Raven Phillips is a writer, poet, and cultural practitioner in the United States Virgin Islands. She has been a member of the Virgin Islands community since 2010, and the bonds she has built within that community guides much of her writing and activism.
By spending her formative years commuting between St. Thomas and St. John, and sharing space with a variety of cultural practitioners, she gained a deep appreciation for the culture and people of the U.S. Virgin Islands, and she frequently advocates for structural change. She highly values cultural preservation, research, and self-expression through artistic mediums.
Her works have appeared in the St. John Tradewinds, the V.I. Source, the V.I. Daily News, Destination Magazine, and The Caribbean Writer. She has also hosted Rhyme and Lime, a local spoken word and poetry jam at Bajo el Sol Gallery in St. John, USVI for nearly four years.
For the fifth anniversary of Rhyme and Lime, Raven compiled and edited the poetry anthology, Like Salt and Wet Soil Poems from the Rhyme and Lime, alongside David Knight Jr. The anthology contains original poetry performed by Rhyme and Lime attendees between 2019 and 2024.
Reach out for a copy here
Raven's poem American Dream State was included in the 36th volume of The Caribbean Writer.
American Dream State juxtaposes the opinions and emotions about the mainland United States during the 1917 Transfer, against opinions in 2021, illuminating how time often repeats itself.
Raven's poems Ancestral Vessel and Bamboula were included in the 39th volume of the Caribbean Writer.
Ancestral Vessel explores the ways in which our grandmothers operate as keepers of memory and the crux of a family's stability.
Bamboula explores the connections between body, spirit, and ancestry through the dance and music of Bamboula, the ancestral dance of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
To book Raven for speaking engagements, poetry performances, or to plan and host a writing workshop, Contact us here