Tess Taylor

MK Chavez

MK Chavez is a writer and educator whose work explores mixed-race identity, social justice, environmental resilience, horror cinema, magic, ritual, and the creative process. As founder of the Ouroboros Writing Lab, MK Chavez provides a nurturing space for writers to grow. The Lab offers workshops designed to expand creative boundaries and individual and group creative coaching. Chavez’s work is recognized with the Pen Josephine Miles Award, San Francisco Foundation/Nomadic Press Literary Award, and the Ruth Weiss Maverick Award. Chavez’s publications include Dear Animal, Mothermorphosis, the lyric essay chapbook A Brief History of the Selfie, and Virgin Eyes. Recent work can be found as part of the art installation Manifest Differently.

GABRIEL CORTEZ

Gabriel Cortez is a poet, educator, and organizer based in the Bay Area, California. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Rumpus, The Breakbeat Poets Anthology Volume 4, and elsewhere. A VONA, Poetry Incubator, and #BARS workshop alum, he has received awards from the Rainin Foundation, the University of California, Palette Poetry, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Gabriel is the inaugural poet in residence at The Ecology Center and Shelterwood Collective, where he uses poetry and arts education to uplift local legacies of resistance rooted in environmental justice and food and land sovereignty. He is a member of the artist collective, Ghostlines, and co-founder of The Root Slam, an award-winning poetry venue dedicated to inclusivity, justice, and artistic growth, as well as Write Home, a project working to challenge public perceptions of houselessness and shift critical resources to houseless Bay Area youth through poetry and arts programming. Gabriel serves as secretary on the board of directors of Performing Arts Workshop. From 2014 to 2023, he was Lead Poet Mentor and Director of Programs at Youth Speaks and has since worked for organizations such as Chapter 510, 826 Valencia, SFJAZZ, and more. Gabriel is of Black, white, and Panamanian descent. His work explores power, identity, belonging, and gold teeth. For more on Gabriel, visit www.GabrielMCortez.com

CHRIS MARTIN

Chris Martin is a tilted thinking animal who sways, lights, trees, listens, and arrives. A poet who teaches and learns in mutual measure, he is the connective hub of Unrestricted Interest and the curator of Multiverse, a series of neurodivergent writing from Milkweed Editions. After publishing four collections of poetry, including Things to Do in Hell (Coffee House Press, 2020), he released his first book of nonfiction May Tomorrow Be Awake: On Poetry, Autism, and Our Neurodiverse Future (HarperOne, 2022). He lives in El Cerrito, among the scrub jays and coast live oaks, with Mary Austin Speaker and their two bewildering creatures.

I love teaching poetry to young people because they are so receptive to the permission to play. It's easy for adults to forget that language is a magic spell, but young people pick up on it immediately. And how relieved they are to play with a kind of lyric language that can't be tested but only felt, shared, changed, and celebrated.

NORMA SMITH

Norma Smith was born in Detroit and grew up in the Central Valley of California. She has lived in the East Bay for more than 50 years. She has worked as a hospital clerk, journalist, translator-interpreter, community scholar-educator, event and conference organizer, and as an editor, writing coach, and workshop facilitator. Norma holds a B.A. in Creative Writing, an M.A. in Education with a Special Focus on Equity Issues; and a Ph.D. in Ethnic & Cultural Studies. Her writing has been published in literary, political, and scholarly journals. Norma’s book of poems, HOME REMEDY, is available here.

Clara Sperow

Clara Sperow is a writer, multimedia artist, and educator interested in the intersection of the practical and the decorative (where cakes and quilts and poetry live). She is currently finishing her MFA in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University, where she is also the Poetry and Art Editor for 14 Hills. Their poems have appeared in The Ana, Berkeley Poetry Review, Silver Operation, and Cherub Magazine. She has recently been featured at Tritone, The Poetry Center, Medicine for Nightmares, Tenderlovin, and The Long Haul. Clara studied English at UC Berkeley, where they wrote and taught with June Jordan’s Poetry for the People. They have a background in empathy education and working with kids. They have two upcoming 3D poetry projects – a play in the Greenhouse Festival and an art exhibit in the Martin Wong Gallery. She runs the monthly reading series Take Place and is busy baking cakes for all the people she loves.