Quintessential Poetry: Online Radio, YouTube and Zoom

Martin Graff is an artist, author, musician, and extreme-chin-beard enthusiast in Arlington, VA who crafts poetic vignettes with matching art on every topic from the stigma of liking scrapple to the meaning of life in a series called The Face Zone: Surreal Daydreams to Trip Your Imagination... Marty’s live spoken-word show adds original piano compositions from his album Trips for Piano to heighten the experience. His affecting commentary, original humor, whimsical artwork, and absorbing piano offer a uniquely engaging respite that cuts through the noise of our information-age lives with concise, essential truths certain to entertain as they set mind in motion.

For a decade, Marty's act has been featured at venues across the region, including Capital Fringe Festival, Spit Dat DC's residency at The Woolly Mammoth Theatre, and multiple Busboys & Poets locations. He has been reviewed and interviewed in over thirty print and online publications, and has made radio and TV appearances in support of his three books and piano album, for which he was nominated Best Classical Artist in the 2022 DC Wammie Awards.

When not performing, Marty teaches English as a Second Language, which he started in China and has continued doing throughout the Mid-Atlantic U.S., earning a 2015 Teacher of the Year nomination in Frederick, Maryland.

A little about my book

My book, Survived By, chronicles my experience coping with my father's terminal cancer diagnosis, his death, and my subsequent grief journey. The poems vary visually, utilizing the ribcage form invented by Athena Liu, concrete poetry,  and white space.

A little about me

I am a faculty member for the Community Literature Initiative through the Sims Library of Poetry and Strategic Partnership Fellow for The Poetry Lab. I was a finalist for the inaugural Emma Howell Rising Poet Award, was the winner of the 2021 Crow House Press Poetry Competition, and earned the 2021 Peter K. Hixson Memorial award in poetry presented by Writer's Relief. I received the 2020 Milestone Award presented by Wyoming Writers, Inc., and the 2020 Rising Star Award presented by the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce. I was a 2021 Wyoming Women of Influence nominee in the arts category for amplifying the voices of the LGBTQ and disabled communities through my writing. (If you're curious to know even more, I have my full bio on my website annemariewellswriter.com/bio).

https://www.annemariewellswriter.com

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/survived-by-anne-marie-wells/1143377768

https://www.instagram.com/annemariewellswriter

https://www.facebook.com/annemariewellswriter

https://www.youtube.com/annemariewellswriter

I was born Wavyne Diana Benskin in Trinidad and Tobago to Barbadian parents. 

I am a graduate of Curepe Junior Secondary and St Augustine Girls High School.

A graduate of Mercy College. 

A recipient of Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing Fellowship. A Scholarship of Community Literature Initiative California. Best Spoken Word Artiste, CHub Magazine London.

Global Ambassador Divas of Color.

Co host WZYEFM 95.9 in NJ.

I love to karaoke. 

https://trinidadexpress.com/features/local/words-of-empowerment/article_f2508e1e-ffea-11ec-828c-2f0d6d93a595.html

https://trinidadexpress.com/once-upon-a-pandemic/image_8de4a964-ffeb-11ec-9f8b-5bdc58c2d289.html

Ellen Thea is an award winning performance poet, drummer, dancer, and holistic counselor, utilizing tarot, astrology, crystals and energy work. Her life’s journey has taken her from New York City to South Florida to rural Alaska. She has been writing and performing almost her entire life, learning to write and starting dance at age 4 with her first audition (on Broadway) at age 5, writing, directing and performing original sketches by third grade. Growing up in the cultural wonderland of NYC in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s, Ellen decided to use words and movement as both her paintbrush and medium. Ellen received a bachelor’s degree (B.S.) in Psychology with an (almost) minor degree in theatre from Union College, Schenectady, NY in 1978. Her master’s degree is from Nova Southeastern University, Davie, Florida 1996 in Marriage and Family Therapy with a specialization in medical family therapy. After college, Ellen moved to South Florida where she had her three children (now adults). After suffering a head injury from a vicious mugging, she heeded the counsel of a Cherokee medicine woman, who sent her to Alaska for a healing walk in 2004. She’s made her home in rural Alaska ever since. Her awards: Bitterroot Poetry Magazine Award 1986, the Douglas Freels Poetry Award 2002, the Dancing Poetry Competition 2013, and the Poetry Matters Award 2014. Her book, “On My Way To The Apocalypse” (a non-linear 55 page prose poem) was published by Dingaroo Press in 2012 (That same year Ellen became a grandmother). She’s created and performed her original works (full shows and as a featured artist) in Florida, Ohio, New York, Michigan, and Alaska. Her work (both writing and esoteric) has been featured on various radio programs. She’s also been a news reader and d.j. on the local radio station in Alaska. Ellen has also created a number of specialized curriculums and workshops for children through adult learners.

