07/06/2026
SousSHE honors the life, love, and legacy of Nicia De’Lovely.
Nicia lived to create, to love, to pour, and to honor. She was an Oakland native, published poet, playwright, ARTivist, abolitionist, community advocate, and a woman whose work made room for healing. For more than two decades, she used her voice, her creativity, and her presence to support survivors, uplift Black women, pour into young people, and create spaces where truth, art, and community could meet.
To SousSHE, Nicia was OUR family.
Nicia’s offering to SousSHE was rooted in love, healing, and creative expression. She led and facilitated healing circles, workshops, and sacred community spaces where women and girls could slow down, reflect, release, and reconnect with themselves. Through her expertise in art, writing, journaling, crafting, painting, storytelling, and spoken word, Nicia helped turn creativity into a pathway for healing. Holding space during Sis, Let’s Do Brunch; guiding a writing exercise; or helping someone put feelings to paper, she brought tenderness, truth, and intention into every room she entered.
She showed up for our girls with care, intention, and love. As an artistic partner with Paint Me Empowered, she led creative writing and spoken word experiences that gave young Black girls permission to use their voices, tell their stories, and see their words as powerful. She understood what it meant for youth to be seen, heard, protected, and encouraged.
Nicia loved the youth. You could feel it in the way she listened, the way she taught, and the way she made space for young people to be fully themselves.
In 2024, we had the honor of recognizing Nicia as the first honoree of our EmpowerHER Award, the Cleo Ward. That moment mattered deeply to us because Nicia had spent so much of her life giving flowers to others through her work, her art, her advocacy, and her healing spaces.
We felt it was critical to give her hers at every opportunity.
While she was here, we wanted her to know that we saw her. We valued her. We loved her. We honored the work she carried and the lives she touched.
Nicia’s love remains woven into SousSHE’s story. It lives in every young girl who found her voice, every woman who felt affirmed, and every community space made softer, safer, and stronger because she was there.
We offer our love to Nicia’s family, her loved ones, her creative community, and everyone whose life was touched by her presence.
Thank you, Nicia, for what you gave us.
Thank you for loving our girls.
Thank you for showing us that art is healing, voice is power, and community is sacred.
You are forever woven into the work.
