Kai Naima Williams is a multidisciplinary writer and performing artist based in Harlem, New York. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks He Tried To Drown The Ocean, I Waved (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2018) and Tomorrow Maps (The Hunger Press, 2023) and the children’s picture book The Bridges Yuri Built: How Yuri Kochiyama Marched Across Movements (Kaepernick Publishing, 2024). She is a co-founder of Eat At The Table Theatre Company.

Her work has been featured in MASK Magazine, DRØME Magazine, Louisiana Literature, Stirring Lit, Abolition Is, CRWN Magazine, Literary Manhattan and the upcoming anthology Black and Asian Feminist Solidarities (Haymarket Press, 2025). She has performed in showcases for Sakhi For South Asian Women, Planned Parenthood, Densho and as part of the Freshman Class at Bowery Poetry Club. She has written and directed plays for Eat At The Table Theatre Company and Good Evening Repertory. She has participated in speaking engagements organized by the Smithsonian Museum Asian Pacific Islander Center, the USC Pacific Asia Museum, Chinese American Museum and the Japanese American National Museum.

She is a 2023 Bandung Resident (MoCADA / Asian American Arts Alliance), 2019 Recipient of the Monroe Prize for Excellence in African American Studies, 2018 Recipient of the Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival Grand Prize in Fiction and a 2017 Honorable Mention for the New York Times’ Modern Love Essay Contest.