MICHELLE ALEXANDER
Michelle Alexander is an American-Trinidadian poet, creative nonfiction writer, mixed media artist, and teaching artist. She is a graduate of NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study with a concentration in “What it Means to be a Poet: Interweaving a Study of the Humanities with the Human Experience.” She has studied under critical thinkers Judith Butler, Avital Ronell, and artist, Alfredo Jaar at The European Graduate School’s Philosophy, Art, Critical Thought division. She holds an MFA from Columbia College Chicago. Alexander’s chapbook “She Takes a Machete As if She Knows Everything” was published by Bottlecap Press in 2023. Her publications include nonfiction work, which has appeared in the journal, Salt Hill. Her mixed media art was exhibited at the Center for Brooklyn History, and The Bishop Gallery (2024) commissioned by Jacqueline Woodson’s I See My Light Shining: The Baldwin-Emerson Elders Project. She is an interdisciplinary instructor at Chiarts, and The Odyssey Project, the latter through Illinois Humanities. Alexander is humbled and honored to have been awarded the Furious Flower Poetry Prize for 2024. She is also the director of the interdisciplinary arts and a co-founder of Unwoven Literary & Arts Magazine. And she values connecting with Chicago’s community as a Poet in Residence with the Chicago Poetry Center.
FULLAMUSU BANGURA
Fullamusu Bangura is a writer originally from Washington, D.C. and currently residing in Chicago, Illinois. They are the author of the essay-book “…Considers Lil’ Kim’s Hard Core.” Their work has been published in New Delta Review, Apogee Journal, and Cosmonauts Avenue. Fullamusu is an educator at heart, working in various formal and popular education roles since 2015. In 2020, they were selected as a 2020 Best of the Net Poetry finalist.
ALYX CHANDLER
Alyx Chandler (she/her) is a writer from the South who received her MFA in poetry at the University of Montana, where she was a Richard Hugo Fellow and taught composition and poetry. She works as a poet-in-residence for the Chicago Poetry Center, as well as a remote workshop facilitator for Free Verse Writing Project, which hosts workshops for Montana children who are incarcerated or in youth homes. She also works as a writing specialist and teaches undergraduate courses at National Louis University. Her poetry can be found in the Southern Poetry Anthology, Greensboro Review, SWWIM, Penn Review, Epoch Magazine, and elsewhere at alyxchandler.com.
LARRY O. DEAN
Larry O. Dean was born and raised in Flint, Michigan. His numerous books include Frequently Asked Questions (forthcoming), I Am Spam (2024), Muse, Um (2022), Activities of Daily Living (2017), Brief Nudity (2013), Basic Cable Couplets (2012), Abbrev (2011), and About the Author (2011). He is also an acclaimed singer-songwriter whose latest solo album is Good Grief (2015); Product Placement, the sophomore album from his band, The Injured Parties, was released in 2019. For more info, go to larryodean.com.
TERESA DZIEGLEWICZ
Teresa Dzieglewicz is a poet, educator, and lover of rivers. She is a Poet-in-Residence with Chicago Poetry Center, part of the founding team of Mni Wichoni Nakicizin Wounspe (Defenders of the Water School) on Standing Rock Reservation, and an Associate Editor with RHINO Poetry Journal. She also volunteers with several Chicago River restoration projects. Her first book, Something Small of How to See a River, was selected by Tyehimba Jess for Tupelo Press’s Dorset Prize and is forthcoming in 2023. Her first children’s book, co-written with Kimimila Locke, is forthcoming in 2025 from Chronicle Books. She has won a Pushcart Prize, Best New Poets, the Palette Poetry Prize, the Jake Adam York Auburn Witness Prize, and the Gingko Prize for Ecopoetry. Her work has been supported with fellowships from the Elizabeth George Foundation, Community of Writers at Tahoe, Brooklyn Poets, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, and NY Mills Arts Retreat. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Georgia Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Prairie Schooner, Pleiades, and elsewhere.
OLA FALETI
Ola Faleti is an artist and arts educator raised & based in Chicago. Her writing has appeared in Pearl Press, TriQuarterly, The Chicago Reader, Interim, Jet Fuel Review, and elsewhere. The curriculum for Ola’s workshop with 826CHI, “Poets in Revolt!” was distributed nationally and birthed an anthology of youth writing. Her favorite number is nine, and she believes there’s no such thing as too many flowers. Keep up with her at www.olafaleti.com.
