Cleo Wade

Cleo Wade (born September 13, 1989) is an American artist, poet, activist, and author.

Early life Wade grew up in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, to a white mother, Lori Rockett, and black father, Bernardo Wade. She attended St. Mary's Dominican High School.

After graduating from high school, she decided to pursue fashion and moved to New York City to intern at Missoni. While in the city, she consulted for Alice + Olivia, modeled for Cartier and Armani, and worked as an office manager at Halston.

Poetry Wade's poetry centers around inspiration, affirmations, activism, and female empowerment. After over 2,300 Instagram posts and 782,000 followers later, Wade's work and activism have been widely shared and praised. In January 2018, The New York Times published a poem of hers in its opinion section entitled "How Are You Showing Up This Year", urging Americans to increase their political engagement, while Teen Vogue published her piece entitled "If I Could Write One Million Love Poems (A Love Letter To Trans Kids)" as a response to actions from the Trump administration. Wade has been published in W Magazine on several occasions, including "Who Are We Right Now", a poem dedicated to many famous women whom she admires, "An Open Letter to My Dearest America", a poem responding to the 2016 election, and "How I Became Woke to Politics", an article she wrote about her relationship to politics.

Public art installations Wade has created several large-scale public art installations across North America, all with the underlying theme that "art should be in the name of all people and should serve all people." These projects include works in New Orleans: "Respect", a love poem extending 25 feet in the New Orleans French Quarter skyline and "She", a permanent installment on a 50-foot warehouse building, completed in collaboration with graffiti artist Brandon Odums, in the New Orleans Bywater neighborhood. In summer 2017, Wade created "ARE YOU OK" at the Hester Street Fair in New York City, which was "a public booth for free, peaceful, and loving conversation."

Speaking engagements In 2017, Wade gave a TED talk entitled "Want to change the world? Start by being brave enough to care", which has garnered over 1.5 million views on TED's website.

Books In 2018, she published her first book, Heart Talk: Poetic Wisdom for a Better Life.

In 2019, she published her second book, Where to Begin: A Small Book About Your Power to Create Big Change in Our Crazy World.

In 2020, Heart Talk: The Journal, 52 weeks of self-love, self-care, and self-discovery

In 2021, What the Road Said

Personal life Wade is engaged to Simon Kinberg. They have two daughters; born in 2020 and 2021.

Activist and nonprofit work As of April 2018, She currently resides in Manhattan, Lower East Side Girls Club (LESGC), and the National Black Theatre in Harlem.

Wade serves on the creative council for EMILY's List, an organization that supports and advocates for pro-choice Democratic women running for office. She frequently uses her Instagram prestige to advocate for several social movements, political issues, and activist campaigns. She is also on the advisory board of Gucci's Chime for Change. Fast Company honored Wade on their 2017 list of Most Creative People in Business. New York has named her "the Millennial Oprah."