Chere R. Hampton (She/Her) is a queer Black author and poet who lives in Columbus, Ohio. She writes haiku, poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. She believes her work tells the stories of her people that haven’t been told yet, and also says the things that people don’t have the courage to verbalize. Her work can be found on her Instagram (@goblkphoenix), Facebook page (Chere Hampton), and blog writtensuicide.wordpress.com.

Dominique Alexander McPhearson (he/him) is a writer sculpted out of the red clay of Georgia, busy transmorphing black words on white spaces into 3-D pictures.

ángel (they/them/el) is a cultural worker and community organizer based in Piscataway Land (MD). They are a descendant of griots, they experiment with storytelling through writing and moving images.

Omaria Sanchez Pratt (they/them) is a Black queer writer from High Point, North Carolina. They hold an M.F.A. from the University of Kentucky where they were a recipient of the 2018 Nikky Finney Fellowship. Their work can be found in Taint Taint Taint Taint Magazine (upcoming), Story Magazine, and the Anthology of Appalachian Writers volume XII, where they were nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

saahil m. (they/it) is a writer and editor who uplifts storytelling as an educational tool. they are currently writing a memoir on love, lust, home and (be)longing while pursuing an MFA at Hunter College in NYC.

T’challa Williams (she/her) is a published Author, Poet, Activist & Connecticut native. Executive Co-Founder of Hartford’s L.I.T, Board member of the Greater Hartford Arts Council & a Teaching Artist who shares her love of writing with all ages.

Unity (she/her) is a multi- disciplined artist whose mediums include writing, photography, theater and filmmaking. You can catch her on her yoga mat, with coffee in hand and exploring this beautiful world.

AL Lazaro (they/them) is a multidisciplinary artist, activist, and business owner. They are a disabled, gender non-conforming, Queer, Black, Latina revolutionary.

delmetria millener (she/her) is a Louisiana-bred, Texas-fed, storyteller, socialpreneur, speaker, and tea sommelier. She lives and teaches Literature and Writing between Bangkok, Thailand and Dallas, Texas.

Esi (she/her) is committed to criminal justice reform. An experienced conference speaker, panelist and life coach with a bachelor’s in Business and a master’s in Theology, she is currently enrolled as a PhD student at Antioch University.

Heather Stokes (she/her) is a Connecticut based writer whose experiences as a black woman and a convicted felon have fueled her passion to bring healing and health to BIPOC communities all over.

Khadijah AbdulHaqq (she/her) is the author of Nanni's Hijab. She lives in Tennessee with her husband, two daughters, and her pets. She is an MFA candidate at VCFA. Her work can be seen in Haute Hijab, Patheos, and HerStry.Com and elsewhere.

Dr. Tamara MC (she/they), is a survivor herself, is a cult, child/forced marriage, and modern day slavery advocate. Her Ph.D. is in Applied Linguistics; she researches language, culture, and identity in the Middle East. She studied CNF at Columbia.

Wilfredo Laracuente (he/him) is an advocate, educator, and formerly incarcerated leader. He currently serves as the program coordinator for the Prison Education Project at the Center for Justice at Columbia University, in which he assists in teaching incarcerated students at Sing Sing prison.

Amanda Ashley Villanueva (she/they) is a Bronx-born and based teaching artist. She examines themes of addiction and Black queer identity and is currently working on her first book of poetry.

Belinda Bellinger (she/they/fam) is a queer Black parent, educator, and organizer who curates liberatory learning spaces, ancestral healing, and spoken word. They live in Cali with their clever sun and punctual canine.

Kaylin Moss (she/her) is a poet, web developer, and model from Charleston South Carolina. She studied computer science at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Keana Aguila Labra (they/them/she/her) is a Cebuana Tagalog Filipinx genre & genderfluid poet & writer in diaspora residing on stolen Ohlone Tamyen land. She works to provide a safe literary space for underserved & underrepresented communities as the co-Editor-in-Chief of literary magazine, Marías at Sampaguitas & the co-Founder of the BIPOC/LGBTQIA+ focused publishing press, Sampaguita Press.

Dr. Melinda González (she/her) a native of Newark, NJ with ancestral home in Moca, PR, is an Afro-Indigenous scholar-activist-poet that advocates for social and environmental justice.

Rashida James-Saadiya (she/her) is a cultural organizer, scholar, and writer who uses storytelling to connect history and future-making to urgent social issues of the present. Her work is interdisciplinary, stretching across the fields of sociology, social justice, and religion to challenge gender inequality, urban displacement, carceral issues, and systemic racism.

Violeta Orozco (she/her) is an International Latino Book Award winning author for her poetry collection, The Broken Woman Diaries (Andante Books 2022). Author of Stillness in the Land of Speed and Songs Like Talismans.