Career
She emerged as part of Youth Speaks, a youth performance poetry and creative writing program founded in 1996, and served on SPOKES (Selected-Poets-Organizing-Kreating-&-Expanding-Spoken Word), a Youth Advisory Board and paid internship program Clay also taught in an academic enrichment program, formerly known as Summerbridge National, which caters to urban youth with high potential but limited resources. She was a Bay Area representative at the Ninth Annual Brave New Voices (BNV) International Youth Poetry Slam Contest in New York City.
Clay graduated from Howard University in Washington, District of Columbia with a degree in English, and was a contributing editor for the university"s Amistad literary magazine.
Meilani Clay was a featured poet on Episode 3 of the sixth season of Home Box Office"s Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry. She performed a piece about questioning God, entitled "Lost."
Clay was featured in 2nd Verse: The Rebirth of Poetry, a documentary-drama from director Carl Brown and Corduroy Media.
In 2011, she was a featured poet on The Angle Show, a web documentary series by Park Triangle Productions. Society, (2004). Bringing The Noise Volume
4, vocal, writer (Youth Speaks Incorporated/Hard Knock Radio)
Loads, (2005).
Bringing The Noise Volume 4, vocal, writer (Youth Speaks Incorporated/Hard Knock Radio)
Search Foreign Home, (2008). (self-published)
Poetry Anthology, in production.
(First Word Press).
