Aida Salazar is an arts activist and an award-winning author whose work focuses on issues of identity and social justice. She is the author of the novels The Moon Within, Land of the Cranes and the forthcoming, A Seed in the Sun. She is a founding member of Las Musas, a Latinx kid lit author collective.
Denise Masiel is a writer and poet based on stolen Ramaytush Ohlone land. She publishes articles weekly about interpersonal relationships and cultural criticisms on her substack “Through another lens” and performs her poetry in creative outlets throughout the Bay Area.
M.B. Kritikopoulos is a poet and undergraduate student at UC Berkeley. She had her first spoken word performance at La Peña with an outstanding piece written with help from Porsche Veu, the Poetic Activist.
Khalid Akil White is an educator/author/parent in the Bay Area who has recently co-written a new bilingual children's book series, "Hermanita and Hermanito". The books focus on youth literacy, strengthening family engagement while centering cultural equity and inclusion, and feature Latinx/Afro-Latinx characters. Learn more and purchase the books at blkmpwr.com/books!
Jewel Sánchez is a Queer Latina Woman currently working as a 7th & 8th grade teacher. Her poetry talks a lot about voice, language, place and identity.
Diana Medina is a educator, writer, poet and storyteller originally from Los Angeles who uses poetry and creative expression to explore issues of identity, culture, and mental health. Her mission in life is to manifest more poetry, connection, and healing into the world so she can leave it better than she found it.
Kim B. Miller is the First African American Poet Laureate for Prince William County, Manassas & Manassas Park, VA. She will be Poet Laureate Oct. 2020- Oct 2022.
Alberto Gutiérrez a.k.a. Muchacho Mandanga, is a writer, poet, and musician who recently published his debut novel, Los Ladrones de Ganado.
Website | Facebook | Instagram | lamandanga.net | dosbandoler
TJ Sykes is a working artist, writer, and educator living in Richmond, California. His current work focuses on supporting youth in the Richmond Community. His first book, Section 8, contains poetry and art based on his lived experience in Section 8 housing, some of the things he's seen and been through.
Patricia Saunders is an Award Winning Author, Poet, Blogger and Motivational Speaker. She is inspired to write after the passing of her mother who had Alzheimer's. She wanted to have her legacy of her words let you know she was here until the pen stops!
Vida Manzo is a dancer and interdisciplinary artist from the San Francisco Bay Area. She has written and choreographed her own one person show titled “Caterpillar”, as well as a poetry chapbook called “Cool Aunt”.
Riss Myung is a 2nd generation Chinese Indonesian and Korean organizer, writer, and cat lover. She hopes her words get you agitated in a good way to learn together!
Maud Alcorn is an author, spoken word artist, & event curator that speaks of her experience as a Black woman in America, fighting to love herself in spite of everything that tells her she shouldn’t.
Josiah Luis Alderete is a full blooded Pocho, Spanglish speaking poeta who first learned how to write poesia in the kitchen of his Mama’s Mexican restaurant. He was one of the founding member of Bay Area outspoken word group “The Molotov Mouths” and is the curator and host of the long running monthly Chicano/Latinx reading series “Speaking Axolotl”. His first book of poems “Baby Axolotl & Old Pochos” was published in 2021 by Black Freighter Press.
Lyzette Wanzer is a San Francisco writer, editor, and writing workshop instructor. She received her MFA in Fiction from Mills College. A flash fiction connoisseur and essay aficionado, her work has appeared in over twenty-five literary journals, magazines, books, and newspapers. Her book, Trauma, Tresses, & Truth: Untangling Our Hair Through Personal Narrative, is due out from Chicago Review Press in Fall 2022!
Tony Aldarondo has performed music and poetry in venues throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, overseas, and once while standing up on a JetBlue airplane. He is also a theatre and film actor, and a voiceover artist. Tony has just released his first full-length poetry book titled “Big Heart Poet”. But most of all, he wants to be known as a great Dad.
Ayodele Nzinga is an Oakland-based writer, arts & culture theoretician and practitioner working at the intersections of cultural production, community development, and community well being. She holds a PhD in Transformative Education & Change.
Arati W (she/they) is a South Asian American poet from Austin, TX, by way of diaspora. Familiar with both the stage and the page, Arati has been on five slam poetry teams, was awarded “Best Poem” at the national collegiate poetry slam, and you can find her work in Junoesq Literary Magazine, The Aerogram, and BOATT magazine.
Susana Praver-Pérez is a Pushcart-nominated poet and a winner of the San Francisco Foundation/Nomadic Press Literary Prize for Poetry (2021). Born and raised in New York, Susana currently resides in Oakland, where she works as a Physician Assistant at La Clínica de la Raza. Susana’s work has appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies. Her first full-length book of poetry, Hurricanes, Love Affairs and Other Disasters, is now available from Nomadic Press.
