Chronic Fagtigue is a collective of disabled queer and trans artists trying to make access-oriented events of all kinds (drag, poetry, music) for disabled queers who have been left out because of lack of access-centered events.

Featured Poets: TBA.

The dozen Thursday Morning Poets (TMP) members first met at a virtual workshop with Queens Poet Laureate Maria Lisella in January 2021. Writers in the group continue to meet weekly. They have varied styles and themes in their poetry, but there is a strong emphasis on social justice issues, the environment, and stories that spin out of their personal life histories. Members who are multilingual often include other languages in their writing.

Featured Poets: Beth Evans, Julie Forgione, Melva C. Lewis, Maria Lisella, Luvon Roberson, Megha Sood, Judy Trupin, and Isabella Calisi Wagner.

• Beth Evans (she, her) is a proud member of the Thursday Morning Poetsis an academic librarian who is currently getting an MFA in creative writing from SUNY Stony Brook. Her poetry focuses on aging in socially and politically challenging times.

• Julie Forgione tutors writing at FIT and has a background in fine art. She is a member of the Italian American Writers Association. Her work has appeared in the Paterson Literary Review, Ovunque Siamo, VIA, Equinox, and A Feast of Narrative from Idea Press. She lives in the Bronx.

• Melva C Lewis (she/her) writing is a daily source of energy, joy, and unending self-discovery. Her poetry appeared in the NCPLS Review 2025 and others. Her poem “The Other” aired on WNYC for 2025 National Poetry Month. Melva is a proud Trekkie, adores her family and a good cup of coffee.

• Maria Lisella's second full length collection - At the Hour of Now - has just been released. Following her tenure as Queens Poet Laureate, she was awarded a Poet Laureate Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets. She curates the Italian American Writers Assoc. readings in NY.

• Luvon Roberson, she/her, writes flash prose, prose poems, & ethnographic fiction inspired by Zora Neale Hurston. A Pushcart nominee, she published her chapbook Black Girl Memories Done Been Changed in 2023, and is completing a multi-genre collection of memories about growing up in Corona-East Elmhurst in Queens in the 1960s.

• Megha Sood is an award-winning Asian-American author, poet, editor, and literary activist. Literary Partner with “Life in Quarantine”, Stanford University. Received support from VONA, Pen Women, Sundress, Dodge Foundation, Martha’s Vineyard Institute. Her creative works were sent to the moon in 2025 in collaboration with NASA.

• Judy Trupin (she/her)'s recent poems have appeared in the Paterson Literary Review, New Verse News and Equinox Journal. For many years, her poetry was an integral part of original movement theater pieces that she performed in the US and Europe. A transplant from New York, she now lives in Pittsburgh.

• Isabella Calisi Wagner, BFA Film, NYU, icalisiwagner.com, is an interdisciplinary artist/educator, currently the AP of the documentary awinterlandscapefilm.com. Her works have appeared in American Journal of Nursing, MS Magazine, and Lenox Hill Hospital’s permanent collection. She teaches her Graffiti Art/Poetry MasterClass (AARP/Islip Arts) and creates graphics for Morningside Theater Company.

Nuyorican Poets Cafe is a 50 year old institution dedicated to providing artistic opportunities to poets of all nationalities and persuasions. It is widely acknowledged as New York’s birthplace for Slam Poetry, and many famous artists began their career performing with us.

Featured Poets: Bonafide Rojas, Leah V., and Marcus Stokes.

• Bonafide Rojas is a poet & musician & author of five collections of poetry: Excelsior, Notes On The Return To The Island, Renovatio, When The City Sleeps & Pelo Bueno. He was awarded the 2023 Letras Boricuas Fellowship from The Mellon Foundation & is the bandleader/songwriter The Mona Passage who have released two albums: The New Myths & When The City Sleeps. He’s appeared on Def Poetry Jam & has been published in numerous anthologies & journals. He's performed at Lincoln Center, The Brooklyn Museum, Bowery Ballroom, Philadelphia Museum Of Art, Rotterdam Arts Center, Konvent Zero Barcelona, Spoken Word Paris, Latinale Berlin, Hafen Lesung Hamburg, & Festival De La Palabra Puerto Rico. He’s an avid collector of pop culture & only wears red socks.

• Leah V. is a Bronx-born Puerto Rican poet, performer, curator, officiant, and creative producer based in New York City. Known for intricate wordplay, disciplined memorization, and subtle literary references, her work moves across a wide range of subjects and performance styles. For more than seven years, she has curated and performed shows at the Triad Theater, creating space for both emerging and established artists. Her one-woman poetry-play, The Long Way Home, premiered there to sold-out audiences. Leah has also performed with Poetry Me Please to a sold-out show at the Apollo Theater. Her work is deeply collaborative and often brings together poetry, music, and movement. In addition to performing, she works as a poetry coach, workshop facilitator, curator, and wedding officiant.

• Marcus Stokes is a song writer/performer, poet, and actor out of Westchester NY. 6x Nuyorican Slam Champ, January 2025 Nuyorican Final Friday slam champ, 2025 Nuyorican Grand slam champ He is also: - Bric 2025 February slam champ, as well as numerous others. - Producer at the Modern Poet NYC - Published in the 2025 spring edition of Milk Press by Poetry Society of NY. - Writer of the 1 Train Cypher Breast Cancer Awareness song. Blending all different elements of his artistry into his poetry, he creates unique pieces of expression dealing with themes of spirituality, mental health, love, grief and heartbreak. A "writer's writer", whose voice and storytelling as well as experience on stage make every performance a moving one.

HVWC fosters a vibrant literary arts community that supports and empowers writers and readers of diverse ages, talents and backgrounds at every stage of their creative development. SHP is now one of the oldest chapbook presses in the United States and was founded to advance the national and international conversation of poetry and poetics, principally by publishing and supporting the work of new poets.

Featured Poets: Dorothy Neagle, Megan Murtha, Phylisha Villanueva, and Fortune Cookie.

• Dorothy Neagle was born and raised in South Central Kentucky, in the westernmost county in Appalachia. A Yaddow fellow and Pushcart Prize nominee, her poetry and essays have appeared in many journals and anthologies. She lives with her family in New York. @sentencesaremyfave

• Megan Murtha is a NYC-based poet and theater artist (playwright, director, composer) with theater work performed at various venues including The Tank, The Bushwick Starr, Dixon Place, and inside a 1999 Cadillac DeVille. She is a two-time MacDowell Fellow, a VCCA Fellow, and a Vermont Studio fellow. She teaches writing at NYU.

• Phylisha Villanueva is a Belizean-American poet, author, and educator whose work explores identity, resilience, and mysticism. Born in the Bronx and raised in Yonkers, her storytelling is deeply informed by her Belizean heritage and shaped by her experiences navigating womanhood, motherhood, and survival. She co-founded The Yonkers Writing Group and launched the Blue Door Art Center Open Mic Night in 2009. Villanueva is also a proud member of the Jazz and Poetry Choir Collective and the international women’s poetry collective Tesoro. In January 2024, she was appointed Westchester County’s second Poet Laureate, becoming the first woman of color to hold the title. In this role, she has continued her work as a teaching artist with ArtsWestchester, hosted open mics at Bethany Arts Community, led poetry workshops at the Westchester County Correctional Facility, and co-curated an exhibition with the Hudson River Museum, where she collaborated with fellow writers to bring fresh perspectives to the museum’s archives and collection.

• Fortune Cookie is a New York City based writer, producer and performer. She grew up in Chinatown doing Chinese dance and martial arts and reading the poetry of Jorie Graham, Wislawa Szymborska and W. S. Merwin. She is currently writing her first novel.

IAWA was founded in 1991 to promote Italian American writing. Its members include writers, readers, editors, publishers, agents, translators, teachers, scholars, and all who are interested in the progress of Italian American writing. IAWA aims to promote Italian American literature by encouraging the writing, reading, publication, distribution, translation, and study of Italian American writing. To promote the production, publication, reception, and study of Italian American writing, IAWA has established three basic ground rules to effect change and raise the level of awareness in the Italian American writing and reading community: Write or be written – IAWA provides a forum to encourage and educate Italian Americans to write their own realities, rather than waiting for others to do it for them. Read one another – IAWA expands and promotes the visibility and reading of Italian American authors. We must begin with ourselves if we are to expect others to read the books of Italian American writers. Buy our books – IAWA works actively to create a market for the sale of books by Italian American authors, and to demonstrate to publishers that a market for those books exists.

Featured Poets: Maria Lisella, Ron Vazanno, and Cyn Grace Sylvie.

• Ron is a member of our group, as well as the Irish American Writers & Artists and the Independent Writers of Southern California. His Poetry has been published in various literary journals and anthologies. His monthly online MuseLetter is now in its 22nd year. He will be reading poems from his book Shots from a Passing Car, in this, his third appearance at the Poetry Festival.

• Cyn Grace Sylvie (they/she) is a nonbinary neurodivergent writer, multimedia artist, and spiritual educator whose work explores the internal drives and subversive desires of human experience, through the lens of mythology, sensuality, magic and mysticism. Cyn is a recipient of Epiphany Magazine’s 2017 Short Nonfiction Prize, and long-listed as a Notable Nonfiction Selection in ‘The Best American Essays of 2018’ (Mariner Books). Their writing has appeared in MATH Magazine, The Literary Review, Dewdrop, Open Secrets Magazine, and The Rumpus. Their first chapbook, “What Sharp Teeth” was released by Crying Heart Press in October of 2025. They are the founder of TAROT CHURCH, an educational movement that aims to destigmatize tarot across any and all faith systems. They are first generation Italian-American diaspora, and reside in Jersey City, NJ.

Queer creative arts collective - we are the parade.

Featured Poets: Grei Genao, Jackie Bluu, and Scarlet Gomez.

• Grei Genao (she/they) is a poet, filmmaker, and educator from Queens, NY. Grei has been a featured poet at the 2023 New York City Poetry Festival, SOBS, SUNY Old Westbury, DePauw University, Triad Theater, and several popular open mic venues in New York City. A host for Masqueerade Open Mic and Troublemakers Open Mic, to Grei, the arts are essential to unraveling the Self, the collective unconscious, and the secret fibonacci inner workings of the universe.

• Jackie Bluu is a Haitian essayist and part-time poet, living in Brooklyn, NY. She received a BA in Anthropology at SUNY Purchase and a Masters in Publishing at Pace University. She works full-time as a book publicist, and otherwise edits The Writer’s Den, a chill space for writers. She also irregularly publishes Word Vomit, which consists of short essays, poems & other first-person narratives. Jackie is the editor of Hibiscus, a lit and arts mag for sweet and tangy content. She is currently working on All the Quiet Things, an anthology of modern womanhood, a Haitian horror novella, and a constant stream of essay ideas.

• Scarlet Gomez is a Bronx- based writer, poet, zine-maker, and founder of Poetry House LLC.

As a not-for-profit literary press serving art and community, CavanKerry is committed to expanding the reach of poetry and other fine literature to a general readership by publishing works that explore the emotional and psychological landscapes of everyday life, and to bring that art to the underserved where they live, work and receive services.

Featured Poets: Rebecca Hart Olander, Marina Carreira, and Diana Whitney.

• Rebecca Hart Olander’s poetry and collaborative writing and collage have appeared in print, online, and in multiple anthologies. Her previous books include Dressing the Wounds (dancing girl press, 2019) and Uncertain Acrobats (CavanKerry Press, 2021), a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book Award in Poetry and the Massachusetts Book Award. A winner of the Women’s National Book Association Poetry Award, Rebecca has taught poetry widely, including at Amherst and Smith colleges, Westfield State University, and through graduate and community writing programs. She is the editor/director of Perugia Press, a nonprofit feminist press publishing first and second full-length books of poetry by women.

• Diana Whitney is a queer writer and educator embracing a fierce belief in the power of poetry as a means of connection to self and others. She is the editor of the bestselling anthology You Don’t Have to Be Everything: Poems for Girls Becoming Themselves, winner of the Claudia Lewis Award, and the author of two full-length poetry books, Wanting It and Dark Beds. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Kenyon Review, the San Francisco Chronicle, and many other outlets. An advocate for survivors of sexual violence in her Vermont hometown and beyond, Diana works as a developmental editor and a community organizer for a rural LGBTQ+ nonprofit.

Headliner readings by Hala Alyan and Natalie Diaz. With Scott Lynn and Kassidy Khu introducing respectively.

Scientists and Poets is a micro press located in Brooklyn, NY. Our mission is to support creative writers whose talents have yet to be recognized. We are looking for work that explores the edges of the imagination, where we believe the wonders of science and art are likely to meet.

Featured Poets: David Bettencourt, Rose Sharon, and Pamela Butler.

• David Bettencourt is a poet and songwriter living in the Washington, D.C. area with his family. His writing draws on his upbringing in the Deep South, his time as a seminarian, and his past work as a civil rights lawyer. Late Unpleasantness and Commedia Erudita represent his first two collections. He is currently preparing songs for an upcoming album, Queen of Heaven.

• Rose Sharon lives and works in NYC, loves the beach and has been writing poetry has been a passion since she was 6-years-old.

• Pamela Butler wanted to be like Conrad Lorenz and not Joseph Conrad. At an animal auction she purchased two mallard ducks and tried to train them to imprint on her. But she forgot that she lived in the woods and that foxes found her mesomorphic calves and the ducks enticing. She is a queer neuroscientist. Her expertise is schizophrenia. She received her PhD in neuropsychology from the City University of New York. Her publications have appeared in Schizophrenia Bulletin, Psychiatry Research, The Ravens Perch, and Beyond Words.

Poets of Queens celebrates poetry in Queens and beyond by hosting readings and publishing collections.

Featured Poets: Sandy Longhorn, Andrew Chi Keong Yim, Carlie Hoffman, and Carla Sofia Ferreira.

• Sandy Longhorn is the author of three books of poetry, most recently The Alchemy of My Mortal Form. Her poems have appeared in The Beloit Poetry Journal, The Common, The Fourth River, The North American Review, Oxford American, and elsewhere. She teaches in the Arkansas Writer’s MFA Workshop and the undergraduate creative writing program at the University of Central Arkansas.

• Andrew Chi Keong Yim was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. He was awarded the 2024 New Voices Award in Poetry from Washington Square Review, selected by Terrance Hayes, and is a 2025 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship finalist. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Best New Poets, The Adroit Journal, Frozen Sea, Shō Poetry Journal, Tupelo Quarterly, and other publications. Andrew has taught with the Wisconsin Prison Humanities Project and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was the Martha Meir Renk Distinguished Graduate Fellow in poetry and received the August Derleth Prize for fiction. His debut poetry collection, The Ninth Island, is forthcoming from University of Pittsburgh Press in Spring 2027. Andrew lives in Queens and is a public school teacher in New York City.

• Carlie Hoffman is the author of three poetry collections, including One More World Like This World and When There Was Light, winner of the National Jewish Book Award. Her translation from German of Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger’s Song of the Yellow Asters is out with World Poetry Books; her translations of Rose Ausländer are forthcoming. A 2025–26 Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture Fellow, her honors include a 92NY “Discovery”/Boston Review prize, the Mid Atlantic Individual Artist Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a Poets & Writers Amy Award, and a NYSCA/NYFA fellowship. Her work appears in Poetry Magazine, the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, Los Angeles Review of Books, Jewish Currents, and elsewhere. Carlie is the founder and editor-in-chief of Small Orange/Orange Editions and Assistant Director of the MFA in Creative Writing at Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS).

• Carla Sofia Ferreira is a Portuguese-American poet and high school English teacher in and from Newark, New Jersey. Her first chapbook, Ironbound Fados, was published by Ghost City Press in 2019 and her debut poetry book, A Geography That Does Not Hurt Us, was published by River River Books in 2024.

The Jersey City Poetry Festival is a festival for The People, illuminating the tapestry of human connection that transcends the boundaries of individual studies and mediums. We celebrate the joy of literacy and literature! ​ Established in 2024, JCPOFEST is not just a festival—it is a homecoming of voices, a gathering of questions, a place where poetry shakes hands with science, where philosophy sits beside technology, and where all art forms exist like a harmonious ecosystem. It is a celebration of who we are, where we wander, what we wonder, and how we shape the world around us. ​ JCPOFEST is rooted in community, energized by innovation and inspires us to envision new ways of being together, of dreaming together. As part of the year round events leading to the festival weekend, multidisciplinary experiences invite us into a poem not just as readers, but as witnesses, as participants, as makers of sacred spaces that nurture collective imagination.

Featured Poets: I. Buenaventura, Josie, Alyssa Lian Bacay, and Buttered Roll.

• I. Buenaventura (a.k.a Patrick) is a New Jersey-based poet whose work draws from their lived experience as a trans person to advocate for the queer community. Holding an MFA in Design + Technology from Parsons School of Design, Patrick uses poetry, film, and spoken word to explore themes of identity, transformation, and empowerment. They authored and illustrated “Your Body Is Your Weapon: The Little Self-Defense Handbook”—a free verse guide for all women that earned a Writer’s Digest Book Award Honorable Mention. Patrick also serves as a producer for the Jersey City Poetry Festival and on the Newark LGBTQ Film Festival selection committee, aligning their creative practice with LGBTQ+ activism aimed at fostering authentic storytelling.

• Josie is a Jersey City based poet, event curator and community organizer. She works in health education at Rutgers and she is the founder and host of the Cozy Curations- both the Cozy Slam and Cozy Open Mic. Josie has been featured at Mocha Mic with Millie, JC Poetry Festival and Ko Cafe Open Mic. She has slammed at OutCry the Slam, Nuyorican Poetry Cafe and Creative Soul House. She is a part of the 2026 Rose Gardens Freshman Class. Josie is a page poet turned stage using her experience and perspective to educate, share and grow with her community.

• Alyssa Lian Bacay is a Filipino-American poet and memoirist from Jersey City, New Jersey. She works at New Jersey City University, her alma mater, at the Writing Center as a Lead Tutor, where she has organized and hosted community writing events, including monthly Open Mics and an annual Book Fair. Her work has been featured in the Jersey City Poetry Festival, the Jersey City Museum of History, One Mic Stand with SJ, redrosethorns journal, and The Gothic Times. You can find her at @alyssalianb on Instagram.

• Buttered Roll (BR) is a self-taught poet, performer, visual artist and not-so-complex carbohydrate. He has been reading and rearranging the written word since he was old enough to do so.Buttered Roll has self-published two books and had three solo visual art shows that have each met with moderate acclaim. In April 2026, BR created and printed a zine entitled “Buttered Roll at the Intersection of the Sacred and the Profane.” This zine was also met with moderate acclaim. BR has copies with him if you are interested in purchasing. Buttered Roll is happy to be here.

Featured Poets: July Westhale and David Rigsbee.

• July Westhale was born in the American Southwest. Their books include moon moon, Trailer Trash, Unmade Hearts, and Via Negativa, which Publishers Weekly called "stunning" in a starred review. Ocean Vuong chose Westhale as the 2018 University of Arizona Poetry Center Fellow. Along with Mathew Weitman and Felipe Acevedo Riquelme, they are a co-editor and translator for the Unsung Masters series collection Rolando Cárdenas: The Life and Work of a Chilean Master. Their poetry and translations have appeared or are forthcoming in Ploughshares, Gulf Coast, Poetry International, McSweeney’s, The National Poetry Review, Prairie Schooner, and Hayden’s Ferry Review, among others.

• David Rigsbee is the recipient of many fellowships and awards, including two Fellowships in Literature from The National Endowment for the Arts, The National Endowment for the Humanities (for The American Academy in Rome), The Djerassi Foundation, The Jentel Foundation, and The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, as well as a Pushcart Prize, an Award from the Academy of American Poets, and others. In addition to his eleven collections of poems, he has published critical books on the poetry of Joseph Brodsky and Carolyn Kizer and coedited Invited Guest: An Anthology of Twentieth Century Southern Poetry. His work has appeared in Agni, The American Poetry Review, The Georgia Review, The Iowa Review, The New Yorker, The Southern Review, and many others. His translation of Dante's Paradiso, published by Salmon Poetry, appeared in 2023, and his, Watchman in the Knife Factory: New & Selected Poems, was published by Black Lawrence Press in 2024

VONA provides community, programming, and support for writers of the global majority.

Featured Poets: JP Howard, Anastacia-Renee, and Cheryl Boyce-Taylor.

• JP Howard is a poet, educator, literary activist, and community builder. Her debut poetry collection, SAY/MIRROR (The Operating System), was a Lambda Literary finalist. She is also the author of bury your love poems here (Belladonna*), Praise This Complicated Herstory: Legacy, Healing & Revolutionary Poems (Harlequin Creature), and co-editor of Sinister Wisdom Journal Black Lesbians--We Are the Revolution! JP was a featured author in Lambda Literary’s LGBTQ Writers in Schools Program and is featured in the Lesbian Poet Trading Card Series from Headmistress Press. JP was the inaugural recipient of the Maine Writers Studio writing retreat and was a Brooklyn College Tow Mentor-in-Residence. She has received fellowships and/or grants from Cave Canem, VONA, Lambda Literary, and Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC). She curates Women Writers in Bloom Poetry Salon. JP’s poetry is widely anthologized. Her poetry and/or essays have been featured in The New York Times, The Slowdown, The Academy of American Poets, Apogee Journal, The Feminist Wire, Split this Rock, and elsewhere. JP is a general Poetry Editor for Women's Studies Quarterly and Editor-At-Large of Mom Egg Review VOX online.

• Anastacia-Renee is an award-winning writer, interdisciplinary educator, multi-modal artist and former Seattle Civic Poet. She is the author of Afrofuturist-fiction-fantasy book, Here in the (Middle) of Nowhere (HarperCollins/Amistad) as well as the author of two full length books of experimental poetry: Side Notes from the Archivist (HarperCollins/Amistad), and (v.) (Black Ocean). Side Notes from the Archivist was named New York Public Library’s “Best Books of 2023,” and The American Library Associations (RUSA) “Notable Books of 2024.” Anastacia-Renee has been featured on the PBS NewsHour Brief-But-Spectacular series and Our Black Gay Diaspora Podcast a biweekly series celebrating the global Black LGBTQ+ community by profiling diverse professionals across 28 countries and 45 professions. She has received fellowships and residences from: Baldwin for the Arts, Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, VONA, The White Center, Mineral School, Ragdale, 4Culture, and The New Orleans Writers Residency. As a playwright, Anastacia-Renee has written and directed: Talking with the Lorde: A Choreopoem, Not My Size, 9 Ounces, and Queer Mama Crossroads. Her work has been anthologized and published widely.

• Cheryl Boyce-Taylor is a poet and performance artist, the author of seven collections of poetry which include: Convincing The Body, Arrival, Mama Phife Represents, a memoir about the life of her son, Hip-Hop legend, Phife Dawg (Malik Taylor) Of A Tribe Called Quest. And her latest collection, The Limitless Heart which won the 2024 Fire Cracker award for poetry. A VONA fellow, Cheryl has facilitated workshops for Cave Canem, Urban Word, NYC, Poet’s house and Poet and Writers, she’s currently working on her eighth book: “If You Hear River Talking,” due out in 2027.

Poets Network & Exchange, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization and Bronx-based community hub founded in 2012 by Lorraine Currelley, serving as a supportive, intergenerational space for poets and writers. It fosters literary and social engagement through workshops, spoken word events, the Bronx Book Fair aka The People’s Book Fair. Poets Network & Exchange advocacy centers on literacy, social, environmental, and health justice and equity.

Featured Poets: Lorraine Currelley, Betty Pierre, and Nathan Dillard.

• LORRAINE CURRELLEY, Mental Health Counselor & Thanatologist, is a Indigenous African American Gullah Gee Chee Poet, Pearls of Wisdom Storyteller, Intuitive Visual Artist/ Photographer and Art & Literary Curator. She is a Founding Member and Former President for The Harlem Arts Fund. The Executive Director for Poets Network & Exchange and The People's Book Fair aka Bronx Book Fair. Awarded the 2023- Lifetime USA NY New Generation Beat Poet Laureate by the National Beat Foundation, a NYPL Arts for A Lifetime Award Bronx Council for the Arts Awards among others. Anthology publications include but are not limited to the Bronx Memoir Project Volumes X, lX and Vlll, NYC Through The Eyes of the Poets Who Live Here; Mom Egg Review, DoveTales-Writing for Peace, From the Ancestors- TRANCEMISSION Press.

• BETTY PIERRE, LMSW, is a Haitian American Social Worker, Poet and Activist. She is the author of a poetry collection Babel (Infinity Publishing). Multilingual, she crafts poems using Creole, French and Spanish. She received an Editor’s Choice Award from the International Library of Poetry. She is a recognized Writer’s Digest International book award poet. She earned a World of Poetry merit certificate for her poem “Once the Bountiful”. Her powerful feminist poem “Who is Jane?” was published in the International Women’s Writing Guild Network Journal. Her works appear in several anthologies: Empire Poetry Verse, Covid Rebels 21, and Whisper, Whisper, Shout.

• NATHAN DILLARD, was born in Harlem and raised in the Bronx. He's been writing ever since High School. He took a long break after high school. At 30 years old he got back into it. He's been performing also for 8 years. He speaks through mental health and he's also a mental health advocate. He writes most of the time to break away his fears and through tough times. His hobbies are playing video games and watching sports. He's also a host of many events; such as phoenix poetry and who’s got next open mics. You can catch him at church on Sundays. He's a self published author of his debut poetry collection “Lost IN Wonder”. He advocates for mental health. You can contact him at his ig @poetically.Nate.

RA OPEN MIC is a fundraiser for Arts & Agriculture. We travel the five boroughs to spread the arts.

Featured Poets: ReylaAngela, Henry James III, Beatriz Bibi Rosa, and Zara Khan.

• ReylaAngela, curator of RA Open Mic Fundraiser for Arts & Agriculture is a poet, spoken word artist, and publisher of The RA Zine. Her words connect themes of love and loss to the metaphysical realm.

• Henry James III is a multi-faceted performer whose hobbies involve comedy, poetry, and theater. In his daily life, he lives and works as an elementary teacher in El Barrio. As a writer, he has published one collection of poems titled “Points of Transition” in addition to being an open mic enthusiast. Henry loves writing and performing as it allows him to share his perspectives and have a little bit of fun in está vida loca.

• Beatriz Bibi Rosa is a spoken word poet and songwriter. Bibi enjoys sacrilege whilst writing about grief, religious trauma, and all the love she wants to give away before it rots inside her heart.

The Adroit Journal (ISSN 2577-9427) is a registered literary and arts nonprofit organization that was founded in 2010 by poet Peter LaBerge. At its foundation, the journal has its eyes focused ahead, seeking to showcase what its global staff of emerging writers sees as the future of poetry, prose, and art.

Featured Poets: Rhoni Blankenhorn, Kaylee Young-Eun Jeong, Tobi Kassim, and Seth Leeper.

• Rhoni Blankenhorn is a Filipina American writer. Her debut, Rooms for the Dead and the Not Yet, won the Trio Award and was published by Trio House Press (2025). She has received scholarships and awards from Sewanee, Saltonstall, Bread Loaf and Storyknife. Her work can be found or is forthcoming in the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Slowdown, Adroit, Narrative, AAWW, Honey Literary, Beloit, Copper Nickel, and elsewhere.

• Kaylee Young-Eun Jeong is from Oregon and lives in New York, where she is the 2025-27 Lillian Vernon Fellow at NYU's MFA in creative writing. Her poetry appears in or is forthcoming from The Adroit Journal, ONLY POEMS, Best New Poets, AGNI, and Pleiades, among others, and has been supported by fellowships and scholarships from Oregon Literary Arts, Mineral Arts & Residencies, UCross Foundation, and Bread Loaf Writers' Conference.

• Tobi Kassim’s writing has been published in The Volta, Chicago Review, The Rumpus, The Kenyon Review, The Boiler, Obsidian, Poetry Northwest, Adroit Journal, Best New Poets, Four Way Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. His work has been supported by Undocupoets, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and Cave Canem. He was a finalist for the 2025 Furious Flower Poetry prize, and his chapbook Dear Sly Stone was published by Spiral Editions.

• Seth Leeper is a queer poet. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Adroit Journal, Foglifter, Greensboro Review, Poet Lore, OnlyPoems, Prairie Schooner, and Salamander. He holds an M.S. in Special Education from Pace University and B.A. in Creative Writing and Fashion Journalism from San Francisco State University. He is a candidate in the Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing Program at Randolph College. He teaches drop in and virtual workshops for Brooklyn Poets.

Founded as a feminist press, Alice James Books is committed to collaborating with literary artists of excellence whose voices have been historically marginalized. Since 1973, AJB has been publishing books that matter by poets who inspire. You can learn more at alicejamesbooks.org.

Featured Poets: Iain Haley Pollock, R. A. Villanueva, zakia henderson-brown, and DeeSoul Carson.

• Iain Haley Pollock is the author of three poetry collections, Spit Back a Boy (2011), Ghost, Like a Place (Alice James, 2018), and All the Possible Bodies (Alice James, 2025). His poems have appeared in publications ranging from American Poetry Review to The New York Times Magazine. Pollock has received several honors for his work including the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, the Alice Fay di Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America, a 2023 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Poetry, the Bim Ramke Prize for Poetry from Denver Quarterly, and a nomination for an NAACP Image Award. He serves as Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Manhattanville University in Purchase, NY.

• R. A. Villanueva is the author of A Holy Dread, winner of the 2024 Alice James Award, and Reliquaria, winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize (University of Nebraska Press, 2014). His work has been featured by the Academy of American Poets and National Public Radio, and appears widely in international publications such as Poetry London and The Poetry Review. His honors include commendations from the Forward Prizes and fellowships from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

• zakia henderson-brown is the author of The Body Losing Its Borders, winner of the Alice James Award Editor's Choice, forthcoming from Alice James Books in 2027, and the author of What Kind of Omen Am I, winner of Poetry Society of America’s Chapbook Fellowship. She is also a NYFA/NYSCA Poetry Fellow, a Cave Canem graduate fellow, and has received additional support from the Cafe Royal Cultural Foundation, Callaloo Journal, the Fine Arts Work Center, and Poets House. Her works appear in New Daughters of Africa (Amistad: 2019), Adroit, Beloit Poetry Journal, Epiphany, North American Review, Obsidian, The Offing, and elsewhere. She has organized with Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE) and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, conducted research for UNITE HERE! and the Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College, and co-founded No Disrespect, a Brooklyn-based anti-street harassment collective. She is a senior editor at nonprofit publisher The New Press, and her list includes Pulitzer Prize finalist In a Day's Work, NPR Best Book of the Year Inventing Latinos, and Prison by Any Other Name, which Publishers Weekly called a "must-read". She lives in her native Brooklyn with her family.

• DeeSoul Carson is a poet and educator from San Diego, CA, currently residing in Brooklyn, NY. His work is featured in Muzzle Magazine, AGNI, The Offing, & elsewhere. His chapbook, Running From Streetlights (2020), is a meditation on Blackness in America during the “Summer of Racial Reckoning.” A Stanford University alum, DeeSoul has received fellowships from the NYU MFA program, the Watering Hole, and the National Endowment for the Arts. His debut full-length, The Laughing Barrel, is forthcoming from Alice James Books in Spring 2027. Find more of his work at deesoulpoetry.com

Brooklyn Poets honors the literary heritage of Brooklyn by celebrating and cultivating community and craft through a wide range of educational programs and events accessible to all—especially those marginalized by traditional literary and academic structures. We offer workshops, readings, open mics and other programs that foster a more homegrown, close-knit, diverse community of poets and readers than what is traditionally offered by graduate writing programs and the American literary community at large.

Featured Poets: Anthony Thomas Lombardi, Nour Al Ghraowi, and Alameda Sky Chapman.

• Anthony Thomas Lombardi is a writer, educator, organizer and romantic in revolt. He is the author of murmurations (YesYes Books, 2025) and runs Verses & Voltas, a one-man poetry pedagogy specializing in mentorship programming and manuscript services. He has taught or continues to teach with Borough of Manhattan Community College, Paris College of Art, Brooklyn Poets, Florida State University and community programming throughout New York City. His work has appeared or will soon in Best New Poets, Ploughshares, AGNI, Missouri Review, Black Warrior Review, Nashville Review, Narrative Magazine and elsewhere. He lives and loves outside of Philadelphia with his partner and their myriad critters. He believes in a Free Palestine and thinks you should too.

• Nour Al Ghraowi is a Syrian poet, writer, activist and educator born and raised in Damascus and based in Brooklyn, New York. She received a BA in English literature at the University of Texas at Austin and an MFA in poetry at Texas State University. She is a storyteller at Karam Foundation, a 2023 Define American Fellow and a 2024 Pushcart Prize nominee. Her poetry and essays have appeared in Poetry, Dame, Mizna, Porter House Review, World Literature Today, The Slow Factory and elsewhere. Her debut poetry collection, there are bodies here, was published in 2025 by Fine Editions. Nour writes in the hope of changing Western perceptions of the Middle East, especially as the region and the Arabic language are often viewed as inimical. She also writes about social justice and migrant identity as well as feminism and what it means to be a feminist Middle Eastern woman.

• Alameda Sky Chapman is an artist from Brooklyn, New York. Her most recent poetry is in No, Dear, and more is forthcoming in Angel Food. In 2022, she spent the summer as a Brooklyn Poets intern. She loves t-shirts. She is an earth sign. You can find her on Instagram @alameda.sky.

The Brooklyn Writers Foundry is an intimate program that specializes in fiction, nonfiction and poetry out of St. Joseph's University on the border of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill.

Featured Poets: Sammy Bittman, Melody Serra, Paige McHatten, Amalia Maria, and F.M Papaz.

• Sammy Bittman is a poet (& sometimes prose writer) in Brooklyn. She recently graduated from the Brooklyn Writer's Foundry program with her MFA in Creative Writing. By day she works at a little advertising agency as a brand storyteller and by evening she works on her current long-term project: a mixed-form fictional poetry collection. When she’s not writing, she’s at the local coffee joint, hanging with her black cat named Lucky, or Citi Biking through the city.

