Javon Johnson is an Assistant Professor and Director of African American & African Diaspora studies and holds an appointment in Gender & Sexuality Studies in the Interdisciplinary, Gender, and Ethnic Studies Department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He received his Ph.D. in Performance Studies with a certificate in Gender Studies and Cognate in African American Studies from Northwestern University in 2010. Dr. Johnson’s scholarly interests include performance, blackness, African American literature, black pop culture, slam and spoken word, black feminist theory, black queer th ..read more

Suzi Q. Smith is an award-winning artist, activist, and educator who lives in Denver, Colorado. She has been performing poetry throughout the United States for over a decade.  ..read more

Imani Cezanne is a writer, performer and teaching artist from San Diego, CA. As a nationally touring poet, Imani has been invited to share her work at poetry venues, colleges, universities, conferences and festivals across the nation. Imani has won 5 Grand Slam Championships, placed in the top 10 at 7 World Poetry Slams and has shared original work on three major network television shows. Imani has forthcoming work in Fugue, Nimrod, and Crab Creek Review, and was recently named a finalist for the 2020 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship. In March she became the 2020 Wome ..read more

Alyesha Wise is a published poet, teaching artist & TEDx speaker from Camden, N.J. Currently residing in LA, she is the co-founder of Spoken Literature Art Movement, an organization providing poetry education and extensive programming for poets - and a teaching artist for Street Poets, Inc., an organization serving juvenile injustice-involved youth with mentorship and arts programming. Alyesha has been featured on platforms and in publications such as OWN TV, Huffington Post, Bustle, Afropunk, PBS, POPSUGAR, Buzzfeed and more. Other collabs include the ACLU of Southern California, The Nant ..read more

Pages Matam is an international artist, writer, event coordinator, & educator from Cameroon, Central Africa, currently residing in Washington D.C. He is Director of Poetry Events for Busboys and Poets, Callaloo Fellow, and author of the award winning full length collection The Heart of a Comet (Write Bloody, 2014). A polyglot National poetry slam champion and National Fair Housing Alliance Cultural Ambassador, he has been featured on various renowned platforms and venues such as the NAACP, The Guardian & Google Voices, Huffington, Okay Africa, Macy’s, the Kennedy Center, the Apollo The ..read more

The award-winning poet, and storyteller, Ebony Stewart, has a powerful voice and a drive to make an impact. She is a woman of many talents, she wears the hat, but there is a greater focus put on her shoes. In addition to being an international touring performance artist, Ebony is also a Sexual Health advocate, published author, and striving community artist social worker. Her work speaks to the black experience, with emphasis on gender, sexuality, womanhood, and race, with the hopes to be relatable, remove shame, heal minds, encourage dialogue, and inspire folks in marginalized communities ..read more