We are proud to feature work by:

M. Eliza Hamilton Abegunde
The really important stuff: Abegunde: Ancestral Vessel, Daughter of Honey and Sweet Rivers, Accompanied by the Wind and Transformation. Poet, Writer, Healer, Priest. Born in the US. Saved in the Caribbean. Reborn and made whole in Brasil. The other stuff: Published in: Kenyon Review, Warplands, Janes Stories II, rhino, nocturnes, and other anthologies. Author of The Ariran's Last Life (a novel), and poetry: Wishful Thinking, Still Breathing, What Is Now Unanswerable. Fellowships and Awards: Sacatar, Ragdale, Illinois Arts Council, Poetry Center Discovery Award. More really important stuff: Healing is an every day act of resistance, devotion, obligation, responsibility, and love. Live fully to heal fully.

Cristina Correa
Cristina Correa is a writer who uses words to observe and analyze the world. Her work is both politically and creatively charged by the several cultures she claims. As a native Chicagoan, she participates in local non-profit organizations and social justice groups while attending Columbia College Chicago.

Krista Franklin
Krista Franklin is a poet and visual artist who has most recently been published in RATTLE, Indiana Review, Ecotone, Clam, Callaloo, MiPOesias.com, and the anthology Gathering Ground. Her collages have appeared on the covers of award-winning books, and she has exhibited nationally in solo and group exhibitions. She is a Cave Canem Fellow, and the co-founder of 2nd Sun Salon, a community meeting space for writers, visual and performance artists, musicians and scholars.

Tracie D. Hall
Tracie D. Hall spent much of her childhood in a white house south of Central Avenue in Watts. A former 'old folks home' that her grandfather and uncles converted into a single family residence, that house and the things that happened there are the source of both myth and memory. Though her writings have appeared in various publications, Hall writes mostly for herself (because therapy is expensive and requires a commitment...which is part of her problem). She would like all rec-roomers interested in forming a support group for the offspring of black + colored marriages to meet her in the bar after the reading.

Quraysh Ali Lansana
Quraysh Ali Lansana is author of They Shall Run: Harriet Tubman Poems (Third World Press, 2004) and the poetry collection Southside Rain (Third World Press, 2000); The Big World, a children's book, (Addison-Wesley, 1999); and two poetry chapbooks, Greatest Hits: 1995-2005 (Pudding House Publications, 2006) and cockroach children: corner poems and street psalms (nappyhead press, 1995). He is the editor of Glencoe/McGraw-Hill 's African American Literature Reader (Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2001), and I Represent and dream in yourself, which are two anthologies of literary works from Chicago's award-winning youth arts employment program, Gallery 37 (Tia Chucha Press, 1996 and 1997, respectively). He is also co-editor of Dream of A Word: The Tia Chucha Press Poetry Anthology (Tia Chucha Press, 2006), and Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature and Art (Third World Press, 2002). Poetry from the Masters: The Sixth Wave (Just Us Books, 2008) is forthcoming. more...

Toni Asante Lightfoot
Toni Asante Lightfoot is a graduate of Howard University, George Washington University, and Cave Canem Writer's Workshop. She is co-founder of the poetry collective the Modern Urban Griots and President of the African American Writers Guild. A seasoned teacher of poetry and the spoken word, her work with public schools and not for profits is extensive. Toni has delivered performances at venues as diverse as the Lincoln Theater and HBO's Def Poetry Jam. Her poetry collections include Kiss My Ears Like Jazz and Unearthing Me. Her work has also appeared in the anthologies Role Call and Beyond the Frontier.

Paul Martinez
Paul Martinez Pompa studied at the University of Chicago and Indiana University, where he served as a poetry editor for Indiana Review. His chapbook, Pepper Spray, was published by Momotombo Press in 2006. His full-length manuscript, Men Watching Men, was recently selected by Martin Espada as winner of the 2008 Andres Montoya Poetry Prize. It is slated to be published by the University of Notre Dame Press in the fall of 2009. He currently lives on the northwest side and teaches composition and creative writing at Triton College in River Grove, Illinois.

Amanda Torres
Amanda Torres is a Chicana writer, singer, teacher and organizer who has always found ways for her creative life and work with youth and social change to co-mingle and collaborate. She has been performing and teaching internationally since she was 14. She is currently working as a teacher in a CTC initiative focused on bringing Latino cultural awareness into the schools. Amanda comes to whatever she does with a passion for justice, a smile and strong hands.