Azure Antionette
Azure is in high demand as a poet, corporate and leadership training consultant, speaker and workshop facilitator. She has been commissioned to write for Maria Shriver, The Gap, Johnson & Johnson, Beats By Dr. Dre, Girl Scouts of America, The Documentary Group, California Arts Council, American Cancer Society's benefit Art 4 Life and more. Azure is an official partner of TD Ameritrade seeking to bridge the worlds of finance and art, as well as an official Clean & Clear Ambassador for their “See the Real Me” campaign. Azure served as the closing speaker for the 2013 TEDWomen Conference in San Francisco and has spoken at numerous TEDx events across the country. In 2014, Azure and her work was the focus of a short film produced by The Gap Foundation for their “One Stitch Closer” campaign.
Jeremy Radin
Jeremy is a poet, actor, and teacher. He's appeared on several television shows including It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, CSI, ER, and Zoey 101, in films such as The Way Back, starring Ben Affleck and directed by Gavin O'Connor, Terrence Malick's The New World and Wrestlemaniac, and in many plays. His poems have appeared in Gulf Coast, Grist, SideKick Lit, Cosmonauts Avenue, Nailed, Sundog Lit, Union Station, Winter Tangerine, and elsewhere. He teaches acting at The Beverly Hills Playhouse. He is the author of two collections of poetry, Slow Dance with Sasquatch (Write Bloody Publishing) and Dear Sal (not a cult press). He lives in Los Angeles with his four plants and refrigerator.
Kelly Grace Thomas Vojdani
Kelly is an ocean-obsessed Aries from Jersey. She is a self-taught poet, editor, educator and author. . Kelly is the winner of the 2020 Jane Underwood Poetry Prize and 2017 Neil Postman Award for Metaphor from Rattle, 2018 finalist for the Rita Dove Poetry Award and multiple pushcart prize nominee. Her first full-length collection, Boat Burned, released with YesYes Books in January 2020. Kelly’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in: Best New Poets 2019, Los Angeles Review, Redivider, Muzzle, Sixth Finch and more. Kelly is the Director of Education for Get Lit and the co-author of Words Ignite. She lives in the Bay Area with her husband Omid.
Malik Yusef
Malik the WordSmyth, is an avant-garde spoken word poet—with timely lyrics that address and bring attention to national and global issues. Born and raised in Chicago’s south side amongst a humble and sometimes troubled beginning, Malik rose out of those surroundings to become a 24x Grammy award-nominee, 6x Grammy award-winner, and 7x ASCAP award-winner for both pop and R&B. Other credits include Emmy, Peabody, and Tony awards. Malik is signed to the world’s largest music publisher, Universal Music Publishing, and is part of Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music label and affiliated with Wiz Khalifa’s Taylor Gang. It is his pure talent, unparalleled work ethic, and ability to be a trusted advisor that has allowed Malik to build and maintain incredible industry connections and relationships with the likes of JAY Z, Drake, Katy Perry, Common, Jennifer Hudson, Rihanna, The Band Perry, Wiz Khalifa, and Adam Levine.
Tiana Clark
Tiana is the author of the poetry collection, I Can’t Talk About the Trees Without the Blood (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018), winner of the 2017 Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize, and Equilibrium (Bull City Press, 2016), selected by Afaa Michael Weaver for the 2016 Frost Place Chapbook Competition. Clark is a winner for the 2020 Kate Tufts Discovery Award (Claremont Graduate University), a 2019 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow, a recipient of a 2019 Pushcart Prize, a winner of the 2017 Furious Flower’s Gwendolyn Brooks Centennial Poetry Prize, and the 2015 Rattle Poetry Prize. She is a graduate of Vanderbilt University (M.F.A) and Tennessee State University (B.A.) where she studied Africana and Women's studies. Her writing has appeared in or is forthcoming from The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, The Washington Post, VQR, Tin House Online, Kenyon Review, BuzzFeed News, American Poetry Review, New England Review, Oxford American, Best New Poets 2015, and elsewhere. She teaches creative writing at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.
Tonya Ingram
Tonya is a poet, Cincinnati native, Bronx-bred introvert, mental health advocate, kidney transplant hopeful, Lupus legend, cat auntie, and lover of Tom Hardy and “The Office.” Tonya has graced the stages of The Getty Museum, Madison Square Garden, San Francisco Opera House, Nuyorican Poets Café, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Lexus Verses and Flow’s variety show, and “The Price is Right*,” the online and physical pages of The New York Times, Vice i-D, Bustle, and Marie Claire, and the classrooms of schools in the United States and Ghana, just to name a few. her viral collaboration with BuzzFeed, “An Open Letter to My Depression,” has reached over 4 million views and counting. A friend, creative, daydreamer, and Virgo, Tonya’s writing explores the necessity in taking care of ourselves, especially on the days we feel unworthy. She is a graduate of New York University and Otis College of Art and Design. Tonya currently resides in Los Angeles, CA.
Yesika Salgado
Yesika is a Los Angeles based Salvadoran poet who writes about her family, her culture, her city, and her fat brown body. She has shared her work in venues and campuses throughout the country. Salgado is a two time National Poetry Slam finalist and the recipient of the 2020 International Latino Book Award in Poetry. Her work has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Teen Vogue, Univision, CNN, NPR, TEDx, and many digital platforms. She is an internationally recognized body-positive activist and the writer of the column Suelta for Remezcla. Yesika is the author of the best-sellers Corazón, Tesoro, and Hermosa, published with Not a Cult.