• Melody Serra is an educator, writer and community weaver whose work explores the intersections of ecology, wonder, and storytelling. She has experience designing transformative learning experiences across classrooms, museums, and community spaces-- from the American Museum of Natural History to grassroots youth leadership programs in the Bronx. Melody has graduated this May from an MFA at the Brooklyn Writer's Foundry, where she wrote about birds, memory, and inherited attention. Melody believes in teaching as a reciprocal act of noticing and holds deep curiosity for the ways the natural world shapes language, imagination, and belonging.

• Paige McHatten is an east coast based writer. A recent graduate of the Writer’s Foundry, Paige is the author of two chapbooks, WORLD PEACE AND COWBOYS and GOODNESS!, both published by Bottlecap Press. You can also find her work in Spectra Poets and on her Substack, Palindrome Baby. In her free time, she can be found riding a citi bike, perfecting her downward facing dog, and making faces at babies on the subway.

• Amalia Maria is a writer and MFA candidate at the Brooklyn Writer's Foundry. She has taught writing workshops at The University of Miami, O, Miami Poetry Festival, and St. Joseph's University. You can find her work in Indie Earth anthologies and Peachfuzz Magazine.

• F.M Papaz is a Greek-Australian, poet, educator & translator who now lives in Brooklyn, New York. A proud staff member at the Poetry Society of New York, this very weekend is her favourite in the entire year.

Headline readings by FATIMAH ASGHAR & HANIF ABDURRAQIB.

Button Poetry is a tech-forward poetry publisher and promoter with a leaning towards spoken word and forward thinking work.

Featured Poets: TBA.

'The Written Word is Dead' is a monthly reading series in Brooklyn, prioritizing poetry but inclusive of fiction, nonfiction, and spoken-word performers as well. This reading hosts both established poets in the New York poetry scene while also giving opportunities to new voices in the community. Having an eclectic mix of both professional poets and first-time readers is an intentional structure of this reading, which is meant to exemplify that everyone can be a poet, everyone can write poetry, and poetry is everywhere if we allow ourselves to see it. This reading has always been free to attend, and always will be. 'The Written Word is Dead' is the titular cry for keeping written artforms alive that have warped and shifted in relevance and availability as technology and media have transformed how our society consumes art and culture. This monthly gathering also provides a place for writers to gather, network, and be inspired, and has served to also introduce people in the community to literary readings, which are less and less prevalent in the digital age.

Featured Poets: TBA.

Season Reflections is a quarterly poetry and music group which pays tribute to the dawning of each season. Find them at @cowgirlcontent and @mindful.manifestations.mk.

Featured Poets: Natalie Gilda, Magdi Hazaa, Nico Aramboles, and July Thomas.

• Natalie Gilda is the creator and host of Hot People Read Poetry, which was just an observation. She only wears pink or neutral colors.

• Magdi Hazaa is a writer, poet, and playwright based in Brooklyn, New York. An alumnus of Minneapolis College of Art and Design, their work blends elements of poetry, monologue, narrative, sound, and live performance. Their writing has appeared in Temporal Lobe Literary, Death Rattle, The MacGuffin, Rough Cut Press, and Apparition Literary Magazine. Their work can also be found at magdihazaa.art and @magdi_hazaa on Instagram.

• Nico Aramboles is an Afro-Dominican writer based in Brooklyn. Their work explores remembrance and human and non-human living beings. Influenced by Taino perspectives of kinship, they write toward a deeper interconnectedness with the world. They have previously read at Seasonal Reflections and Hot People Read Poetry.

• July Thomas is a writer from Florida. She was a 2021 Tin House Summer Workshop scholar. Her work has appeared in The Astrophysical Journal, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and The Gainesville Sun.

Hot People Read Poetry is a poetry show and open mic experience dedicated to celebrating the voices of our community.

Featured Poets: Evolution, AJ DiBetta, and Marissa Vivian.

• Evolution is a Bronx-native Queer Radical Decolonial Afro-Latina Feminist whose art challenges Eurocentric, Hetero/Neuronormative, patriarchal narratives. As a visual externalist, she sits within healing, identity, and historical, systemic oppression to emancipate and empower. To portray these themes, she uses symbolism, realism and storytelling. Evolution has featured at Bronx Art Space, BronxNet “Open”, BXWriters 2025 Anthology, Rose Garden Events, African Voices, KOJO Magazine, The Scene Magazine, House of Khaos, and is a co-host at PlumBum Writers monthly writing workshops!

• AJ DiBetta (they/them) is a disabled trans poet and multidisciplinary artist living in Brooklyn, NY. They produce Alchemize, a trans poetry night. Their poems have been published in HNDL Magazine, The Luna Collective Zine, Resonance Poetry Anthology, and elsewhere.

• Marissa Vivian is a student and multidisciplinary writer whose work spans poetry, essays, and fiction. Her writing explores the intersections of capitalism and eroticism, as well as themes of objectification and beauty as a form of power. She is committed to amplifying women’s voices and creating work that centers the feminine experience of life.

Searching for Home Collective is a literary community founded by poet Elizabeth Mateer. The collective explores themes of belonging, identity, displacement, resilience, and the interior landscapes that shape how we move through the world. Bridging art and psychology, Searching for Home features writers whose work interrogates memory, migration, heartbreak, reinvention, and the evolving self. The collective centers voices that are both intimate and expansive, grounded in lived experience yet reaching toward universal meaning. Through readings, collaborative events, and published works, Searching for Home cultivates spaces where vulnerability, intellectual rigor, and emotional depth coexist.

Featured Poet: Elizabeth Mateer.

• Elizabeth Mateer is the author of the poetry collections Searching for Home (The Poetry Box, 2024) and A New Type of Breakfast (Finishing Line Press, 2026). Her poetry has appeared in The Poetry Lighthouse, Beyond Words Literary Magazine, Four Tulips Press, Arcana Poetry Press, Radical Catalyst, and Tarry, among others. She is the founder of the Searching for Home Collective, a Boston-based literary salon, and a former editor and Italian translator for The Poetry Lighthouse. Her work explores identity, belonging, memory, and the ways we return to ourselves after loss, drawing inspiration from travel, psychology, and her ongoing connection to her Italian heritage. She holds a B.A. in Creative Writing from Hunter College and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. She lives in Boston, where she continues to write, read, and build literary community.

Revista literaria.

Featured Poets / Poetas: Homero Carvalho, Roberto Carlos Pérez, y Damaris Puñales Alpízar.

• Homero Carvalho - Escritor y poeta, ha obtenido premios de cuento, poesía y novela nacionales e internacionales. Su obra literaria ha sido publicada en otros países por prestigiosas editoriales y traducida a varios idiomas; poemas, cuentos y microficciones suyos están incluidos en más de cincuenta antologías internacionales, además de revistas y suplementos literarios por todo el mundo. Es autor de antologías de poesía boliviana, de cuentos y microcuentos internacionales publicadas en varios países, como la Antología de poesía del siglo XX en Bolivia, publicada por la prestigiosa editorial Visor de España, la Antología de la poesía amazónica, por Ediciones Sur de Cuba y la Antología iberoamericana del microcuento. Su obra literaria es estudiada en diversas universidades del mundo y se han escrito tesis doctorales sobre ella.

• Roberto Carlos Pérez - Músico, narrador y ensayista. Miembro correspondiente de la Academia Nicaragüense de la Lengua y miembro colaborador de la Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española (ANLE). Ex becario de la beca MAEC-AECID para formación académica ASALE (ANLE 2021-2022). Miembro del consejo editorial del Boletín Informativo de la Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española (BIANLE). Profesor de español en la Universidad de Howard.

• Damaris Puñales Alpízar - Tiene un doctorado en Estudios Hispánicos por la Universidad de Iowa. Es profesora asociada de Estudios Hispánicos, jefa del Departamento de Lenguas y Literaturas Modernas, directora del programa de Estudios Internacionales y coordinadora del grupo Alianza Latina/Latin Alliance en la Universidad Case Western Reserve (CWRU), en Cleveland, Ohio. Fundó y dirige tres programas de estudios de CWRU en el exterior: en Cuba (The Cuban Experience: An Immersion in Its Culture and Society) y en España (Multicultural Spain: Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Coexistence, y Lengua y Cultura en España). Poemas suyos han aparecido en diversas publicaciones impresas y online en Cuba, Suecia, y Estados Unidos. Escribe poesía desde los doce años.

A literary journal and poetry press dedicated to the poetry & spirit of the northeast coast.

Featured Poets: Caelan Ernest, F.M Papaz, Rob Piazza, Sitara Gnanaguru, and Patricia Carragon.

• Caelan Ernest (they/them) is a nonbinary poet and performer living in Brooklyn. Most recently, their work has been published in The Northeast Coast, VOLT!, Blush Literature, them., WUSSY, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and elsewhere. They hold an MFA in Writing from Pratt Institute. They are a publicist at Graywolf Press.

• F.M Papaz is a Greek Australian poet, educator and editor living in Brooklyn, New York. Her poetry can be found in literary journals and anthologies in Australia and the United States, including Wild Roof Journal, Mantissa Poetry Review and Five South. She is the Managing Editor of Milk Press, the Poetry Society of New York’s publishing arm, for whom she also works for teaching workshops, typewriting poems and marketing. Connect @fmpapaz or fmpapaz.com/ings to find her monthly newsletter about living a creative life.

• Rob Piazza, an American poet, is the award-winning author of Distilled Spirits: Coffee & Recovery (Cathexis Northwest Press, 2026), a collection of villanelles portraying addiction and its aftermath, offering a way up and out. His poems have recently appeared in The Bookends Review and The Northeast Coast. Currently, he serves as Poet Laureate of Litchfield, Connecticut.

• Sitara Gnanaguru is a Tamil-American writer and proud alumna of the University of Connecticut. Her work appears in the 2020 Connecticut Literary Anthology, Here: a poetry journal, Grey Sparrow Journal, and elsewhere. She hosts the Wintonbury Poetry Series and serves on the boards for the Riverwood Poetry Series and the Friends and Enemies of Wallace Stevens.

• Patricia Carragon is the curator/editor-in-chief of Brownstone Poets and the editor of Sense & Sensibility Haiku Journal. She has a Best of the Net nomination from Poets Wear Prada for 2025. Her jazz-poetry collection, Stranger on the Shore, was recently published by Human Error Publishing. Patricia lives in Brooklyn, NY.

An open mic and livestream reading series.

Featured Poets: M.C Sciaudone, Frank Chambers, Djana Kolaj, and Philip J. Curtis.

• M.C. Sciaudone has been writing short fiction and poetry since before they could actually write. They started out dictating poems to their father, and have continued to write whenever the opportunity presents itself. They write about personal life experiences, covering topics like love, heartbreak, faith, grief, and more. As a queer author, they hope to give an example of the multifaceted lives queer people lead. They have been published once before in The Northeast Coast Journal. They can be found on Instagram at @mcsciaudone.

• Frank Chambers, past president of the Fairfield chapter of the Ct Poetry Society, Frank hosted three poetry series in CT for several years. His work has appeared in Postscript, Poetry Emerging, Long River Run II, and A First Tuesday in Wilton. Frank finds inspiration for his writing from his family of muses.

• Djana Kolaj is an ever shape-shifting creative, environmental activist and student, musician, and admirer of beauty. She was born and raised in Ireland and Connecticut to Albanian parents. Her writing explores our relationship with nature, seeking to evoke a sense of intimacy with the world around us. Growing up, she was often told she was unfocused, with a “head in the clouds”. Today, she believes that state of mind to be more akin to a childlike wonder. She believes curiosity is a profession of passion for our Earthly experience. This philosophy radiates from her poems, which read like love letters for life. Djana is ever infatuated with the endearing quality of imperfect people, the relentless endurance of life, and the eccentric absurdity of existence. Her work is featured in Humana Obscura, The Northeast Coast, HNDL’s Bold and Reflective issue, and Press Pause Press. Currently, she is studying music and environmental studies with aspirations to become an urban forester. In delving into science, devoted to the details of the world, she has only discovered more poetry. As she weaves words, she aspires to inspire a sensitivity to the sacredness of our senses, and remind us, too, of our belongingness to nature—and our nature of beauty.

• Writer, spoken word artist, and mentor Philip J. Curtis is a Brooklyn native with a background of Jamaica WI. Mr. Curtis is the founder of Poetry 719.

Stanchion is an award-winning quarterly literary magazine and book press established in 2020 in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Founder Jeff Bogle is also the author of the cat lover's travel book, Street Cats & Where to Find Them.

Featured Poets: Adam Gianforcaro, Kelly E. Sullivan, and Lynne Schmidt.

• Adam Gianforcaro is the author of the new Stanchion poetry chapbook Poems to Stage Dive to, in addition to the collection Every Living Day (Thirty West, 2023). His poems can be found in The Offing, Foglifter, Poet Lore, Muzzle Magazine, Northwest Review, and elsewhere.

• Kelly E. Sullivan is the author of the new Stanchion novella The MooseLottery, as well as Winter Bayou, and two chapbooks of poems, Fell Year (Green Bottle Press, London, 2017) and Toledo Blade (Dancing Girl Press, 2024). She publishes scholarly work as well, including an article on stained glass artist and illustrator, Harry Clarke.

• Lynne Schmidt (they/she) is the queer, disabled, neurodivergent grandchild of a Holocaust survivor, and a mental health professional with a focus in trauma and healing. Their awards include the 2025 Maine Literary Arts Fellow, first and third-place in the 2025 Books on the Bosque Contest, 2025 Mary Collar Memorial Award, 2025 Strong Point Of View Award, 2020 New Women’s Voices Contest, and more. Lynne is the author of the chapbooks, Dying Dog Poems, The Unaccounted For Circles Of Hell, Dead Dog Poems, and Gravity. In 2012 they started the project, AbortionChat, which aims to lessen the stigma around abortion. When given the choice, Lynne prefers the company of her pack of animals to humans.

Troublemakers is an art collective created by three multitalented friends who wanted to provide a voice for artists who do not feel heard.

Featured Poets: Maggie, Habib Bello, La Piri, and Chuleta.

• Maggie is a first generation Egyptian-American poet from Jersey City, NJ. Maggie explores themes of love, culture, and mental health in her work. She aims to capture the audience into snapshots of her life through the lens of storytelling in her poetry. Maggie navigates the balance between traditional upbringing and progressive thinking in her work. As she continues her studies to become a licensed professional counselor, Maggie seeks to use poetry as a bridge to mental health advocacy.

• Habib Bello is a budding spoken word poet and orator from Detroit, Michigan. Using a broad range of vocal inflection, Habib brings poetry to life through eye-catching performances. A multi-slam winner at various poetry events, Habib is also a former Michigan state champion in Poetry. Habib loves public speaking, and is proudly a two-time graduation commencement speaker — most notably speaking for the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business in 2023. Habib is inspired by New York’s creative community and happily pushes his pen as part of the next generation of writers and artists.

• La Piri is a poet, lyricist, and performing artist whose work blends spoken word, reflective poetry, and hip-hop-inspired music. Her art explores themes of self-discovery, resilience, healing, and emotional truth, delivered with a meditative and sensual voice that invites listeners into an intimate, reflective space. Beyond her music and poetry, La Piri is a community curator, most notably for Speak Yo Heart, a Queens-based hub and live arts space.

• Chuleta is an artist from the Bronx, who has been writing for as long as she can remember, using poetry as a way to survive, process pain, and tell the truth. Her work is rooted in lived experience. Raw, intimate, and emotionally honest. After years of writing in private, Chuleta now steps into performance, using her voice to transform personal pain into something shared. Through vulnerability and presence, her poetry lingers, creating moments of recognition that stay with listeners long after the last line—because some pain was never meant to stay silent.

Poets House is a comfortable, accessible place for poetry—a library and meeting place which invites poets and the public to step into the living tradition of poetry. Poets House seeks to document the wealth and diversity of modern poetry, to stimulate dialogue on issues of poetry in culture, and to cultivate a wider audience for the art.

Featured Poets: Maria Rubio, Rose, Aristilde Kirby, Lorraine Olaya, and Jahtiek Long.

• Maria Rubio is a poet who was born and raised in New York City and has roots in the Philippines. Her writing explores themes of colonization, sex, identity, the commodification of care, and family. In her youth, she won slams at Bowery Poetry Club and Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and was a finalist in the NYC Teen Poetry Slam, by performing the same three poems. As an adult, she has made it a habit of reading poems that were written on the same day because she values realness over performance. Maria is currently working on a book of poetry about work: what it is, how we make a living, and how our lives are shaped. No matter what she accomplishes, she is most proud of raising her sons, Riley and Micah.

• Rose is a NYC-born poet and educator who teaches Creative Writing at Writopia’s Park Slope Lab. They graduated from Hunter College with a B.A. in English, where their Honors thesis on trans visual poetry received the Center for LGBTQ Studies’ 2026 Undergraduate Student Paper Award. Rose’s work and research center queer poetics, archives, and visual poetry. When they’re not writing or teaching, they’re probably biking around Brooklyn or talking to their twin sister on the phone.

• Aristilde Kirby is a dakini from the charnel grounds of the Bronx, New York. She has published chapbooks with Best American Experimental Writing 2020, Belladonna, & Black Warrior Review. Recent writing can be found in Texte Zur Kunst & 240P by 1080P Press. Her work, currently covering the bases of writing, art, & performance, has been featured in Miguel Abreu Gallery, the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Entrance, Smack Mellon, & as a part of Texte Zur Kunst's Velvet Voice Club, at the Roter Salon, Volksbühne. You can call her Aris, like Paris without the P.

• Lorraine Olaya is a Colombian-American writer, editor and poet born and raised in Queens, New York. She received her BA in English and American literature from New York University, with minors in creative writing and French. Often drawing inspiration from writers such as Gloria Muñoz, Rio Cortez, Sandra Cisneros, Natalie Diaz and Ada Limón, Lorraine’s work explores the experiences of the Latine diaspora, focusing on dual identity, culture, community, first-generation struggle, immigration and familial love. Her poetry has been published in Paloma, Drunken Boat, the Acentos Review, Esferas and elsewhere. In 2025, she was named a Brooklyn Poets Fellow for study in Starr Davis’s “Activism: Writing the Modern Love Poem” workshop.

• Jahtiek Long (he/him) is a multidisciplinary artist, poet, musician, and cultural producer from Staten Island. His poetry weaves vivid imagery with emotional honesty, exploring themes of identity, healing, love, and transformation. Rooted in lived experience and community connection, his work holds space for both personal reflection and collective resonance. In addition to poetry, Jahtiek’s creative practice spans photography, music, and curatorial work. He is the co-founder of the Shaolin Art Party, a cultural platform dedicated to shifting the narrative of Staten Island through dynamic arts programming and civic engagement.

A beautiful zine published by award winning poet Dorothy Friedman. They host readings in NYC and Brooklyn.

Featured Poets: Didi Champagne, Dorothy Friedman August, Pete Dolack, Ron Kolm, and Swapan Basu.

• An Acker Aware Recipient as a professional musician and poet, Didi Champagne has graced the NYC stages for 40 years with her work. Her poetry and mixed media art book “Life of a Kalamata” has sold very well since its release in 2022. Her poetry has been included within a number of poetry journals where she has been featured numerous times. She also has several CDs of all original music with her poetry available upon request.

• Dorothy Friedman August is a widely published, award winning poet and editor who has won two New York Foundation of the Arts fellowships and, most recently, an Acker Award. She was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has published books and poems in the U.S. and England, appearing in Partisan Review, Hanging Loose, Orbis, Tribes, three Unbearable anthologies, California Quarterly, The Village Voice, Downtown, The Helen Review, Downtown Poets anthology, Big Bridge, Many Mountains Moving, Mudfish, And Then, and Bowery Poets anthology, among numerous other periodicals and anthologies. She is the editor of the zine WHITE RABBIT.

• Pete Dolack is an activist, photographer, poet, and writer who wishes he could keep all those balls in the air but, alas, keeps dropping some of them. Wearing his poet’s hat, he is the author of the chapbook And Now A Word From Our Sponsors, and writes about space, time, travel, and the sad state of the world through satire. Pete’s poetry has been published in 40 publications, including Poetrybay, Sensitive Skin, Will Work For Peace anthology, Blue Collar Review, Lummox, Appleseeds anthology, and Tribes, the magazine of Gathering of a Tribes. He is also a former non-fiction editor for the online literary publication Mad Hatter’s Review. Wearing different hat, Pete writes the Systemic Disorder blog and is author of the books What Do We Need Bosses For? and It’s Not Over: Learning From the Socialist Experiment.

• Ron Kolm is the author of five books of poetry and two collections of short fiction, as well as the editor of six Unbearables anthologies. His books include A Change in the Weather, Welcome to the Barbecue, The Bookstore Book: A Memoir, and The Verities of Love. His work has appeared in The Brownstone Poets anthologies, The Opiate, Maintenance, Sparring with Beatnik Ghosts, NYC From the Inside, and The Silver-Tongued Devil anthology, among others. His book the Plastic Factory was published in Germany. Ron’s papers are archived in the NYU Library and the Ohio State University Library.

• Dr. Swapan Basu holds a PhD in Chemistry and has served since 2005 as founder and Chair of Rhyming Poets International, a tax-exempt nonprofit organization. He has held many events in New York and New Jersey, published three poetry books, and received a $1,000 first prize in a poetry contest, as well as a silver bowl from the International Society of Poets for being an outstanding poet. His solo interviews have been televised by BRIC across NYC and by EBCTV in East Brunswick, NJ. He is known for his social poems and for his translations of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s songs in their original tunes, some of which are available at YouTube.com/sbrhyme.

An uptown arts collective.

Featured Poets: Becks Perez, Leah Rodriguez, Chris Whyte, Mario José Pagán Morales, Rich Villar, and Miss Fly Vida.

• Becks Perez, founder of La Sala Collective, is a non-binary, Nuyorican poet, calling Washington Heights home, and finding love and joy with community. Becks has performed on stages across NYC and the tri-state area, including the Nuyorican Poets Café the late and great Cornelia Street Café, The Bronx Book Fair and across various colleges and universities. There’s a special place in their heart for local grassroots events with art, music, delicious food and good people. Since starting poetry over a decade ago, Becks has been published in the multiple community anthologies, as well as self-published a poetry collection, I Hope You Fall in Love. Currently they are currently working on their zine collection, The Last of Who I Once Was.

• Bronx native Leah Rodriguez is a lifelong dreamer and lover of all mediums of art, currently rediscovering herself through poetry. A self-proclaimed "library kid", she spent her adolescent afternoons immersed in books, fueling her passion for the arts. Through her writing, she hopes to offer comfort to those feeling lost, reminding them they're never truly alone. Leah is a host and curator with La Sala.

• Chris Whyte is a passionate explorer of life, driven by curiosity and a deep appreciation for experience in all its forms. Whether he’s getting voraciously lost in the pages of a book, chasing adrenaline on a bike trail or rock face, or cultivating a sense of zen through hiking and archery, Chris embraces each moment fully. He is constantly collecting stories, sensations, and perspectives — and it’s this vibrant engagement with the world that fuels his photography. Through his lens, Chris translates movement into energy, stillness into emotion, and everyday moments into something extraordinary. Chris is a curator, host and photographer with La Sala.

• Mario José Pagán Morales is a Nuyorican poet, voice-over actor, spoken word artist, and cultural worker, born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and raised in the South Bronx. His poetry appears in numerous acclaimed anthologies, including The BreakBeat Poets, Volume 4: LatiNEXT (Haymarket Books, 2020), Birds Fall Silent in the Mechanical Sea (Great Weather for MEDIA, 2019), and the 2019 “The Performance of Breath” edition of The Acentos Review (edited by Peggy Robles-Alvarado and Lupe Méndez). His work is also featured in The Latino Book Review Magazine (2023), Shape Produced by a Curve (Great Weather for MEDIA, 2023), and the Brownstone Poets 2023 Anthology. Pagán Morales is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee and has been recognized with several honors, including the Warlock International News 2022 Poet of the Year and the Areito Taino Awards 2023 Poet of the Year. His debut poetry collection, Receta (GWFM, 2019), earned the Silver Medal in the 2023 Juan Felipe Herrera Best Bilingual Poetry Book Award, as well as the award for Best Video Presentation for “Origine Story” at the 2023 International Latino Awards. He has performed at several venues such as Capicu Culture, Medicina for Pesadillas, La Palabra Musical, La Tertulia Boricua, the Loisaida Center, La Casita at Lincoln Center, Nuyorican Poets Café. His work has also been featured in Comcast’s Hispanic Heritage Month No Small Voices: On This Bridge and A&E’s Hispanic Heritage Month Reading and on PBS: The Poet speaks Pagán Morales is a founding member of Títere Poet and co-founder of the La Esquina Presente Series. He currently resides in the Boogie Down Bronx.

• Rich Villar is a Boricua poet, essayist, educator, and cultural worker in the Nuyorican tradition, raised in Paterson, NJ and currently residing in the Bronx. He is the author of Comprehending Forever (Willow Books, 2014) and his poems and essays are widely anthologized. A recipient of poetry fellowships from VONA, Cantomundo, and the arts councils of both the Bronx and New Jersey, Rich is the co-founder of La Cocina, a grassroots initiative to develop unapologetically political voices in the Latinx artistic community.

• Miss Fly Vida is a poet, spoken word artist, and educator based in The Boogie Down Bronx, NYC. What began as a hobby transformed into a mission to raise awareness of turmoil and celebrate the sacred. Fly Vida's poetry captures her sentiments regarding the current state of society ("Dear Donald Trump"), the need for education equity ("No Unnecessary Testing"), and reveres the power of the Feminine ("Womanness"). Vida has been a featured artist at various Open Mic series such as Art in the Basin, La Sala and La Esquina. Through her performances on stage and two published collections of poetry: "Napkin Notes" and "The Fly Life: Uncaged", she aims to invigorate the mind and inspire the soul. Visit @itsMissFlyVida on Instagram for her latest musings and future appearances.

The {Poetry} Unfold is one of Hudson County’s oldest running weekly / twice-weekly poetry series. We offer a signature Open Mic + Open Forum model, with regular feature poets, and program of collaboration to empower local poets onto diverse stages, and foster broader poetic community. The Unfold promotes the healing power of poetry intersected with informed, safe-space facilitation. Inspired by NYC PoFest, Unfold members also spearheaded the Hudson County Poetry Festival in 2025, which we hope to keep annual! :)

Featured Poets: Gina Fayazi, JR Engalla, Isabel Cruz, and Yetvart S. Majian.

• Gina Fayazi is an interdisciplinary artist and poet from Hudson County, New Jersey whose murals and poems explore nature, womanhood, and the quiet intensity of being alive. Her work invites audiences into spaces that feel both intimate and expansive. She is also a teaching artist and assists in organizing with The {Poetry} Unfold and Hudson County Poetry Festival.

• JR Engalla is just another Filipino-American born and raised in Jersey City off West Side Avenue. He is still writing a better bio, but for now, he is a writer that’s dusting off his pen, examining his landscape, and hopefully, sharing work that resonates.

• Isabel Cruz is a Boricua poet and Emeritus Youth Poetry Ambassador for the Paterson Poetry Festival. She was awarded the 2024 Five College Prose and Poetry Prize and the 2024 Elizabeth Babcock Prize for Best Poem. Publications include I Feel Nothing like Good, The Poetry Society of NY, Ghost City Review, WAYE Small Press, among others. Recently, she was a Featured Poet at the Dodge Poetry Festival and a 2025 Brooklyn Poets Fellow.

• Yetvart S. Majian is a first-generation Armenian-American poet, and great-grandchild to an orphan-survivor of the Armenian Genocide. He serves as Resident Poet at Washington Park, and facilitator of The {Poetry} Unfold, a poetry series and open forum in Union City. Yetvart’s debut collection—Survival Witness—was selected as a 2025 Finalist by Wandering Aengus Press, Trio House Press, and Semi-Finalist by Black Lawrence Press.

Mictastic! holds open mics and showcases for the artist, by the artist.

Featured Poets: ShakinDaWorld, Natalie Gilda, KingQuinc, Fatou, and Leah V.

• ShakinDaWorld is a rapper, guitarist, singer, and spoken word artist born and raised in Queens. Hip-Hop, R&B and wordplay were all the influences that helped him grow into the man he is today. He’s a Grammy Nominated Guitarist for JRose album Pieces Of My Crumble Thoughts. He’s also an Off Broadway guitarist at the Triad Theatre where accompanied J Rose in 2024 a Leah V in 2026 with her debut show “Long Way Home” . He also has featured for Voices In Power of November 2024 and won the BRIC Poetry Slam in 2023 of May and featured for Poetry Me Please in 2023 as well. He has performed/ featured all over the 5 boroughs and popular places like SoFar Sound, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, SOB’s, Nublu, Club Groove, the Bowery Electric, the Bowery Poetry Club, the Shrine, Town Hall Theatre, and etc. He published his first book of poetry called Shakin These Pages in April 2025 at his feature at BRIC that’s hosted by Jive Poetic & Mahogany L. Browne. 300 sold copies have been sold and been in the hands of Wyclef Jean, Lady London, Shiggy from Drake’s God’s Plan video and etc., He also won 2026 Poet Of The Year Award from the ComeUp Experience.

• Natalie Gilda is the creator and host of Hot People Read Poetry, which was just an observation. She only wears pink or neutral colors.

• KingQuinc is a Harlem-born spoken word artist known for his charisma and storytelling. He has performed across the country, including in New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Texas, and has released four projects on major streaming platforms. His debut, The Most Vulnerable Poet, blends his Harlem upbringing with sci-fi elements, while Heartbreak Tapes Vol. 1 & 2 explores love and loss. His latest, The War Tapes, reflects his stance on society and staying true to his morals. KingQuinc is currently preparing his fifth album, which will fuse poetry with horror themes.

• Fatou is a Guinean-American Poet and Actress. She Performed at Lincoln Center’shistorical event called "Voices Of The People" by Howard Zinn, Following the “You Are Here” performance at Hearst plaza, Lincoln center, performed a one woman show “Motherless” by Cherise Kimoy at The Maker’s Ensemble, have done a reading for the remix of Shakespeare’s Henry IV part 1 & 2, Co-produced a musical called “Chasing Grace” by Elizabeth Addison. She was also cast in the 24 Hour Plays festival, which brings together artists to create and perform original works in just one day. She was cast in a reading by the Afterlife festival presented at The Flea Theater, and her short film “White Lens” was selected by The People’s Film Festival and Won the Power of She Award.

• Leah V is a Bronx-born Puerto Rican poet, performer, curator, officiant, and creative producer based in New York City. Known for intricate wordplay, disciplined memorization, and subtle literary references, her work moves across a wide range of subjects and performance styles. For more than seven years, she has curated and performed shows at the Triad Theater, creating space for both emerging and established artists. Her one-woman poetry-play, The Long Way Home, premiered there to sold-out audiences. Leah has also performed with Poetry Me Please to a sold-out show at the Apollo Theater. Her work is deeply collaborative and often brings together poetry, music, and movement. In addition to performing, she works as a poetry coach, workshop facilitator, curator, and wedding officiant.

We're a dandy, queer poetry and art collective that platforms artists brings them work and community puts on events in NYC.

Featured Poets: Buddy Devine, Feli, and Peter Foy.

• Buddy Devine is the pen name of Elijah Singer Brahmi (he/him), a New York–based cartoonist, illustrator, and writer known for his sharp humor, vivid counter-culture sensibility, and deeply empathetic storytelling.I also have along history of experience with web design graphic design, and visual marketing, having designed very unique and successful ad champions for various companies. Elijah Brahmi is a classically trained Illustrator with a BA from Cuny SPS majored in creative writing and fine arts. He's an up and coming NYC based artist and mental health advocate from a mad pride liberation framework who has a long history of activism for trans and neurodivergent rights. He cut their teeth drawing cartoons for The Oracle, the student newspaper at SUNY New Paltz, a formative period that helped shape their voice in narrative illustration. Their cartoons often reflect personal identity, queerness, and mental health, brought to life in a style that nods to underground luminaries like Art Crumb. In addition to their work in print and web comics, Buddy Devine is a prolific commission artist: they design album covers, event posters, YouTube thumbnails, character designs, and more. Through their brand, “Dandy of the Underworld,” they sell both wholesome and more adult work directly to a devoted fanbase in NYC Art Fairs multiple fairs every month (and they regularly open commission slots). One of their standout projects is a cartoon series titled “Queer History Through Autistic Eyes,”at the Trans Joy gallery in Brooklyn fall 2024 which brings to life significant moments in American queer history through the lens of neurodivergence. The series has appeared in gallery contexts, showing both their ability to combine social commentary with accessible, character-driven art and their commitment to amplifying underrepresented narratives. Elijah/Devine is also a published Author. On their blog, they document the progress of their novel trilogy Lying Flatt, which his literary agent is currently trying to get him a book deal on. He also has had his art and short fiction published at several literary magazines like The Ellipsis, the Promethean, Stonesthrow Review and Foodgrow magazine. While elsewhere they explore short stories, webcomics, and other creative writing. Their writing echoes their illustration work and most of their novels and short story collections are illustrated. He is an up and coming cartoonist with a unique countercultural vision and voice, All of his work, is earnest, quirky, and deeply human.

• Feli is a tallented Bronx based Poet, cosplayer, and nonpfofit worker; she currently works at the women's nonprofit Girl Be Heard, has won several poetry contests, and used to run the creative writing club at the City College of New York with Imran, Christopher, Korrine, and Buddy Devine. She is a professional cosplayer and proud bisexual, plus-sized Latina, and she is a very unique and bold voice. in contemporary poetry.

