Participant Bios

Anastacia-Reneé (She/They) is a writer, educator, interdisciplinary artist, TEDx Speaker, and podcaster. She is the author of Side Notes from the Archivist (HarperCollins/Amistad), (v.) (Black Ocean), Forget It (Black Radish) and Here In The (Middle) of Nowhere forthcoming from HarperCollins/Amistad March 2024. Recently she was selected by NBC News as part of the list of “Queer Artist of Color Dominate 2021’s Must See LGBTQ Art Shows.” Anastacia-Reneé was former Seattle Civic Poet (2017-2019), Poet-in-Residence (2015-2017) and Hugo House and Arc Artist Fellow (2020). Her work has been anthologized in: The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics and Superhero Poetry, Home is Where You Queer Your Heart, Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry, Teaching Black: The Craft of Teaching on Black Life and Literature, Joy Has A Sound, Nonwhite and Woman: 131 Micro Essays on Being in the World, Spirited Stone: Lessons from Kubota’s Garden, and Seismic: Seattle City of Literature. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in, Hobart, Foglifter, Auburn Avenue, Catapult, Alta, Torch, Poetry Northwest, Cascadia Magazine, Ms. Magazine and others. Reneé has received fellowships and residencies from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, 4Culture, VONA, Ragdale, Mineral School, and The New Orleans Writers Residency. Find them on Instagram @anstaciarenee5 and Facebook @Anastacia-Renee.

allia abdullah-matta is a poet and Professor of English at CUNY LaGuardia, where she teaches composition, literature, creative writing, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies courses. She writes about the culture and history of Black women and explores the presence of Black bodies and voices in fine art and poetry. She was the co-recipient of the The Jerome Lowell DeJur Prize in Poetry (2018) from The City College of New York (CCNY). Her poetry has been published in Newtown Literary, Promethean, Marsh Hawk Review, Mom Egg Review Vox, Global City Review, and the Jam Journal Issue of Push/Pull. Her chapbook(s) washed clean & blues politico (2021) were published by harlequin creature (hcx). abdullah-matta has published critical and pedagogical articles and serves on the Radical Teacher and WSQ (Women’s Studies Quarterly) editorial boards. She is working on a collection of poems inspired by archival and field research in South Carolina and Georgia, funded by a CUNY BRESI grant.

Ariana Benson was born in Norfolk, Virginia. Their debut poetry collection, Black Pastoral (2023, UGA Press), was selected by Willie Perdomo as winner of the 2022 Cave Canem Poetry Prize. A 2022 recipient of the Furious Flower Poetry Prize and runner up for the 2023 92Y Discovery Prize, Benson’s poems appear or are forthcoming in POETRY Magazine, Ploughshares, The Yale Review, Copper Nickel, Colorado Review, and elsewhere. Through her writing, she strives to fashion vignettes of Blackness that speak to its infinite depth and richness. She is currently completing her MFA at Washington University in St. Louis.

Mary Beth Cancienne, PhD, is a Professor of English Education at James Madison University in the Middle and Secondary Education Department in the College of Education. She was honored in 2017-2018 as the Distinguished Teacher and in 2011-2012 as the Madison Scholar. She teaches courses in high school English methods, high school practicum, Curriculum Theory, Foundations of American Education, student teaching, and seminar. In 1999, she cofounded the Arts and Inquiry in the Visual and Performing Arts in Education SIG with the American Education Research Association. She has also published in such academic journals as the Virginia English Journal, Qualitative Inquiry, Theory into Practice, the Journal of Curriculum and Teaching Dialogue and the Journal of Curriculum Theorizing. Her chapters appear in such books as the Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative Research (2007) and Knowing Differently (2008). Additionally, she co-edited, with C. Bagley, a book and CD-ROM titled Dancing the Data (2002, Peter Lang).

Teri Ellen Cross Davis is the author of a more perfect Union, 2019 winner of The Journal/Charles B. Wheeler Poetry Prize and Haint, winner of the 2017 Ohioana Book Award for Poetry. She is the 2022 recipient of the Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award and the Poetry Society of America’s 2020 Robert H. Winner Memorial Prize. She has received fellowships and scholarships to Cave Canem, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Hedgebrook, Community of Writers Poetry Workshop, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and more. Her work has appeared in print, online, and in many journals and anthologies including: Harvard Review, PANK, Poetry Ireland Review, and Kenyon Review. She is the O.B. Hardison Poetry Series Curator and Poetry Programs manager for the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. and lives in Maryland with her husband, poet Hayes Davis, and their children.

