Poet | Performer | Producer
Through poetry I can do all things.
“I Was There Too!”
I Was There Too! is a multimedia spoken word and musical performance about one woman’s inner revolution as she struggles to understand what it means to have been born into the Black Panther Party. Born to two Black Panthers who are now celebrated artists (Emory Douglas “Minister of Culture” and Gayle Asali Dickson “Artist and Educator”), Meres-Sia describes a childhood of poverty, secrecy and confusion that she sometimes wished would just go away. Meres-Sia takes the audience on a journey through time and space, from Oakland, California in the 1970’s, to Paris, France in the 1990’s, where she hoped she could forget it all. Now Meres-Sia presents this work to continue her journey of individual healing. Further, Meres-Sia believes that the act of presenting and viewing this work will foster community healing.
I Was There Too! was originally developed in 2023-24, thanks to awards from California Arts Council, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Center for Cultural Power, and BE-IMAGINATIVE.
Get to know Meres-Sia
Meres-Sia Gabriel’s vocation as a poet and storyteller is to help marginalized groups center themselves through artistic expression and personal narrative. In 2024, she launched the first ever public panel discussion and community conversation honoring the perspectives of adult children of the Black Panther Party. Year of the Panther Cub: We Were There Too! and her one-woman show — I Was There Too! — act as catalysts for intergenerational conversations around self-care and caring for children in revolutionary movements.
Meres-Sia is a featured poet in the Oakland Museum permanent installation Black Power in California. She is also the bestselling author of I Twirl in the Smoke and a co-author of KQED/BE-IMAGINATIVE watch guide for the emmy-nominated film When the Waters Get Deep. In 2023, she collaborated with De Young Museum of San Francisco to perform a poetry jazz series for the Kehinde Wiley exhibition. The audience reception at De Young inspired her to create her one-woman show I Was There Too!
Meres-Sia is a lyricist with Del Presents Manik Mondaze and she has completed an album collaboration with Del The Funky Homosapien, which she expects to be available in 2026.
In addition to her artist practice, Meres-Sia is a former high school teacher of 20 years, an adjunct French instructor, a teacher consultant for the Bay Area Writing Project and the founder of her own creative writing program, Life-Changing Writing. When she is not teaching, writing, and performing, she is dreaming, and enjoying being the mother of two adult children. Meres-Sia currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.
“Coming into the course with no writing skills, the course helped me to write and express myself more confidently with the structure it sets and the interaction and input of the other people in the course. Now I am a published author. The promise has been fulfilled.”
Life-Changing Writing Programs
“Meres-Sia ushered in some powerful experiences that allowed us to reaffirm ourselves individually and collectively through our stories. This creative writing experience was magical.”
You're not looking for another course, you're looking for results. Life-Changing Writing is a live online writing program that is designed with your true capability in mind. Something different.
Most people aspire to write like their favorite authors but here you will learn to write like yourself. In this coaching and live mentorship experience, your stories will begin to pour out of you on the first session as you tap into your unique writer’s voice.
If you have no writing practice to speak of or if you are an experienced writer having writer's block, you will benefit from this course & live mentorship!
Trust and embrace your voice while carving out your indivdual writing path in our creative community. With writer self-care, self-compassion, and consistent practice, your writing will blossom in unexpected and inspiring ways.
Here’s what else you can expect in just eight weeks:
💫 Establish a writer’s mindset.
💫 Create material for your project.
💫 Explore and advance your creative identity.
💫 Develop effective strategies to get through “blocks” every time, so that you can continue to write your stories even after the program has ended.
💫 Discover your unique, authentic writer’s voice.
Every genre and experience level is welcomed!
Music
Oakland native, Meres-Sia, began writing rhymes in elementary school after getting inspired by the Roxanne battles. In high school, she joined the rap group Cell Dwellaz (Emperor, Renegade Lord SJ, and Supastar Quame Allah) and thus became the first lady to join the Mad Circle collective, which later evolved into Hieroglyphics (Hiero.) Now, Meres-Sia returns to her roots as a member of DeL Presents Manik Mondaze. Find more compilations from the crew at Del The Funky Homosapian youtube below and exclusives on the substack at www.delpresents.com. Also look out for her full-length album collaboration with Del The Funky Homosapien and Fanatik onBeats. Stay tuned for the drop!
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