• "We are what we pretend to be." - Kurt Vonnegut. Peter Foy is a veteran of the NYC poetry scene since the 90s; he is contemporary with other greats such as Mathew Hupert. He hosts a monthly open mic for angry, outcast poets and musicians. Buddy and others have read poetry; his anger, messiness, and raw, unfiltered hunger make his poetic voice unique and urgent, as well as being a bit of an unofficial mentor, helping to uplift younger poets.

The idea for a “Poets’ Club” began in England in 1908 and was established by English poet, critic and philosopher, Thomas Ernst Hulme. T. H. Hulme, along with renown poets T. S. Elliot and Ezra Pound, was an “Imagist” who suggested “images” are information derived from sensibility without the influence of preconception and language to define them. That is, they occurred spontaneously through our senses and ability to experience emotion and pain, and then we write.. UPC, while having no affiliation with “Poets’ Club” established by T. H. Hulme, seeks a similar outcome for advancement of more modern poets through UPC’s Membership Alliance and 4-Point Omega Publications’ sponsorship and unique publishing concept that will allow members to grow together as poets through the power of poets supporting poets.

Featured Poets: L, Sanai Harris, and Ishya.

• "L" - Currently living in Brooklyn, she is an NYU Graduate with a BA in English and Creative Writing, whose free-style verses focus on dialects of social forces like love and isolation.

• Sanai Harris - Currently also living in Brooklyn, she is a Diary Poet whose free-verse style focuses on relationship outcomes, selfcare, and community.

• Ishya - Currently living in "Hell's Kitchen" with an MBA from Texas, she's a Lyric Poet, whose rhyming verses center on emotional depth of human connections, identity, and irreplaceable bonds between people.

The SOMA Network is a community arts organization local to South Orange, Maplewood, and the surrounding area in New Jersey. The network aims to amplify and strengthen the local arts community by sharing artist calls and opportunities, as well as hosting events programming for local artists across all disciplines and stages.

Featured Poets: TBA.

Darklight Publishing LLC, was created in 2016 in New York City to disseminate the poetic work of Latin American and American authors. Translation and editing are made by a team of artists in Mexico and the United States. The “Bridges” series of bilingual poetry books was conceived for readers at our geographic hemisphere, where there is a broad exchange between English and Spanish languages. Our books are distributed in bookstores located in Mexico and New York City, as well as worldwide through amazon.com in printed and digital formats. Lately, we have published poetry in other languages, as well as poets from Europe and Middle East countries.

Featured Poets: TBA.

Where dreams come out of hiding, sharing poetry and stories. Dreams In Hiding has been run by Fin Rose Aborizk and has accumulated through her own poems and through anthologies that showcase numerous other authors!

Featured Poets: Fin Rose Aborizk, Isabella Calisi Wagner, John Queor, Crystal Letters, Susan Justiniano, and Yetvart S. Majian.

• Fin Rose Aborizk is a writer & poet originally from the state of Florida & based in Los Angeles. She is the curator behind Dreams In Hiding Writing, with the publication of her first poetry collection, Leave The Dreaming To The Flowers, in 2017. When she is not working on a manuscript or creating custom poems at events, she is either reading, at a concert, creating something with her hands, or working on anything and everything that excites her. Her work has been featured in numerous magazine and anthology publications over the years, & her two collections At the Beginning of Yesterday and On the Ever-Lovely Morrow were both awarded the gold medal for the Literary Titan Book Awards. You can find more of their work on Instagram @Dreamsinhiding.writing.

• Isabella Calisi Wagner (she), a NYU Film graduate, is an interdisciplinary artist—poet, short story and screenplay writer, and visual artist working in various media, living on the Upper West Side. She frequently explores themes rooted in her Italian heritage and her love of magical realism. Her poetry has appeared in Ms. Magazine, Waymark, and Dreams in Hiding. Isabella is also an associate producer of a documentary about renowned artist Roger Winter.

• John Queor is an equinox, existing equally in the dark and light. He lives in a tower in Central New York, and spends quite a bit of his time writing poetry in the light of the moon. John's poetry fixates on the dualities of everyday life, the sheer appreciation for the petals as well as the thorns. John has previously published three collections: Burnt Lavender 2022, Resembling A Moth 2023, and Bypass 2024. He has also been included in 7 anthologies: Dreams In Hiding, The Spell Jar, Glow, The Spell Jar II, A Winters Warmth, The Spell Jar III, Dreams In hiding: After words we go from here. He is currently working on his next collection.

• Crystal Letters - Crystal Davis is an Asian-American multidisciplinary and mixed-media performance artist, poet, painter, freelance writer, editor, and social media marketer. Born and raised in Jersey City, New Jersey, she is the author and creator of Crystal Letters, and the Co-Founder and Co-Producer of OpenRoad Poetry, an artistic partnership with RescuePoetix TM. Her art and writing projects, CL and ORP, have collaborated with arts non-profit organizations and artists across the Tri-State area, nationally, and internationally. Her work is inspired by nature, color, and the utilization of practical craft through art in the visual and written form. Crystal is the author of Elemental Emotions, and upcoming books, Softened by Dew and Dark Matter. Crystal Letters LLC. provides freelance editing, writing, poetry, abstract illustrations, mixed media painting, public relations, and social media marketing services. All services are available to artists, poets, collaborators, arts organizations, non-profits, and for-profit organizations from all artistic walks of life.

• RescuePoetix® | Susan Justiniano is an award-winning bilingual performing poet and teaching artist, whose work centers on matriarchal inheritance, legacy, and healing. Rooted in her Puerto Rican identity, she blends poetry, media, and performance to honor intergenerational stories. Published works appear in journals, anthologies, and community spaces across the diaspora.

• Yetvart S. Majian (he/him) is first-generation Armenian-American poet, the current Poet-in-Residence for the Washington Park Association, and founder of a weekly poetry series and safe-space forum called The {Poetry} Unfold, where he focuses on empowering local poets. His writing has appeared in SOUP CAN Magazine, the Kairos Peace Journal, Persian Cat Poetry and he's been a featured poet on the podcast Poets with Purpose as well as live on both sides of the Hudson River. | @emajian.

Storytelling On Orchard Street debuted on September 25, 2022 and has over 65 episodes available to stream on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music and other podcast platforms. Host Pete Solomita interviews poets, fiction writers, storytellers, film and theater directors, musicians, artists, who tell stories through their art.

Featured Poets: Wayne Kral, Matthew Hupert, George Wallace, Francine Witte, and Pete Solomita.

• Wayne Kral is an artist, musician, book collector and host/producer of First Floor Walk Up reading series, the most recent in 31 years of producing readings and open mics in NYC.

• Matthew Hupert is a writer and multi-media artist from New York City. He is a founder of the the NeuroNautic Institute & of NeuroNautic Press. He has 2 full length collections, Ism is a Retrovirus (2011- Three Rooms Press) and Secular Pantheism (2019 - NeuroNautic Press). He is also the author of several chapbooks, & his writing has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies.

• George Wallace is writer in residence at the Walt Whitman Birthplace author of 44 chapbooks of poetry, and 2025 winner of the PEN OAKLAND Josephine Miles Literary Award. From his base of operations in New York City he travels internationally to share his work, and has received top honors in major international festivals in the US, Europe, South America and Asia. To date he has six albums of lyrics and spoken word tracks that combine his wordsmith with fantastic music performances, and his work in this area has also been well received internationally.

• Francine Witte is a flash fiction writer, poet, and prompt session leader. She is the author of 12 poetry and flash fiction books. Her newest poetry collection Some Distant Pin of Light was recently published by Cervena Barva press. Her story "Plate Spinner" won a Pushcart Prize. She is flash fiction editor of FLASH BOULEVARD and Soflopojo. She lives in NYC.

• Pete Solomita's latest poetry collection From Here To Institutionalized was published by Storytelling On Orchard Street Press 11/25. He hosts the podcast Storytelling On Orchard Street which is available on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Music. In addition he produces the bi-monthly show The Very Swell Variety Show at Young Ethel's in Brooklyn. He often reads his poetry with musical accompaniment by The Bitter Pill Collective.

Hybrido is a cultural project for latino arts, literature and cultures founded in 1997.

Featured Poets: Omar Valladares, Rolando Perez, and Marisa Russo.

• Omar Valladares is a poet from Ecuador living in New York.

• Rolando Perez is a poet from Cuba living in New York.

• Marisa Russo is a poet from Argentina living in New York.

A queer group of poets who gather twice a month to write and share poetry

Featured Poets: TBA.

The NYC Climate Writers Collective (CWC) is an active part of the Governor’s Island arts community. Founded by a group of storytellers spanning NYC, the CWC started with member workshops to steward new projects and has grown to include public programs that engage our environment through the arts. You can find the NYC Climate Writers Collective at the Climate Imaginarium on Governor’s Island and across New York City. From the mission-statement-in-progress: We’re creative collaborators with a shared mission: To build a just and resilient future, we must begin by imagining it. We believe that expressing our thoughts and emotions around the climate crisis through words can be informative, cathartic, and motivating. We write poetry, creative nonfiction, novels, and short stories that respond to the climate crisis by imagining transformative and regenerative futures of hope, justice, and collective liberation. In our workshops, we invite the public to join in writing activities that imagine a just and resilient future. Our current culture is saturated with stories that imagine dystopian futures. We want to posit a different future. In this reality, we move away from excessive consumption, extraction, and inequality, and work together to find plausible, science-based, community-inspired, and even playful solutions. We follow the guidance of Indigenous, Black, people of color, queer, people with disabilities, and communities on the frontlines fighting climate change. In our re-imagined futures, we can, if we choose to put the work in, reconnect with our natural environment, plant seeds, let our oceans flourish, let our birds breathe. If we fill our shelves and hearts with new stories, we can motivate a culture shift that will ignite powerful, hope-fueled action.

Featured Poets: TBA.

We are a publishing house specializing in poetry. Our team works in synergy to publish and manage the works of poets from Latin America and Spain. All our collections aim to honor the legacy of great women in our vast poetic tradition. Our goal is to facilitate multidirectional readings that reimagine the processes of literary enactment. We believe in our poets and trust in the readers’ journey through our human-centered vision. Lyrical language and aesthetic sensibility are the cornerstone of each of our publications.

Featured Poets: TBA.

Rizoma Literario is a series of virtual and in-person interviews with poets, hosted by the Department of Romance Languages at Hunter College since 2018. These interviews provide a space for students to engage directly with poets through discussions and interactive poetry readings.

Featured Poets: TBA.

NYU MFA EN ESPAÑOL ALUMNI. INSTAGRAM.

Featured Poets / Poetas: Ana Paula Tigar, Sara Abadía Alvarado, Carlos Egaña, Lucía Orellana, Paola Buitrago, Laura Duarte, and Laura Bayer-Yepes.

• Ana Paula Tigar (Cuernavaca, Mexico) is a writer and diplomat. She won the 1st Miguel Ángel Bustos International Poetry Prize for her book Flor de cemento (published by Escarabajo and Abisinia in 2022, with a bilingual English edition forthcoming in 2025). She also took third place in the 32nd Villa de Iniesta Literary Contest for her poem “Es niña” (2023). Her second poetry collection, el cordón, was published by Buenos Aires Poetry Press in 2023, followed by Hijas del maíz, scheduled for release in summer 2026 by Ultramarina. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish from New York University (NYU), an MA in Poetry from the Escuela de Escritores de Madrid, and both an MA and a BA in International Relations from The Fletcher School and ITAM.

• Sara Abadía Alvarado is a literary scholar and professor of performing arts. She has published short stories, poems, and essays in journals such as Temporales, NACLA,and Revista 070, as well as in anthologies published by Laguna, La Conjura, and the New York International Book Fair. “En medio de una noche eterna” is her debut novel, written during her Master’s program in Creative Writing in Spanish at NYU, under the supervision and guidance of Rita Indiana, Amelia Bande, and Silvina López Medín. She currently lives in Boston.

• Carlos Egaña (1995) is a Brooklyn-based Venezuelan writer. He earned his MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish at New York University. He has taught courses at the Department of Humanities of Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, and in several New York academic institutions. He has four books in Spanish in print: a novel titled Reggaetón (Ediciones Puntocero, 2022) and three poetry collections, mínima antología desde la rabia (Buenos Aires Poetry, 2024), hacer daño (Oscar Todtmann Editores, 2020) and Los Palos Grandes (dcir ediciones, 2017). And he has written about fine arts, Latin-American politics and pop culture for various Venezuelan and American publications.

• Lucía Orellana has published several poetry collections and chapbooks, including Extrañamiento (Valparaíso Ediciones, 2023), Sea of Rocks (Unsolicited Press, 2018) and Longevity River (Plan B Press, 2019, 2023). Her texts and translations have appeared in both English and Spanish in venues such as Latin American Literature Today, Latin American Literary Review, Tin House and Carve Magazine. Lucía holds a PhD in Social Psychology from Loyola University Chicago, has taught at the Universidad Católica de Guayaquil and at New York University, where she completed an MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish.

• Paola Buitrago (1997) is an anthropologist from Universidad del Rosario and an MFA candidate in Spanish Creative Writing at New York University. Her work moves from ethnography toward fiction and poetry. She is interested in the relationships between humans and nonhumans.

• Laura Duarte (Bogotá, 2000). She worked as a reading promoter for Universidad de Los Andes, in Colombia, where she graduated cum laude with a degree in Literature and supplementary training in Visual and Performing Arts. Over the years, she explored theater as an actress, translator, assistant director, and workshop leader. She began writing at a very young age, and in her creative work, she approaches the figure of women through the lenses of horror and animality. Currently, she lives in New York, where she earned her MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish (NYU) and is now pursuing her Ph.D.

• Laura Bayer-Yepes is a Colombian writer. Her current creative work focuses on the female experience, grief, and violence. She graduated with an MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish from New York University (NYU), a program she attended with the support of the Colombian government’s Jóvenes Talento Scholarship (2024) and the MA Scholar, an academic merit scholarship from NYU’s Department of Spanish and Portuguese (2025). Although she is primarily a prose writer, her first book is a collection of poetry published in 2010, “Sueños al alba,” and she has contributed to several poetry anthologies published by Fondo Editorial Comfenalco Antioquia in her hometown of Medellín.

Poetry Fighters is a community-driven poetry movement dedicated to making poetry visible, public, and alive — creating spaces where voices meet, stories circulate, and words become action.

Featured Poets: Paola Assad Barbarino, Cristiane Bouger, and Kathryn R. Rieber.

• Paola Assad Barbarino (Caracas, 1999) is a poet and visual artist based in New York. Her work explores diasporic pain and its transformations. She was a finalist in the 3rd Rafael Cadenas Young Poetry Contest (La Poeteca, Caracas, 2017) for her poem El Rapto. Her writing has been published in several anthologies across Europe and Latin America. Liberoamericanas: 140 Poetas Latinoamericanas (Libero, Barcelona, 2018) and UBICUO (Lecturas de Arraigo, Madrid, 2021). Her debut book, Todo Menos Invierno (Lecturas de Arraigo, 2025), received a Special Mention in the Ida Gramcko International Poetry Prize. She is a recipient of the 2026 DREAMing Out Loud Fellowship granted by PEN International and is the winner of the 7th Juana Goergen Poetry Prize (DePaul University, Chicago). Her visual and poetry work has been featured at festivals such as the Kerouac Festival NYC, FuerzaFest, and the New York City Poetry Festival (2024 and 2025). She is part of the Poetry Fighters collective, led by Marcos de La Fuente and based at the Bowery Poetry Club in Manhattan.

• Cristiane Bouger is an interdisciplinary artist and writer whose practice spans theatre, performance, video performance, poetry, and video installation. She has presented and developed original works in Brazil, the United States, Spain, Romania, Italy, Chile, and Bolivia, and has conducted independent research for her art projects in the Czech Republic, Japan, Israel, and England. Her essays, articles, and interviews on contemporary dance, theatre, and performance have been featured in several books, magazines, and journals. She develops her artistic and literary projects at Umwelt Studio in Brooklyn, New York. Her first poetry collection, Cosmografias, was published in Portuguese by Umwelt Art & Publishing in 2024.

• Kathryn R. Rieber is a born and raised New Yorker writing prose, poetry, and contributing monthly to The Village Star Revue. Rieber writes the Off-off Broadway beat below 28th Street and can be found mulling about MacDougal on idle evenings, indiscriminately scribbling at round little tables, thinking round little thoughts.

The KGB Monday Night Poetry Reading Series, now in its 29th year, brings together nationally recognized, award winning, established and emerging poets to New York and gives them a mic in the legendary KGB Bar. We aim to provide New York audiences with the best, most compelling, accomplished, diverse, and original poets representative of the current American climate. Originally created by David Lehman and Star Black, the series is now hosted by Tyler Allen Penny, John Deming, Jada Gordon, Selena Spier, and Susan Lewis.

Featured Poets: Tyler Allen Penny, John Deming, Susan Lewis, Jada Gordon, and Selena Spier.

• Tyler Allen Penny (aka TAP) is a southern poet, educator, community organizer, and collagist. Their poems and artwork have appeared or are forthcoming in POET LORE, The Washington Square Review, Crab Creek Review, Porter House Review, The Swannanoa Review, Beyond Queer Words, Northwest Review, Denver Quarterly, Narrative, West Trade Review, swamp pink, Best New Poets 2018, Columbia Journal, The Southampton Review, Francis House, Deep South Magazine, OF ZOOS, Fearsome Critters: A Millennial Arts Journal, Typishly, and elsewhere. A finalist for Narrative’s 14th Annual Poetry Contest, the 2021 Princemere Poetry Prize, the 2022 Frontier Chapbook contest, the 2024 Crab Creek Review Poetry Prize, and honorable mention in Beloit Poetry Journal’s 2024 Chad Walsh Chapbook Prize, they are the recipient of the Joseph Kelly Prize in Creative Writing, a Distinguished Travel Award to attend the Tin House Winter Workshop with Ada Limón, and offers of fellowships, residencies, and/or grants from Mississippi Arts Commission, Poets and Writers, Monson Arts, Taleamor Park, Vermont Studio Center, Crosstown Arts, Centrum, The Peter Bullough Foundation, and Jentel Arts. Formerly an associate poetry editor for West Trade Review, Iron Oak Editions, and managing editor for Frontier Poetry, they are currently the co-host and co-curator of the KGB Bar Monday Night Poetry Series in NYC. They hold an MFA from Stony Brook University, and currently teach at both Stevens Institute of Technology and Suffolk County Community College, and live in Brooklyn, NY with their cat, LB2.

• John Deming, MFA, is the Director of the Writing Center at LIM College, where he has taught for ten years. He is a founding editor and current Editor in Chief of Coldfront, a poetry, music and culture magazine. He has published essays, poems, and reviews in a wide variety of venues, including Salon, Boston Review, and New Orleans Review. His first poetry book, Headline News, will be published by Indolent Books in Fall 2017. In the fall of 2014, he helped a team of students create and publish LIM College’s student fashion magazine, The Lexington Line, a fashion, culture and arts publication released once per semester. He is the co-creator of the Fashion Media programme at LIM College, which launched in the fall of 2017. He has lived in New York City for twelve years and taught writing and literature at a variety of institutions, including LIM College, Baruch College, and Borough of Manhattan Community College.

• Susan Lewis is the author of Zoom, winner of the Washington Prize (The Word Works, 2018), as well as nine other books and chapbooks, most recently Heisenberg’s Salon (BlazeVOX [books], 2017), This Visit (BlazeVOX [books], 2015), How to Be Another (Červená Barva Press, 2014), and State of the Union (Spuyten Duyvil Press, 2014). Lewis’s work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and has been published in journals such as Agni, The Awl, Berkeley Poetry Review, Boston Review, The Brooklyn Rail, Cimarron Review, Conjunctions, Connotation Press, Diode, Dusie, EOAGH, Fact-Simile, Fourteen Hills, Gargoyle, Interim, The Journal, and elsewhere. Her flash fiction has been performed by the Buntport Theater Company in Denver’s “Stories on Stage” series, her collaborations with Mary Kasimor have appeared in Otoliths and They Said, A Multi-Genre Anthology of Contemporary Collaborative Writing (Black Lawrence Press, 2018), those with composer Jonathan Golove have been recorded and performed at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie’s Weill Hall, those with artist Melissa Stern have been exhibited in galleries and museums across the U.S., and “Dedication,” her collaboration with Jill Moser, is in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it is available as a holiday card. Lewis received her MFA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College and her BA and JD from UC Berkeley. She taught creative writing at SUNY, Purchase and has served as an editor and guest editor on several publications. Susan is a co-host of the KGB Monday Night Poetry Series and is the founder and editor-in-chief of Posit.

• Jada Gordon is an award winning Bronx-based writer, photographer, editor, and Co-Curator/Social Media Manager of The KGB Monday Night Poetry Series. She's a CUNY City College of New York graduate and her poetry discusses themes of identity, family, and sexuality. Jada Gordon's work has been featured in multiple CUNY College literary magazines including, Stuck In The Library (Brooklyn College), The Guild (BMCC), and Poetry In Motion (City College). She's also the recipient of BMCC's Student Writing Award for "Best Lyrical Essay" (2017).

• Selena Spier lives in New York City, where she works at the nonprofit Brooklyn Poets and co-curates the KGB Bar Monday Night Poetry Series. Her poems appear or are forthcoming in The Kenyon Review, Pleiades, The Threepenny Review, and elsewhere.

Transcontinental platform for poetry and culture. We publish, we produce, we connect.

Featured Poets: Paola Assad Barbarino, Ana María Betancourt Ovalle, Pedro Mieles Cantos, Mariajose Aveiga, y Alicia Ordoñez.

• Paola Assad Barbarino - Es una poeta y artista visual radicada en Nueva York. Su obra explora el dolor diaspórico y sus transformaciones. Fue finalista del III Concurso de Poesía Joven Rafael Cadenas (La Poeteca, Caracas, 2017) con su poema “El Rapto”. Sus textos han sido publicados en Liberoamericanas. 140 poetas latinoamericanas (Libero, Barcelona, 2018) y en UBICUO (Lecturas de Arraigo, Madrid, 2021). Ganadora del premio de poesia Juana Goergen, Estados Unidos, 2026.

• Ana María Betancourt Ovalle is a Colombian reporter based in New York City, covering the intersection of the Latinx community with arts and cultural expressions, language, social dynamics, and immigration. Winner of Nuevas Plumas, Crónicas escritas en Estados Unidos, feria internacional del libro, Nueva York. 2025.

• Pedro Mieles Cantos - Poeta y narrador radicado en Estados Unidos. Tiene 29 años. Un poema seleccionado en la II Antología de la FIL NYC, Estados Unidos, 2022. Un poema seleccionado en la antología Huellas y Silencio, Encinas Reales, España, 2022. Parte de los seleccionados de Poesía para NJ BARDS, New Jersey, Estados Unidos, 2022. Finalista en Emerging Writer Fellowships – Categoría Narrativa, propuesta por Miami Book Fair, Miami, Florida, 2022. Tercer lugar en el 10mo Concurso de cuento y poesía de ciencia ficción “José María Mendiola” – Categoría Poesía, México, 2023. Un poema de ciencia ficción seleccionada por la Biblioteca UCLM – España, 2024. Su primera novela, Artificios, fue publicada en la casa editorial After the storm, El Paso, Texas, Estados unidos en 2025.

• Mariajose Aveiga - Originaria de Ibarra, Ecuador, reside en Stamford, Connecticut. Estudió Español y Periodismo en Manhattan College y se desempeña en el ámbito del marketing digital y las comunicaciones. En paralelo, cultiva la escritura de poesía y narraciones, donde explora la vida transformada por la adversidad y la memoria íntima.

• Alicia Ordoñez Es escritora mexicana, licenciada en Administración de Empresas y candidata a grado de la Maestría en Escritura Creativa en Español, por la Universidad de Salamanca. En 2012 publiqué el libro Antogías. En 2019 participó en la edición número 9 de la Antología Española de Autor. Su trabajo literario explora temas como el amor, la memoria, la nostalgia y los vínculos humanos desde una mirada íntima y emocional. Actualmente desarrolla proyectos de poesía, novela y ficción autobiográfica.

The Poetry Society of New York’s poetry camp!

Featured Poets: TBA

Haus of Expression is a vibrant sanctuary for artistic souls founded by Gabriella Stella with the intention to create a home where all expression is welcomed. Haus of Expression aims to bring abstract and innovative workshop experiences to the community to inspire expression and healing through art.

Featured Poets: Gabriella “Stella,” Bryan Palmer, R.Sen, T’challa Williams, Nysha, DAMNGiNA, Jereni-Sol, Tamra, Sean Hunter, and Kiana.

• Gabriella “Stella” is a poetess from Staten Island, NY of Italian and Jewish descent. Gabriella’s poetry is meant to inspire every soul to discover their treasure.

• Bryan Palmer is a writer, author, and poet from Philadelphia, PA now living in the DMV. He’s performed in Baltimore, DC, Philly, Jersey, and is always looking to spread healing with his messages.

• R.Sen is a Jersey based poet and spoken word artist who speaks from the heart for the voiceless. Author of iipublishing's Introspectrum and self-published Lovergirl Woes.

• T’challa Williams is a Poet, performer and teaching artist. The strength of her words are both unsettling and nurturing. T’challa’s poetry collections are available on Amazon.

• Nysha is a poet from Buffalo, NY who speaks to spread light into the darkness.

• With every performance, DAMNGiNA turns vulnerability into art and emotion into atmosphere. Rooted in truth and delivered with fire, her poetry speaks to the parts of us we rarely say out loud.

• Jereni‑Sol is a Bronx‑based poet, self‑published author, and Founder of Poetry on Demand Outreach LLC. She brings communities together through interactive poetry workshops that spark creativity, connection, and self‑expression.

• Tamra is a Queens-born, published poet who uses her faith and lived experiences to transform testimony into reflection, healing, and accountability. Her work highlights God’s redemption power while encouraging audiences to confront hard truths, embrace growth, and pursue personal and communal change.

• Sean Hunter is an Author, Poet, Writer, and Screenwriter born and raised in Queens, New York. He writes, shares, and performs his poetry to inspire others to become the best version of themselves.

• Kiana is a poet, a creative an artist who loves to write about life, love, and pain and growing and changing through life’s experiences. A creator by nature Kiana is black magic in Human Form. An Earth Angel!

The Brooklyn Women’s Writing Group is a space for members to work on their own projects in a focused, supportive environment, in the company of other writers. The group began in 2017 as an in-person Meetup that gathered every Sunday for drop-in writing sessions at the historic central branch of the Brooklyn Library at Grand Army Plaza. Members are no longer constrained by geography, though most of our members live in New York. The BWWG has always been and will always be welcoming, inclusive and absolutely free. The BWWG uses an inclusive definition of the term “women”; we offer space and value the creative energy of all female-identified people--trans, cis, genderqueer, and gender-nonconforming--as well as non-binary people who feel aligned with myriad women's experiences, especially in the context of writing and creative practices. Check out our literary magazine, Wild Garlic, join our meetups here, and follow us on Instagram at @bkwomenswritinggroup.

Featured Poets: Tricia Patras, Yankau Josephine Wong, Mollie Altucher, and Maggie Waller.

• Tricia Patras is a New York City–based writer whose work has appeared in GoTravel, Business Insider, and BUST, among others. Known for her candid, intimate storytelling, she explores the intersections of love, rejection, and resilience with a voice that is both raw and magnetic. Her poetry platform, @achainofthoughts, has grown to over 10k followers on Instagram and earned her two feature interviews with Medium. She also connects with readers through her Substack newsletter, where more than 3,000 subscribers engage with her reflections on intimacy, boundaries, and the beauty of imperfection. Her upcoming poetry book, The Book of Time, will be published this year. She is also currently working on the finishing touches of her first romance-fiction novel, Hard to Explain.

• Yankau Josephine Wong is drawn to the beauty, power, and depth of language. Her work often explores relationships, time and urban life. Born in colonial Hong Kong and received higher education in America and beyond, she draws inspiration from the richness of living across cultures and speaking multiple languages. A psychotherapist by profession, she has no formal literary training. She takes poetry-writing classes from time to time and regularly listens to several podcasts about poetry.

• Mollie Altucher is a contemporary poet and creative based in Brooklyn, New York. Mollie's poetry aims to be completely vulnerable in depicting her experiences with life in New York, her body, and relationships with others. Mollie hopes to publish a collection of her poems in the future. She enjoys reading at open mics around New York City and participating in Brooklyn Women's Writing Group meetings.

• Maggie Waller is a Brooklyn-based dancer, arts administrator, teaching artist, and writer from Phoenix, Arizona. She works at the intersection of arts and activism and is passionate about the power of dance to heal, empower, and connect individuals and communities. Maggie is a Fulbright Summer Institute Participant, a recipient of the Joan Frazer Memorial Award for Judaism and the Arts, a published writer in the Journal of Dance Education in Practice, and a 2025 Queens Arts Fund recipient through the New York Foundation on the Arts. She is a current Principal company member and Company Manager with Rennie Harris Puremovement. She is continuously looking for new ways to connect with her community and create collaborative, inclusive, important dance and movement work on local, national, and global scales. She writes poetry, she writes the visceral, she writes the body.

A Poetry & Art Magazine that highlights the Open Mic Scene all across NYC & LI.

Featured Poets: Steven L. Clifford, Vinnie Calone, Q. Imagine, Jessica Payes, Steps, Kris Janvier, Ryd3r, Doug G. Cala, Cyn, Bruce "All One" Pandolfo, and Paula Curci.

• Steven L. Clifford is the Co-Founder and Art Director of The Scene Life Inc.

• Vinnie Calone is the Secretary for The Scene Life Inc and a formalist poet.

• Q. Imagine is a Book Reviewer for The Scene Life Inc.

• Jessica Payes is their Newsletter Ambassador.

• Steps is a Poet on the Ground (Suffolk).

• Kris Janvier is a Poet on the Ground (Nassau).

• Ryd3r is a Poet on the Ground (Bronx).

• Doug G. Cala is a Poet on the Ground (Staten Island).

• Cyn is a Poet on the Ground (Downtown).

• Bruce "All One" Pandolfo is a Poet Correspondent.

• Paula Curci is a Poet Correspondent and Nassau County Poet Laureate Emeritus.

For over 30 years, the Asian American Writers’ Workshop has been dedicated to publishing and amplifying Asian diasporic literary culture. Grounded in an inclusive approach, AAWW broadens the definitions of who is a writer and who is Asian. Through a wide range of programming and its award-winning magazine, The Margins, AAWW provides a generative space for writers and readers alike. By cultivating and curating the next generation of storytellers, AAWW contributes to the continued growth and vitality of the literary community.

Featured Poets: Hoshiko Hsu, Ava Wong, and Adiya Kaur Malhotra.

• Hoshiko Hsu is a Taiwanese-American poet from Queens, New York. The 2026 NYC Youth Poet Laureate, she hosts open mics and a historical poetry workshop series, moving past to present with spoken word, first drafts, and empathy for all. Her performances have been most notably featured at Federal Hall, the Brooklyn Museum, Harlem School of the Arts, and on WNYC while her work, poetry and prose, spans themes of racial justice, queerness, and self-temporality. You can find her poetry on UrbanWordNYC, The Eunoia Review, and various other magazines, and are very welcome to find her personally on Instagram: @hoshiko_hsu_____.

• Ava Wong is a first-year student at Amherst College. A finalist for the 2025 NYC Youth Poet Laureate, her work has appeared in the Penn Review, YouthComm Magazine, and the Allegheny Review, among others. She has performed her poetry at Federal Hall, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the New York Public Library.

• Adiya Kaur Malhotra is a poet from New York, and the founder of Azaadi Youth Magazine, a publication uplifting young Black and Brown voices, with contributors from eight countries and a readership of 1,000+. She co-founded The Bayaan Project in Johannesburg, South Africa, engaging over 200 students in conversations about apartheid’s legacies through writing. Adiya is deeply committed to climate justice as a Chapter Leader and Cohort Facilitator with the Stanford Climate Leaders Fellowship. Her work as a teacher in Bengal, where she taught English and menstrual health education to children from her village, reinforced her belief in writing as a tool for liberation. A two-time Scholastic Gold Key winner, Adiya’s poetry explores themes of migration, disability, and racial justice. When not writing, Adiya can be found captaining her swim team, performing bhangra with Morni Dance, or making roses out of cheese wax wrappers.

Turrialba Literaria is a literary community founded on August 9, 2015, in Turrialba, Costa Rica. Its primary goal is to promote and disseminate local literature, providing a platform for both emerging and established writers in the region. The organization comprises various literary collectives, facilitating an evolving understanding of the canton's literary landscape. Additionally, Turrialba Literaria annually organizes notable events such as the International Poetry Festival of Turrialba in August, the International Presagio de Fuego Festival in January, and the Youth Poetry Festival in April, fostering cultural exchange and appreciation of poetry within the community.

Featured Poets: Miguel Ángel Zapata, Kary Cerda, and Carlos Tello.

• Miguel Ángel Zapata is a Peruvian poet, essayist, translator, and professor born in Piura. He is Professor of Latin American Literature at Hofstra University in New York and the author of more than twenty books of poetry. His work has been translated into several languages, and he is considered one of the most recognized voices in contemporary Hispanic American poetry. His recent publications include El florero amenaza con hablar (2024) and Escribo caminando. Antología poética 1983–2025 (Pre-Textos, 2025). He received the Enrique Anderson Imbert National Literature Prize in 2023 and the José María Eguren Medal in 2025. He is the director of Códice—Revista de Poesía.

• Kary Cerda is a Mexican poet, photographer, editor, and visual artist. She has published thirteen books of poetry in Mexico, France, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Puerto Rico, and Honduras, as well as five children's books. More than forty books have been illustrated with her photographs, and she has written around twenty songs. Her work has been translated into English, French, German, Italian, Maya, Nahuatl, Polish, and Greek. She has been included in more than forty national and international anthologies and has participated in international poetry festivals in several countries.

