Khalisa Rae is an award-winning author, activist, and storyteller. As a queer rights advocate and community builder, she seeks to uplift Black queer voices. She is the author of the poetry collection, Ghost in a Black Girl’s Throat and the sold-out play production, Seven Deadly Sins of Being a Woman.
LB ( lyrically blessed) is a multi-talented writer and lyricist that hails from the city of Wilson NC. LB is an N.C.A&T alum where he was a part of the spoken word group Couture Word. He has been writing for roughly 6 years, and fueled his writing passion into the
Christopher Massenburg, better known as Dasan Ahanu, is a public speaker, organizer, curator, educator, poet, spoken word artist, educator, songwriter, and emcee, and loyal Hip Hop head born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina. He is co-founder and managing director of Black Poetry Theatre, a Durham based theatre company that
Ashley Lumpkin is a Georgia-raised, Carolina-based writer, editor, actor, and educator. She is the author of five poetry collections: {} At First Sight, Second Glance, Terrorism and Other Topics for Tea, #AshleyLumpkin, and Genesis. Her book “I Hate You All Equally.”, is a collection of conversations from her years as
LeJuane (El’Ja) Bowens is an award-winning spoken word poet, host, speaker, workshop facilitator, and author. Born in Detroit,Mich and raised in Lima, Ohio El’Ja joined the United States Army in 2000. During his six years of service, which included two deployments to Iraq, El’Ja began to commit his thoughts to
Regina YC Garcia is an award winning Poet, Language Artist, and English Professor from Greenville, NC. She is a graduate of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she received a BA in Speech Communication with a Concentration in the Oral Interpretation of Literature and East Carolina University
E. Gale Greenlee is a book nerd, freelance writer/editor and an independent literary and Black Girlhood Studies scholar from Greensboro, N.C. She holds a doctorate in African American literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her work focuses on representations of Black and Latinx girlhoods in
Maria Tavarez is a self-taught expressionist abstract artist pulling influences from Georgia O’KEEFE, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, and Paul Cézzane. Maria’s medium of choice is Acrylic, Spray Paint, Coarse texture paints and charcoal. She has attended some workshops with Eric McRay at Raleigh’s C-MAC to improve her technique and skills.
