meet the collective
MERES-SIA GABRIEL
Writer + Writing Coach
Meres-Sia Gabriel was born and raised in east Oakland, California where she spent summers performing in community theater. In high school, she toured locally with a rap group before heading off to college. A graduate of Howard University and Middlebury College School in France / la Sorbonne Nouvelle, Meres-Sia received her master’s in French and has taught French, Language Arts, Writing, and Literature at various institutions. In addition to her artist practice, she is a French Professor, a Teacher Consultant for the Bay Area Writing Project at UC Berkeley, and the founder of Life-Changing Writing where she helps writers discover their literary voice.
She contributed to the foreward of her father’s book Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas (Rizzoli Press) and toured with him for his exhibitions at Los Angeles MOCA, New Museum in New York, Urbis in Manchester, UK, and Universidad de la Tierra in Chiapas, MX. As a child of the Black Panther Party, Meres-Sia grew up in a movement that believed art should have a social message. Likewise, her work as a writer and performer beckons us to an inner revolution of self-reflection and personal healing.
She has performed in the Kehinde Wiley and Lhola Amira exhibitions at the de Young Museum of San Francisco. Her poetry is featured in the “Black Power” installation at the Oakland Museum of California. Her poetry has also been featured in exhibitions of the Zapantera Negra project in Cuba, Chiapas, Vienna, and Spain. She is the bestselling author of a book of poetry and prose entitled I Twirl in the Smoke. And she is the co-author of the KQED and BE-IMAGINATIVE watch guide for the Emmy-nominated film When the Waters Get Deep.
Meres-Sia is a 2023 recipient of grant awards from the California Arts Council, Center for Cultural Power, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and BE-IMAGINATIVE which have allowed her to write and produce a one-woman show about her experiences growing up in the Black Panther Party entitled “I Was There Too! and to produce a panel on the challenges, blessings, and healing of growing up in the Black Panther Party — “Year of the Panther Cub: We Were There Too!”