• Carlos Tello is a poet, musician and interpreter in New York City. Some of his work has been published on anthologies in Spain. A first book of poems is set for publication in 2026. This will be his third consecutive year performing at the New York City Poetry Festival by The Poetry Society of New York. Other appearances include the 18th Hispanic/Latino Book Fair in Queens, as guest poet and panelist, and Encuentro de Poetas Iberoamericanos, Poeta en Nueva York at Barnard College. He has a degree in interpretation and translation from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY and is currently engaged in literary studies at the University of Chicago.

The Sanctuary is a 501c3 nonprofit based in northern New Jersey. Our organization started in April 2023 and became a nonprofit in February 2024. We are a group of professional helpers, artists, and business folk who have come together with a shared mission:cultivate a thriving third space where individuals of all backgrounds can come together to connect, learn, and grow.

Featured Poets: Sofia Silveira, Renee Dwyer, Tommy Keith, Alana, Conor McCloskey, and Court Cox.

• Sofia Silveira is a Brazilian writer and community organizer. She is co-executive director of The Sanctuary NJ and has a bearded dragon named Bodega.

• Renee Dwyer is a South Korean adoptee from New Jersey. A technical writer by day, she holds a Master’s in Professional Writing, and enjoys writing, reading, live music, hiking, and meditating in her free time.

• Tommy Keith is an educator, songwriter, and poet based in Northern New Jersey. He holds a BA in Political Science from Hamilton College and is pursuing an MA in Special Education (Applied Behavior Analysis) at Arizona State University.

An independent publisher that values books and printed ephemera that pulsate life and never-ending experimentation. Where conventional 'decency' finds its counter in the pursuit of creation, where grace is not just sought but is the interplay of all we've encountered.

Featured Poets: Victoria Villier, Esmé Naumes-Givens, Sarina Greene, Tash Nikol, and Jelen Alysia.

• Hailing from Queens, NY, Victoria Villier is an actress, costume designer, and interdisciplinary artist featuring movement, field recordings, collage, poetry and performance. Victoria is fascinated with the concept of Radical Imagination, a term from abolitionist and activist Angela Davis, and will embark on that journey within her artistic practice and life. She has performed original work at Joe’s Pub and Asian American Writers’ Workshop. NYU Grad Acting, MFA. Recent credits include Fantasia International Short Film Best Actress (2021) Inheritance, Lessons in Survival (Vineyard Theatre), LORDES (New Ohio Theatre), and Chasing The New White Whale (La MaMa). 2019 Interdisciplinary Artist in Residence program at Ken Kesey Farm Project.

• Esmé Naumes-Givens is a writer and artist who makes monthly zines and teaches preschool. To borrow a quote from a former student, “esme loves being an artist and everything you know about them is true.”

• Sarina Greene is a Brooklyn based writer pursuing a MFA in poetry at NYU. She has a passion for multi-disciplinary art curation, and has created galleries at theBlanc and DGT Gallery for mediums of all kinds such as film, writing, photography, painting, collage, and sculpture. She has received a BFA from Pratt Institute where she spent two years being Editor-in-Chief of their publication, The Prattler. Her work can be found published in Poet’s Row, the 2023 Fall/Spring editions of Ubiquitous magazine, Neither Here Nor There, and several issues of The Prattler. She has published The Prattler’s Rogue, Food for Thought, New York Minute, and Log Off. Instagram: @sarina.writes.

• Tash Nikol is a design researcher, poet, and book artist from the South and the founder of Grace Issues Press. Their work engages archives, materiality, and the environment through craft and community, centering Black and Indigenous histories and practices of survival, earth-keeping, and healing.

• Jelen Alysia (aka jelenonline) is a multimedia artist, stylist, designer, and writer. Jelen was raised in the mean streets of East Harlem, and the even meaner streets of Tumblr. Much like their visual work, their writing is a chop and screw of memes, references, intrusive thoughts, inner yearnings, and a little bit of fashion history along the way. When engaging with their work, Jelen hopes you listen, laugh, love, and remember. That’s all we can really do out here anyways <3

A community of poets and artists dedicated to appreciate and value each other's creativity and work.

Featured Poets: Omar Balladares Rodríguez, Arelis Torres, Marco Nieto, Jorge Galeano-Suarez, Belkys Arredondo Olivo, María Rondón-Hanway, and María Cristina González.

• Omar Balladares Rodríguez (Guayaquil, 1979) holds a master's degree in advanced studies of Spanish and Latin American Literature from the University of Barcelona. He teaches at the University of the Arts in Guayaquil. He published his first work in 2000, a book of short stories titled "Infernario." Two years later, he received an honorable mention in the David Ledesma Vázquez Poetry Contest for his book "Masturversos" (unpublished). In 2009, he was among the winners of the El Retorno Poetry Contest, organized by the Retorno Cultural Workshop, which led to his inclusion in the collective poetry anthology "Trayecto Cero." He also participated as co-writer of the award-winning short film “Thank You for Your Trash” (based on one of the stories in the book Infernario) at the Short Film Competition organized by Santa María University in 2006. In 2012, he received first prize in the Paralelo Cero poetry competition, which led to the publication of his first book of poems, “The Design of the Foam.” His poetry has been published in various online magazines both in Ecuador and abroad, including Círculo de Poesía, Canibaal, Máquina Combinatoria, and Revista Pixeletras of the Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral. In 2019, he presented his poetry collection “The Salt of Time.” In 2021, he was invited to contribute to the anthologies “Suddenly, Life,” and "The unique Poem" both published by El Ángel Editor.

• Arelis Torres is a retired Science educator from the NYC School system. She is a native of Puerto Rico who has lived most of her life in New York City. Arelis is a poet, health, human rights and equality advocate. Her poetry voices human experiences, celebrates Nature and shed light on social issues. Arelis' poems aim to validate human experience and emotions. She enjoys spending time in nature, witnessing sunrises and sunsets, traveling and hiking.

• Marco Nieto (Oaxaca, Mexico, 1986) is a poet born in the heartland of the Tacuate community of Oaxaca. He has participated in narrative-writing workshops at various elementary and secondary schools in Mexico and the United States, as well as at the International Book Fair of Oaxaca. He has also participated in various conferences and presentations, including Linguistic Justice and Migration and Diversity in Migratory Contexts at The People's Forum in New York and at the PUIC of National Autonomous University of Mexico. His poem Nahual was recognized in the literary competition Approaches to Literature in Mexican Indigenous Languages organized by the Faculty of Higher Studies Acatlán of National Autonomous University of Mexico. He presented his work Quebranto (Brokenness) at the Graduate School of Education and Arts of Harvard University, at the exhibition Te Amo Porque Sos Pueblo at Bronx Art Space in Bronx, at Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts in San Francisco, at the International Book Fair of Los Angeles, and at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies of New York University. His work Raíces lejanas (Distant Roots) received an honorable mention in the 4th Literature Contest for the Mexican Diaspora organized by the Institute for Mexicans Abroad of the Government of Mexico.

• Jorge Galeano-Suarez He was born in Colombia, in a coffee-growing region of the municipality of Andes, Antioquia. His personal and professional development has been shaped by diverse academic experiences as a university student in different fields of knowledge, as well as by his professional career in both public and private sector institutions, including his work as a university professor. His adventurous spirit and constant search for new horizons led him to emigrate from his country and settle in the United States. He is the author of La trocha – The Trail (2023), a regionalist novel that recreates the experiences, dreams, and fantasies of a boy growing up in the Colombian coffee landscape. In 2026 he publishes The Underground Poet: Desires Under Lock and Key, a romantic novel in which he intertwines narrative and poetry, incorporating dozens of poems within the dialogues of his characters. He currently resides in the United States, where he devotes part of his time to writing and volunteering as a teacher, as well as to one of his great passions: playing the guitar. He also works as a builder and restorer of historically designated properties.

• Belkys Arredondo Olivo was born in Caracas, Venezuela. She is a poet, journalist, and editor. She has published Sagita (1998), Abecedario roto (Broken Alphabet) (1999), De un grano de arena saldrá un pájaro (From a Grain of Sand a Bird Will Emerge) (2001), Cóncave (Concave) (2005), (A ras del vidrio) At the Edge of the Glass — for which she received the First José Rafael Pocaterra Latin American Prize (2008) — El llamado de los grillos (The Call of the Crickets) (2012), Cayenas (Cayennas) (2016), and Ejercicios de vuelo (Flight Exercises) (2021). Her work has been included in numerous anthologies, notably Cantos de Fortaleza (Songs of Strength) (Madrid, 2016), Toma tu copa de agua (Take Your Glass of Water: Anthology, Chile 1998–2021) (2024), and Azulejos (Bluebirds: Anthology.) Venezuela (2024). She was awarded the International Vicente Gerbasi Poetry Medal in recognition of her literary work by the Circle of Writers of Venezuela on Writer’s Day (2012). She currently resides in New York City.

• María Rondón-Hanway is a Venezuelan writer and educator based in the state of Washington, United States. She holds a degree in Education with a specialization in Language and Literature and has pursued graduate studies in Ibero-American and Venezuelan literature, as well as training in English literature. She is the author of the novels El gran Maichak (The Great Maichak), an epic work that blends Latin American mythology and magical realism, and Venezuela muere en el Darién (Venezuela Dies in the Darién), a literary testimony about Venezuelan migration in the 21st century. In poetry, she has published the collections Mujer de asfalto (Woman of Asphalt) and Rapsodia urbana (Urban Rhapsody), in which she explores identity, urban life, and the female experience through an intense and contemporary voice. Her work has been recognized with honorable mentions at the International Latino Book Awards. She has also received the Ateneo de Valencia Poetry Prize, as well as honorable mention in the 10th International Siglema 757 Contest and in the Christmas Story Competition of Mi Libro Hispano, consolidating a literary career distinguished by aesthetic sensitivity and social commitment. Her writing is characterized by a powerful poetic voice, deep human sensitivity, and a strong commitment to the historical and cultural memory of Latin America.

• María Cristina González, M.A. (Bogotá, Colombia) is a writer and teacher. She earned her degree in Modern Languages from Universidad de Los Andes and completed her postgraduate studies in Literature at Queens College, New York. Her first book, La trituradora y otros cuentos (The Shredder and Other Stories), was praised by critics and readers alike. Her second short story collection, Ellas entre las estrellas (Them Among the Stars) explores the theme of adolescence and its challenges and was selected as Book of the Month by the organization Pluma Literaria. The author has participated in the International Book Fairs in Bogotá, Miami, and New York. She has also taken part in literary and cultural events, including presenting at Queens College on Sephardic romance, giving readings with MiLibroHispano in Florida, and participating in theater programs at the Graduate Center in New York. Her short stories and poems have appeared in various anthologies. For her play Preguntas de seguridad (Security Questions), she received the award for Best Foreign Play in the Caja Negra competition. María Cristina enjoys traveling, having coffee with family and friends, and visiting the beach.

The Queens Reading Series features writers from or based in the world's borough. It is a quarterly reading series housed at the World's Borough Bookshop in Jackson Heights.

Featured Poets: Aishvarya Arora, Andrew Chi Keong Yim, c. melín lara, and Natalie Zhao.

• Aishvarya Arora is a poet, teaching artist, and double Taurus from Queens, NY. They're the author of Mr. Time, which won the Gold Line Press Poetry Contest and is forthcoming in 2026. They’ve received support from the Fulbright Program, Brew & Forge, and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, where they were a Poetry Coalition Fellow. Their writing is featured in, or forthcoming from, Poetry, The Kenyon Review, Gulf Coast, Foglifter, The Margins, and elsewhere. Currently they teach creative writing at Cornell University and create poetry ephemera through Lavender Codex, their micropress. Find them online at coolslug.wordpress.com.

• Andrew Chi Keong Yim was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. He was awarded the 2024 New Voices Award in Poetry from Washington Square Review, selected by Terrance Hayes, and is a 2025 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship finalist. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Best New Poets, The Adroit Journal, Outskirts Literary Journal, Shō Poetry Journal, Tupelo Quarterly, and other publications. Andrew has taught with the Wisconsin Prison Humanities Project and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was the Martha Meir Renk Distinguished Graduate Fellow in poetry and received the August Derleth Prize for fiction. His debut poetry collection, The Ninth Island, is forthcoming from University of Pittsburgh Press in Spring 2027. Andrew lives in Queens and is a public school teacher in New York City.

• c. melín lara, a.k.a Car Lara, is a Queens, NYC (Lenapehoking) born multidisciplinary artist and experimental writer of Mexican and Honduran heritage. A recipient of the 2024–25 Emerge–Surface–Be Fellowship at the Poetry Project and winner of the 2025 Palette Poetry Prize, their bilingual work explores transculturality and mythic-domestic entanglements by way of translation play, verses shaped by typographic symbols and asemic transliterations. Believing in a poetry-art intersection, they also integrate the mediums of ceramics, collage, illustration, and occasionally, sonic performance into their practice. Their work has appeared in Fine Print Press, Noir Sauna, the Poetry Project Newsletter, and is forthcoming in ANMLY, petrichor and SUDS.

• Natalie Zhao is a Queens-based poet, Reiki Master, and nurse. She enjoys writing on themes of love, loss, and womanhood. She has been sharing her poetry through spoken word since 2020 and hosts journaling workshops in NYC.

Too Much & Extra is an open mic dedicated to giving artists their flowers, both figuratively and physically. They are dedicated to growing community.

Featured Poets: William Edward Graham III, King Kamayera, Ali, Michael Isaiah Cruz, Darius, and Mayor Chiullz.

• William Edward Graham III, also known as Will Succeed The Artist (The Will To Succeed of the Bronx NYC), is a talented poet and songwriter who is dedicated to uplifting and inspiring fellow artists. He draws inspiration from his peers in the underground scene and is passionate about creating a supportive community. Unity is all that matters to Will despite having an antisocial disorder that labels any friendships as "A Miraculous Manifestation" on his paperwork, his craft continues to profoundly impact people's lives thus he has made meaningful connections with many. Will has organized numerous open mic events with his friends in New York City, including the credible "Too Much and Extra" series, where he and his team, Mayor Chiullz(Chulez), King Kamayera (Comma-yeah-ruh), Ali, Lone Wolf, and DJ Satisfied, foster a spirit of appreciation and encouragement by giving roses to the audience to show their admiration for the performers of each night. Will's journey to discovering his unique voice began in childhood, humming tunes that accompanied his writings. This early start paved the way for his varied success in poetry slams, where he consistently ranked within the top 5. His life stands as a testament to the impact of living poetry. Beyond hosting his own open mic events, Will actively participates in Squad 301 of "The Harlem Bomb Shelter," a cultural literary initiative that brings creatives together. Initially known as Turtle, Will navigated a complex identity, once seeking refuge in a metaphorical shell. Born to a Christian mother and a Muslim father, he chose to follow Christ, trusting in God's guidance towards the right path and the provision of wisdom and supportive community to face life's challenges.

• King Kamayera is a two-time Off-Broadway poet, TEDx performer, and Bronx-born spoken word artist whose work embodies raw truth, rhythm, and emotional depth. He has built a reputation for commanding stages with performances that challenge, heal, and resonate long after the mic is dropped. He is the author of Love Chronicles: Vol. 1 and the creator of the spoken word album Blackberry Molasses, submitted for 2025 Grammy consideration. As the originator of the international viral sensation #BeenWritingThesePoems, King Kamayera’s voice has reached audiences across the country, having performed in cities nationwide including New York City, Atlanta, Houston, Philadelphia, and beyond. More than a performer, he is a cultural architect—co-hosting the 2Muchand Extra open mic and creating spaces where poetry is both refuge and revolution. His work is rooted in the belief that poets are authors of the human experience, carrying the responsibility to speak truth, honor lineage, and create with intention.

• Ali is a multifaceted singer/songwriter/poet with a wide artistic range.She co-produces Too Much & Extra, one of NYC’s premier open mics and also acts as the videographer. As a poet, Ali has made a name for herself in the NY poetry community. She has competed in several poetry slams and won the Nuyorican Monday Night Slam, Sakura Slam and Cozy Slam. Notable features include Lehman College, Shiggy Slam, Brooklyn Music Kitchen, Mictastic at the Off-Off Broadway Vino Theater and Taste Of Sounds.

• Lone Wolf, or Michael Isaiah Cruz, is a Puerto Rican poet born in Brooklyn even though he’s based in The Bronx. He’s been dabbling with writing and creating poetry for most of his life, but truly dedicated himself to the craft about a decade ago. He has also gotten into the art of photography too. Both of theses creative passions have become an escape from the harshness of the real world for him. Michael may be quiet and unassuming in person, but his way with words and his knack behind a camera lens will quickly show you how dynamic he really is. You can connect with him on Instagram at @lonewolfpoetry7 for his poetry & @moonlightphotosnyc for his photography

• Darius is a Bronx-raised poet, singer, and DJ who idealizes freedom. He has featured his poetry on platforms such as Harlem Week, Poetic Affair, and Troublemakers Art Collective. Darius writes to connect a person's soul so they all feel less alone. He has performed all over NYC and DJ’s for Too Much & Extra, The Dope Poets and more. His debut poetry album "3 Body Problem" can be found on all streaming platforms.

• Mayor Chiullz is a multifaceted artist and entertainer based out of New York City, who has been creating music and visuals for over a decade.He’s a rapper, singer, guitar player and video editor. He’s one of the hosts for Too Much & Extra, one of NYC’s premier open mics.

We are a publishing house full of dynamic poets and story tellers.

Featured Poets: Carla M. Cherry, R.Sen, Jacob R. Moses, and Dara Kalima.

• Carla M. Cherry is a Bronx-based multi-title poet and veteran English teacher. She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the City College of New York.

• R.Sen is a New Jersey based poet and spoken word artist. She is the author of iipublishing's Introspectrum and has recently self-published a chapbook, Lover Girl Woes.

• Jacob R. Moses is a poet, educator, and spoken word artist from New York City. He is the author of Grimoire (iiPublishing) and a 2024 Pushcart Prize nominee.

• Dara Kalima is a Bronx-born, internationally traveled poet whose fierce, sensual, community-rooted voice turns lived experience into unforgettable testimony.

We celebrate narrative poetry that captures the everyday exigencies of living in the world today.

Featured Poets: Edie Meidav, Arden Levine, Marilyn A. Johnson, and Deborah Schupack.

• Edie Meidav is the author of the hybrid lyric Another Love Discourse (MIT Press/Terra Nova, 2023), Dogs Of Cuba (2027), and award-winning novels including Crawl Space (FSG) and Lola, California (FSG). She teaches in the UMass Amherst MFA for Poets and Writers.

• Arden Levine is the author of Spoke (The Word Works’ Hilary Tham Capital Collection, 2026; National Poetry Series Finalist, 2024), and Ladies’ Abecedary (Harbor Editions, 2021). Her poems, essays, and reviews appear in AGNI, Barrow Street, Harvard Review, Indiana Review, RHINO and elsewhere, and have been featured by Poetry Society of America, Poetry Foundation, and WNYC's Radiolab. Arden is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and serves on the boards of Beloit Poetry Journal and No, Dear. She lives in New York City and works in urban housing policy and community development.

• Marilyn A. Johnson’s recent poetry can be read online in Westchester Review, Pedestal 94, UCity Review, Plume, and the Provincetown Independent (links at marilynjohnson.com). Her three nonfiction books include The Dead Beat, about obituary writers; This Book Is Overdue, about librarians and archivists in the digital age; and Lives in Ruins, about contemporary archaeologists.

• Deborah Schupack is an award-winning poet and novelist. Her latest book, When We Were Gun (Fleur-de-Lis Press 2005), won the Louisville Review National Poetry Contest and was praised by the contest judge as “a stunningly crafted three-part drama.” Her previous books are the novels The Boy on the Bus (Free Press 2003) and Sylvan Street (Penguin 2010), and Relentless (Mount Sinai 2022), narrative nonfiction about New York City’s medical and scientific response to the pandemic.

Featured Poets: Gena Gruz, Andrey Gritsman, Jeb Burt, Anna Halberstadt, Pavel Lembersky, and Andrei Codrescu.

• Gena Gruz, PhD is a Ukrainian-born poet. She earned her doctorate in Molecular Biology from NYU. She is the author of three poetry books: Radiant Solitude (2018), Earthly Entities (2019), both from Liberty Publishing House and Sky Chart (M Graphics, 2022). Her poems have appeared in international (FOUR CENTURIES, Buenos Aires Poetry) and domestic (LiveMag!, Metamorpheses) journals and anthologies (Moonstone Arts, Artelen). She leads the Lit Party & Open Mic reading series in New York City.

• Andrey Gritsman, MD., PhD came to the US from Russia in 1981. He is a physician, poet and essayist who writes in two languages. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize several times, received Honorable Mention and was shortlisted for Poetry Society of America prize. Poems, essays, and short stories have appeared in more than 80 journals including New Orleans Review, Notre Dame Review, and Denver Quarterly, and anthologized. Poetry and essays have been translated into several European languages. He edits the international poetry magazine INTERPOEZIA and runs a poetry reading series in New York City.

• Jeb Burt, MD is the author of the short-story collection, Lost Americans. His art and translations can be found at OIDIL.COM.

• Anna Halberstadt is a poet and a translator from Russian, Lithuanian, Polish and English.Her poetry in English was widely published in journals and anthologies such as Caliban, Cimarron Review, Literary Imagination (Oxford Journals) and many others. Anna’s poetry was translated into Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Serbian,Tamil and Bengali. She published five collections of poetry in English – “Vilnius Diary” and “Green in a Landscape with Ashes”, and in Russian – “Transit”, “Gloomy Sun” and “Psycho in Garlic Souce.” Anna published four books of translations into the Russian – of poetry by Eileen Myles, Selected, Selected, Nocturnal Fire by Edward Hirsch and Spring Equals Love by Aushra Kaziliunaite and Transformation by Adam Zagaewski. She translated from Russian a collection Vladimir Gandelsman’s poetry” A Man needs only a Room” in collaboration with Olga Livishin and Andrew Janco in 2022, and “Communiques” by Maria Galina in collaboration with Ainsley Morse in 2023. Anna guest-edited two volumes of Russian poetry in English translation for The Café Review (2019 and 2021). Anna Halberstadtis a recipient of the International Merit Award by Atlanta Review, 2016. She received a Poetry prize by the Russian literary journal Children of Ra in 2016. Persona PLUS journal called Translator of the Year 2017 for her translation of Bob Dylan's poem Brownsville Girl. Vilnius Diary in Lithuanian has become one of the TOP10 books, published in Lithuania in 2017, named by the Lithuanian news site Lt.15. It was also chosen for the list of most important books in translation in 2017 by the Lithuanian Translators Association. Her book of Selected Poems in Lithuanian translation, Transit, was named one of TOP15 poetry books of 2020 by Lt.15.

• Pavel Lembersky was born in Odesa, Ukraine, and emigrated to the United States in 1977. After receiving his BA in comparative literature from the University of California, Berkeley, Pavel pursued graduate work in film at San Francisco State University. He worked in New York City on film projects by Jonathan Demme and Spalding Gray, as well as the Oscar-winning The Appointments of Dennis Jennings, written by and starring Steven Wright. Lembersky authored seven story collections and three novels. Pavel Lembersky’s most recent novel, Two Hundred Brand New Shiny Cadillacs, was published by Academic Studies Press in July 2025. Pavel lives in Brooklyn.     

• Andrei Codrescu, born in Romania, an immigrant to the U.S, is an American novelist, essayist, poet and film maker. Honored by the Carnegie Foundation with The Heritage Award, he has won a Peabody Award for his film "Road Scholar," is the winner of three Pushcart Prizes (including the 50th anniversary), was recipient of the Ovid Prize.

Poets Out Loud is an LGBTQ+ community that reads, writes, and celebrates queer poetry.

Featured Poets: Anna Szilagyi, Poison Oak, and Nelgie “Nèl” Lauredent.

• Anna Szilagyi is a queer poet and writer from Long Island living in Brooklyn. She was longlisted for the 2025 Palette Poetry Queer Poetry Prize and has been a featured reader for Dykes and Dolls and There’s a Lot to Unpack Here. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Banshee, Honey Literary, and Vagabond City, among other places. Anna earned her master’s in public health from CUNY and is also a scholar of the reality television arts and sciences.

• Poison Oak (she/her) is a poet and drag artist based in Queens, New York. She writes from various personas and pulls from themes such as nature, history, love, and loss. Structurally, she employs nonce forms in the New Formalist tradition. An intuitive sense of yearning guides her creative process, with a focus on dark imagery and rhythmic sound. Her poetry is performed live across New York at drag shows and private events, with the expressed goal of bringing poetry into nightlife. She has opened shows for Terrance Hayes, Dorothea Lasky, and Haleh Liza Gafori. She has also been published in journals such as Door is a Jar Magazine and the Nassau Review, as well as podcasts such as Just the Zoo of Us. She is the host of New York City’s only drag poetry show in which she combines poetry with performance art. She hopes to live long enough to witness the downfall of capitalism. Connect with her via her website at PoisonOak.NYC.

• Nelgie “Nèl” Lauredent, Ed.M. is a Poet, Designer, and Advocate based Uptown here in New York City. Known to love 3s and for her education degrees, Nèl’s poetry is an audaciously informed perspective on longstanding literary narratives. Eclectic in all that she does, Nèl is never without her contact cards on 5th Avenue.

An info poetry publisher. Find them at their website here!

Featured Poets: Sarah Sarai, John J. Trause, Patricia Carragon, and Diane Stiglich.

• Poems in Sarah Sarai’s Bright-Eyed (Poets Wear Prada) take shape in Los Angeles—the San Fernando Valley, the Crenshaw District, Silver Lake. N.Y.C., Seattle, New Mexico . . . are backdrops to her poems in That Strapless Bra in Heaven (Kelsay Books); Geographies of Soul and Taffeta (Indolent Books); and The Future Is Happy (BlazeVOX), as well as an assortment of chapbooks with cheerfully odd titles; well-titled book reviews; and two handfuls of adequately titled short stories. She received fellowships as a fiction writer and as editor-in-chief, in Seattle—where she began writing poetry.

• JOHN J. TRAUSE is the author of seven books of poetry, including The Box of Torrone (Unsolicited Press, 2026) and Seriously Serial (Poets Wear Prada, 2007; rev. ed. 2014), and one of parody Latter-Day Litany (Éditions élastiques, 1996), the latter staged Off Broadway. His translations, poetry, prose, scholarship, and visual work appear internationally in many journals and anthologies. He is fond of cunning acrostics and color-coded chiasmus.

• Patricia Carragon is the author of several poetry collection including her latest Stranger on the Shore (Human Error Publishing),, Meowku (Poets Wear Prada),, and Innocence (Finishing Line Press). Her novel Angel Fire was published by Alien Buddha Press. Her flash fiction collection The Cupcake Chronicles was published by Poets Wear Prada. Patricia is the publisher/editor of Sense & Sensibility, an online Haiku journal and curates the popular long-running poetry reading series Brownstone Poets and serves as editor-in-chief of the reading’s annual anthology.

• Diane Stiglich earned her B.A. in art from the University of Texas at Dallas and M.F.A. from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. She has shown paintings in numerous shows in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas. She has lived in Hoboken almost continuously since 1983, where she owns the Luna Rosa Home store. She is impassioned by memory and its nuances and also by how the ordinary can appear extraordinary. Diane negotiates life between the art studio, the martial arts studio, the store, the town and home, and she likes to write about them all. “Have you seen Cindy Sleigh? and other stories” is her first book.

This magazine is an extension of Nueva York Poetry Press, a publishing house specializing in poetry in Spanish and in translation, sharing the mission of promoting the essential voices of world poetry in the United States. In this way, Nueva York Poetry Review, both in its digital and print editions, aims not only to serve as a platform for the dissemination of poetry but also as a space for reflection on the craft of composition.

Featured Poets: Mariela Dreyfus, Carolina Campos, and Ana Paula Martínez Garrigós.

• Mariela Dreyfus is a Peruvian poet, essayist, translator, and professor based in New York since 1989. Born in Lima, she studied Hispanic Literatures at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos and earned a Ph.D. in Latin American Literature from Columbia University. She was one of the founding voices of the Kloaka movement, a key urban and countercultural poetry group in Peru during the early 1980s. She is the author of Memorias de Electra (1984), Placer fantasma (1993), winner of the José Watanabe Varas National Poetry Prize, Ónix (2001), Pez (2005), Morir es un arte (2010), Cuaderno músico precedido de Morir es un arte (2015), and La edad ligera: Novela en poesía (2023), winner of the Luces Award from El Comercio in the poetry category. Her work has been gathered in Gravedad. Poemas reunidos (2017), Arúspice rascacielos. Poesía selecta (2021), and Gravedad. Poesía reunida (1984–2024), published in 2025 by Libros de la Resistencia in Madrid. Her poetry has appeared in bilingual and translated editions, including Pez/Fish, Pez/Poisson, and Music Notebook, translated into English by Gabriel Amor and published by Cardboard House Press in 2023. She currently teaches poetry and poetic translation in the MFA Program in Creative Writing in Spanish at New York University.

• Carolina Campos is a poet, project manager, and editor based in Costa Rica. She holds a Master's degree in Creative Writing from the University of Salamanca and is the co-founder of Editorial Pensamientos Intrusivos, an independent press that explores new ways of bringing poetry, narrative, and visual art to readers through book-objects, fanzines, and other sensory formats. Her work revolves around nature, feminism, and social critique. She is the author of the poetry collection Helechos en los poros, published in 2021 by Nueva York Poetry Press, and of the fanzine 128 Madison Avenue (2024), a project that combines poetry, photography, and editorial design. She is currently editing the first printed fanzine of Editorial Pensamientos Intrusivos, devoted to hope and solarpunk as an exercise in collective creation to imagine better possible futures. She believes that community and connection are essential forms of resistance in the violent times we are living through.

• Ana Paula Martínez Garrigós is a Mexican poet and diplomat born in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Based in New York, she is a member of the Mexican Foreign Service and currently serves at the Consulate General of Mexico in New York. She won the First Miguel Ángel Bustos International Poetry Prize for her book Flor de cemento, published by Escarabajo in Colombia and Abisinia in Argentina, and received third place in the XXXII Villa de Iniesta Literary Contest in Spain for her poem "Es niña." Her second poetry collection, El cordón, was published by Buenos Aires Poetry in 2023. She holds a Master's degree in Poetry from Escuela de Escritores in Madrid, as well as a Master's degree and a Bachelor's degree in International Relations from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM). She has also pursued graduate studies in Creative Writing in Spanish at New York University. Her poems have appeared in anthologies and literary journals in the United States, Spain, Mexico, Colombia, and other countries. She has participated in literary events such as the Bogotá International Book Fair, NYU's Cruce Primavera, and the National Book Fair of Mexican Women Writers.

The "Encuentro de Poetas Iberoamericanos: Poeta en Nueva York" is an extension of the prestigious literary gathering founded and directed by Alfredo Pérez Alencart, which has been held for over 28 years by the Ayuntamiento de Salamanca, in a city recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site. For the first time, the Encuentro expanded its reach across the Atlantic, finding a new home at Barnard College, Columbia University, in New York City. This historic edition, coordinated by Marisa Russo, paid tribute to the legacy of Federico García Lorca and his profound connection to New York, as reflected in his seminal work Poeta en Nueva York. The event reaffirmed its commitment to poetic dialogue across cultures, uniting voices from the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking worlds while embracing the rich linguistic and artistic diversity of the Ibero-American tradition. Through poetry readings, discussions, and multilingual literary exchanges, the Encuentro in New York strengthened its mission of fostering artistic and intellectual bridges beyond borders. By bringing together poets, translators, and scholars in a city that has long been a hub for global literary currents, this edition marked a new chapter in the Encuentro’s legacy, honoring its origins while expanding its reach to new audiences and creative landscapes.

Featured Poets: Lila Zemborain, Homero Carvalho Oliva, and Miguel Falquez-Certain.

• Lila Zemborain is an Argentine poet, literary critic, and professor based in New York since 1985. In 2025, she was the honored poet of the Encuentro de Poetas Iberoamericanos: Poetas en Nueva York, where her career and her decisive contribution to contemporary Ibero-American poetry were celebrated. She is co-founder and professor of the MFA Program in Creative Writing in Spanish at New York University, where she has also curated the KJCC Poetry Series since 2004. Her poetic work explores the body, memory, illness, language, family genealogy, and the connections between poetry, critical thought, and the visual arts. Her books include Ábrete sésamo debajo del agua, Usted, Guardianes del secreto, Malvas orquídeas del mar, Rasgado, El rumor de los bordes, Diario de la hamaca paraguaya, Materia blanda, and Matrix Lux. Poesía reunida 1989–2019. Part of her work has been translated into English, French, and Catalan. Her books published in English include Mauve Sea-Orchids, Guardians of the Secret, Soft Matter, and Matrix Lux, a bilingual edition translated by Lorenzo Bueno and published by Belladonna* Collaborative in 2025. In 2007, she received a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for Álbum, her hybrid project of poetry and nonfiction. In 2024, she published El linaje escondido, the first volume of the Álbum series, a work that brings together family memory, archival research, history, and poetic reflection. She is also the author of the essay Gabriela Mistral. Una mujer sin rostro, devoted to one of the central figures of Latin American poetry.

• Homero Carvalho Oliva is a Bolivian writer and poet who has received national and international awards in short fiction, poetry, and the novel. His literary work has been published in several countries by prestigious publishing houses and translated into various languages. His poems, short stories, and microfictions have appeared in more than fifty international anthologies, as well as in literary journals and supplements around the world. He is the author and editor of anthologies of Bolivian poetry, short fiction, and international microfiction published in several countries, including Antología de poesía del siglo XX en Bolivia, published by the prestigious Spanish publishing house Visor; Antología de la poesía amazónica, published by Ediciones Sur in Cuba; and Antología iberoamericana del microcuento. Carvalho Oliva has also published his personal anthology with New York Poetry Press as part of the Piedra de la Locura collection, a series devoted to major contemporary poetic voices. His literary work is studied at universities in different parts of the world, and doctoral dissertations have been written on his oeuvre.