Shameka Cunningham is a poet, playwright, performance artist and teacher from Los Angeles. She is the host of Let The Poem Feed You. As a poet and educator, she has facilitated theater and creative writing workshops throughout Los Angeles County. She has an MFA in Poetry in the Expanded Field from Stetson University. She is a Watering Hole Poetry Fellow and is obsessed with poetry, ice cream and road trips. You can find her on Instagram @laughterislanguage.

Hayes Davis’ first volume, Let Our Eyes Linger, was published by Poetry Mutual Press, and he won a 2022 Maryland State Arts Council Independent Artists Award. He has been anthologized in This is What America Looks Like, Deep Beauty, Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry, Ghost Fishing: An Eco-justice Poetry Anthology, and other collections. His work has also appeared in Mom Egg Review, New England Review, Poet Lore, Auburn Avenue, Gargoyle, Kinfolks, Fledgling Rag, and other journals. He holds a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Maryland, and is a member of Cave Canem’s first cohort of fellows. He has attended or been awarded writing residencies at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, The Hermitage, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA), Manhattanville College, and Soul Mountain. He has appeared on the Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU, 88.5 in Washington, D.C. and at the Hay Festival Kells in Kells, Ireland. He has taught English and directed equity and justice work in Washington, D.C.-area independent schools for 20+ years; he shares his creative and domestic life with his wife, poet Teri Ellen Cross Davis, and their children.

Tyree Daye was raised in Youngsville, North Carolina. He is the author of the poetry collections a little bump in the earth (forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press, 2024), Cardinal (Copper Canyon Press, 2020), and River Hymns (American Poetry Review, 2017), winner of the APR/Honickman First Book Prize.

Angel C. Dye is a poet and researcher of African American Literature and the author of BREATHE (Central Square Press ‘21) and My Mouth a Constant Prayer (Backbone Press ‘23). Hailing from Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas by way of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Angel is a graduate of Howard University and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Kentucky. Her work has appeared in About Place Journal, The Pierian Journal, African Voices Magazine, Blue Mountain Review, Tahoma Literary Review, and A Gathering Together Journal, among other places. She writes in the tradition of Lucille Clifton, Amiri Baraka, and Sterling A. Brown, striving to carry on their legacies of unapologetic blackness in the face of oppression, radical self-love, and artistic activism. Angel was the 2022-23 Shirley Graham Du Bois Creative-in-Residence with arts organization Castle of Our Skins. She is writing everyday to discover, as Audre Lorde explains, “the words [she does] not yet have” and using her blackness, womanness, scars, and Pentecostal roots to find new ways to pray. Angel is currently a Ph.D. in English candidate at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

Brian Hannon is the Director of Secondary Curriculum for LMSvoice. He currently teaches AP Literature and Composition, AP Language and Composition, and Team-Taught English 11 at Hayfield Secondary School in Alexandria, Virginia. Brian was the co-founder of the poetryN.O.W., a non-profit organization that partnered with schools in the area to provide educators with the materials and resources necessary to cultivate spoken-word poetry clubs in their schools. Through his involvement with this organization, Brian went on to found the two largest youth poetry events in the area, the Hyper Bole and Louder than a Bomb, events that brought students together from all walks of life from Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia, Massachusetts, etc. to participate in poetry competitions, open-mics, writing workshops, and more. When poetryN.O.W. was absorbed by Split This Rock, a non-profit organization in Washington D.C. that meets at the intersection of poetry and social justice, Brian moved on to serve as their “Youth and Education Development Fellow” where he continued to work in the planning and coordination of their after-school programs, open-mics, and larger events. In his current role as Director of Secondary Curriculum for LMSvoice, he oversees and curates the curriculum, ultimately striving to showcase and teach the works of culturally relevant, socially-engaged artists and expose students and teachers to a wide spectrum of diverse voices. He also works part-time for the Ultimate Fighting Championship and as a Muay Thai instructor. In 2018, Brian was a finalist for Fairfax County Public Schools Teacher of the Year and was his conference’s Coach of the Year for Hayfield’s Varsity Tennis Team.

T.J. Hendrix is a licensed educator and has taught Secondary English Language Arts, Creative Writing, and Adult Education in Arkansas, Georgia, and Washington, D.C., as well as Secondary Education in the College of Education at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, Arkansas. Astride her profession as an educator, she has written fiction and non-fiction pieces for small publications, web blogs, and has published in the Handbook of Research on Blended Learning Pedagogies and Professional Development in Higher Education (2018) edited by Sagini Keengwe, Ph.D. Hendrix has managed and published pieces on her own blog A Safe Space (2017 – 2020) and used her writing talents as a podcaster on the audio podcast This Year I Turn 40. She’s also the editor of the Thurgood Marshall Academy PCHS anthology, Chaotic Harmony (2021) which was released through Amazon Books. As an educator, she works to create unique learning opportunities that are relevant and provide opportunities to engage with diverse populations and explore different possibilities. She sees her time with young people as an opportunity to grow personally and professionally by examining the experience of the 21st-century learners and finding a balance between traditional educational values and current educational needs. Find her on Instagram @tjhendrix and @restlessvoices.

