Ollie Schminkey is a non-binary transgender poet and artist living in St. Paul, MN. They have spent the past decade coaching, mentoring, teaching classes, and running workshops for poets. They are the author of three chapbooks, as well as the full-length collection Dead Dad Jokes (Button Poetry, 2021) which was shortlisted for both the Midwest Independent Publishers Association and the Eric Hoffer Grand Prize. Their work has been featured everywhere from THEM to Upworthy, and they’ve performed poems in 19 states, with their work garnering over 2 million views on YouTube. When they’re not writing and performing poetry, they spend their time making creepy+cute pottery under the name Sick Kitty Ceramics. You can find them touring nationally, making music, or playing with their cat Pete, who is always trying to eat things he shouldn’t.

To take a class or to see more of their work, check out ollieschminkey.com.

Mwende “FreeQuency” Katwiwa is a Kenyan, Immigrant, Shoga|Queer storyteller, speaker & feeler. The 2018 Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion, a 2017 TEDWomen speaker and ranked 3rd at the 2015 Individual World Poetry Slam, FreeQuency is a highly sought after performer, host, social justice teaching artist and workshop leader. Rooted in various global communities & having spent their life at the intersection of arts, education and activism, they and|or their work in Reproductive Justice, #BlackLivesMatter organizing & activism, LGBTQ+ advocacy and writing have been featured on The Independent, the New York Times, OkayAfrica, Upworthy, TEDx, For Harriet, Teen Vogue, Huffington Post, Everyday Feminism, & other outlets.

FreeQuency is the the founder of A Gate is Leaning: A Black Poetry Series, EMERGENT: A Storytellers Retreat at Foxfire Ranch (2018) and a cofounder of the Afro-Fashion & Culture blog Noirlinians. They are a recipient of the Louisiana’s Worldmakers Grant (2021), The Poets & Writers Project Grants for BIPOC Writers (2020), The Platforms Fund (2018). FreeQuency has also received the Newcomb Alumni Association Young Alumni Award (2020), the Black Out LOUD Excellence in Arts Activism Conference Award (2018), was named one of Gambit’s 40 under 40 (2018), an Aspen Ideas Festival Spotlight Health Scholar (2018), one of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts YBCA 100 Honoree (2018) and has had a dissertation Slam Poetry vs. Racism: Awakening Awareness and Social Change in FreeQuency’s “Dear White People” and “The Gospel of Colonization” (2016) written about their social justice spoken word poetry.

Edythe Rodriguez is an Upper Darby poet and copywriter, hardcore Bustelo drinker and non-violent Beyhive member. She is the first place winner of the 2022 Button Poetry Chapbook Contest, the 2022 Sandy Crimmins Poetry Prize from Philadelphia Stories, and the 2021 Margaret Reid Prize from Winning Writers. Edythe studied creative writing and Africology at Temple University where she developed both an Afrocentric writing praxis and the urge to amplify the full range and personality of Black language. She also went on to graduate from ONE School, an advertising portfolio program for the new generation of Black creatives. Edythe has received fellowships from PEN America, The Hurston/Wright Foundation, The Watering Hole, Brooklyn Poets and elsewhere. Her work is published in Obsidian, The Offing, Torch Literary Arts and elsewhere.

DeShara is a queer, Black poet and visual artist. She co-founded Daughter’s Tongue (an all-women writing collective), worked as the Creative Director of Workshops at Winter Tangerine, and is a former member of the Youth Speaks Collective. She received her MFA in Writing from California College of the Arts and fellowships from Callaloo, the Poetry Incubator, and Pink Door. In 2021, she was nominated for “Best of the Net.” She has published poems in Apogee Lit, Voicemail Poems, Tinderbox Journal, The Texas Review, and elsewhere. She has also been featured on Button Poetry’s YouTube platform and has performed at the likes of Spotify, Yahoo, and Pinterest