• Miguel Falquez-Certain was born in Barranquilla, Colombia. He is a poet, fiction writer, playwright, essayist, translator, and literary critic. He has published short stories, poems, plays, essays, translations, and book, theater, and film reviews in Europe, Latin America, and the United States. His work in different genres has received several awards. He holds a B.A. in Spanish and French Literatures from Hunter College and pursued doctoral studies in Comparative Literature at New York University, where he also studied literary translation. He is the author of ten poetry books, six plays, a novella, a novel, and a collection of short fiction. His poetry books include Reflejos de una máscara, Proemas en cámara ardiente, Habitación en la palabra, Doble corona, Usurpaciones y deicidios, Palimpsestos, Mañanayer, Hipótesis del sueño. Antología personal, Prometeo encadenado / Prometheus Bound, and Un fragor de torres desgajadas / A Roar of Tumbling Towers. He has published three poetry books with Nueva York Poetry Press: Hipótesis del sueño. Antología personal (2019), Prometeo encadenado / Prometheus Bound (2022), and Un fragor de torres desgajadas / A Roar of Tumbling Towers (2025). Mañanayer received an honorable mention in the category of Best Poetry Book in Spanish or Bilingual at the 2011 International Latino Book Awards. Hipótesis del sueño. Antología personal received an honorable mention in the category of Best Poetry Anthology Book at the 2020 International Latino Book Awards. He is also the author of the novella Bajo el adoquín, la playa; the short-fiction collection Triacas; six plays, including Quemar las naves, winner of First Prize in the "Nuestras Voces" National Playwriting Competition at Repertorio Español in New York; and the coming-of-age novel La fugacidad del instante, published by Editorial Escarabajo in Bogotá in 2020. In October 2019, the 13th Latin/Hispanic Book Fair in New York was dedicated to him. His most recent books include Prometeo encadenado / Prometheus Bound, Este aire impuro, El héroe del Sur, and Un fragor de torres desgajadas / A Roar of Tumbling Towers. Miguel Falquez-Certain has lived in New York City for more than forty years and has worked as a multilingual translator since 1980.

The Sakura Series is a New York City-based nonprofit arts organization with a focus on uplifting femme, queer, and BIPOC voices through poetry, performance, and education. Our mission is to create spaces where underrepresented communities can share their stories, grow as artists, and connect through collective expression. Through poetry slams, writing workshops, cultural programming, and professional development opportunities, we empower emerging creatives to explore identity, build artistic careers, and challenge systems of oppression through their work.

Featured Poets: Karina Ordóñez, Isabel Gomez, KeyNote, and Leilani.

• Karina Ordóñez is a Colombian multidisciplinary poet, artist, and cultural organizer from Queens, NYC. Her work blends advocacy and art to explore intersectional feminism, collective liberalism, and the Latin American diaspora. Karina creates space for dialogue, remembrance, and resistance within marginalized communities. Intersectionality is at the forefront of her practice.

• Isabel Gomez / ISA is a Queer writer, artist and educator. Her work explores cultural and ethnic identity, community, land relations, gender and queerness and social justice across, but not limited to, Latin and Indigenous communities.

• KeyNote is a Paterson, NJ raised poet. She has been a feature, guest poet and slam competitor at 50+ events across NJ, NY and Philli. She is a 2025 Winner of the Slam House Poetry Slam. She is also the 2024 Winner of the New Jeru Send-Off Slam and placed second in the New Jeru Slam Finals; earning her spot on the 2025 team going on to compete nationally. Now, KeyNote is focused on growing her craft, curating OutCry the Slam in Newark, KeyNote Speakers Artist Social in Paterson, and co-curating Cozy Keys in Union City NJ.

• Leilani is an award-winning spoken word poet and multidisciplinary theater artist from Honolulu, now based in Brooklyn, New York. She has performed internationally and across NYC, including opening for Rupi Kaur and Rudy Francisco, and featuring at venues like the Bowery Poetry Club. A decorated slam poet, she has won the Brooklyn Poetry Slam at BRIC, the Honolulu Poetry Slam, and multiple slams at the Nuyorican Poetry Cafe. She has performed and led writing workshops at institutions like NYU, the Poetry Society of New York, Hunter College, and DePauw University. She is the founder and curator of the nonprofit poetry collective Sakura Series, where she has produced, hosted, and curated over 25 events. This writing workshop, poetry slam and open mic series is dedicated to using poetry as a tool to educate and amplify historically unheard stories and voices.

A group of Poets who live and work in North Brooklyn.

Featured Poets: TBA

Come one, come all! Share your writing and get feedback. Get inspired by hearing other peoples' work, relax in a comfortable space, and warm up your creativity. Bring your work or see where our writing prompts take you! The focus of the group will be on women and non-binary-identified folks (of any gender presentation!), but everyone is welcome and all genres are appreciated! Dust off your poetry and short fiction or bring parts of longer works. Bonus points for referencing Octavia Butler. Stick around after the circle.

Featured Poets: TBA

A small press.

Featured Poets: Robert Ostrom, India Lena González, Marina Blitshteyn, Carlie Hoffman, and Justin Boening.

• Robert Ostrom is the author of The Bear Wrestler (Saturnalia Books, 2025). His other books include Sandhour, Ritual and Bit, and The Youngest Butcher in Illinois. A professor of English at the New York City College of Technology, Ostrom lives in Queens with his partner and their two children.

• India Lena González is a poet, editor, and multidisciplinary artist. She received her BA from Columbia University and her MFA from New York University. fox woman get out! (Boa Editions, 2023), chosen by Aracelis Girmay as part of the Blessing the Boats Selections, is her debut poetry collection and was a finalist for Poetry Society of America’s 2024 Norma Farber First Book Award. A three-time National Poetry Series finalist, India is also a professional dancer, award-winning choreographer, and actor and has had the pleasure of performing at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Kitchen, St. Mark’s Church, La Mama, and New York Live Arts, as well as for the Whitney Biennial. She has taught courses and workshops at Columbia University, NYU, and the New York Public Library. She currently serves as a Senior Editor of Poets & Writers Magazine. For more information, visit indialenagonzalez.com.

• Born in Soviet Moldova, Marina Blitshteyn and her family came to the US as refugees in 1991. She studied English at SUNY Buffalo and creative writing at Columbia University. Her third poetry collection, ‘form a more perfect,’ won the Tenth Gate Prize from Word Works Books and will be published in 2025. She is also the author of ‘Two Hunters’ (Argos Books, 2019), and ‘i take your voice’ (Switchback Books, 2022), winner of The Gatewood Prize. Prior chapbooks include ‘Russian for Lovers’ (Argos Books), ‘Nothing Personal’ (Bone Bouquet Books), ‘$kill$’ (dancing girl press), and ‘Sheet Music’ (Sunnyoutside Press).

• Carlie Hoffman is a writer, literary translator, scholar and the author of three collections of poetry, One More World Like This World (Four Way Books, Spring 2025), a Library Journal 2025 “Title to Watch,” When There Was Light (Four Way Books, 2023), winner of the National Jewish Book Award, and This Alaska (Four Way Books, 2021), winner of the Northern California Publishers and Authors Gold Award in Poetry and a finalist for the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award. She is the translator from German of Paul Celan’s cousin, Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger’s Song of the Yellow Asters (World Poetry Books / March 2026), poems translated and contributed to the monograph White Shadows: Anneliese Hager and the Camera-less Photograph (Atelier Éditions, in collaboration with Harvard University’s Busch-Reisinger Museum), and is completing the translations of the essential poems of Rose Ausländer (forthcoming).

• Justin Boening is the author of Not on the Last Day, but on the Very Last, a winner of the 2015 National Poetry Series, as well as Self-Portrait as Missing Person, which was awarded a Poetry Society of America National Chapbook Fellowship. He is a recipient of the “Discovery”/Boston Review Poetry Prize, a work-study scholarship from the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, a Stadler Fellowship from Bucknell University, and a Henry David Thoreau Fellowship from the Vermont Studio Center. His poetry and reviews have appeared or are forthcoming in publications such as Denver Quarterly, Kenyon Review Online, Los Angeles Review of Books Quarterly, Narrative, and TYPO, among others. A graduate of Columbia University’s School of the Arts, Boening is currently a senior editor at Poetry Northwest, and is cofounding editor at Horsethief Books.

Langston’s Parlor is a monthly writing workshop and collective originating in Langston Hughes’ House in Harlem, NY and expanding across NYC. Currently based in Brooklyn, New York, Langston’s Parlor provides a haven for Black and Brown writers.

Featured Poets: Starasia Janelle Wright, Felicia Cade, Earl Spencer, Yasmine Lancaster, Saint James, and Robert Price.

• Born in Brooklyn, raised in Queens, and blessed with roots in every borough of New York, Starasia Janelle Wright draws artistic inspiration from her city's cultural richness and nostalgic charm, creating work that invites listeners to make space for love. Space for Love (2025) is a self-published poetry collection exploring black girls’ mental health, spirituality, and healing through ancestral wisdom, art, and community. Developed as handmade zines—part of The Free Black Women’s Library Black Zine Project funded by Brooklyn Arts Council—and scaled into an illustrated book in collaboration with NYC-based portrait artist, Quiana Lewis, Space for Love extends beyond the page into worldbuilding events, products, and community gatherings. Follow her on IG @madewithsunshine.

• Felicia Cade is a leading voice in contemporary poetry—an award-winning, Brooklyn-based poet whose work moves at the intersection of art and activism. Originally from Long Beach, California, she first gained national recognition as LA’s “Voice of the People” and has since emerged as a leading force in New York’s vibrant literary scene. A seven-time slam champion, Felicia has performed across the globe—from Ghana’s National Nkombon Festival to London’s Million Women’s March, and major stages like Lincoln Center, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She formerly hosted at the legendary Nuyorican Poets Cafe and now leads Langston’s Parlor, a beloved poetry workshop at the historic Langston Hughes House in Harlem. Her work centers Black liberation and fiercely champions Women’s Rights, LGBTQ+ Rights, Mental Health, and Social Justice. Follow her on IG @risefelicia.

• Earl Spencer is a poet, mental health counselor and workshop facilitator from New York City. In Rhythm of the Word: Lyrics, Poetry & Prose, Spencer has challenged himself and the reader to write across several poetry disciplines with honest reflections on our life experiences. Spencer also expanded his brand to include a wellness writing card game equipped with prompts and poetry styles to write in. Follow him on IG @Earlspencerpoetry.

• Yasmine Lancaster is a multidisciplinary artist, an award-winning filmmaker and a playwright. Her play The Little Prince was selected in the first annual Kanini Fest in 2024 in Bentonville, Arkansas, a festival dedicated to highlighting the work of artists of color, and was selected again for the festival at the landmark Wow Cafe Theater that same year. Yasmine's poems and essays have been published in Bronx Times Newspaper, Literary Review and Nia Magazine, among others. She has featured with Creative Expressions and Mocada Museum, and her poetry was hung in the Queens Museum as part of a 2019 exhibit. In 2013 she was part of the groundbreaking choreopoem Sidewalk Sisters, an off-Broadway play that sold out its entire run. She has had two chapbooks sell out: the self-published Summer Breaths, a collection of non-traditional haikus, and Substitute Teacher's Chronicles, published with Harlequin Creatures, with a portion of proceeds supporting nonprofits like Dred Scott Bird Sanctuary and GrassRoots Artist Movement. In summer 2023 she was accepted into the WildSeeds retreat as a fiction writer candidate. A proud member of Langston's Parlor poetry salon, Women Writers in Bloom and La Finca, she is excited to debut her limited edition chapbook collection You Wanna Tell Her in Spring 2026.

• Saint James is an Atlanta-born artist & curator practicing across poetry, sculpture, film & digital canvases. He focuses his offerings on spirituality and diasporic connections across time to channel ancestral confidence for the collective.

• Robert Price got a BFA in Playwriting at the University of Houston. He won a Tommy Tune award for his high school musical theatre work. His poems have filled a SoundCloud account under Robert0price and his stand up comedy is available on YouTube at The Cheep Show.

Souletri was born from a vision of fostering community connections and providing a safe haven for artists to express themselves freely. With support from Power Street Theatre, we curate a range of events — from Open Mics to artist showcases to digital series — spanning from Philadelphia to New York and beyond.

Featured Poets: Crystal Sanchez, B., and RK.

• Crystal Sanchez is a 36 year old Latina woman born and raised in the culturally rich streets of Brooklyn. She now resides on Long Island where she teaches. She fell in love with the power of spoken word in 2007 and has been writing, performing, competing and hosting spoken word workshops since. Her deepest wishes are to express, to touch, and to inspire through her art form in hopes that she can be the change she hopes to see in the world today.

• B. is a Brooklyn-born poet and performer whose work explores identity, vulnerability, and healing. Through raw storytelling and emotionally charged spoken word, his poetry invites audiences into moments of reflection, resilience, and self-discovery. B.’s performances blend rhythm, honesty, and presence, creating pieces that feel both deeply personal and universally resonant.

• RK / SELF is a Dominican New York native Indie Author and illustrator of Shattered-Beauty In the Loss and Meet In the Middle, poetry introspecting grief and intense circumstances, dissecting personal emotions behind Domestic violence experiences through Rhythm and flow, overriding anxieties and expressing the ugly parts of healing with the courage to stand and face the unexpected through Spoken word poetry. RK is also a visual artist teaching resilience and paitience through cultivation and collaboration.

An online anthology.

Featured Poets: Zev Torres, Prince A. McNally, Lynne Shapiro, and Zohreh Zadbood.

• Zev Torres is a writer and spoken word performer whose poetry has appeared in numerous print and on-line publications including Great Weather for Media’s Beacon Radiant and Suitcase of Chrysanthemums, several editions of Three Rooms Press’ Maintenant series, NYC: From the Inside, Brownstone Poets’ 2010-2024 Anthologies, Poetry is Dead, and The Rainbow Project. In addition to being a featured reader at many New York City spoken word events, in 2010, Zev founded the Skewered Syntax Poetry Crawls. Zev’s latest collection of poetry is Stalactites and Stalagmites (2021).

• Prince A. McNally is a teaching & performance poet from Brooklyn, NY, who facilitates writing workshops that utilize poetry & creative writing as means of expression & self-discovery. He is a two-time Pushcart Poetry Prize & Best of the Net nominee. His work has appeared in numerous online & print publications— throughout the U.S. & abroad. He has been featured at various venues such as: the Nuyorican Poets Café, Bowery Poetry Club, and the Book Club Bar to name a few. For bookings & inquiries, DM his Instagram @prince_the poet or email him at pmack210@gmail.com.

• Lynne Shapiro is the author of three poetry books, To Set Right (WordTech Editions), Gala (Solitude Hill Press), and Drone Poem (Letra Muerta, Inc., in MOMA’s collection), and a forthcoming prose chapbook, Ants Passiora and Me, also from Letra Muerta, Inc. Lynne has been an artist in residence in Spain, Morocco and England. She lives in Hoboken, New Jersey, with her dog, River, and is currently at work on a poetry chapbook tentatively titled, Like a Corncrake in Orkney.

• Zohreh Zadbood is an Iranian storyteller, photographer, and poet writing in Persian and English. A recent NYU graduate, she is completing her MFA in Creative Writing at The New School. Her work appears in The Kenyon Review, About Place Journal, The Los Angeles Press, Soup Can Magazine, and New Generation Beats Anthology. Her poem “Nobaraneh” was named Poem of the Week by Beatlife Magazine. She has performed at Unnameable Books (2024), the NYPL–58th St. Branch for the East Midtown Partnership’s World Poetry Day celebration (2023), The 550 Garden (2024), and Café Lafayette during JCAST (2025).

A weekly open mic series for poets and musicians alongside two featured readers per week.

Featured Poets: Didi Champagne, Munsif Husami, Jacob R. Moses, Nicca Ray, Chris Rockwell, and Jennifer Juneau.

• DIDI CHAMPAGNE has graced the NYC stages for close to 40 years. She is a professional musician, poet and mixed media artist. Her book of poetry and mixed media art was published in 2021 Didi has a few CD’s with original music with her poetry and mixed media artwork on the covers and is available upon request.

• Munsif Husami is a first-generation Indian-American who writes about identity, mental health, immigration, love and culture. He has featured as a poet on the PBS documentary Voices in The Garden – A Midsummer Night's Dream (2025) and at venues like SOB's, Rutgers University, the Paterson Poetry Festival and the NYC Poetry Festival.

• Jacob R. Moses is a poet, educator, and spoken word artist from New York City. He is the author of Grimoire (iiPublishing) and a 2024 Pushcart Prize nominee.

• Nicca Ray is a playwright, memoirist, and poet. Her first play, The Cry of the Butterfly, was recently staged at The Theater for the New City. Her memoirs, Love and Cigarettes: A Hollywood Mother Daughter Story is forthcoming from Punk Hostage Press and Ray by Ray: A Daughter’s Take on the Legend of Nicholas Ray is available from Three Rooms Press.

• Chris Rockwell is an award winning spoken word poet and hip-hop artist from the Jersey Shore, and is also Founder and Editor of SOUP CAN MAGAZINE. In 2009, he was the recipient of the Largesse Publishing Award, and as the very first Grand Slam Champion of the legendary Loser Slam, Rockwell has since competed in the National Poetry Slam twice, toured the country, was named Poet Laureate of Asbury Park in 2010, formed the Chris Rockwell Collective, and even went on to be co-founder of the Jersey Shore Poetry Slam.

• Jennifer Juneau is a 2025 Acker Award recipient for poetry. She is the author of the novel ÜberChef USA (Spork Press, 2019) a full-length poetry collection More Than Moon, (Is a Rose Press, 2020,) a short fiction collection Maze (Roadside Press, 2024) and the full-length poetry collection Night of the Manhattans (Pink Trees Press, 2025.) She curates The Phoenix Poetry Open Mic at Shades of Green Pub every Monday evening in the East Village, NYC.

A website and quarterly literary journal devoted to modern English alliterative verse.

Featured Poets: Aaron Poochigian, Lancelot Schaubert, Zach Weinersmith, and Paul Deane.

• Aaron Poochigian earned a PhD in Classics from the University of Minnesota and an MFA in Poetry from Columbia University. His latest poetry collection, American Divine, came out in 2021, and his immersive tour of Central Park in poetry, "Four Walks In Central Park," came out in 2025. He has published numerous translations with Penguin Classics and W.W. Norton. His work has appeared in such publications as Best American Poetry, The Paris Review and POETRY. He is the recipient of the Richard Wilbur and the Anahid literary awards.

• Find Lancelot at the big blue tent: Lancelot Schaubert is the author of Bell Hammers, The Greenwood Poet, Inconveniences Rightly Considered, and other novels and anthologies. He has sold work to McSweeney’s, Tor.com, The Poet’s Market, The New Haven Review, The World Series Edition of Poker Pro, The Anglican Theological Review, etc. He edited The Women’s Poetry Anthology, Of Gods and Globes, and the Showbear Family Circus. He’s a big fan of that one time Mary Oliver shoved a dead pigeon in her pocket in front of Christian Wiman before they went onstage at a poetry panel.

• Zach Weinersmith is best known as the cartoonist of the comic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. He also co-wrote the popular science book A City on Mars with his wife and worked with the artist Boulet to create a children's retelling of the story of Beowulf called Bea Wolf. His other books are either less good or more controversial, so we'll leave them out. He lives in Virginia.

• Paul Deane is a theoretical linguist by training, a computational linguist by vocation, and a poet by avocation. He is the editor of Forgotten Ground Regained (alliteration.net), a website and quarterly literary journal devoted to modern English alliterative verse. His poetry has appeared in The Brazen Head, Illuminations of the Fantastic, and Dennis Wise's collection, Speculative Poetry and the Modern Alliterative Revival: A Critical Anthology.

Located in Purchase, NY, Manhattanville University’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program helps students hone their craft, find their voice, and connect with a nurturing literary community.

Featured Poets: Carolina Abreu, Kate MacLauchlan, and Iain Haley Pollock.

• Carolina Abreu’s literary journey began after immigrating to the US from the Dominican Republic, and Her debut poetry collection is Speak English, You’re in America. Her work is also showcased in various publications: HBO’s The Inspiration Room, LNNY Blog, HPalabritas, Dominican Writers Association, The Ice Colony, and the anthology Poems for a Wish. Deeply committed to community and collaboration, Abreu founded the Hudson Valley Arts Collective, a community-centered initiative that amplifies local voices and fosters creative connection through the arts.

• Kate MacLauchlan's poetry examines guilt and displacement, as well as growing up queer in rural Texas. Her work can be seen in The Marbled Sigh Journal; Pink Apple Press, Chaotic Merge Magazine, OnGaia Literary Magazine, Lily Poetry Review and North American Review.

• Iain Haley Pollock is the author of three poetry collections, most recently All the Possible Bodies, published by Alice James Books in 2025. Organizations ranging from the Cave Canem Foundation and the NAACP to the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Poetry Society of America have recognized Pollock’s work with awards and grants. He directs the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Manhattanville University in Purchase, NY.

First Tuesdays is an open mic/featured reader literary gathering where writers who wrestle with the issues of our day—from racism and sexual violence to climate change and economic inequality—can find an audience willing to embrace the risk and discomfort that come with sharing politically engaged, satirical, or otherwise edgy material; where those writers can coexist, in an atmosphere of mutual respect and camaraderie, with writers whose work is more traditional and conservative; where anyone who comes only to listen, even if they just happen to walk in off the street, can sit down with a cup of tea or glass of wine and feel not just welcomed, but challenged, engaged, comforted, seen, maybe even inspired. At the heart of First Tuesdays, in other words, is an ongoing, proactive commitment to diversity and inclusivity, in both the kinds of literary work we welcome into our community and the people who come to share it. Nothing will erode that sense of community more surely, however, than the mistrust and hatred borne of sexism, racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, or any of the other far-too-many ways that human beings have learned to target each other for who they or what they believe.

Featured Poets: David Siller, Henry Sussman, and Peter Marra.

• Poet, translator, editor, occasional actor and director, David Siller studied Francophone literature, focusing on poetry and theatre. A voracious reader; a film, tv, and comic book buff; he knows more about French hip hop than you could possibly imagine. He teaches French at St. John’s University, and calls Queens home. His soul, however, wanders the streets of Paris. His first collection "...& Other Improprieties" is available now.

• Trained as a critic in the ateliers of French theory & deconstruction, Henry Sussman has published 12 books of literary criticism, on subjects ranging from Kafka, 19th-century U.S. literature, & the Frankfurt School to aesthetics, psychoanalysis, & cultural literacy, Henry Sussman’s latest book, The Great Dismissal: Memoir of the Cultural Demolition Derby, 2015-22, will be published by Bloomsbury in early 2023. His poems have appeared in that volume, as in Epiphany, Formes poétiques contemporaines, and Mediamorphosis: Kafka and the Moving image. His play, "Soirée at Walter Benjamin's," debuts at the New York Theater Festival in October, 2023. He’s been scoring poems for over half a century, but until moving to Jackson Heights at the outset of 2018, his relation to the living community of poetry has been from afar, as a reader & commentator. He has been a regular at the "First Tuesdays" readings in Jackson Heights since that time, as at "Poets of Queens" in Astoria. He's been known to stray as far as Brooklyn and Manhattan for similar purposes. His participation in this rich and radically democratic world has proven a dazzling source of inspiration.

• Peter Marra’s work often deals with the forgotten – addicts, the unhoused, sex workers, etc. from the past to the present, seen through a surrealist transgressive lens. His latest collection A Dirty Diary of Ordinary Days recounting his life in the Times Square and East Village of NYC (1977-1990), was published by INCUNABULA MEDIA.

A publishing company.

Featured Poets: Kevin Powell, Francis Mateo, and Marina Carreira.

• Kevin Powell is a prominent American writer, civil/human rights activist, poet, and filmmaker known for his work on social justice, hip-hop culture, and black male studies. A former MTV Real World cast member, he has authored 16+ books, including The Education of Kevin Powell, and is working on a biography of Tupac Shakur.

• Born in the Dominican Republic, Francis Mateo is a writer and multidisciplinary artist whose work moves fluidly between poetry, short fiction, vignettes, and photography books written in both English and Spanish. His published works include Ubre Urbe, El Alto, TropicalYork, and Sacarle Pétalos al Pavimento, books that have garnered international recognition for their lyrical exploration of memory, migration, and urban life. Holding a B.A. in English Literature and an M.F.A. in Acting, Francis extends his artistic practice beyond the written page, remaining actively engaged in theatre and captivating audiences through performance. His work also finds its way into classrooms, where it invites readers to reflect on language, identity, and the textures of contemporary experience.

• Marina Carreira (she/they) is a queer Luso-American poet and artist from Newark, NJ. A Pushcart Prize nominee and 2024 Luso-American fellow in the DISQUIET Literary Program, Carreira is the author of Desgraçada (Bottlecap Press, 2023), Tanto Tanto (CavanKerry Press, 2022), Save the Bathwater (Get Fresh Books, 2018), and I Sing to That Bird Knowing It Won’t Sing Back (Finishing Line Press, 2017). She has exhibited her art at the Newark Museum, Morris Museum, ArtFront Galleries, and Monmouth University Center for the Arts, among others. Carreira works in higher education and teaches women and gender studies at Kean University. Find her on Instagram at @savethebathewater.

The BMCC Writing Center Poets group consists of Igwe Williams, the director of the writing center and a faculty member for the English department, Nicollette Barsamian, the supervisor, Marcel Hidalgo, the former coordinator of the writing center, and Victoria Lau, a tutor for the Writing Center and an English adjunct lecturer at Queens College. As educators, we work with students throughout each step of the writing process. We also offer various workshops during term related to English composition and poetry. As poets we write in both free verse and formal poetry. We believe in using poetry to voice underrepresented narratives.

Featured Poets: TBA

an open mic & literary magazine out of nyc.

Featured Poets: Elizabeth Pitts, Anne Van Epps, and Oliver Baer.

• elizabeth pitts is a poet who lives in nyc.

• anne van epps is a stand up comedian from ohio.

• oliver baer is the editor of cthulu sex.

FPP is a safe space for expression. We host poetry open mics, writing workshops, and events in Brooklyn every 4-6 weeks.

Featured Poets: Sophia Dhanani, Magdi Hazaa, Zoe Lalji, Joseph Inder Lamba, Britt Coffman, and Aster Drewe.

• Sophia Dhanani, founder of Flower Power Poetry, is a Brooklyn based creative. While she enjoys theatre, digital art, and comedy - poetry and spoken word have a special place in her heart. Her journal is her safe space and open mics are her prayer hall. She believes words, especially those rooted in vulnerability, have the power to change both our internal and external worlds for the better. Sophia aims to create a community for the everyday poet that lives within us all.

• Magdi Hazaa is a writer, performance poet, and playwright based in Brooklyn, New York. An alumnus of Minneapolis College of Art and Design, their work blends elements of poetry, monologue, narrative, sound, and live performance. Their writing has appeared in Temporal Lobe Literary, Death Rattle, The MacGuffin, Rough Cut Press, and Apparition Literary Magazine. Their work can also be found at magdihazaa.art and @magdi_hazaa on Instagram.

• Zoe Lalji is an aspiring doctor living in New York City with a deep appreciation for the full depth and range of the human experience. She is a poet, musician and curious mind who seeks to experience, understand and express the complexities of being unapologetically human in this messed up, beautiful world. Zoe is drawn to communities where vulnerability brings connection and hopes to surround herself with brave spirits who dare to live authentically.

• Joseph Inder Lamba, aka Vogue Evolution Krishna Prince Habibi Grande, is a multi faceted artist and educator native to New York City. His primary medium is portrait and event photography. He also enjoys poetry, dance & acrylic painting.

• Britt Coffman is a 26 year old genderqueer poet based in New York. Their bread-and-butter has always been stories and poems rooted in magical realism. Their work has appeared in journals such as Last Leaves, Reliquiae and Menacing Hedge. Britt’s senior manuscript received the Pratt Institute’s BFA Thesis Prize in 2022 and their second chapbook, The King’s Beavers, is available now at Bottlecap Press.

• Aster Drewe (she/her) is a Writer, Director, and performance artist whose work has been seen at The Flynn Center, Yale University, Here Arts, ERF, artNY, Columbia University and others. You can follow her work @ asterdrewe.

The WildStory podcast brings poets, environmental activists, and scientists together for important conversations about nature, ecology, and the environment. Produced and created by Ann E. Wallace, Poet Laureate Emeritus of Jersey City, and master gardener Kim Correro for the Native Plant Society of New Jersey, each episode features an in-depth interview with a poet whose work engages with and reflects on the natural world, biodiversity, and the environment. These conversations are followed by segments featuring environmental advocates, horticulturists, ecology experts, historians, biologists, landscape designers, conservationists, or native plant enthusiasts. Now in its fourth season, the show has hosted poets that include Camille T. Dungy, Adrie Rose, Ross Gay, Lauren Camp, Tess Taylor, J. Drew Lanham, Kai Coggin, January Gill O'Neil, James Crews, Emily Hockaday, Theta Pavis, Lynne Shapiro, Lisbeth White, and many others. The WildStory makes space for conversations that bring a socially, environmentally, historically, and racially informed lens to the natural world. In this socially complex anthropocene moment, we are all challenged to think beyond idyllic images of nature, and, indeed, the voices invited onto the podcast help us to examine the layers of meaning–grief, loss, devastation, but also potential, healing, and hope–so often held within the American landscape.

Featured Poets: Lynne Shapiro, Theta Pavis, and Ann E. Wallace.

• Lynne Shapiro is the author of two poetry chapbooks, To Set Right (WordTech Communications) and Gala (Solitude Hill Press). Her prose chapbook, Ants, Passiflora and Me and artist’s book, Drone Poem, both published by Letra Muerta, Inc., are in MOMA’s and Yale University’s collections, among others. She is fortunate to have been a poet-in-residence in Morocco, Spain, and England. She lives in New Jersey with her dog, River. Her website is LynneShapiroPoet.com.

• Theta Pavis is a poet and educator who lives in Jersey City, NJ. Her chapbook, The Red Strobe, was published this year by Finishing Line Press in 2025. She has received residencies from The Bethany Arts Center and Arts By The People. In 2022, a collection of her work was shortlisted by Yellow Arrow Publishing. Her work has appeared in The Journal of New Jersey Poets, The Red Wheelbarrow, Mom Egg Review and many others. Her poems have been performed onstage by Poetry Well in New York.

• Ann E. Wallace is Poet Laureate Emeritus of Jersey City, NJ. She hosts and produces The WildStory: A Podcast of Poetry and Plants for the Native Plant Society of NJ. She is author of three full-length collections: Keeping Room (Nixes Mate, 2026), Days of Grace and Silence: A Chronicle of COVID’s Long Haul (Kelsay Books, 2024), and Counting by Sevens (Main Street Rag, 2019). Her work is anthologized in The Nature of Our Times (Paloma Press), The Big Brutal Act (Harbor Editions), The Long COVID Reader (Long Hauler Publishing), and other collections, and her essays have appeared in Huffington Post, USA Today, and other media outlets. Her website is AnnWallacePhD.com.

We Learn, Share, and Make things. NYC Resistor is a 503(c)(3) hacker collective with a shared space located in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. We meet regularly to share knowledge, hack on projects together, and build community.

Featured Poets: Winston Chiang, Chiara Di Lello, Natalie Gilda, and José M.

• Winston Chiang is a Chinese-Taiwanese American spoken word poet, writer, and Ironman athlete, based in Brooklyn. He has been published in Salon and Business Insider. You can follow him on Instagram @winston.chiang. He believes in eating at local fruit stalls, learning other languages, and waterfalls only count if you touch them. He is looking for publishers for works of poetry and a travel memoir.

• Chiara Di Lello is a queer writer, artist, and teacher who unequivocally supports the movement for Palestinian liberation. Her debut chapbook, CHILDLESS MILLENNIAL is out now from Game Over Books. Chiara is a Pushcart nominee and Best of the Net finalist, and curates Childfree Chats, an online series of print and video interviews with childfree people. She was born and raised in New York City but now lives up the Hudson River, where she spends her spare time lifting heavy sh*t, trying to be a better gardener, and spoiling her friends' kids.

• Natalie Gilda is the creator and host of Hot People Read Poetry, which was just an observation. She only wears pink or neutral colors. Her first chapbook, Stripper Poetry is available for purchase. Her Instagram accounts are @poetrybimbo or @hotpeoplereadpoetry.

• José M. AKA SoyPlantPapi - SPP is a poet whose work explores love, longing, and tenderness. His inspiration comes from plants and the everyday beauty found in life. He is currently working on publishing several poems.

An elective multidisciplinary collaboration.

Featured Poets: Merisdy Florexile, Cynthia Manik, and Irena Nayfield.

A poetry series.

Featured Poets: Patricia Carragon, Kim D. Brandon, David Dephy, Jordan E. Franklin, and Roxanne Hoffman.

• Patricia Carragon is the curator/editor-in-chief of Brownstone Poets and the editor of Sense & Sensibility Haiku Journal. She has a Best of the Net nomination from Poets Wear Prada for 2025. Her jazz-poetry collection, Stranger on the Shore, was recently published by Human Error Publishing.

• Kim D. Brandon is an activist poet, novelist, painter, and storyteller. She received her BA from Bernard M. Baruch College in New York. Kim has been the featured poet/artist at numerous events, workshops, and human rights rallies and has been the featured storyteller in schools and cultural events. She has been published in over thirty publications.

• David Dephy is an award-winning American poet, novelist, and multimedia artist. He is the founder of Poetry Orchestra. Named Poet-in-Residence for Brownstone Poets for 2024-2026, Dephy was exiled from his native country of Georgia and was granted indefinite political asylum in the U.S. He lives and works in New York.

