Production
Jasmine Mans
Jasmine Mans is an American poet and performance artist from Newark, New Jersey. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison with a degree in African American Studies and developed her craft as a member of The Strivers Row Poetry Collective, a Newark-based spoken word group. She gained wide attention in 2015 when a video of her performing "Footnotes for Kanye" went viral. Her debut poetry collection, Chalk Outlines of Snow Angels, was published in 2012. Her second collection, Black Girl, Call Home (Penguin Random House, 2021), was named a must-read by TIME, O, The Oprah Magazine, Vulture, Essence, and Marie Claire, and won a Stonewall Book Award. She has performed at venues including the Kennedy Center and Broadway's New Amsterdam Theatre, and serves as CEO of Buy Weed From Women. She narrated the documentary For Venida, For Kalief (2025), directed by Sisa Bueno.
Acting credits
On the morning of their final IVF attempt, a queer Caribbean couple is transported from a sterile waiting room into ancestral portals of love, lineage, and healing.
The Wait
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NRKalief Browder’s story unfolds in full when his life, and that of his mother, Venida Brodnax Browder, are tragically derailed by years of malintent from the justice system. Venida’s poems serve as a guiding thread through this emotional journey, blending archival footage and contemporary political movements to honor the Browder family’s powerful legacy, both within their community and beyond.
For Venida, for Kalief
2025