Nia McAllister, born and raised in the Bay Area, Nia McAllister is the Visitor Experience Manager at the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco. Having received her B.A. in Environmental Analysis: Race, Class, Gender, and the Environment from Pomona College, she has dedicated herself to facilitating impactful change at the intersection of art, writing, and activism. Since joining MoAD in December 2017, she has been a leader for accessibility, representation,and community engagement. As the proud founder and host of MoAD's Monthly Open Mic series, she is intent on curating participatory literary experiences. An avid reader herself, Nia applies her literary passion towards managing and curating the MoAD bookstore. Nia finds joy in advocating for representation, accessibility, and equity in the literary field. She has established the Museum bookstore as a platform for authors of the African Diaspora and a space to feature local Black businesses, making MoAD home to now the last Black bookstore in San Francisco. Beyond the shelves, Nia can be found performing her poetry at Open Mics, writing outdoors, taking care of her plants, and dancing in her free time. Nia’s poetry has been featured by Oakland-based publisher Nomadic Press as part of their Dial-a-Poet series in partnership with Nomadic Coffee and she has been interviewed on the Poets of Color Podcast.