• Brooklyn-born poet Jordan E. Franklin received her MFA from Stony Brook Southampton and a PhD from Binghamton University. She is the author of two poetry collections, when the signals come home (Switchback Books, 2021) and the forthcoming make it to the end (of the movie) (BOA Editions, Ltd., 2027).

• Roxanne Hoffman runs the literary press Poets Wear Prada with Jack Cooper. Her words can be found in cyberspace, set to music, on the silver screen, and in print. Recent chapbooks, both illustrated by Edward Odwitt: In Loving Memory (2011) and The Little Entomologist (2018).

An arts society that focuses on literary and performance arts, hosting open mics, theatre productions, and entertainment showcases.

Featured Poets: Jay M. Kay, Aaron Glover, and Beatriz Bibi Rosa.

• Jay M. Kay (she/they) is a 25 year old writer from Jersey City. She recently had her first poem published in New Jersey Bards Poetry Review. They also serve as the copy editor of Magnata Magazine, an online magazine shining a light on poetry and performance. They are also an advocate, working on three reports covering the state of policing in Connecticut designed for lawmakers, and showing up to advocate and care for trans people at post-op doctors appointments.

• Aaron Glover is a multi-talented creative, specializing in lyricism, storytelling, and blending knowledge, experiences, and observations into his work. He has performed across multiple states, spanning the last decade and a half, including for a number of community-based organizations, fundraising events, as well as showcases and open mics.

• Beatriz Bibi Rosa is a spoken word poet and songwriter. Bibi enjoys sacrilege whilst writing about grief, religious trauma, and all the love she wants to give away before it rots inside her heart.

We seek to promote, develop, and foster the arts related to the entire process of creating, editing, and producing books, notebooks, and paper, and more broadly everything connected to the written word and language. We also aim to encourage and generate interaction among diverse artistic expressions. We offer experiences designed to explore different activities related to books, language, and literature as an art form through concrete actions, including: editorial and text revision services; artisanal bookbinding (book repair, creation of notebooks, planners, albums, and more); readings; book presentations; literary workshops in poetry, fiction, and creative writing; the sale of related items; and more. Find us at our website here.

Featured Poets: TBA

Jersey City Writers (JCW) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization in Hudson County, NJ. We are dedicated to building a community for writers to develop and explore their craft by interacting with other writers. We inspire and support each other through dozens of monthly events, including workshops, writing prompts, marathons, and special events. All genres are welcome. Our diverse meetings cater to writers of novels, plays, poems, memoirs, short stories, and more. Stop by and bond with other people who understand the complicated yet satisfying process of creating something from nothing.

Featured Poets: Sarah T. Jewell, Tabitha Dial, Elissa Matthews, SJ, John Yocca, and Palak Biyani.

• Sarah T. Jewell is a poet and medical librarian. She published her first poetry chapbook How to Break Your Own Heart in 2017 with dancing girl press. She also won the Sara Patton Poetry Stipend in 2018 from The Writer’s Hotel. In 2016, she founded the weekly Jersey Plums Poetry Workshop, part of the nonprofit Jersey City Writers. Her work has appeared in Rattle, 2 Horatio, Mudfish, and other journals.

• Tabitha Dial (she/her) believes everyone can write. She is working to co-facilitate a Poetry Book Publishing Class for Jersey City Writers. She published two nonfiction books, one on Tea Leaf Reading and the other on Cheese Astrology. “Alert the Oracle” is her debut poetry collection, due 2027 from Accents Publishing.

• Elissa Matthews was born and raised in New Jersey, but eventually launched on a journey of discovery, exploring many jobs, including bartender, cook on a prawn trawler, and cold-water SCUBA diver. She once again lives in New Jersey, twelve miles down the road from where she grew up. She has one published novel, Where the River Bends, and a collection of short stories, Bittersweet and Magic. Her short stories and poetry have appeared in several journals and anthologies.

• SJ is a Jersey City sound poet who likes to incorporate the audience in his work. He attends open mics around New Jersey and has performed as a featured poet at JCPOFEST, Mocha Mic with Millie, WAYE, Grantwood Poetry Reading Series, NJCU Open Mic, NYC Poetry Festival, and Hudson County Poetry Festival, as well as hosting his own open mic 'One Mic Stand with SJ' every 2nd Friday of the month. SJ is also actively involved in the poetry community, moderating a weekly online poetry workshop with Jersey City Writers as well as the Poet Liaison with JCPOFEST in 2026.

• John Yocca has been writing stories since grade school. He meandered his way through short stories as a child, to writing game stories like a sports beat reporter using Nintendo games, to poetry, plays, drama reviews, to corporate bullshit and finally to writing TV scripts and back into poetry.

• Palak Biyani is an analyst and a writer. She writes to let out my emotions in a healthy way. A lot of her writing comes from the genuinely of my experiences- things that she feel deeply but don’t always say out loud. Palak feels home around nature and music, and this is reflected in her writing too.

"What does it mean to build shelter in a world that keeps changing?" Sheltering the Storms is an original devised performance blending poetry, live music, movement, and sound. Together, five artists devised a collective journey through the weather they carry and the shelters that emerge through grief, joy, memory, the body, the Earth, and one another. Founded by Jamie Lazan, THAC designs intentional experiences rooted in connection, inviting us to slow down, make meaning, and express what lives within and around us, deepening our relationship to ourselves, one another, and the living world."

Featured Poets: Jamie Lazan, Emily Cordes, Neha MALIKAH, Jessica Harding, and Danielle Divine.

• Jamie Lazan is a NYC-based poet, experience designer, creative visionary, and facilitator passionate about connecting people to their inner worlds and one another. Through a trauma-informed approach, she blends guided visualization, somatics, and expressive arts with her background in human services. Jamie most recently directed Love Letters (giving voice to nonspeakers), joined the Poetry Society of New York's roster of typewriter poets, and helped translate a story into a guided experience inviting audiences to reconnect with their inner child. Her poetry explores lineage, familial roots, and the raw symbolism of being human. After debuting her first published poem at this very festival, she is excited to return as founder of The Human Arts Collective to share poetry and immersive experiences for connection. IG: @jamiejalynne. 

• Emily Cordes is a Brooklyn, NY-based actress, writer, theatre-maker, and arts marketer/fundraiser. She hails from Pittsburgh, PA and is a graduate of Smith College and Columbia University. She has performed in various plays, films, and web productions throughout the tri-state area, and co-created devised theatre with such groups as No Dominion Theatre Company and The Laboratory of Soul. As a founding member of the feminist theatre group Tapestry Collective, she develops, produces, and performs in original devised plays, most recently 2022's "#SoSadSoSexy," about the fetishization of mentally ill women. Her poetry collections "Queen of Swords" (2023) and "Armful of Poppies" (2021) were published by Read or Green Books, and she performs spoken word live in NYC and on Zoom screens across the country and globe. IG: @postmodern.psyche; http://bit.ly/EmilyCordes.

• Neha MALIKAH: Originating in Washington D.C and raised across every letter of the DMV, but primarily in the suburbs of Baltimore between Laurel, Maryland and Jhelum, Pakistan, MALIKAH is an artist, musician, DCPS educator and community builder. Bending guitar strings, genres, and words to her will, MALIKAH uses her self-taught music skills to serve the stories and communities at the heart of her art. An alumna of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service where she majored in International Relations with a focus in Culture and Politics, her work exists at the intersection of socio-political- and self-transformation. She has been featured in the 2023 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the 2025-26 New York City Poetry Festival with the Human Arts Collective, Howard University’s Summer for Democracy Teach-In and local house shows in the D.C area. Her work is grounded in community, as she serves as a Youth Development Specialist for the hip-hop non-profit Words, Beats and Life and hosts community events including demo days with Incubator at 7DrumCity, protest jams for Free DC and a vinyl swap at SOST DC in collaboration with Home Rule and Rhythm Lingo Records which was featured and reccomended by The Washington Post. Homegrown, honest, and here to stay, MALIKAH invites you to come along for the ride.

• Jessica Harding is a Baltimore-based holistic therapist, poet, and founder of Inner Child Sleepover Party. Her debut poetry collection, Wear Flowers in Your Hair: Power to the Peaceful, is a love letter to the dreamers, the seekers, and the rebels at heart; a call to return to nature, remember our innate wholeness, and reclaim the beauty of being fully alive.  IG: @jess_harding316.

• Danielle Divine is an Air Force Veteran and Licensed Clinical Social Worker who brings compassion, creativity, and a strengths-based perspective to everything she does. Danielle is the author of Whimsical Heights, a poetry book.  Danielle has also co-hosted poetry writing experiences that bring community and storytelling together. Her creative expression has also been featured in community art exhibitions in Harlem.

NeuroNautic Institute began in 1987 as an off-the-cuff international art and performance collective. Based in New York City, the Institute was initially formed in Kathmandu producing live digital video performance, as well as psychedelic art. It included artists from New York, Tel Aviv, San Francisco, and London. Today, NeuroNautic Institute’s focus is hosting both writing workshops and reading series. In 2012 our annual Night in the Naked City Series began, showcasing the voices of those rarest of birds, Native New Yorkers. In 2018, we expanded to our on-going monthly readings both in-person and via Zoom. Having taken a hiatus from running our weekly writer’s workshop, future engagements are currently being planned and scheduled. NeuroNautic Press is our newest endeavor. We aim to produce, promote, and distribute innovative work from a variety of voices. Turn the personal into the universal.

Featured Poets: Octavio Quintanilla, Fiona, Matt Proctor, and Eleni Kourti.

• Octavio Quintanilla is the 2025 Texas Poet Laureate and the author of the poetry collections If I Go Missing (Slough Press, 2014) and The Book of Wounded Sparrows (Texas Review Press, 2024), which was longlisted for the National Book Award, a finalist for the Juan Felipe Herrera Best Poetry Book Award, and a 2026 Finalist for the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. Most recently, he published Las Horas Imposibles / The Impossible Hours, winner of the 2024 Ambroggio Prize of the Academy of American Poets and winner of the Burdine C. Johnson Award for Best Book of Poetry from the Texas Institute of Letter (University of Arizona Press, 2025).

• Fiona is a New York City Poet and performer.

• matt proctor is a poet from columbus, ohio. he is the host of the easy paradise open mic every monday night at kgb bar in manhattan.

• Eleni Kourti is a Greek American Poet, novelist, teacher, and actor.

Shabdaguchha is an International Poetry Magazine, celebrating 28 years of publication!

Featured Poets: Hassanal Abdullah, Bengt O Björklund, Naznin Seamon, Marisa Russo, and Murat Nemet-Nejat

• Hassanal Abdullah is the author of more than 60 books in various genres, including 21 collections of poetry, and is the editor of Shabdaguchha, an international bilingual poetry magazine. His Collected Poems (in Bengali) was published in two volumes. Mr. Abdullah received five international poetry awards including the Homer European Medal of Poetry and Art (Belgium, 2016), Klemence Janesky Award (Poland, 2021) and Paul Von Heyse Award (Germany, 2024). His poetry has been translated into eighteen languages and was published in various poetry anthologies throughout the world. He has been invited to international poetry festivals in China, Guatemala, Morocco, Macedonia, Kenya, Poland, Greece, Mexico, Canada and India. Mr. Abdullah is a retired NYC High School math teacher.

• Bengt O Björklund is a poet, journalist, photographer, musician, writer, and artist. He was born in Stockholm in 1949. In 1968, he landed in prison in Istanbul where he met a bunch of international artists, poets and musicians. It was there he began his creative activity. In 2018, Bengt was named Sweden Beat Poet Laureate and honored with a lifetime award by the National Beat Poetry Foundation, Inc. based in Connecticut, USA. He is the author of five poetry collections in Swedish and two in English. Bengt is the recipient of the 2025 Shabdaguchha International Poetry Award. He lives in Stockholm with his artist wife, Gertrude.

• Naznin Seamon is the author of ten books including five collections of poetry, two collections of short stories, and a novel. Her first book of poetry, Adigonta Bistirnoter Dhala, was published in February 2000 and was reprinted in 2004. She was the recipient of the Shabdaguchha Poetry Award 2007. Hollowness on the Horizon (2015) is a collection of her poetry in English translation, published by Feral Press, New York. She is an ESL teacher for a NYC High School.

• Marisa Russo is a poet, editor, and Adjunct Assistant Professor at Hunter College, CUNY. She holds an M.A. in Hispanic and Peninsular Literature and is a doctoral candidate at Universidad La Salle, Costa Rica. Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Nueva York Poetry Press and co-director of Nueva York Poetry Review, she also leads Turrialba Literaria and the Latin American Poetry Festival of New York City. Her work appears in international journals and anthologies and has been featured at festivals and book fairs across the Americas, Europe, and North Africa. Her books include El idioma de los parques / The Language of the Parks (2018), Jardines Colgantes (2020), El cielo comienza en las raíces (2020), La joven ombú (2024), and Il linguaggio dei parchi (2024).

• Murat Nemet-Nejat is a poet, translator, and essayist born in Istanbul, Turkey. A graduate of Robert College, he studied literature at Amherst College and Columbia University and has lived in the United States since 1959. He is the editor of Eda: An Anthology of Contemporary Turkish Poetry and has translated major Turkish poets including Ece Ayhan and Orhan Veli. His poetry, essays, and collaborative works explore language, exile, identity, and cultural memory. Among his notable books are Io’s Song, Aishe Series and Other Harbor Poems, and The Bridge. He continues to work on poetry and literary translation projects.

Abstract Voices is a creative movement Founded by Taikeya J, originally launched as a student Poetry organization. It evolved into a dynamic community that bridges artistry, healing, and empowerment through written and spoken expression. Guided by Taikeya's motto "If you learn to take action of your Voice, then you will learn to take action of your life,” Abstract Voices unites poets, and writers to awaken purpose through storytelling.

Featured Poets: Taikeya J., V-Lynn, and Tamara Brownlee.

• Taikeya J. is a poetic voice and faith-rooted creative whose work bridges art, identity, and spiritual healing. Through her spoken-word series and writing, she inspires audiences to rediscover wholeness, purpose, and divine rhythm. Her signature work, Speak; Born to Be Heard, is both testimony and transformation - an invitation to live unapologetically in the power of your voice.

• Verba L. Brown Presents as V-Lynn, a Storyteller of the Spoken Word. A Native of Do or Die Bed-Stuy Brooklyn NY, now transplanted in the Southern part of The Garden State, NJ. She'll surely take you "Out of Your Head and Into Your Heart.”

• Tamara Brownlee is a powerful voice in the mental health field, passionately speaking on recovery, healing, and resilience. Through her lived experience, professional insight, and compassionate approach, she inspires others to believe that recovery is not only possible, but attainable. Her work offers hope, encouragement, and practical support to individuals navigating mental health challenges, reminding people that healing journeys can lead to restored purpose, strength, and renewed life.

SPEAK Open Mic (Sharing Poetic Expressions, Artistry, and Knowledge) is a monthly poetry and arts gathering housed at the Puffin Cultural Forum in Teaneck, New Jersey. For several years, SPEAK has served as both an open mic and a writer’s workshop space, cultivating a community where artists not only share their work, but also engage in meaningful dialogue about it. A defining feature of SPEAK is our commitment to reflection and feedback, performers are invited not just to be heard, but to hear how their words have resonated, sparked questions, or created connection. Each event begins with a Writer’s Circle workshop designed to nurture craft, encourage experimentation, and build trust among participants. Rooted in the belief that poetry is both expression and exchange, SPEAK exists to amplify voices, deepen understanding, and serve the broader community through artistry, conversation, and collective growth.

Featured Poets: Toney Jackson, Maliyah Simone, RiN, Jasmin Perdomo, and Puneet Kaur Ananad.

• Toney Jackson is a nationally recognized educator, poet, author, and hip-hop artist from Hackensack, NJ. A fourth-grade teacher by day, he infuses his classroom with rhythm, storytelling, and creativity, work that’s landed him in national commercials for Microsoft and, Canva. His innovative use of hip-hop in education has been featured in NEA Today magazine. Beyond the classroom, Toney is the host of S.P.E.A.K.: Sharing Poetic Expressions, Artistry, and Knowledge, a monthly open mic and writers’ circle at the Puffin Cultural Forum in Teaneck, NJ. He is an author and illustrator and records music under the name Zach Lost. With every mic he steps to, Toney brings heart, intellect, and a mission: to uplift, educate, and create spaces where community and creativity thrive.

• Maliyah Simone is a poet originally from New Mexico, who now resides in New Jersey. She has been writing poetry since she was a child. Maliyah writes under the pen name of M.Sim and has been published in multiple publications including the Unsealed and Sunday Mornings at the River 2025 Anthology. Maliyah’s works aim to bring humanity into the complexity of emotion & experience to show that we can walk with each one, yet still come out whole in the end. If you would like to explore her debut collection entitled Prosopopoeia or to read more of her work feel free to follow her insta: @m.sim_poetry & Facebook: M. Sim Poetry.

• RiN is a spoken word artist from Harlem who has been writing since middle school. She uses poetry as a space for reflection, storytelling, and human connection, drawing inspiration from the culture and resilience of the communities that shaped her voice. After returning to poetry in late 2024, RiN’s work now centers on vulnerability, healing, accountability, and self-growth. She is the self-published author of With a Kadence and has been featured in publications including the American Library of Poetry Discovered: 2013 Poetry Collection, Graffiti Literary Magazine, and Promethean Literary Journal. Through spoken word, RiN aims to foster peace, emotional honesty, and authentic community connection.

• Jasmin Perdomo began writing poetry in her early teenage years, but her words remained hidden in journals until a debilitating disease altered her life twelve years ago. Periodically confined to bed, she turned to poetry as her only escape, chronicling her experiences with heartbreak, childhood and chronic illness. This journey inspired her life’s mission: to illuminate the invisible in a visible world. Her debut poetry collection bittersweet body–– a poetic memoir, was crafted to remind readers they are not alone and that giving up is never an option.

• Puneet Kaur Ananad is a New Jersey-based poet, musician and educator. Her poetry delves into the roots of her Punjabi and South Asian lineage and culture, the nuances of growing up in an immigrant family in America, and the emotional/physical/spiritual ebbs, flows, and struggles of daily life. Puneet's poetry and writing has been published in Cascading Hope by Jasjot Anand, In The Language Of Remembering by Aanchal Malhotra, and Rainbows In A Dew Drop edited by Rupa Rao. Feel free to follow her on instagram: @_onepurebliss_.

Mocha Mic with Millie is an open mic platform founded in Jersey City three years ago to amplify black artists and emerging artists.

Featured Poets: Marc W. Polite, MowZus Baugh, Emmé de la Sol, and Millie Ansah.

• Marc W. Polite is an author, award-winning writer, and the founder of Polite On Society. He is the author of six books: Poetic Ruminations of Mr. Born Nice, Everything to Learn, Nothing to Teach, Poetic Ruminations: Volume 2, The Binge Watcher’s Guide to Black Mirror, Quiet With A Loud Mind and Stand On Ganymede. He writes about social issues, labor, film, technology, and literature. His reviews and commentary have been featured in The Amsterdam News. Marc is also a member of the Harlem Writers Guild.

• MowZus Baugh is a visionary Creative with over three decades of experience as a Professional Photographer. Writing has been a powerful outlet for him since the early 1980s, offering a space for reflection, release, and truth-telling. His spoken word journey began in 2016, adding a new dimension to his artistic expression. In 2021, his work was published as part of the Poetry on Demand Anthology: Idea Inspired Dreams, marking another milestone in a lifelong commitment to storytelling and creative exploration.

• Emmé de la Sol is a multihyphenate artist and workshop leader from Red Hook, Brooklyn. Through her art, Emmé creates captivating reflections on the Black experience. She holds a Masters degree in Public Service Management & Urban Policy, and has completed additional certifications in yoga instruction, culturally inclusive birthwork, and early childhood education.

• Millicent Ansah, known as Millie, is a Jersey City–based educator, poet, and community curator whose work has been featured in SoupCan Magazine, WNYC, and Teaneck Poetry Park. She is the founder and host of Mocha Mic with Millie, a monthly open mic uplifting Black and emerging artists. In 2025, she launched Poetic Pages: Where Black Poets Speak, a literary series created to preserve and highlight Black stories and artistry. Millie also partners with local organizations to lead creative writing workshops for youth and build meaningful community connections through the arts.

WAYE, short for "We Appreciate Your Enthusiasm," is a poetry reading series and open mic that happens every last Wednesday of the month at Sure Things Vintage, located in Jersey City Heights. WAYE is also a small press that publishes By the WAYE, a magazine of poetry and visual art twice per year.

Featured Poets: Ms. Jenn, William J. Van Sickell, and Gia Clark-Grillo.

• Ms. Jenn (she/her) is a Jersey City-based, hard-of-hearing poet and multidisciplinary artist who writes about memory and the quiet work of transformation. Her storytelling, rooted in journaling, performance, and community, continues to evolve through lived experience. Her work appears in Chill Mag, Epilogues, The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow, The Creative Stillness Anthology, and more. A mental health advocate, graduate student, and mother of two, Ms. Jenn creates work that turns personal truth into something meant to be shared.

• William J. Van Sickell (he/him) is a poet and educator from New Jersey. He is a former recipient of the Walter Glospie Poetry Prize awarded by New Jersey City University. His work is currently focused on mental health advocacy.

• Gia Clark-Grillo (she/her) is a local New Jersey poet and subversive, making her way in the world today, giving it everything she’s got! She has honed her voice over the years by both participating in and running workshops and open mics throughout the NY/NJ area, focusing on poetry as a cathartic and accessible art form. Poetry has always afforded her the ability to color outside of literary lines and that form in formlessness is reflected in her work. She has been published in Outlook Springs, Soup Can Magazine, and as part of the Red Wheelbarrow Poets’ anthology, and was the featured poet in By the WAYE No. 02. Her first chapbook, The Moon Poems, was published by Ethel Zine in 2019.

Poets With Purpose is a community for poets & poetry lovers that was established in 2018 by Noel A. Figueroa to provide an environment for creativity, inspiration, encouraging an individuals growth & development in the poetic arts. You can connect with other Poets & Poetry Lovers of all experience levels, backgrounds & locations. All Open Mics are conducted either in person or virtually via Zoom.

Featured Poets: Tom Cintula, Anne Leighton, AC Lightnin, Kendee Love, and Noel A. Figueroa.

• Tom Cintula is a poet and writer from Staten Island, NY who has four full-length poetry collections such as Sonnetsphere, Sirius and Anathematic Darkness, and Adventures Aren't Always Fun, and Unrequited and Confetti. His chapbooks include Chameleon and Tornado. He also has writing contributions for poetry for Alien Buddha Press, along with JA Books, Pyre Publishing, NJ Bards, Poetries in English and The SCENE. His sports and humanitarian contributions include The Borgen Project, Game 7 Sports Club and All Access MMA. He is a graduate of The College of Staten Island with dual degrees in Sociology/Anthropology and Philosophy.

• Anne Leighton appears on the Grammy-nominated album, “Healthy Food for Thought: Good Enough to Eat,” (Audio & Video Labs) reading her poem “Feed Your Parents Well.” She’s contributed to The Indie Collaborative, The Literary Parrot, Elephant Journal. Her poetry book “The Leighton Explosion” made enough of a profit to use her earnings to record an original song, “Got My Eye on You, Santa,” which found her a publishing deal with Sheer Music South Africa/Downtown Music, USA. Anne's performed in the Bronx at ART in the Basin, Johnny Zs, and throughout New York State include NYC's Nuyorican Poets Cafe and Peter Max's Studio. Visit her at workinggalrockandroll.blogspot.com.

• AC Lightnin is a Spoken Word-Emcee who weaves faith, culture, and Hip-Hop rhythm into performances that challenge, uplift, and captivate his audience. Raised in New York and shaped by the NYC open mic scene, he delivers a commanding stage presence that resonates with audiences across the East Coast. AC has performed at venues such as Busboys and Poets in the DMV, The Cutting Room, The Delancey, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Pianos, SOB's, and Off-Broadway stages including the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater and The Triad Theater. He has also been featured at the NYC Poetry Festival (2023, 2025) and the Paterson Poetry Festival (2024). His work reflects the lived experience of a Black Christian man navigating culture, love, and identity, and has been featured on MNN, Rapzilla, and Trackstarz, as well as in several published anthologies.

• Kendee Love is a Spoken Word Artist from New Jersey whose work embodies hope, resilience, and the power of storytelling. Born in Liberia, West Africa, she survived a brutal civil war and moved to the United States at 12, discovering poetry as both refuge and healing. With a Master’s in Social Work from Monmouth University, Kendee blends art and advocacy to inspire and empower others. She has performed at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), the Paterson Poetry Festival, Hartford LIT, and the Prelude for renowned gospel artist CeCe Winans, among many stages across New Jersey and beyond. Her work was recently accepted for the forthcoming anthology Darling Nikki, celebrating the life, legacy, and revolutionary spirit of Nikki Giovanni. Known as the “Neighborhood Hope Dealer,” Kendee spreads love, compassion, and empowerment wherever she goes. In 2025, she was recognized as a winner of the Teaneck Poet Laureate Community Poetry Contest. She’s also a proud member of When Women Speak, a global platform amplifying women’s voices through poetry. Kendee’s life and work are proof that even after the darkest storms, hope rises, and through words, healing and restoration are possible.

• Noel A. Figueroa (The Anointed Pen) is a Poet, Author, Blogger, Workshop Facilitator & Event Host from Brooklyn, NY who has been reading & writing poetry for over 10 years. He self-published his first book of Poems, "One Man's Journey" back in 2007 and has been actively Blogging since 2012 through his site, "The Anointed Pen Scrolls" on WordPress.com. In 2018, he began a workshop called “Poets With Purpose” & in 2021, he launched “The P.W.P. Sessions”, a Podcast that interviews new or established Poets, Rappers or MC’s and gives them space to perform along with an audience Q & A session.

House of Khaos is a creative platform offering community events, self publishing guidance, and individual support services.

Featured Poets: Elizabeth Shanaz, Scarlet Gomez, Sally Anyi Familia, Cameron Keon Syke, and Khaotic.

• Elizabeth Shanaz is a New York based writer. Her work has appeared in Playboy, Human/Kind, Defunkt, PREE Lit, Zhagaram Literary, BRAWL Literary, Wildscape Literary Journal, Blood + Honey Literary Magazine, Soul Forte, Last Stanza Poetry Journal, The Literary Times, and the Blue Minaret, among other journals and magazines. She was nominated three times for the Best of the Net Anthology in the category of poetry. She studied writing and literature at CUNY City College before earning her law degree from NYU School of Law. She is the proud child of Guyanese immigrants.

• Scarlet Gomez (she/they) is a queer Dominican Bronx-based poet, writer, zine-maker, and founder of Poetry House LLC. She's had several short stories and poems published in literary journals such as Philadelphia Stories, The A3 Review, and Femme Dyke Magazine. She’s a Hedgebrook alum. When she’s not writing poetry, she’s working on her various novels.

• Sally Anyi Familia (they/he) is a queer poet and multidisciplinary artist that explores how we relate to ourselves, each other, and the natural world. They hold a B.A. in Creative Writing with a focus in Poetry from SUNY Oswego. Their work can be found in Genre: Urban Arts No.4, BX Writers Anthology, the Latinx anthology, What They Leave Behind and most recently, in the Dominican Writers anthology, Pájaros, lesbianas y queers…¡a volar! An LGBTQ+ Anthology of Dominican Transnational Writers. They have been awarded the Academy of American Poets Prize for the poem, “The Trouble with Reminiscing”. Their poem “Esperanza, Republica Dominicana” was nominated for the Pushcart Prize by Brooklyn Poets.

• Khaotic is a Brooklyn-born, Bengali-American self published poet, visual artist, and community curator. Her work explores third culture identity, the struggle with faith in a modern society, and the need for community to navigate both as a woman of color. Khaotic has been published in several anthology collections, and has also self-published two collections of poetry, Plucking Petals of Poetry and Blooming Beyond the Boundaries. She’s performed her poetry on stages like SOB’s and The Triad Theater, but her heart always feels the fullest in community spaces and open mics.

Spoken Moon is a sanctuary for creative expression. A space where poetry, movement, visual art, and music live side by side. As one of the first open mics to intentionally introduce and feature dance in poetry spaces, we expand the power of the mic and who it can honor. Spoken Moon exists to make room for every phase that creatives and multidisciplinary artists move through. Here, community thrives and creativity becomes a shared pulse.

Featured Poets: Queen Tut, Rocka Jamez, and Jenn Cisneros.

• Paige "Queen Tut" Stewart is a Queens-based artist and creator of The Kingdom Dance Company. Her credits include BET, MTV, Wyclef Jean, Ariana Grande, DMC, Patti LaBelle & Lupe Fiasco. While surviving her own battle with Lupus, Queen Tut has dedicated her life to teaching and inspiring others through art. Queen Tut is also an award-winning Spoken Word Poet. She’s performed at Madison Square Garden and been featured on the MSG Network. Queen Tut was also was able to perform for NBA All-Star Allan Houston, finalist in the renowned Nuyorican Poetry Slam, and performed for the New York Poetry Society Festival. Queen Tut teaches Spoken Word at venues with children & teens and have been featured at the legendary Bardavon Theater in Poughkeepsie, NY, and weaves poetry into her dance work. As a hip-hop dance educator for all ages, Queen Tut has taught emotionally challenged/autistic children and mentally disabled adults. Queen Tut has taught dance standing, sitting, on crutches, and even in a wheelchair to prove that anything is possible. Queen Tut showcases Hip-Hop, Tap, African, Contemporary, and Step dancing, impacting audiences with stories of triumph and tenacity. The Kingdom Dance Company is a collective of NYC artists serving the NYC area. We provide free and affordable training for teens and adults to polish themselves for their performing arts future. The Kingdom offers training, career development, instructor workshops, audition prep, resume help, and community service. The Kingdom represents art through healing and healing through art. Queen Tut hopes to inspire through art because it heals. All things are possible and we are only limited by our perception of what we believe is real!

• Rocka Jamez is a dancer, choreographer, creative director, and poet from Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Influenced by styles including Krump, Breaking, FlexN, and contemporary freestyle, he creates work that blends movement and spoken word. His original poem 'SOUL-GROW' was transformed into a dance film through Poetry in Motion NYC, showcasing both his poetry and choreography. Rocka has performed poetry and dance on many stages including Spoken Moon Open Mic, Troublemakers, and The Scene Anniversary Banquet. His poetry has been published in The Scene zine. He is also the founder and curator of Roundz of Flame, an event dedicated to uniting diverse dance communities throughout New York City.

• Jenn Cisneros was born and raised in Queens, New York. A woman of diverse ethnicities, she is a passionate mental health advocate and a multifaceted artist. Jenn’s artistry spans spoken word and visual mediums, showcasing her versatility and creativity. She has been featured in several spoken word showcases, including as the sole poet in an off-Broadway dance production. Her latest endeavor is creating Spoken Moon Open Mic alongside her partner and closest friends. Cultivating a platform dedicated to the mixing and melding of all artistries has been her proudest contribution to the creative community yet.

Geshu Sugandh is a mom, writer, artist, and children’s book author writing in English and Hindi. Through her storytelling-led indie press, BROOKLYNBIHARN, she shares stories across tongues, places, and time that spark curiosity, support choice, and build connections across languages and cultures.

Discover children’s books, songs, poetry, essays, art, and joyful Devanagari-led Hindi bilingual journeys.

Explore words and worlds at www.brooklynbiharn.com 

Featured Poets: Geshu Sugandh, Shubhra Prakash, and Ruchika Singh.

• Geshu Sugandh is a mom, writer, artist, and children’s book author working in English and Hindi. After nearly two decades advising global healthcare companies, a layoff set her on a creative path she didn’t expect but deeply needed. Born and raised in Bihar, India, she is a Biharn who has visited nearly fifty countries and lived and worked in the U.K., Singapore, and Norway. These experiences taught her something simple: belonging grows with exploration. She calls Brooklyn home, where she weaves her two tongues and blends her worlds. She is the creative force behind BROOKLYNBIHARN, a storytelling-led indie bilingual publisher creating space for all ages to explore words and worlds through stories rooted in curiosity, choice, and connection.

• Shubhra Prakash is a writer and theatre artist whose work explores migration, language, and memory through performance and text. She is the creator of Fontwala, a solo work on South Asian typography and technology, which she performed in NY, SF and India. She created an ensemble version of Fontwala in the Hindi language, that she directed in India. Shubhra can be seen producing readings and performances as a producer with Rattapallax. Shubhra has recently learned to sail a tall ship and hopes to venture out on a voyage soon. Learn more about her at http://shubhra.site/portfolio.

• Ruchika Singh is a data scientist, world wanderer and a bi-lingual poet-in-the-making. She writes about life, people, and the world at large drawing inspiration from world affairs, family, and the quiet rhythms that often go unnoticed. Her best material lives between the messy beauty of human relationships and the steady physicality of everyday existence. She is a mother of two boys, works at Spotify, and is currently chasing down her last half marathon time.

Pen + Brush is a 132-year-old nonprofit organization dedicated to creating equitable opportunities for women and gender-expansive visual and literary artists. Since 1894, Pen + Brush has been a vital space maker for the arts in New York City while actively working to dismantle exclusionary systems within the art world. Over the past decade, Pen + Brush has revitalized its mission through bold, strategic programming designed to incubate and elevate underrepresented artists. Deeply ingrained in the creative community it serves and informed by contemporary artistic practice, Pen + Brush offers far more than a high-quality exhibition platform—it provides the mentorship, resources, and holistic support artists need to thrive. By meeting artists where they are and championing their advancement, Pen + Brush helps build pathways to sustainable, long-term careers in a professional landscape that too often remains out of reach.

Featured Poets: Afua Kafi-Akua, Jesse Paris Smith, and Kerri Schlottman.