DaMaris B. Hill is a poet and creative scholar. Her most recent book, Breath Better Spent: Living Black Girlhood, is deemed “urgent” and “luminous” in a starred Publisher’s Weekly review. Hill’s first poetry collection, A Bound Woman Is a Dangerous Thing, is a powerful narrative-in-verse that bears witness to Black women burdened by incarceration. It was an Amazon #1 Best Seller in African American Poetry, a Publishers Weekly Top 10 History Title, and 2020 NAACP Image Award nominee for Outstanding Literary Work in Poetry. Hill’s other books include The Fluid Boundaries of Suffrage, Jim Crow: Staking Claims in the American Heartland, and \Vi-zə-bəl\ \Teks-chərs\ (Visible Textures). Her digital work, “Shut Up In My Bones,” is a twenty-first century poem that uses remix/pastiche/intertextuality to honor a specific cultural past, while working to construct visions of a better future.

Similar to her creative process, Hill’s scholarly research is interdisciplinary. She is a 2023 fellow at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. Hill is a Professor of Creative Writing, English, and African American Studies at the University of Kentucky.

Dr. Adrienne Danyelle Oliver is a poet-educator, hip-hop scholar from Little Rock, AR currently living in the SF Bay Area. She earned a doctorate in Educational Leadership and Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Mills College, as well as a Master of Arts in Technical Writing from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She was an inaugural Poets and Scholars fellow at Rutgers Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice and a Furious Flower Legacy Seminar Fellow in 2019. She has also completed fellowships with VONA and the Hurston/Wright Foundation. Dr. Adrienne enjoys writing about intergenerational healing. She is a Pushcart Prize Nominee with two published chapbooks, the body has memories (Nomadic Press) and collective madness (Finishing Line Press), which was nominated for the Maya Angelou Book Award. Part poetry, part memoir, part dream, these chapbooks are the beginning of a liberation she hopes to witness among all bodies harboring historical trauma. Some of Adrienne’s favorite authors include Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison. When she is not writing, Adrienne leads well-being writing circles for Black writers and curates Black Gold Storytellers, an award-winning intergenerational storytelling circle that features elders who have migrated from the South to California.

Leona Sevick is the Press 53 Poetry Award Winner for her first full-length book of poems, Lion Brothers. Her work appears in Orion, Birmingham Poetry Review, Blackbird, and The Southern Review. She was a 2019 Walter E. Dakin Fellow for the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and serves as advisory board member of the Furious Flower Poetry Center. She is provost and professor of English at Bridgewater College in Virginia, where she teaches Asian American literature. Find her on Instagram @lasevick, Twitter/X @lsevick and Facebook @leona.sevick.1

James Smethurst is a Professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is the author of The New Red Negro: The Literary Left and African American Poetry, 1930-1946; The Black Arts Movement: Literary Nationalism in the 1960s and 1970s; The African American Roots of Modernism; Brick City Vanguard: Amiri Baraka, Black Music, Black Modernity; and Behold the Land: A History of the Black Arts Movement in the South. He co-edited Left of the Color Line: Race, Radicalism and Twentieth-Century Literature of the United States (with Bill Mullen), Radicalism in the South Since Reconstruction (with Chris Green and Rachel Lee Rubin), and SOS—Calling All Black People: A Black Arts Movement Reader (with John Bracey and Sonia Sanchez). His current book project studies the interchange between the Black Arts Movement in Britain and in the United States.

L. Lamar Wilson (he/we) is the author of Sacrilegion (Carolina Wren Press, 2013), a Thom Gunn Award finalist, and associate producer of The Changing Same (POV Shorts, 2019), which streams at American Documentary and airs on PBS. His poems and essays have appeared at the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, Callaloo, Interim, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The New York Times, NPR, Obsidian, Oxford American, Poetry, south, TriQuarterly, The Washington Post, and elsewhere. Wilson, who spent nearly two decades editing in the nation’s top newsrooms, including the Times and the Post, has received two Pushcart Prize nominations as well as fellowships from the Cave Canem, Civitella Ranieri, Ragdale, and Hurston-Wright foundations. He is an Affrilachian Poet and teaches creative writing, African American poetics, and film studies at Florida State University and The Mississippi University for Women. Image description (for the visually impaired): This black-and-white photo features a male-presenting person with thick black eyebrows, rounded brown eyes, shadowy Van Dyke beard with thick soul patch, and shoulder-length interlocked black, brown, and maroon hair. Because Wilson identifies as Two-Spirit, he chooses the pronoun “we,” rather than “they,” in addition to “he.” Among our rural northwest Florida kin on the unceded land settled by ancestral indigenous tribal members who intermarried with maroon Africans before and after European colonizers began procreating with both peoples, our tawny skin would make us a “redbone.” We are not smiling or smizing. Still.