FLOR FLORES
Flor Flores is a transdisciplinary artist and poet who lives in Chicago and whose creative works revolve around the concept of queer belongings. Some themes in their works include flowers as a symbol for self (Flor), Kiki – a queer monarch butterfly that enjoys going to the discotheque, and “X” – an Epic poem about the letter X, exploring its significance in Latinx identity and its other uses as a gesture of erasure, inclusion, voidance, and a placeholder for a language that is yet to come. They recently exhibited at Everybody & Good Naked Gallery and have been featured in reviews and publications such as Tripwire, Artmaze, Sixty Inches From Center, New American Paintings, and Newcity Art. Currently represented by Good Naked Gallery. They have recently performed at the Poetry Foundation, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Flor is an editor at Kiki Club Editions, and recently published “Kiki: A Sky of Changing Lights.”
CHASITY GUNN 
Chasity Gunn is a 2023 Watering Hole alumna, a 2022 Wild Seeds Fellow, and a 2021 Academy of American Poet Laureate Fellow. She serves as a Poetry Teaching Resident with Prison+Neighborhood Arts Project. Gunn is also a Poet-in-Residence with the Chicago Poetry Center. She is the Poet Laureate Emeritus of Elgin, IL. Gunn is an alumna of Voices of Our Nations Art Foundation and the Anaphora Arts Writing Residency. She is the author of How to Create World. Her work has been published in Bitterzoet Magazine, BRAVO and Electric Moon. Her spoken word has been featured in the Bedlam Theatre’s 10X10 Fest and the Elgin Fringe Festival. She is an English professor at Elgin Community College.
JOSIE LEVIN
Josie Levin (she/him) is a Chicago based writer and multimedia artist living and working in Chicago. Josie works as an Artist In Residence with the Fran Center. Josie’s visual art, poetry, fiction, essay, and mixed media works have appeared and received praise in exhibitions and publications across the US and abroad. Josie’s current focus is on bringing the narratives of past and present to a meeting place in a series of large scale collages. Josie received a Bachelors Degree from Butler University in 2022 with a double major in Art and English with an Emphasis in Creative Writing. Josie has forthcoming and recent work appearing in Redivider, Denver Quarterly, 34 Orchard, and story south.
AELA MORRIS
Aela Morris (she/her) is a Chicago-based writer, actress, and teaching artist. After receiving her B.A. in Creative Writing and Theater from Macalester College in Minnesota, she moved back home to join the amazing artistic communities Chicago has to offer. Although she’s dabbled in just about every form, poetry is her first and longest love. In addition to writing, she’s spent the past two years working as an Early-Childhood teacher, with a focus on theater for young audiences. In her free time, you’ll probably find her DIY-ing something or screlting showtunes. You can check out her work at aelamorris.com or @aelaiswriting on Instagram.
MAYA ODIM
Maya Odim is a poet and performer who purposefully mounts work in performance spaces that challenge occidental framings—and imaginings, of performance and the performer. Of African American, Igbo and Afro-Cuban lineage, Maya is a dual citizen of Nigeria and the United States who lives in Chicago and travels often. Maya’s self published chapbooks are titled: Places Where We Can Imagine, and Planets, Gourds and Traveling Staffs. More of Maya’s work can be found here: www.mayaodim.com and here: @mayaodim. Maya is currently an MFA Writing candidate at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
MADISON MAE PARKER
Madison Mae Parker (RSME/T, MFA) is a writer, performer, ritual artist, somatic educator, and space-maker. Voted as best poet in Kansas City, Missouri in 2022 by The Pitch Magazine, she finds deep belonging in the stretching of language through poetry and questioning where a poem might long to live. Having toured and taught internationally with her poetry in Europe, Singapore, and Australia, she feels most at ease while performing and facilitating rituals and conversations around the things that make us human. In addition to holding an MFA in Performance from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, they recently received an expressive arts therapy certification through the Tamalpa Institute (2023). When they are not art-ing, you can find her watching anime and eating Hot Cheetos with her cats MeowZaki and Magic Conch Shell. Find her on the internet at MadisonMaeParker.com or @MadisonMaeParker.
