Ayah Abdul-Rauf studied film at the Kansas City Art Institute and the USC film school in Los Angeles, where she was identified as a method writer for her unorthodox approach to storytelling. She is an adjunct professor of film at Johnson County Community College and New York Film Academy. https://shethewriter.com/
Vanessa Aricco is a multimedia poet exploring conflict and duality. Her poetry albums include The Midnight Rush, Human Animal, and Teenage Poetry. She is co-lyricist on the album Gutter Mansions with her partner and collaborator Ashley Raines, and was a Charlotte Street Foundation 2019-22 Studio Resident. Her recent work can be found at Expat Press, Hobart, Rejection Letters, The New Territory and Hot Pink Magazine. vanessaaricco.com
Megan Birdsall is a songwriter, vocalist and guitarist. Her original music can be heard with her band MBird, and her career as a jazz vocalist has seen her play stages across North America and Europe. She has shared stages with such luminaries as Chakka Kahn, Mike Melvoin, Bob Bowman and more. https://open.spotify.com/artist/3NZgc5ZhrxhbZTtopX512N
Héctor Casanova is Assistant Professor of Illustration at the Kansas City Art Institute and has been working as a fine and graphic artist for over 25 years. As a staff artist at The Kansas City Star ('99-'15), he illustrated hundreds of articles and won a handful of awards. His work ranges from editorial illustration and comics to murals and gallery installations.
Lexi Ramirez Dickens is a poet, writer and photographer living in Liberty, Missouri. Her poetry and short prose has been published by Salt Tooth Press and her photography can be seen at https://www.brightonroadphotography.com/
Camry Ivory is an audiovisual musician/artist who harnesses technology to explore the synergistic relationship between color, form & sound. Camry is the inventor of Coloratura, an innovative interface that uses paintbrushes as electronic instruments, enabling her to create analog paintings and digital music compositions simultaneously. https://www.coloratura-art.com/
Lauren Lee is an artist and illustrator from Overland Park, Kansas. Growing up, she discovered a love of storytelling that persisted into her life today. She uses a variety of mediums, dabbling in creative writing and puppetry alongside her work as an illustrator. Lauren is currently based in New York City and is in the process of completing her senior thesis project at Parsons School of Design. https://lelee5353.wixsite.com/lauren-lee
Mark Manning, a renowned writer and performer, is the host of the Wednesday MidDay Medley on KKFI in addition to being a founder of Big Bang Buffet, the enormously influential performance art troupe. He has remained a fierce champion of Kansas City literature and art for decades. https://kkfi.org/program/wednesday-midday-medley/
David Wayne Reed is a writer/director born in rural Kansas, inspired by landscape and highway, and shaped by storytellers on the radio. Reed lives in the bright lights of Kansas City, Missouri where he served for two years as Acting Chair of the Municipal Art Commission www.davidwaynereed.com
Korbin Richards lives in the Kansas City metro area and spends their time working on their short story collection, collecting bones, and playing with their service dog, Shell. Both their academic and creative work have been published by Yale University’s American Literature in the World and To the Stars Through Difficulties: A Kansas Renga in 150 Voices. Korbin’s newest fiction, “Astral Projections” will be published by Prismatica Press. Their works in progress can be found at https://www.instagram.com/korbinrikkole/.
Michael Andrew Smith is a writer, educator and songwriter. He is the author of Project Daylight and co-authored the Dramatic HIV/STD Awareness Project, which he helped lead for over 20 years. His plays have been produced on professional and academic stages, and his splash prose has been published by Salt Tooth Press. Michael is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Object.
