, family bonds, memory, survival, and continuing after grief.
Voice, Identity & Culture
Spoken word and literary programs centered on Black voice, identity, culture, family, history, and contemporary experience.
Readings, Talks & Literary Programs
Author talks, book programs, readings, Q&A sessions, workshops, and community literary events.
The room matters as much as the stage.
De'Ashia brings a real community and youth-programming background into the work.
Her experience includes youth and community programming in Ypsilanti, GEAR UP, Methodist Boys Home, libraries, author events, and other youth-centered spaces.
For schools and organizations, that means the goal is not simply to perform for an audience. It is to understand who is in the room and create work that can meet them there.
Selected Community Experience
Poetry leads. Music remains part of the story.
AJ P.R.'s creative work does not stop at poetry and spoken word. Music and recording are another lane of the larger artistic identity.
Someone considering De'Ashia for a poetry booking encounters the poetry first. Visitors who want to explore the broader artist can continue into the music.
In The Industry
Part of AJ P.R.'s music and recording-artist work, showing another dimension of her creative voice beyond poetry and spoken word.
Read the work. Hear the voice. Picture the program.
Spoken-word performance, workshop, author talk, youth program, community conversation, panel, residency, interview, or custom program.