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“We Want Our Bodies Back is a lyric encyclopedia, a psalm book, a conflagration of fire and fierce black joy. And jessica Care moore is the 21st Century poet warrior America desperately needs.”

— Tracy K. Smith

“Imbued with heartache, anger, celebration, and rejuvenation, the poems in We Want Our Bodies Back reflect the sui generis funktified flyness that jessica Care moore has exemplified as an independent artist, activist, publisher, and curator for nearly a quarter-century. Perhaps the premier resistance writer in America today, moore furnishes luminous poetic signposts for our treacherous journey through the gloomy landscapes of 21st century America.”

— Tonya Bolden

“jessica Care moore has the brains of W.E.B. DuBois and the beauty of Dorothy Dandridge. She is a rhetorical master who has transformed the art of public poetry into the performance of prophetic truth. jessica Care moore carries on the heroic tradition of our greatest artists who make epic verse out of tragedy and adversity.”

— Michael Eric Dyson

jessica Care moore is an internationally renowned poet, playwright, performance artist, producer, and publisher. Her most recent book of poetry is We Want Our Bodies Back (HarperCollins, 2020), which Ms. Magazine called “sharp, smart, and defiant.” moore is the author of numerous books of poetry, all published by her publishing company, Moore Black Press, including The Words Don’t Fit in My Mouth, which sold more than 20,000 copies, The Alphabet Verses The Ghetto, God is Not an American, Sunlight Through Bullet Holes, and a memoir, Love is Not The Enemy. She has been published in several literary anthologies,, including, 44 on 44, (Third World Press, 2011), A Different Image, (U of D Mercy Press, 2004), Abandon Automobile, (WSU Press, 2001), Listen Up! (Random House, 1999), Step Into A World, (Wiley Publishing, 2001), Role Call (Third World Press, 2002), and Bum Rush The Page: A Def Poetry Jam (Crown Publishing, 2001). She was the youngest poet published in the Prentice Hall Anthology of African American Women’s Literature, and is a Detroit Institute of the Arts Alain Locke Award Recipient.

She has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the London Institute of Contemporary Arts, as well as on every continent. Her multimedia show, God is Not an American, was produced by The Apollo Theater and Time Warner’s NYC Parks Summer Concert Series. Her techno solo theater performance, The Missing Project: Pieces of the D is an homage to Detroit, and she has continued to push the boundaries of genre by producing her first conceptual art installation, NANOC: I Sing The Body Electric, which opened at the Dell Pryor Gallery in 2011. Her work has been exhibited at American Jazz Museum in Kansas City and the Charles H. Wright Museum for her Black WOMEN Rock! Exhibition. This musical focus led her to create her first album, Black Tea: The Legend of Jessi James, produced by moore and pianist Jon Dixon. Features include Imani Uzuri, Roy Ayers, Talib Kweli, Jose James, One Belo and Ursula Rucker.

She was the host, writer and co-Executive Producer of the poetry driven television show, Spoken, which was executive produced by and directed by Robert Townsend and aired on The Black Family Channel. moore’s poetry is also featured on Nas’ Nastradamus album, Talib Kweli’s Attack The Block MixTape, and she was a returning star of Russell Simmons’ HBO Series, Def Poetry Jam.

As CEO of Moore Black Press, she has published poets such Saul Williams, Shariff Simmons, Def Poetry Jam’s co-founder Danny Simmons, NBA player Etan Thomas, Ras Baraka and former Essence Magazine editor Asha Bandele. She is also the Executive Producer of Black WOMEN Rock!, a non profit devoted to showcasing the music and stories of Black women.

A prominent activist, moore has lent her voice to the international fight against AIDS. She performed for the United Nations World AIDS Day Commemoration two years in a row and was one of the organizers of Hip-Hop-A-Thon, a concert in San Francisco which helped increase AIDS education in the Black and Latino Bay-Area communities. moore has also performed in front of thousands of people during AIDS WALK Opening Ceremonies in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Florida and Atlanta.

She’s been on the cover of The New York Times, The Metro Times, Michigan FrontPage, Detroit News, Detroit Free Press, African Voices Magazine, Black Elegance Magazine, and has been featured in print and online magazines across the world, including, Essence, Huffington Post, Blaze, The Source, Vibe, Bomb, Mosaic, Savoy, One World, Upscale, Ambassador Magazine, UPTOWN and others.

jessica Care moore currently lives, writes and plays in downtown Detroit, where she is proud to be raising her visual artist, baseball loving, drums and hockey playing son, King Moore.

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