• Afua Kafi-Akua has worked at many media and arts organizations including Women Make Movies, Cinema Guild, Metropolitan Museum of Art, International Center of Photography and Third World Newsreel. She is currently a media and communication professor at the New York City College of Technology/CUNY. Afua is an arts educator, photographer, poet, musician and mixed-media artist. She is a founding member of the all-female funk/rock band IBIS. Her interviews with music legends Betty Carter & Nona Hendryx were published in the arts anthology Encyclopedia. She also co-produced an award-winning documentary about violence against lesbians, JUST BECAUSE OF WHO WE ARE that was screened at film festivals and aired on PBS. She is currently creating photographs and mixed-media installations about personal and socially relevant topics including being the grandchild of immigrants, LGBTQ+ issues, muses, women musicians and gender. She recently co-curated the VR gallery exhibition ANCESTRAL FUTURISM: UNAPOLOGETICALLY MELANATED in collaboration Oculus and The Alliance for Media Arts + Culture. Her artwork has been exhibited on both coasts.

• Jesse Paris Smith is a writer, GRAMMY nominated composer and musician, event producer, and Founding Ambassador of the NY International Antiquarian Book Fair, launching the program in 2024 during the 75th Anniversary of the ABAA. As part of the fair's annual programming, Jesse's events have included 'Sharing the World Of Rare Books,' a heartwarming group discussion exploring the timeless threads and connections innate within the book world, and a presentation of poetry and music celebrating Walt Whitman, Charlotte Brontë, Flaco the Owl, and others. Jesse serves on the Board of Directors of Elizabeth Street Garden in Little Italy, the Advisory Board of Pen & Brush Gallery in the Flatiron District, and is co-founder of climate action organization Pathway to Paris.

• Kerri Schlottman is a writer of literary fiction novels, most recently Daytime Moon (Unnamed Press, May 2026). Her novel Tell Me One Thing was named a 2025 Storytrade Literary Fiction Finalist, a two-time 2024 PenCraft Fiction Award Winner, a 2023 American Book Fest Best Literary Fiction Book Finalist, and a Shelf Awareness Best Book This Week. Kerri was named a finalist for the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund Award and is a part-time graduate professor at NYU in the Visual Arts Administration program.

Named from the Old Dutch for Sleepy Hollow and founded in 1990 by Margo Taft Stever to advance the national and international conversation of poetry and poetics, principally by publishing and supporting the work of new poets, Slapering Hol Press (SHP) is now one of the oldest chapbook presses in the United States.

Featured Poets: Wang Jiaxin, Quan Zi, Lan Lan, and Xinyue Huang (translator).

• Wang Jiaxin is a Chinese poet, essayist, and translator and has published more than forty books. His collection of poems in English is Darkening Mirror (Tebot Bach, 2017), translated by Diana Shi and George O’Connell, with a foreword by former US Poet Laureate Robert Hass. His poems have been published in The American Poetry Review, American Poets, The Kenyon Review, Washington Square Review, Hanging Loose, and The Hopkins Review, etc. and he has been a poet-in-residence at the Dutch Literary Foundation (Amsterdam, 2022) and at the the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa (2013). He is an esteemed translator of Yeats, Mandelstam, and especially of Paul Celan. He has won many domestic and international awards. Arthur Sze, the US Poet Laureate, commented on his poetry: “Wang Jiaxin is one of the leading poets of China. His poems are international in scope, darkened by the tragedies of modern history—poems by turn elegiac, aphoristic, suffused with longing—and he writes with intense focus and with unflinching gaze. His poems are immediate and thrilling.” Wang Jiaxin was born in Hubei province and graduated from Wuhan University. He was a professor at Renmin University of China for years—he now spends most of his time in New York. His second collection of poems in English, At the Same Time, translated by John Balcom, has been published by Arrowsmith Press in the fall of 2025 and was selected for the 2025 National Translation Month reading list, and was recently longlisted for the PEN America Translation Prize.

• Quan Zi was born in 1973 and is a contemporary Chinese poet who has received widespread honors. His poetry anthologies include Miscellaneous Poems, Empty Honey, The Green Mountains Have Never Been So Full, Mountains and Water in the Human Realm, and others. He is also the author of Thoughts on Poetry, books of poetry and conversations including From Two Worlds, Loving One Woman and Rain Falls On the Wall and the Moon Moves and others. He was a recipient of the first Ai Qing Poetry Award, the Liu Lian Poetry Award, the Su Shi Poetry Prize, and others.

• Chinese poet and essayist Lan Lan, born 1967 in Yantai, Shandong province, began publishing at 14. Her many poetry volumes, prose poems, essays, criticism, and collections for children have established her as one of contemporary China's most prominent authors. Lan Lan's foreign language collections include the bilingual Chinese/English Canyon in the Body, as well as those in Russian, Thai, and Spanish. Her awards include the Poetry and People International Poetry Prize, the Yuan Kejia Poetry Award, the Chinese Media Literature Prize, and the Su Shi Poetry Award. She has been named an honorary citizen of Chios and Oinousses, Homer's Greek birthplace.

• Translator Xinyue Huang is a recent MFA graduate in Poetry from New York University who writes and publishes in both English and Chinese. Their work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Georgia Review, Pigeon Pages, Sho Poetry Journal, Electric Literature, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Bellevue Literary Review, The Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. Huang was a semi-finalist for the 2021 Joy Harjo Poetry Contest, a finalist for the 2022 Black Warrior Review Poetry Prize and the 2025 Omnidawn 1st/2nd Poetry Book Contest, and the winner of the 2023 Loraine Williams Poetry Prize and the 2025 Kenyon Review Poetry Prize, selected by Diane Seuss. Their work has been supported by the NYU Creative Writing Program, Tupelo Press, Vermont Studio Center, and Fine Arts Work Center.

Crowe’s Nest is a Seasonal Themed Open Mic collective series and showcase primarily showcasing Poetry and Music founded, curated and hosted by 2 time Off Broadway Spoken Word Poet Alex Crowe in the summer of 2024 in the backyard of his home in Woodhaven, Queens NY. Crowe’s Nest artistic D.I.Y. vision is to bring creatives of different backgrounds, culture and every walks of life to encourage them to settle in the nest and embrace their differences.

Featured Poets: Kelly Lynn Noll, Mute the Messiah, Claudia Ortiz, Riki, Anne Keyes, and Kavon The Poet.

• Kelly Lynn Noll has been writing poetry since she was eleven years old. She is now an Off Broadway Poet and is currently working to publish her first book. You can find her on social media for updates and pictures of her cats. Her favorite poets include Edgar Allen Poe, Sylvia Plath, and Anne Sexton.

• Mute the Messiah is a poet turned rapper turned poet who has performed at venues in Long Island, Queens and Brooklyn since 2015. He recently released an EP titled “5 Daze in The Woodz” with several features including Bronx’s own Natrasin. The artists currently inspiring him the most include Blu & Exile, P.O.S, Saul Williams, Doechii, Rudy Francisco and William Butler Yeats.

• Reborn into the poetry world is Claudia Ortiz, who used to write R&B songs and poetry in her teenage bedroom. She always felt a passion and love in her heart for poetry, spoken word and music. She found herself delving back into that world just about a year ago after experiencing challenging life situations such as motherhood and single-parenting, divorce and a spiritual journey that has continuously shifted her perspectives and propelled her growth. She has been welcomed and inspired to showcase her art and talents by her wonderful step brother, Alex Crowe. As she continues to navigate the poetry world, she writes about love, experience, and tries to shed light and inspiration to others through her words. She embarked on a journey of authorhood as she began writing a book a little less than a year ago and remains passionate about sharing her experiences with her audience.

• Riki is The Air Of Poetry known for his stage presence, clever word play, and strong lyrics, Riki’s poems reflects on his character background and mindset. He is a freestyle poet from NYC whose poems are inspired by rap music dating back from the 90s, Y2K, and 2010s. His trade mark is wearing a Brazilian bandana to represent his ethnicity. Outside of poetry, Riki enjoys PlayStation, anime, professional wrestling, fitness, and modeling.

• Anne Keyes is a spoken word poet based in Flatbush. She got her start at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in June of 2023, and has been blessed to feature sixteen times around the city at different venues such as Urban Vegan Kitchen, Secret Pour, and Brooklyn Music Kitchen. Her biggest inspirations are her close friend's poems and the influences of classic poetry are apparent in her work. Anne's poems fit into three categories: love poems, roast poems and poems about various life experiences. Anne's mission is to help others connect through her poetry about the effects of trauma and living with long term PTSD.

• Kavon The Poet Is 28 years old. He started to write poems in 2019 & he started to perform in 2022. He grew up in Bushwick, Brooklyn. His inspirations are John Donne, Emily Dickinson, Taylor Mali & Rudy Francisco.

Poetry & Potions Open Mic is a Bronx and East Harlem/Uptown-based literary series curated by Nicco Diaz under iconicco. productions. Rooted in the rich spoken word legacies of both communities, the series blends curated featured artists with an open mic, creating an intergenerational space for poets, storytellers, musicians, and visual artists to share new work. Poetry & Potions prioritizes accessibility, intentional hospitality, and partnerships with local venues while uplifting emerging and established voices alike. With a growing audience base and a strong track record of community-centered programming, the series serves as both a performance platform and creative incubator within Uptown’s vibrant literary ecosystem.

Featured Poets: Nicco Diaz, Josué Caceres, Tabatha Adams, Mama Poetress, Derek Aurelius, and Juliana.

• Nicco Diaz is an Uptown poet, performer, educator, and cultural producer whose work bridges storytelling, theater, and community organizing. A Queer Afro-Nuyorican artist, his writing explores identity, memory, love, grief, and the complexities of life in New York City. He is the creator and host of Poetry & Potions, a long-running open mic series dedicated to uplifting Bronx and uptown voices. Nicco is the author of Un Chin Chin and the recipient of the 2026 Bronx Cultural Visions Fund Concept Development Grant. Through his performances and programming, he creates spaces that center vulnerability, connection, and collective imagination.

• Josué Caceres is a writer, poet, and creative born and raised in the South Bronx. He is the founder of , a platform dedicated to uplifting writers and creatives across New York City. Through his work, he creates spaces that celebrate storytelling, artistic collaboration, and community. His writing is rooted in the culture, resilience, and voices of the Bronx. Josué is committed to building platforms that amplify emerging and established creatives alike.

• Tabatha Adams is a poet, spoken word artist, playwright, and creator whose work explores identity, memory, and self-expression. She is the author of Shallow City of Noise, a poetry collection that captures the many layers of her existence. Dedicated to continuously evolving as an artist, she pushes her creativity toward new horizons through both page and performance. Tabatha has performed on stages throughout New York City and New Mexico. She currently serves as the Head Poet of Tesoro New York Division 6.

• Mama Poetress is an Afro-Latina spoken word artist born and raised in Washington Heights. Her work reflects on memories of her city, love, ancestral wisdom, and personal growth. Through poetry, she encourages audiences to reconnect with their inner voice and lived experiences. Her performances blend vulnerability, reflection, and cultural pride. She uses storytelling as a way to build healing, connection, and community.

• Derek Aurelius is a Bronx native of Panamanian and Jamaican descent, as well as a fierce advocate for men’s mental health. A self-published author, poet, and student of culture, his work blends self-reflection, lyricism, and philosophy. Through his writing, he explores identity, healing, masculinity, and the human experience. His performances are rooted in honesty, introspection, and cultural awareness. Derek uses poetry as a tool for connection, growth, and empowerment.

• Juliana AKA SHINEONJAYY is a spoken word poet and musician hailing from the Boogie Down Bronx. As an immigrant and a lesbian, she weaves politics, relationships, religion, and spirituality into her work with honesty and vulnerability. Her writing explores struggle and pain while also offering moments of humor and levity. Grounded in the power of her voice, Juliana creates work that challenges, provokes, and inspires change. She wears her heart on her sleeve, and that truth shines through in every performance.

Hibrido Literario features poetry works in Spanish.

Featured Poets: Claudia Salazar, Natalia Chamorro, Rosalba Henao, and Rocio Uchofen.

• Claudia Salazar is a literary critic, professor and cultural manager.

• Natalia Chamorro is an academic and writer based in New York. She has published articles, poems and essays in literary magazines in Lima and New York.

• Rosalba Henao is a Poet and Author. Art and Spanish Teacher.

• Rocio Uchofen has published poemas and short stories. Her radio show, Híbrido Literario, showcases and highlights Hispanic writers.

Smut Nite is a erotic poetry open mic! And a party! And a space to step out of your comfort zone and into something spicy!

Featured Poets: Simon Rodriguez, Micah Jameson, Emily Fjelstad, and Leland Hellworthy.

• Simon Rodriguez, aka "Siggy", is a NYC-based Character Poet, Playwright, and Cybersecurity Professional. They are beyond grateful to have a place to insert their entendres!

• Micah Jameson is a New York chess player, poet and professional flirt. Their work can be found in Hot People Read Poetry, Poetry is a Team Sport and in scraps of loose paper found in the pockets of new lovers.

• Emily Fjelstad lives in Brooklyn and she is afraid.

• Leland Hellworthy has been described as “a strong cup of coffee” and their work has been described as “completely lacking in subtext.” They do not deny any of these allegations.

Trio House Press is a nonprofit literary press.

Featured Poets: Reuben Gelley Newman, Rhoni Blankenhorn, and Gauri Awasthi.

• Reuben Gelley Newman is a writer, librarian, and musician based in Brooklyn, NY. He is the author of the chapbook Feedback Harmonies (Seven Kitchens Press, 2024), and his poems have appeared in Denver Quarterly, Fairy Tale Review, Fence, Ninth Letter, Only Poems, and Salamander. A former intern at Copper Canyon Press, he has edited for The Adroit Journal and Couplet Poetry. His reviews have appeared in Adroit, The Brooklyn Rail, and diode. He holds an MS in Library and Information Science from the University at Buffalo and a BA in English Literature from Swarthmore College.

• Rhoni Blankenhorn is a Filipina American writer. Her debut, Rooms for the Dead and the Not Yet, won the Trio Award and was published by Trio House Press (2025). She has received scholarships and awards from Sewanee, Saltonstall, Bread Loaf and Storyknife. Her work can be found or is forthcoming in the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Slowdown, Adroit, Narrative, AAWW, Honey Literary, Beloit, Copper Nickel, and elsewhere.

• Gauri Awasthi, born in Kanpur, India, is a poet and filmmaker. She has won fellowships from Yaddo, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Sundress Academy for the Arts, Hedgebrook, and Hambidge Center where she was a National Endowment for the Arts Distinguished Fellow. A formally trained Bharatanatyam dancer, Gauri lives in New York City.

No, Dear aims to bring together the voices of New York City poets who might not otherwise be in dialogue: both emerging and established poets from diverse backgrounds who are living and writing in New York City’s five boroughs. We aspire to disrupt a field that has historically privileged white patriarchal perspectives by building a publication and communal/critical dialogue that strives to be largely representative of women-identified poets, and poets of color and of all gender expressions.

Featured Poets: Marina Blitshteyn, Zakia Henderson-Brown, and Matthew Williams.

• Marina Blitshteyn is the author of 9 books, including the full-length poetry collections 'Two Hunters' (Argos Books, 2019), and 'i take your voice' (Switchback Books, 2022), winner of The Gatewood Prize. Her third collection, 'form a more perfect,' won the Tenth Gate Prize for mid-career poets with The Word Works Books. Prior chaps include 'Nothing Personal' (Bone Bouquet Books), '$kill$' (dancing girl press), 'Sheet Music' (Sunnyoutside Press), a dual chapbook 'landguage/mirror me' (Bunny Presse, from Fonograf Editions), and a chapbook of visual poetry called 'Kaddish //' (Ghost Proposal). She is now serving as an editor at Switchback Books.

• Zakia Henderson-Brown is the author of the forthcoming The Body Losing Its Borders, winner of the Alice James Award Editor's Choice, and What Kind of Omen Am I, winner of Poetry Society of America’s Chapbook Fellowship. She is a NYFA/NYSCA Poetry Fellow, a Cave Canem graduate fellow, and has received additional fellowships and support from Poets House, Callaloo Journal, Cafe Royal Cultural Foundation, and the Fine Arts Work Center. Her works appear in New Daughters of Africa (Amistad: 2019), Adroit, Beloit Poetry Journal, Epiphany, No, Dear, North American Review, Obsidian, The Offing, and elsewhere. She is a Brooklyn native and resident.

• Matthew Williams is a teacher and poet from Sacramento, CA. He earned an MFA from NYU and received a Galway Kinnell Memorial Scholarship from The Community of Writers. His poems have appeared in New Ohio Review, Mantis, Blood Orange Review, The Banyan Review, California Quarterly, Clade Song, as part of The Center for Book Arts Poetry Broadside Reading Series, and elsewhere. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for No, Dear magazine and lives with his husband in Brooklyn where he teaches in New York City Public Schools.

The Rose Garden Events offers a curated assortment of open mic nights, spoken word showcases, talk shows, art exhibitions, and educational programs. We're a one-stop-shop for all forms of creative expression. Our diverse ventures seamlessly unite the realms of creativity and business, providing a harmonious space for individuals to explore their artistic gifts as a career.

Featured Poets: Ave Maria, Scarlet Gomez, and Saint Trey Wooden.

• Ave Maria is both a poet and a mathematician of Trinidadian and Cruzan descent. Originally from Honolulu, Hawaii, Ave’s poetry is a testimony of her journey as a woman navigating life's challenges. She is a multi-time poetry slam winner and has performed at venues such as Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Poetry Me Please, and Uprose. She is a woman of God, an educator, and a soon-to-be published author.

• Scarlet Gomez is a queer Dominican Bronx-based poet, writer, zine-maker, and founder of Poetry House LLC. She’s had several short stories and poems published in literary journals such as Philadelphia Stories, The A3 Review, and Femme Dyke Magazine. She’s a Hedgebrook alum and guest editor of Archived As: I Said I Love You, an anthology forthcoming with Sinister Wisdom in 2026. When she’s not writing poetry, she’s working on her debut novel, No World Without You.

• Saint Trey Wooden is a writer, poet, and cultural worker whose work explores memory, Black queer life, and the possibilities of collective freedom. Rooted in the belief that storytelling can remake the world, his writing moves between personal narrative, political reflection, and lyrical meditation. His essays and poems engage questions of belonging, grief, care, and imagination, often drawing from family history and the living archive of Black community life.

An open mic to share the lit you love. In a glut of open mics for sharing what we've written, QU is a place to share what we've read instead. Hosted by Nick Bardos at Hive Mind Books.

Featured Poets: Sarah Osit, Veronica Chepigan, Ellie Farrell, Natasha Sharpe, Ruben Sindo Acosta, Madeline Adelle Phillips, and Huntie Hodkinson.

• Sarah Osit is a poet from New York, currently based in Ridgewood, Queens. She is the co-founder of Bad Words, a monthly poetry event and indie press amplifying local emerging writers. Her debut chapbook Forthcoming was released by Dead End in March 2025. Her most recent collection, FLIRT, was published by Tiny Cutlery in January. Sarah says anything can be punk. She dares you to disagree.

• Veronica Chepigan is a Brooklyn-based singer, poet, and musician with a penchant for the whimsical.

• Ellie Farrell is a writing (and life!) enthusiast born and raised on the Jersey Shore, now based in Brooklyn, NY. Ellie writes mostly poetry and prose, which can be found on her Substack. She has been featured in Poetry Is A Team Sport and Zine Club NYC zines.

• Natasha Sharpe is a drawing poet looking for little faces in inanimate objects & little friends everywhere. She hails from California, lives in Queens now, & has published one graphic novel called All This Imperfection with Paper Rocket Press.

• Ruben Sindo Acosta is a musician and writer based in Queens, NY. His work explores the visceral and erotic through a stoic lens. He is co-host of the ongoing reading series Bad Words.

• Madeline Adelle Phillips is a circuitous storyteller prioritizing play and host of Sing2Me Read2Me Baby!

• Huntie Hodkinson is a poet and the mother of @dead.end.zine.

PINK TREES PRESS is a nonprofit press publishing the work of diverse, living writers, sharing voices that expand the familiar and cultivate imagination and resilience. The authors of Pink Trees Press reflect the heterogeneity of our country. Art spreads compassion and unites people.

Featured Poets: Madeline Artenberg, Pauline Findlay, Juanita Kirton, Jennifer Juneau, Linda Kleinbub, and C.O. Moed.

• Madeline Artenberg was a photojournalist and street theatre performer before falling for poetry. Her work appears in publications such as Rattle, The Poet, and MacQueens Quinterly. She was a semi-finalist in Margie, The American Journal of Poetry contest, and finalist in the Mudfish 2020 contest. One of her poems was nominated as Best of the Net 2020 by Poets Wear Prada.

• Pauline Findlay is a poet and filmmaker for Poetry in Motion! Her book Dysfunction: A Play on Words in the Familiar, released by Pink Tress Press, is a poetic circus filled with winding roads that asks one question: “Which road will you take?” She’s performed at Fahrenheit reading series, book stores, Women of Color, and outdoor festivals! You can find her films on YouTube! Follow her at @ringmastersideshow on Instagram.

• Juanita Kirton’s work lives at the intersection of memory, survival, and liberation. As a Black, queer elder, she writes from a body that carries history—both personal and collective—and uses poetry as a way to witness, heal, and transform. Her voice emerges from lived experience, shaped by trauma, resilience, and the ongoing practice of self-definition. Deeply invested in writing as a communal act, Kirton has seen how language can open spaces for truth-telling and restoration through her work as a trauma facilitator with Warrior Writers. She carries that understanding into her own creative practice, where each poem becomes both an offering and an excavation of silence, harm, joy, and possibility. Movement is central to Kirton's process. Traveling across the United States on her motorcycle is not just a personal ritual but a creative one. The road teaches her about impermanence, solitude, and connection. It sharpens her attention and reminds her that storytelling, like travel, is an act of navigation through both internal and external landscapes. Kirton’s work resists erasure and insists on presence. It honors the complexity of identity while refusing to be confined by it. Ultimately, she writes to remain awake—to herself, to her communities, and to the world as it is and as it could be.

• Jennifer Juneau is a 2025 Acker Award recipient. She is the author of four books: ÜberChef USA (Spork Press, 2019), More Than Moon (Is A Rose Press, 2020), Maze (Roadside Press, 2024), and Night of the Manhattans (Pink Trees Press, 2025). She’s published in Barrow Street, Columbia Journal, Evergreen Review, Rattle, Seattle Review, and elsewhere. She hosts The Phoenix Poetry Open Mic in NYC.

• Linda Kleinbub is the Founding Editor of Pink Trees Press, author of Cover Charge, Appear to Dance, and co-editor of Silver Tongued Devil Anthology. She teaches poetry at the 14th Street Y and has taught Organizing Your Poetry Manuscript at the International Women's Writers Guild. She has been a mentor and committee member at Girls Write Now. Her MFA is from The New School.

• C.O. Moed grew up on New York’s Lower East Side when it was still a tough neighborhood. Her debut book, It Was Her New York: True Stories and Snapshots, was a BookLife Editor's Pick. Coming this fall from Pink Tree Press is her new collection, Can't Climb a Mountain in a Ball Gown. She lives with fellow writer, Ted Krever and a cat. They are all Mets fans.

Pen Pal Poets was established in New York City in 2013 . Pen Pal Poets is a group of diverse poets, artists, storytellers, and musicians that curates poetry readings throughout the city. Readings have been held at the Playhouse Theater, 6BC Community Garden and the NYC Poetry Festival.

Featured Poets: Linda Kleinbub, Ron Kolm, Jada Fitzpatrick, Ptr Kozlowski, and Jane LeCroy.

• Linda Kleinbub is the Founding Editor of Pink Trees Press, author of Cover Charge, Appear to Dance, and co-editor of Silver Tongued Devil Anthology. She teaches poetry at the 14th Street Y and has taught Organizing Your Poetry Manuscript at the International Women's Writers Guild. She has been a mentor and committee member at Girls Write Now. Her MFA is from The New School.

• Ron Kolm’s books include A Change in the Weather, Welcome to the Barbecue, The Bookstore Book: A Memoir, and The Verities of Love. He's had work in The Brownstone Poets anthologies, The Opiate, Maintenant, Sparring with Beatnik Ghosts, NYC From the Inside and The Silver-Tongued Devil anthology. Ron’s papers are archived in the NYU Library.

• Jada Fitzpatrick (she/they) is a writer, rebel, and free spirit. Jada’s life has always revolved around creating social change, advocating for others, and speaking out against injustice. Through her passion for both writing and learning about Black history, Jada's life mission is to explore how Black livelihoods and Black joy have been preserved through creative outlets. Jada's poetic musings are reflective of being a Black/Boricua Zillennial in these crazy, unprecedented times.

• Ptr Kozlowski has been a taxi driver, deliveryman, poet and printer, singer-songwriter, and guitarist. Published in Hobo Jungle, South Florida Poetry Journal, and anthologies by Great Weather for Media, the Unbearables, Silver-Tongued Devils and Brownstone Poets; he’s performed at CBGB's, ABC NoRio, Bowery Poetry Club and Cornelia Street Cafe, and now has songs on Spotify, iTunes and YouTube Music.

• Jane LeCroy serves the Poetry Gods. She’s a featured character in Poetry Brothel NYC, a teaching artist, and has 2 bands: Ω▽(Ohmslice), an experimental modular synth project, and The Icebergs, avant-pop, cello, and drums. Three Rooms Press published her multimedia book of lyrical poems, “Signature Play.” Pink Trees Press published her newest collection of poetry, “Spellbook of Ordinary Mistakes.” Follow her on Instagram at @janelecroy, @ohmslice.nyc, & @the_icebergs_nyc.

Graywolf Press is a nonprofit literary publisher of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and work in translation.

Featured Poets: Kyle Carrero Lopez, Monica Youn, and Catherine Barnett.

• Kyle Carrero Lopez is the author of the chapbook Muscle Memory, winner of the 2020 [PANK] Book Contest. He has an MFA in creative writing from New York University, where he was a Goldwater Fellow, and he is a Cave Canem Fellow. He lives in Brooklyn.

• Monica Youn is the author of From From, and three previous poetry collections: Blackacre, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Barter, and Ignatz, a finalist for the National Book Award. The daughter of Korean immigrants and a former lawyer, she teaches at University of California, Irvine.

• Catherine Barnett is the author of three previous poetry collections, including Human Hours, winner of the Believer Book Award, and The Game of Boxes, winner of the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets. She lives in New York City.

The Why Collective is a multi-disciplinary artists’ collective exploring non-traditional storytelling and performance practices. Poetry is generated through intentional workshops and developed into interdisciplinary performances in a roundtable, “creative laboratory” setting. We host creative writing workshops, poetry open mics, monthly salons, and annual showcases.

Featured Poets: Norm Mattox, Sydney Anderson, Alberto Medero, and Dicky Dutton.

• Norm Mattox is a twice nominated Pushcart poet. His poetry journeys through the voices that tell a story of love in times of challenge and struggle. Norm’s poetry has been published in two chapbooks. His first collection is titled, Get Home Safe, Poems for Crossing the Community Grid. Norm’s second chapbook is titled Black Calculus, published in 2021 by Nomadic Press. An audiobook by the same title was released in 2021. Collapse Press published a full length collection of Norm's poetry, titled four crescents, in 2023. Black Lawrence Press released a fourth collection of Norm’s poetry titled, Evaporating Rage in August 2024.

• A contemporary opera specialist, Sydney Anderson has participated in numerous World Premieres and workshops, most recently featured with Portland Opera, Vision into Art, Beth Morrison Projects, Sparks and Wiry Cries, and American Lyric Theater, and most recently created the title role in Constance: A Confession, with Experiments in Opera this season. Sydney was named an Eastern District Winner of the 2019 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and won the Audience Favorite Award at the Region Finals. She was a member of the 2023 Producers Academy with Beth Morrison Projects, and choral conductor/vocal producer on the 2024 GRAMMY-nominated album IMpossible Dream. As a poet herself, Sydney is always looking to use music to enhance the text. She is the Founder/Artistic Director of The Why Collective, an interdisciplinary arts 501(c)3, dedicated to creating visual and aural poetry, uplifting inner voices of unique multi-disciplinary artists. Find her at www.sydneyandersonsoprano.com / www.thewhycollective.art.

• ASL interpreter, performer, and poet Alberto Medero (he/him), is a CODA, or Child of Deaf Adults. As an interpreter, Alberto has performed for arts and music events all over the United States, including the 2026 GRAMMYS, Lincoln Center’s 50th Anniversary of HipHop Event, as well as Broadway and Off-Broadway shows such as The Lion King, Ragtime, Wild Party, Book of Mormon, and The Harder They Come (The Public Theater). He has interpreted for celebrities and politicians including Bad Bunny, Kevin Hart, Big Daddy Kane, and for Vice President, Kamala Harris, at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles for Juneteenth 2023. As a poet, Alberto regularly performs and interprets for ASL Poetry Slams at the NUYORICAN POETS CAFÉ. He is currently the Resident ASL Artist for The Why Collective, performing poetry and dance collaborations. A proud Bronx-native, Alberto’s devoted role in life remains interpreting for his mother and sister.

• Dicky Dutton (they/she) is a floofy humanoid comforted by the discoveries of other wayward floofies. They take steps in the ground knowing the Mother pulls the weight out of her feet, and even though it hurts, the feelings in her body are real. Something about that feels good, so we keep stepping into spaces where music and making happen. They have performed with Opera Philadelphia, Philadelphia Choral Arts, the Philadelphia Voices of Pride, Cincinnati Opera, Aural Compass Projects, Arizona Opera, and the WHY Collective among others.

Sing2Me Read2Me, Baby! is a karaoke and poetry open mic, hosted at Seventh Heaven Bar and Karaoke. The format is simple: sing a song; read a poem. I invite poets to introduce their poem with a song that relates to it in some way, however mysterious or straight forward. A love ballad followed by a break up poem? A new wave hit followed by new shit? A song you've shared with someone special followed by something you wrote just for them? A cover song followed by a cover poem? The stage is your oyster—you decide! This poetry mic was made for people who can't sit still: dance your heart out, sing along, then stop and LISTEN.

Featured Poets: Ellie Farrell, Veronica Chepigan, Michael Fracentese, Natasha Sharpe, and Ames Neumann.

• Ellie Farrell is a writing (and life!) enthusiast born and raised on the Jersey Shore, now based in Brooklyn, NY. Ellie writes mostly poetry and prose, which can be found on her Substack. She has been featured in Poetry Is A Team Sport and Zine Club NYC zines.

• Veronica Chepigan is a New Jersey-born, Brooklyn based singer, poet, and musician. Her ruminative confessional poetry derives from mythology and her own fantastical findings amongst the mundane. Her work has been published by Poetry Is A Team Sport, Dead End Zine, Bad Words, and Hot People Read Poetry.

• Michael Fracentese (he/they) is a Brooklyn-born queer writer published in Pretty Cool Poetry Thing, the Journal of Bisexuality, and M/C Journal. He previously produced the Flight Recorder Reading Series, co-produced “In the dark times”, and founded and is currently co-editing the zine Distance Yearning.

• Natasha Sharpe is a drawing poet looking for little faces in inanimate objects & little friends everywhere. She hails from California, lives in Queens now, & has published one graphic novel called All This Imperfection with Paper Rocket Press

• Ames Neumann is a midwestern poet and zine maker from Fort Wayne, Indiana. They can be found risograph printing, cyanotyping, appreciating fungi and lichen, falling in love with new hobbies, and taking the Lake Shore Limited train to New York City with increasing frequency in the hopes of being bicoastal (Great Lakes/East Coast). They currently co-edit Distance Yearning and act as the unofficial photographer for Sing2Me Read2Me, Baby!

IntersectionsMag is a creative community of artists in NYC especially involved in the promotion of the arts through participating in city and neighbourhood initiatives, and organizing events and activities (readings, cultural conferences, gallery openings). IntersectionsMag members are multicultural, both men and women, as well as highly engaged in human(ism)and social values.

Featured Poets / Poetas: Faith Fennessey, Omar Balladares, Silvia Rey, Felix Guzmán, Shruti Mutalik, Carisa Musialik, and Adassa Ramírez Blanco.

• Faith Fennessey is a multilingual poet, mental health advocate, community activist, passionate educator, strategic partnerships, project manager, developing innovative solutions. Creating access for marginalized and underserved communities.

• Omar Balladares tiene una maestría en estudios avanzados de Literatura Española e Hispanoamericana de la Universidad de Barcelona. Se desempeña como docente en la Universidad de las Artes en Guayaquil. Publicó su primera obra en el año 2000; un libro de relatos titulado “Infernario”. Dos años después obtiene la primera mención del concurso de poesía David Ledesma Vázquez con su libro “Masturversos” (inédito). En el año 2009 integraría el grupo de ganadores del Concurso de Poesía El Retorno organizado por el Taller cultural Retorno, lo que lo hizo formar parte del poemario colectivo “Trayecto Cero”. Además, participó como co-guionista del cortometraje ganador “Gracias por su basura” (basado en uno de los cuentos del libro Infernario) del Concurso de Cortometrajes organizado por la Universidad Santa María en el año 2006. En el 2012 obtuvo la primera mención en el concurso de poesía Paralelo Cero, que le hizo merecedor a la publicación de su primer libro de poemas titulado “El Designio de la Espuma”. Su obra poética ha sido publicada en diversas revistas digitales tanto dentro como fuera del país; entre las que figuran: Círculo de poesía, Canibaal, Máquina Combinatoria y Revista Pixeletras de la Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral. En el 2019 presentó su poemario “La sal del tiempo”. En el año 2021 fue invitado a formar parte de la antología “De repente, la vida” publicada por el sello El Ángel editor.