C. RUSSELL PRICE
C. Russell Price is originally from Glade Spring, Virginia, but now lives in Chicago. They are a Lambda Fellow in Poetry, a Ragdale Fellow, a Windy City Times 30 Under 30 honoree, an essayist, and a poet. They are a two-time Top 50 Writers of Chicago honoree. They are the author of a chapbook, Tonight, We Fuck the Trailer Park Out of Each Other (Sibling Rivalry Press) and the full length collection oh, you thought this was a date?!: Apocalypse Poems (Northwestern University Press). Their current projects are Bisquick: Seance Poems and I Don’t Need a Mood Ring; I’ve Got a Face (a memoir). They are on the editorial and curatorial boards for the Ragdale Foundation, Story Studio Chicago, and The Anarchist Review of Books. They are a Poet in Residence with the Chicago Poetry Center and landscape in the Windy City.
NOEL QUIÑONES
Noel Quiñones is an Emmy award winning Puerto Rican writer, educator, and performer. He has performed on stages across the country including Lincoln Center, Harvard University, BAM, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Stanford University, and the Honolulu Museum of Art and his work has been showcased on Huffington Post, Vibe, Tidal Music, Latina Magazine, Medium, Univision, Remezcla, Mitú & elsewhere. You can find his most recent writing in POETRY, the Boston Review, Gulf Coast, and Pleiades. He is a recent graduate of the University of Mississippi M.F.A. program. Follow him online at www.noelpquinones.com or @noelpquinones.
LESLIE REESE
Poet, writer, and interdisciplinary arts educator Leslie Reese is based in Chicago and Detroit. A graduate of Detroit Public Schools and 2nd-generation Broadside Press poet, Leslie earned a BA from Alabama A & M University and a MA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Columbia College. She is the founder of folklore & literacy, which uses books and the arts as gateways to literacy, discovery, and self-expression. In addition to authoring the poetry collections, Upside Down Tapestry Mosaic History, and Urban Junkstar, Leslie has composed and performed poetry for projects by bassist Marion Hayden and violinist Regina Carter. She was an Arts Curriculum Consultant for the launch of Hope for Flowers Arts Enrichment Program and has been the poetry teaching artist for the Gloster Arts Project since 2021. Leslie has been a Chicago Poetry Center poet-in-residence since 2019 – a role she first practiced with InsideOut Literary Arts Project, and Broadside Press’s Poet-in-Residence Program in Detroit.
TIMOTHY DAVID REY
Timothy David Rey is a writer/ performer who works in poetry, plays, and monologue (both fictional and autobiographical). He teaches creative writing and performance throughout the city of Chicago and suburbs. He is a 2015 Semi-Finalist for the Guild Literary Complex’s Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Poetry Award, and one of the winners of Project Exploration (The Poetry Center of Chicago 2004). He is the co-founder of the LBGT Solo Performance Showcase, Solo Homo (2002-2011). Timothy’s plays and performances pieces have been seen and heard at venues throughout Chicago as well as out of state and in Panama. Timothy’s writing has appeared in magazines and journals including ‘60 Inches From Center,’ and ‘After Hours: The Chicago Journal of Writing & Art.’ His book of poetry and performance, Little Victories, was published in 2012 by NewTown Writers Press. Timothy has performed at Steppenwolf Theater (Lookout Series), New York City’s International Fringe Festival as well as The Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts.
KIAYLA RYANN
Kiayla Ryann, a womanist poet, creative curator, and somatic yogini from Chicago’s south suburbs, channels her art into a vibrant quest for liberation. She co-curates Poet’s Tea and Pleasure (Los Angeles), a Sunday night gathering where hot tea and poetry merge to celebrate pleasure and freedom. Kiayla also leads poetry workshops that blend somatic practices to ignite creative exploration and personal liberation. An award-winning performer who has graced stages from the Kennedy Center to various cities across the country, she brings a rich and diverse experience to her craft. Now back in her home city, Kiayla recently curated the Chicago Reader’s Poetry Corner, diving into themes of selfhood and collective freedom. She’s excited to embrace her new role as Poet in Residence at the Chicago Poetry Center. Her debut collection, Glimmer, set for release with Mamas Kitchen Press in late 2025, will illuminate her ongoing journey toward liberation.