Carmin Wong is a poet, playwright, and a dual-title PhD student in English Literature and African American and Diaspora Studies at Pennsylvania State University. She is interested in the intersections of spoken and written literature, which she credits to her Caribbean heritage and immigrant identity. Born in Georgetown, Guyana, and raised in Jamaica, Queens, New York, Carmin holds a BA in English with a minor in Playwriting from Howard University and an MFA in poetry writing from the University of New Orleans, where she became Associate Poetry Editor of Bayou Magazine. Carmin’s care for language and disavowal as well as Black girlhood, daughterhood, and womanhood appear through her works. She began her poetry career competing in poetry slams at Lincoln Center, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Apollo Theater, and elsewhere. Her poems and interviews have since been broadcast on WRBH and WPSU Radio, and her writing is featured in several publications, including Xavier Review, Obsidian, and more. She is the recipient of artist grants from Poets & Writers, Scholastic, Jeremy O. Harris and The Bushwick Starr, and more. Carmin’s playwriting debut took place at The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. She is the co-author of A Chorus Within Her, produced by Theater Alliance, and playwright of Finding Home: Adeline Lawson Graham, Colored Citizen of Bellefonte, based on lost narratives of 19th century Black residents in Centre County PA. Carmin also curates literary arts and community-based projects and teaches poetry reading and writing at Centre County Correctional Facility. Find her on here website, Instagram @WhatYouReadingTheSeries and @DearBrothaMalcolm, Twitter/X @DearBroMalcolm, and Facebook and LinkedIn @Carmin Wong.

Dave Wooley is an English, Journalism, and Creative Writing teacher at Westhill High School in Stamford, Connecticut, where he has taught since 2001. He has served as a Co-Adviser for the school’s hybrid newspaper, The Westword, since 2003. He is also an adjunct Professor at Fairfield University, teaching Philosophy of Hip Hop, and a teaching fellow at the Connecticut Writing Project. Dave is one half of the rap group d_Cyphernauts and a hip hop educator who has presented at the HipHopEd conference, the NCTE annual conference, and the CSPA conference, among others. He served as a curriculum and music coordinator for the National Endowment for the Humanities’ seminar “From Harlem to Hip-Hop: African-American History, Literature, and Song” which was hosted at Fairfield University. Since 2017, Dave has been a participating scholar in the last three Legacy Seminars at the Furious Flower Center for Black Poetry. He lives in Stratford, Connecticut with his wife and four children. Find him on Instagram @othello_nauts, Twitter/X @othello88, and Facebook @dave.wooley.

Joanne V. Gabbin is the former Executive Director of the Furious Flower Poetry Center and Professor Emerita of English at James Madison University. She is author of Sterling A. Brown: Building the Black Aesthetic Tradition and a children’s book, I Bet She Called Me Sugar Plum. She is also the editor of The Furious Flowering of African American Poetry, Furious Flower: African American Poetry from the Black Arts Movement to the Present, Mourning Katrina: A Poetic Response to Tragedy, Shaping Memories: Reflections of African American Women Writers, and Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry, with co-editor Lauren K. Alleyne. She is the founder and organizer of the Wintergreen Women Writers Collective. A dedicated educator, poet, and scholar, she has received numerous awards for excellence in teaching, scholarship and leadership. Among them are the College Language Association Creative Scholarship Award; the SCHEV Outstanding Faculty Award; the Provost Award for Excellence; the JMU Distinguished Faculty Award; and induction in the International Literary Hall of Fame. In 2021 a building at James Madison University, Joanne V. and Alexander Gabbin Hall, was named in honor of her and her husband for their outstanding contributions to the university and the community.

Iliana Cosme-Brooks (she/her) is a graduate student studying Writing, Rhetoric and Technical Communication at James Madison University. She specializes in academic editing and museum/nonprofit writing, among many other interests. Her previous editorial work appears in the Archives of American Art Journal, constellations: a cultural rhetorics publishing space, and agnès films.