• Silvia Rey es una escritora ecuatoriana radicada en Nueva York. Autora de Veleta (Editorial El Conejo, 2006),una novela de amor, reencuentros y suspenso ambientada entre Ecuador y Estados Unidos, y del libro de investigación La construcción de la noticia: corrupción y piponazgo (Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, 2003). Sus cuentos han sido publicados en New York en la Antología Latinoamericana y en revistas literarias como Hybrido Literary y Enclave. Periodista de vocación, ha trabajado como directora de prensa de la Asamblea Nacional del Ecuador, cronista parlamentaria y periodista en radio, prensa y televisión. Licenciada en Comunicación Social, posee una maestría en Literatura por Queens College (City University of New York) y en Estudios Latinoamericanos (Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar).

• Felix Guzmán is a poet and community organizer based out of Brooklyn, New York. Taking care to build a healthy community for all, Felix has been appointed to the Department of Mental Health and Hygiene Consumer Advisory Board, and New York City’s City Council Commission on Community Reinvestment and the Closure of Rikers Island.

• Shruti Mutalik is a psychiatrist and educator working at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York city. She primarily works with the medically ill, with a focus on the psychosocial care of organ donors and transplant recipients. She is a singer who performs with her band Sonic Animals. She has writtten poems and short fiction and non fiction, and has published Op-Ed pieces in outlets including the Baltimore Sun and the NY Daily News. She has always found poetry to be the way her soul speaks the truth, and is beyond excited and delighted to be reading here today. She is currently working on her first non fiction book, an exploration of questions and the art of asking them.

• Carisa Musialik was born and raised in Valverde, Mao, Dominican Republic. At the age of fifteen she migrated to the United States. She writes short stories and poetry about identity. She has published stories and poems for Spanglish Voces, La Galeria Magazine, Harvard University’s Palabrita Magazine and Arkansas University’s Azahares magazine and Dominican Writers’ association. A dormir, a soñar is her first children's book inspired by her hometown and her children.

• Adassa Ramírez Blanco is a Nuyorican poet and spoken word performer based in New York City whose work explores diaspora, cultural identity, political struggle, and community care through the lens of lived experiences in both Puerto Rico and NYC. Rooted in personal narrative, her poetry examines Puerto Rican independence, displacement, Act 22 settler colonialism, cultural identity within the diaspora, and the resilience of Puerto Rican communities across the island and beyond.

Poetry for All is a cultural, artistic project strongly engaged in social activism. Its mission is to spread poetry among citizens and to create social change through verse, spoken word and performance. Poetry for All has been involved in poetic action. Its members have organized bilingual monthly readings in New York -La Nacional, D´ Antigua, Barco de Papel- poetry festivals and fairs, and have participated in round-tables, workshops, talks and creative gatherings.

Featured Poets / Poetas: Linda Morales Caballero, Rocío Uchofen, Rolando Pérez, Marisa Russo, Mónica Sarmiento-Archer, and Lea Díaz.

• Linda Morales Caballero is a distinguished Peruvian poet, writer, journalist, and educator born in Lima who has developed much of her literary and professional career in New York City. A graduate cum laude of Hunter College, she has dedicated more than fifteen years to teaching in prestigious institutions including LaGuardia Community College (CUNY), Renaissance Charter School, the New York City Board of Education, and the United Nations. As a journalist, she has contributed to internationally recognized publications such as El Comercio and Caretas (Peru), El Sol (Argentina), and La Tribuna Hispana (New York), while also working as a radio producer and host. Morales Caballero is the author of eight poetry collections and the short-story volume El libro de los enigmas, with works such as Encantamiento and El rumor de las cosas exploring themes of emotional healing, identity, and human resilience. Her writing has been adapted for the stage and audiovisual productions in cities including Madrid and New York, notably through the theatrical monologue LABIAL, based on her fiction and performed at New York’s FUERZAfest. In addition to her creative work, she is a cultural advocate and cofounder of the annual LAIA Literary Contest and Anthology, an initiative that promotes Spanish-language literature produced abroad. She is also a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) for her work as a lyricist. Through her writing, teaching, journalism, and cultural leadership, Linda Morales Caballero has become an influential voice in contemporary Hispanic literature and the promotion of Spanish-language arts in the United States.

• Rocío Uchofen (Lima, 1972) studied Linguistics and Literature at the Catholic University of Peru. She belonged to the literary group Libro Abierto, where she gave workshops on techniques for writing a short story and short narrative. She has published the book of short stories Odalia y otros sin esquina (Latino Press, 2004), Liturgias Clandestinas (Taller del Poeta, 2004) and El Oscuro Laberinto de los Sueños (Tranvía Editores, 2011). In 2013 she was a finalist in the Copé poetry contest with the collection of poems Geometría de la Urbe, which is currently in press. Her short stories and poems have appeared in various publications and anthologies in America and Europe. She currently resides in New York, from where he directs the webzine Híbrido Literario and a radio program of the same name.

• Rolando Pérez (born 1957) is a poet, essayist, playwright, and Professor Emeritus of Literature and Philosophy at Hunter College, part of the City University of New York (CUNY). A distinguished scholar of Latin American and Spanish literature, continental philosophy, and the intersections of art, philosophy, and literary expression, he has authored numerous books of essays, poetry, and drama. His work includes significant studies on twentieth-century philosophy as well as critical writings on major literary figures such as Miguel de Cervantes. Through his scholarship and creative work, Pérez has made important contributions to contemporary literary and philosophical discourse.

• Marisa Russo (Buenos Aires, Argentina). Poeta, editora, gestora cultural y profesora adjunta de Hunter College (CUNY). Estudió el Máster y la Licenciatura de Literatura Hispanoamericana y Peninsular en Hunter (CUNY). Candidata doctoral de la U. de La Salle, Costa Rica. Fundadora de Turrialba Literaria. Fundadora y directora de Nueva York Poetry Press y Nueva York Poetry Review. Su obra aparece en diversas antologías y revistas literarias. Es directora del Festival Latinomericano de Poesía Ciudad de Nueva York y presidente del FIP Turrialba. Publicaciones: El idioma de los parques / The Language of the Parks (2018) Mención de honorífica International Latino Book Awards – Best Poetry Book, Jardines Colganes (2020) y El cielo comienza en las raíces (2020) y La joven ombú (2021).

• Mónica Sarmiento-Archer has a Ph.D. in Fine Arts from the Complutense University and is currently pursuing a second Ph.D. in Philosophy and Literature at the University of Alicante. She is the Director of Bi/Coa: Bicultural Community of the Americas and Co-Editor of Puente Atlántico, the journal of the Association of Spanish Graduates and Doctors in the United States (ALDEEU). She has taught at Hofstra University, Adelphi University. Her poetic work has been presented internationally in multiple languages at various poetry festivals. Her artistic work is included in important collections. In recognition of her outstanding cultural leadership and artistic contributions, she has received international distinctions such as the Real y Distingue Orden Española de Carlos III. She has also been honored by institutions including the Miguel Hernández Cultural Foundation (Spain), was named an Honorary Member of Epsilon Kappa Sigma Delta Pi, and received a UNESCO recognition on its 60th Anniversary in Valencia, Spain. For more information, visit www.bicoa.org.

• Lea Díaz is a poet, artist and an academic. In addition to serving on editorial boards, Lea has published two books of poetry, and her poems have been collected in anthologies and literary magazines such as "And Then", "The Independent Literary Review", "Contemporary Literary Horizon", "Viceversa", "Hybrido", among others. She has participated in readings and literary events at McNally Jackson Bookstore, New York Public Library, Bowery Poetry Club, Poetry Project NYC, La Nacional NYC, Saphira and Ventura Gallery, Instituto Cervantes, NYC Poetry Festival, Lacuhe Fair, TAPFNY, Hispanic/Latino Book Fair in Queens. Lea is engaged in activism and has presented contributions in conferences and panels, advocating for the role the arts play in democratic systems and developing the notion of “creative democracy”. Lea deeply believes in poetic action, in the transformative nature of Poetry: Poetry can make each of us a better person and, thus, a build a better world.

bi/Coa: Base Intercultural / Community of the Americas was founded in 2012. Is a organization that was created and run to promotes Hispano-American culture and interrelation with other cultures through art: exhibitions, cinema, theater and literature. The series of programs that will be presented, express concepts of justice, social service, and freedom of expression. This exciting program will include workshops, conferences and panel discussions with the artists plus the exhibition of large collections that normally reside in museums and private collections around the world.

Featured Poets: Clara Francesca, Brigidina Gentile, Shirley Faith, and Mónica Sarmiento-Archer.

• Clara Francesca is an award-winning stage and screen actor, XR performance artist, and executive communications coach. She is a professor at St. John’s University and a guest professor at Stony Brook University and HTW Berlin University of Applied Sciences. She holds a Juris Doctor–equivalent and a bachelor’s in biomedical sciences, and has taught and coached across leading New York institutions—including Ivy League programs in medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and law—as well as at Museum of the Moving Image and in corporate settings. Her credits include PBS, Pokémon, Audible, and TV series like FBI and New Amsterdam. She has toured internationally, including the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, in a solo show directed by Guy Masterson. A recipient of multiple awards, including the United States of America and Austria Federal Assistance Embassy Award and the Dame Joan Sutherland Award, an Anne Bogart SITI Company inaugural Conservatory alum, she is an internationally recognized immersive arts collaborator, recently featured at Umber Majeed’s Queens Museum Jerome Fellow exhibit and at Berlin’s MANIFEST:IO Symposium.

• Brigidina Gentile is a cultural anthropologist, translator, and writer. Italian by birth and Mexican by adoption, her writing is nourished by the cultural, linguistic, and symbolic traditions of both territories. A poet of introspection, her work explores desire, memory, and the body as sacred spaces of experience and meaning. Trained in anthropology, translation, and literature, she moves between languages and seasons, always attentive to the secret rhythm of everyday life. In recent years, she has deepened her practice of self-translation and has received recognition from prestigious institutions for her work in fostering intercultural dialogue through poetry, including the Miguel Hernández Cultural Foundation (Orihuela, Spain, 2022), the Embassy of Ecuador (Rome, 2024), and the RAW Glocal Women Foundation (Venice, 2026). More about her career as a writer, poet, and translator can be found at her digital home: www.leteledipenelope.com.

• Shirley Faith is a multilingual poet is a lifelong student at University of Life. Investigating language, music, movement, embodied presence, collaborative connections nurturing healing with courage to evolve every day. Sharing the healing process as educator, artist, dancer seamstress, costume maker, transforming life’s lessons, empowering partnership and interdependence. She has read poetry and hidden poems throughout NY, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Puerto Rico. Working globally with arts and education exchange initiatives, co-creating experiences that connect and uplift vulnerable populations, intercultural exchanges, wellness through caring connection @ramaa_leapof_faith @talulah_poetry_arts @theglobaldressmovement, weaving healing networks of support, creativity, identity, ancestral wisdom, valuing nature, caring connections and shared prosperity.

• Mónica Sarmiento-Archer has a Ph.D. in Fine Arts from the Complutense University and is currently pursuing a second Ph.D. in Philosophy and Literature at the University of Alicante. She is the Director of Bi/Coa: Bicultural Community of the Americas and Co-Editor of Puente Atlántico, the journal of the Association of Spanish Graduates and Doctors in the United States (ALDEEU). She has taught at Hofstra University, Adelphi University. Her poetic work has been presented internationally in multiple languages at various poetry festivals. Her artistic work is included in important collections. In recognition of her outstanding cultural leadership and artistic contributions, she has received international distinctions such as the Real y Distingue Orden Española de Carlos III. She has also been honored by institutions including the Miguel Hernández Cultural Foundation (Spain), was named an Honorary Member of Epsilon Kappa Sigma Delta Pi, and received a UNESCO recognition on its 60th Anniversary in Valencia, Spain. For more information, visit www.bicoa.org.

A middle school in Cypress Hills/East New York, Brooklyn.

Featured Poets: Zafrina Lovell, Zanelle Johnson, Sophia Ayanwu, Lucas Mitchell, Valerie Vinas Sanchez, Sofia Morales, Ridwan Alam, Melanie Lopez, and Jaliyah Rawlings.

A Latina Suicide Prevention Program with Locations in Brooklyn, The Bronx, Queens, Washington Heights, Poughkeepsie, and Yonkers.

Featured Poets: Sofia Monsalve, Keyroline Garcia, Nataly, and Reia.

• Nataly is a student at Flushing High School in NYC. In her free time she likes to write, read, and design clothes. She likes poetry because it is very expressive in a small amount of words.

• Reia is a student at John Adams High School in NYC. In her free time she likes to draw, sing, and write. She likes poetry because it helps her express her emotions.

Diane Luby Lane established Los Angeles-based nonprofit Get Lit - Words Ignite in 2006 to increase literacy and energize communities through spoken word poetry. Diane was first called to this work while touring her one-woman show, opening for legendary poet and advocate Jimmy Santiago Baca at high schools, universities, and juvenile detention centers across the country. The positive reception to poetry in the classroom—from students and educators alike—inspired Diane to create a groundbreaking curriculum that encourages young minds to claim poetry as their own. Right before her eyes, Diane witnessed the most reluctant youth transform into sages and savants, storytellers and scholars. Get Lit has been growing ever since, serving 326 schools and thousands of students worldwide.

Featured Poets: Vonne “Candi” Brider, Luca Jones, Fernando Santiago, Ian Medina, Christian Lomeli, and Michael Portillo.

• Vonne "Candi" Brider: Candi, or better known as Vonne, is a Stella High Charter Academy alumni who has been writing readings and poetry since they could pick up a pencil. At 11 years old, Vonne's work was published for the first time while attending Paul Revere Charter Middle School. They soon began to write a book and have been perfecting it for 6 years. They are a If I Awake in LA finalist and second place winner for their poem, “A Reminder to Us.” They take their inspiration from many great artists like 2pac and O Children, a black goth band, in order to show how their identities work together and create works of deep understanding. They are also known to enjoy a dad joke or two!

• Luca Jones is an 18-year-old poet born and raised in Southern California. His writing explores identity, social justice, and the uncomfortable questions that often go unspoken. Through poetry, he seeks to challenge perspectives, spark conversation, and better understand both himself and the world around him.

• Fernando Santiago is a graduating Senior and a poet who was born and raised in Los Angeles.

Poets House is a comfortable, accessible place for poetry—a library and meeting place which invites poets and the public to step into the living tradition of poetry. Poets House seeks to document the wealth and diversity of modern poetry, to stimulate dialogue on issues of poetry in culture, and to cultivate a wider audience for the art. The Lionfish is the youth magazine of Poets House.

Featured Poets: TBA

The Rose Garden Events offers a curated assortment of open mic nights, spoken word showcases, talk shows, art exhibitions, and educational programs. We're a one-stop-shop for all forms of creative expression. Our diverse ventures seamlessly unite the realms of creativity and business, providing a harmonious space for individuals to explore their artistic gifts as a career.

Featured Poets: Ave Maria, Scarlet Gomez, and Saint Trey Wooden.

• Ave Maria is both a poet and a mathematician of Trinidadian and Cruzan descent. Originally from Honolulu, Hawaii, Ave’s poetry is a testimony of her journey as a woman navigating life's challenges. She is a multi-time poetry slam winner and has performed at venues such as Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Poetry Me Please, and Uprose. She is a woman of God, an educator, and a soon-to-be published author.

• Scarlet Gomez is a queer Dominican Bronx-based poet, writer, zine-maker, and founder of Poetry House LLC. She’s had several short stories and poems published in literary journals such as Philadelphia Stories, The A3 Review, and Femme Dyke Magazine. She’s a Hedgebrook alum and guest editor of Archived As: I Said I Love You, an anthology forthcoming with Sinister Wisdom in 2026. When she’s not writing poetry, she’s working on her debut novel, No World Without You.

• Saint Trey Wooden is a writer, poet, and cultural worker whose work explores memory, Black queer life, and the possibilities of collective freedom. Rooted in the belief that storytelling can remake the world, his writing moves between personal narrative, political reflection, and lyrical meditation. His essays and poems engage questions of belonging, grief, care, and imagination, often drawing from family history and the living archive of Black community life.

The Kenyon Review, an international journal of literature, culture, and the arts, is published in March, June, September, and December at Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio 43022. Since its founding in 1939, it has evolved from a distinguished literary magazine into a nonprofit arts organization. We remain devoted to nurturing, publishing, and celebrating the best writing from around the world.

Featured Poets: Aarna Tyagi, Sunny Li, Alisa Kabatas, Rowan Trevino, Saskia Sommer, and Merckx Martinez Davila.

• Aarna Tyagi is a poet from Long Island, NY, and a runner-up for the 2025 New York State Youth Poet Laureate Competition Her work has been recognized by Hollins University, Urban Word, the Alliance for Art and Writing, as well as published in Cloudscent Journal, Polyphony Lit, and more.

• Sunny Li (they/them) lives in Flushing, New York City. For them, language is the closest approximation to love. Their poetry frequently explores absurdity, hope, and the latter end of devastation. You can read their work in The Kenyon Review. They will be attending Brown University in the fall.

• Alisa Kabatas is a high school junior who writes, reads, and doodles all the time, intent on enhancing her voice and crafting prose that carries purpose and finesse.

• Rowan Trevino is a rising high school senior at Groton School in Massachusetts. She grew up in New York and has always enjoyed writing poetry to share her voice. She attended Kenyon’s “Raising Your Voice” Winter program and is looking forward to sharing her work!

• Saskia Sommer is a poet and incoming student at Brown University. She spent high school heading her school’s poetry society and literary magazine. Her work is featured in Inklings, Elementia Magazine, and awarded by Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. She enjoys the fall, effusive midnight brainstorms, and other writerly cliches.

• Merckx Martinez Davila is a writer based in Westchester, New York. Often times his writing is either some obscure fairytale or a slightly religious stream of consciousness style poem. When he is not writing, he can be found singing in coloratura, reading any cultural fairytale, or taking walks through mythic small towns.

The Little Bookshop is a Black woman and Hispanic led, family-owned bookshop, café, and community hub built around stories, creativity, and care. Rooted in our lived experiences and cultural traditions, we are known for bringing people together through soups and books, poetry events, intimate jazz nights, screenings, workshops, and reflective gatherings. We intentionally curate inclusive literature, nourishing food, and welcoming programming that reflects the diversity of our community. As a multigenerational, family-run space, we lead with warmth, accessibility, and belonging and create a neighborhood living room where people feel seen, supported, and inspired to slow down, connect, and grow together.

Featured Poets: Nirvik Kattel, Jos Molina, Ethan Jimenez, Suhani Shinde, Charlotte Flores, and Eliza Simone.

Featured Poets: Yuhan Wu, Madeline Berberian-Hutchinson, and Anjali Natarajan.

• Yuhan Wu is a writer from Shanghai currently residing in New York. Her work is published or forthcoming in Aster Lit, Apricity Magazine, Eunoia Review, amongst others. She has been recognized by Smith College, Hollins University, The New York Times, and the National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

• Madeline Berberian-Hutchinson is a poet and artist from Brooklyn, New York, studying Art History at Yale University. She was a 2023 NYS and NYC Youth Poet Laureate Finalist, and her work has been published by Girls Write Now, the New York Public Library, and Rough Cut Press. She has recently received awards for her poetry by The City College of New York, and the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. She is the 2024 winner of the Young Armenian Poets Award and 92NY Teen Arts Award. She has performed at notable venues such as Federal Hall, The New York Public Library, and the Guggenheim Museum.

• Anjali Natarajan is a Black/Indian-American student from Austin, TX. She has received fellowships, residencies, and support the Austin Public Library, the City of Austin, and the East Coast Asian American Student Union, among others. She is an alumna of the Kenyon Young Writers Workshop and the Sunhouse Mentorship. Aside from writing, she enjoys watching world cinema, taking double-exposed photography, and playing video games. She strongly believes in the power of the arts as a means for social and political advocacy.

Our Arts & Literacy Program builds literacy in the widest sense of the word through creative writing, the visual & performing arts, martial arts, media literacy, gardening, fashion design, sports and yoga. The interdisciplinary curriculum builds upon the children's interests and strengths, using the same effective, holistic, multicultural approach which is the hallmark of all of the Coalition's programs. The program also offers art therapy, monthly Family Arts Nights with family literacy workshops, support for families, family educational trips, and apprenticeships for neighborhood high school students.

Featured Poets: TBA

ISB is an independent, non-profit school that is known for its innovative and rigorous Pre-K 3-8th Grade French and Spanish language immersion IB program. From Pre-K 3s to 8th Grade, ISB's curriculum exposes students to diverse cultural perspectives and experiences that enhance their educational journeys and broaden their vision of the world.

Featured Poets: TBA

Featured Poets: Sailee Charlu, Mikayla Harper, Oliver Z., and Alycia Scott.

• Sailee Charlu holds a deep passion for poetry as a form of activism and advocacy, creative writing and multilingual educational equity. She founded nonprofits Habla Arte and The Lit League, both bilingual Spanish-English initiatives that bridge the language barrier through creative expression in the visual arts and spoken poetry. She is a professional spoken poet with the California GetLit Poetry Troupe, 2026 YoungArts Winner in Poetry, a National Scholastic medalist, and a Carnegie Hall piano soloist. Her outlet is poetry, and she loves to engage with her multicultural community through poetry events and performances.

• Mikayla Harper is a writer and poet from Brooklyn, New York, studying Art History at Sarah Lawrence College. She serves as an Editor and Marketing Associate for Dark Phrases, helping cultivate literary spaces for emerging voices across poetry, prose, and visual art. She is the author of The Brim, a poetry collection available on Amazon. She will read her poem “Eulogy for the Scorned.”

• Oliver Z. is a queer and nonbinary Chinese-American poet whose work is strongly influenced by those marginalized identities—to them, poetry represents a means of freedom and an act of rebellion. Their style emphasizes storytelling and visceral imagery, with themes of diaspora, hope, and community. Beyond the quill, they can often be found immersed in a good book—with a particular love for classics—playing a TTRPG with friends, or taking up a new craft from jewelry making to abstract painting.

• Alycia Scott is a rising senior at Saint Saviour High School. Alycia has always been an expressive person with a passion for the arts ever since she was little. She started writing poetry in the 10th grade to find a better way to express herself and her emotions. She is beyond excited to be reading at this year’s New York City Poetry Festival and hopes to get more opportunities like this in the future.

International online magazine dedicated to amplifying the voices of marginalized and underserved communities through art and writing.

Featured Poets: Alexis Wu and Sophia Lin.

• Alexis Wu is a 14-year-old poet from Long Island. She is a National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards Medalist, NCTE First Class Award recipient, SUNHOUSE Summer Writing Mentorship poetry mentee under Divyasri Krishnan, WordUP! State Program Director, and Editor-in-Chief and Founder of The Bokeh Review. Her works are published in Aster Lit, Eunoia Review, The Interlochen Review, and more. She dreams of one day changing the world. Find her at alexiswu.carrd.co or on Instagram @a.w.underthedeep.poetry.

• Sophia Lin is a poet who finds joy in pondering and expression of her own personal experiences and as well as what she becomes exposed to and believes in through poetry. To her, poetry is a form of creativity that she deeply resonates with and will continue to perform.

The Teachers & Writers Collaborative offers writing programs for youth in NYC and NY State, including the New York State Youth Poet Laureate and New York State of Poetry programs.

Featured Poets: Hoshiko Hsu, Hakimah Malam, Alma Aldi, Aarna Tyagi, Jess Noel, and Claire Shim.

• Hoshiko Hsu is a Taiwanese-American poet from Queens, New York. The 2026 NYC Youth Poet Laureate, she hosts open mics and a historical poetry workshop series, moving past to present with spoken word, first drafts, and empathy for all. Her performances have been most notably featured at Federal Hall, the Brooklyn Museum, Harlem School of the Arts, and on WNYC while her work, poetry and prose, spans themes of racial justice, queerness, and self-temporality. You can find her poetry on UrbanWordNYC, The Eunoia Review, and various other magazines, and are very welcome to find her personally on Instagram: @hoshiko_hsu_____.

The SOMA Network is a community arts organization local to South Orange, Maplewood, and the surrounding area in New Jersey. The network aims to amplify and strengthen the local arts community by sharing artist calls and opportunities, as well as hosting events programming for local artists across all disciplines and stages.

Featured Poets: Gabriel Bard Rosen, Azalea Betancur, Maggie Doran-Paley, and Colette Kratz.

• Gabriel Bard Rosen is seven years old and a first-grader at Seth Boyden Elementary School. He enjoys theater, architecture, and Beyblades.

• Azalea Betancur is a rising first grader who loves to dance and perform. She is bilingual (Spanish and English). She lives in Summit, NJ with her mom. She is 6 years old.

• Maggie Doran-Paley is a rising senior at Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey. She has always loved reading and writing, and has been writing poetry since fourth grade. As well as poetry, Maggie loves to draw, watch Smosh, do art, hangout with friends, and collect figurines and stuffed animals.

• Colette Kratz is a junior at Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey. She is an avid writer who favors poetry and prose, storytelling, and songwriting. She writes her own songs alongside her singing and guitar playing, and she hopes to one day release her music.

826NYC is a nonprofit organization that focuses on encouraging the exploration of endless possibility through the power of writing. Our mission is to create spaces where students can build the skills to write their own paths forward, undefined by circumstance, and to support new and exciting approaches to writing and inspire student engagement. Our mission is based on the understanding that great leaps in learning can happen with individualized attention, and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success.

Featured Poets: Zee Rosado, Parker James, Sophia Martinez, Satya Thum, Ricardo Fernández, Melanie Brown, and Aisha Mandour.

• Zee Rosado (She/Her) is a writer from Brooklyn, NY, and a graphic design major at Art & Design HS. She loves reading, pottery and taking care of her grandma in her freetime. Her favorite books are thrillers, and her favorite thing to throw on the wheel is bowls!

• Parker James is a 13 year old who loves reading, writing, and is hoping to become a doctor one day!

• Sophia Martinez is an 18-year-old aspiring journalist and author from Queens, New York. Working on an untitled novel and running her own writing blog on Substack, she's really passionate about telling the stories of her community and her own. She also enjoys immersing herself in different worlds through books and TV, and getting really passionate about music, fashion, and her friends.

• Satya Thum (she/her) is a fourteen year old at the Bronx High School of Science. In her free time, she enjoys playing basketball, making art, reading, and learning. She writes to be able to express the different moods of life.

• Ricardo Fernández (He/Him) is a 11th grader at Pace High school Student and varsity basketball player. Writing is a way to express his feelings without jugement, escape the world and show his creativity.

• Melanie Brown is a 13 year old girl and actress from Brooklyn, exploring writing, loves spoken word, and enjoys snacks.

• Aisha Mandour (she/her) is a 14 year old aspiring journalist who wants to travel the world and see life up close. She spends her time reading, journaling, and seeing friends. She loves animals and music.

Featured Poets: Hoshiko Hsu, Le Wang, Hakimah Malam, and Adelaide Sendlenski.

• Hoshiko Hsu is a Taiwanese-American poet from Queens, New York. The 2026 NYC Youth Poet Laureate, she hosts open mics and a historical poetry workshop series, moving past to present with spoken word, first drafts, and empathy for all. Her performances have been most notably featured at Federal Hall, the Brooklyn Museum, Harlem School of the Arts, and on WNYC while her work, poetry and prose, spans themes of racial justice, queerness, and self-temporality. You can find her poetry on UrbanWordNYC, The Eunoia Review, and various other magazines, and are very welcome to find her personally on Instagram: @hoshiko_hsu_____.

• Le Wang is from New York and goes to Cornell University. Her work has been recognized by the Alliance of Young Artists and Writers and YoungArts.

• Hakimah Malam is a Ghanaian poet and activist born and raised in the Bronx. Hakimah was recently recognized as the NYC youth poet laureate runner up and a New York State Youth Poet Laureate finalist. She is featured at Riverner Literary and forthcoming in Bibelot magazine. Her work has been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. In her spare time, she plays clarinet and loves to read.

Girls Write Now is a nonprofit organization serving girls and gender-expansive youth who attend New York City public schools and are from historically and systemically underserved communities.

Featured Poets: Mia Carranza, Veronica, Zaina Rivera, and Bobin Shim.

• Mia Carranza is a writer from Queens, New York and Girls Write Now mentee. She is focused on creating original poems inspired by her studies of Latin American poetry and some of its central themes, such as identity, resistance, love and cultural pride. She holds a BA from Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College where she studied English Literature and Spanish Translation. Mia is proud to honor her Puerto Rican and Salvadoran heritage and hopes to continue serving her community through her creative work.

• Veronica is a rising senior at the High School of American Studies. She is an avid reader and loves to learn about the world. She is excited to share her poetry with you, and she is very grateful to her eighth grade English teacher for inviting her into a world of poetry through slam poetry.

• Zaina Rivera (she/her) is a queer poet who grew up religious in the Rockaways. Rivera’s poems explore different aspects of her life, including her identity as a queer mixed teen and the way religion shaped her life from a young age. Her poems “Unrequited” and “REDACTED” have each received honorable mentions from the CCNY Poetry and Performance contests, and she is the recipient of a regional Scholastic gold key for her piece “Mango,” which recounts her experience of coming out to her grandmother.

• Bobin Shim is a Korean American poet based in Queens, New York. Her work has been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards and Girls Write Now, and she was named a 2026 New York State Youth Poet Laureate Finalist. When she's not reading or writing, she can be found playing the guitar, cracking corny jokes, crying over old movies, and singing and dancing when no one’s watching!

Writopia Lab is a non-profit whose mission is to foster joy, literacy, and critical thinking through creative writing.

Featured Poets: TBA

Harlem Bomb Shelter is a 14 year old Harlem-based spoke word poetry & literary arts organization. Harlem Bomb Shelter produces open mics, showcase, workshops, and more, including an anual Youth Poerry Slam, a monthly Youth Poetry Night, and 12 months of workshops and opportunities for our Harlem Youth Poetry Ambassador.

Featured Poets: Agent Poems, Ty’Anna Winslow, and Rebecca.

• Agent Poems is a 17-year-old poet using poetry as a powerful outlet for self-expression and vulnerability. Agent Poems explores themes of loss, love, and vulnerability, crafting raw and heartfelt verses that resonate with readers on a deeply personal level. His work is inspired by real-life experiences, emotions, and a desire to bring comfort to those who feel unheard.

• Ty’Anna Winslow is a poet from Far Rockaway, Queens, who began her poetry journey in the 9th grade after finding inspiration through a TikTok video. Since then, she has used poetry as a creative outlet to express her thoughts, experiences, and perspective on the world. As she begins her college journey toward becoming a forensic psychologist, Ty’Anna remains dedicated to her passion for poetry and continues to grow as both a writer and storyteller.

• Being part of Impact Repertory Theatre has shown Rebecca how to put feelings into words and express herself healthily and comfortably through poetry and creative expression. Writing has become more than just a hobby; it’s been a journey of growth, healing, and self-discovery. Through every poem, Rebecca aims to share honesty, emotion, and the experiences that have shaped her into the person she is today.

Featured Poets: Lucas Hahn, Alma, Veidika Sen, and Josiah Smith.

• For most of his life, Lucas Hahn was trapped in a non-compliant body, unable to reliably communicate even the most basic ideas. He was believed to have limited thought, emotions, and awareness. Yet inside, his mind was with invisible yearnings and an invincible will. Then, at aqe ten, a breakthrough came in the form of an incredibly intuitive woman named Soma. Her methods enabled Lucas to communicate the ideas crowding his mind. Unfortunately, Lucas' communication rapidly reduced to nothing once again as the sexual abuse he experienced by staff at his school became more egregious. Eventually, Lucas regained his ability to communicate and is now taught at home. He expresses the intuitive understanding of time and sensory experience that he gained through his years of silence in his poetry.

• Alma is a Syrian-American poet residing in NYC. As a political organizer and first generation immigrant, her work focuses on her diasporic experiences and traditions but also delves into love, injustice, and self reflection. When she’s not writing poetry, you can find her at the nearest museum or at the library.

• Veidika Sen is a young poet who is published in The Chartium Magazine, Haven Literary, and more. She loves to read surrealist fiction (she recommends Banana Yoshimoto) and poetry (especially K-Ming Chang). She also enjoys eating fried rice and running her (very) tiny journal on Instagram, Crocus Literary.

• Josiah Smith is a 16-year-old junior high school student and poet who uses writing as a way to express himself and connect with others. He has been writing poetry since middle school, developing his voice through words that reflect his experiences, thoughts, and perspective on the world around him. His work has already gained recognition, including a city council award for poetry, highlighting both his talent and dedication to the craft. Josiah writes as a form of expression and communication using poetry as a way of getting his voice out there and speaking to people in a meaningful way. Outside of writing, he brings a creative and individual perspective shaped by his interests and experiences, continuing to grow as both a student and an artist.

House of SpeakEasy is a literary nonprofit based in New York City. We support writers and audiences on stage, in schools, and on the road with our Bookmobile.

Featured Poets: Isabelle Baker, Isabelle Zhu, Le'shea Smith, Laury Matias, Eve Writer, Ramin Khan, Jo Wallace-Segall, and Abigail Gomez.

• Isabella (Izzy) Baker is a rising sophomore at Nest+m School. Her favorite poet is Elizabeth Acevedo. Her hobbies entail making bracelets, playing the drums, and writing.

• Isabella Zhu is a rising sophomore at NEST+m on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. She loves writing songs and musical theater, and is especially interested in stories that explore identity, belonging, and finding your voice.

• Le'shea Smith is a Queens College junior who's majoring in Graphic Design. In her spare time, she enjoys bead making and creating keychains for her small business.

• Laury Matias is a college Junior studying illustration at the Fashion Institute of Technology. In her spare time, besides drawing, she loves reading books and crocheting.

• Eve Writer is enrolled at NEST+m School. She enjoys reading David Sedaris books and rock climbing. A quote that speaks to her is one by David Sedaris: "Write relentlessly, until you find your voice. Then, use it."

• Ramin Khan is a rising sophomore at NEST+m School.

• Jo Wallace-Segall is a rising sophomore at NEST+m School.

• Abigail Gomez attends John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Her favorite hobbies are writing and art. Her favorite poet is Edgar Allan Poe.