CAI SHERLEY
Cai Sherley is a poet, educator, and rogue archivist with roots in Boston, MA. Cai is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, 2021 Winter Fellow with The Watering Hole, and 2023 Brooklyn Poets Summer Fellow. His work is published or forthcoming in Best New Poets 2022, Brooklyn Review, Crazyhorse, and Peach Mag among others, as well as My Loves: A Digital Anthology of Queer Love Poems from Ghost City Press. As an educator, Cai has worked at the K-12 and college levels, including with the children of incarcerated adults and queer youth. He has developed and facilitated poetry workshops with schools & organizations across the East Coast and provides professional development for educators looking to use poetry in science and history curricula. Cai holds an MFA in creative writing from New York University and is passionate about exhuming and writing Black trans-masculine lives past & present in the United States. You can find him online at @crsed_poet.
LUIS TUBENS
Luis Tubens, a.k.a “Logan Lu”, was born in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood and raised in Logan Square. In 2014, he earned a B.A. in Communications, media and theater from Northeastern Illinois University. He is the 2017 Artists in Residence at Oak Park Public Library. Luis has performed poetry across the United States including with the GUILD COMPLEX, Tia Chucha Press, and the National Museum of Mexican Art. He has toured Mexico City in 2016 and 2018 presenting his work at the acclaimed “Show Socrates MX” (2016) and the National Book Fair of Leon GTO (2018) and featured in Puerto Rico at “Poets Passage” and “Gathering of Cities” at Libros AC (2019). He has also held workshops for the residents of the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center and students in the Chicago Public Schools. On stage, he has opened for notable acts including Saul Williams and Calle 13. He is the author of Stone Eagle (2017) published by Bobbin Lace Press, Chicago. Currently, Luis is the resident poet for ESSO Afrojam Funkbeat (2016 Best New Band and Best International Music Act, Chicago Reader) and represented Chicago in the 2014 and 2018 National Poetry Slam.
CHRISTIE VALENTIN-BATI
Christie Valentin-Bati (she/her) is suburban kid from Florida now mostly grown up with an M.F.A from Columbia College. She is a poet first, a photographer second, and somewhat of a musician under that. Her work has received honorable mention in the 2022 and 2021 Academy of American Poet’s Poetry Contest, was been commissioned by the ACLU of Illinois, and exhibited in Porous Gallery and Davis Street Drawing Room. She is the poetry editor of Millstone Magazine (@millstone.mag). The rest of her work can be found at @christie.vbati or https://bit.ly/christievb.
MAYDA DEL VALLE
Mayda del Valle was born and raised on the Southside of Chicago. She is the author of The University of Hip Hop and a winner of the 2016 Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize from Northwestern University Press. Her full-length collection, A South Side Girl’s Guide to Love and Sex, was published on Tia Chucha press. She appeared on six episodes of the HBO series Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry, and was a contributing writer and original cast member of the Tony Award winning Def Poetry Jam on Broadway. She began her artistic career at the Nuyorican Poets Café, where she was the 2001 Grand Slam Champion, and went on to become the National Poetry Slam Champion in the same year. She was the youngest poet, and the first Latinx person to do so. She has appeared in Urban Latino, Latina Magazine, Mass Appeal, The Source, The New York Times and was named by Smithsonian Magazine as one of America’s Young Innovators in the Arts and Sciences. Oprah’s “O” Magazine selected her as one of 20 women for the first ever “O Power List”, a group of visionary women making a mark in business, politics, and the arts. She has performed at venues across the world, including the White House in May of 2009, by invitation of President Obama and the First Lady.
S. YARBERRY
S. Yarberry is a trans poet and writer. Their poetry has appeared in AGNI, Guernica, Gulf Coast, Tin House, Indiana Review, jubilat, The Boiler, miscellaneous zines, among others. They currently run the little magazine Tyger Quarterly. S. has their MFA in Poetry from Washington University in St. Louis and is now a PhD candidate in literature at Northwestern University where they study William Blake. Their first full-length book of poems, A Boy in the City, is out now from Deep Vellum.
JOY YOUNG
Joy Young is a Chicago-born storyteller and teaching artist. Her prose and poetry has appeared in Poetry East, Lunch Ticket, Black Warrior Review, Portable Gray and the LOCUS: VIII Gallery Showcase at The Martin. She is currently a Poet in Residence and Board Member for the Chicago Poetry Center. As well as a Drama Teaching Artist for the South Chicago Dance Theatre and the Chicagoland Regionals Coordinator for the Poetry Out Loud Teen Recitation Competition. When she’s not teaching, you can usually find her at open mics and performance arts venues.