Freddy Niagara Fonseca, Renaissance man, poet, dramatic reader, originally from South America, has authored two poetry books. The first one, a poetry anthology, This Enduring Gift - A Flowering of Fairfield Poetry was published in 2010. His second book, a mystical and humorous poetry collection, The Bomb That Blew Up God And Other Serious Poems featuring his own poems, saw the light ten years later in 2020. Freddy has performed in public numerous times in his own Candlelight Reading Series, presenting multi-faceted World Poetry events of all eras and cultures with the collaboration of musicians, dancers, actors and expressive readers. Quite favorably reviewed in BookLife by Publishers Life, The Bomb That Blew Up God was listed in a Notable Iowa Books column of the Spring 2021 edition of Ottumwa Life. These days you can frequently hear him reciting at various Zoom open mic venues. He lives in Fairfield, Iowa.

Meghan Zipin is an author and mama who shares her time writing with discovering half eaten snacks around the house and ensuring her children stay little for as long as possible.

Meghan’s debut poetry collection, First Light (2023, Nymeria Publishing), follows her path from the Boston Marathon bombing to the birth of her third son nine years later.

Meghan writes with an intention to make her readers feel something in their body and asks them to look at the world with a tender set of eyes.

Meghan received her MBA from Boston College and her Masters in physical therapy from Northeastern University. She now lives on eleven acres in New Hampshire with her husband, three curly haired boys and their dog Oona.

https://www.meghanzipin.com

https://www.amazon.com/First-Light-Meghan-Zipin/dp/B0BP9VT1C3

https://instagram.com/mismegs82?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

https://www.facebook.com/meghan.zipin?mibextid=LQQJ4d

https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghan-delaney-zipin-51851a35

Founder of Poetry X Hunger: Bringing a World of Poetry to the Anti-Hunger Cause, Larew has also published poetry in places including Contemporary American Voices and Best Poetry Online. His most recent collection, Patchy Ways, was published in 2023 by CyberWit Press.  He lives in Maryland, USA.

https://www.amazon.com/Books-Hiram-Larew/s?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3AHiram+Larew

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100084745897034

https://www.poetryxhunger.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hiram-larew-4031b411/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS2HvjjuM-Y

A non-binary poet, Karen Poppy’s debut full-length poetry collection, Diving at the Lip of the Water, is forthcoming in 2023 with Beltway Editions. Her chapbooks Crack Open / Emergency (2020) and Our Own Beautiful Brutality (2021) are both published by Finishing Line Press. Her chapbook, Every Possible Thing, is published by Homestead Lighthouse Press (2020). An attorney licensed in California and Texas, Karen Poppy lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

https://karenpoppy.com/

https://m.facebook.com/KarenPoppyPage/

https://www.amazon.com/Diving-Lip-Water-Karen-Poppy/dp/1957372036

Regina YC Garcia is a Poet, Language Artist, and English Professor from Greenville, NC. A graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill (BA) and East Carolina University (MAEd) with a Graduate Certificate in Multicultural and Transnational Literature, her work has appeared in a variety of journals,reviews,and anthologies, to include The AutoEthnographer, the South Florida Poetry Journal, Up the Staircase Quarterly, New Note Poetry, The Amistad, The Main Street Rag, The Book of Black, Black and…, and numerous others. Her work has also been featured in a Mid-South Emmy Award winning episode of PBS' Muse featuring "The Black Light Project" (UNC TV), as well as the Sacred Nine Project of Tulane University. She is the author of The Firetalker's Daughter published by Finishing Line Press in March 2023.

Firetalker's Daughter https://a.co/d/9SoA1E9

https://www.profesoragina.com

https://twitter.com/profesoragina?t=7YMF2ZnGrCjmDr7Q2taAMA&s=09

https://www.facebook.com/regina.y.garcia?mibextid=ZbWKwL

https://www.linkedin.com/in/regina-garcia-126370b

Chyrel J. Jackson & Lyris D. Wallace are Literary visionaries. Reared in the South Suburbs outside Chicago. African American Literature influenced their writing and is one of their favorite genres. Jackson & Wallace write in the spirit of their past great Literary ancestors. 2021 & 2023 garnered Chyrel & Lyris their very first literary nominations, Pushcart Nominee-Poem Love Unspoken, Published in Heart Beats Anthology & No Justice for Breonna Social Justice Inks Anthology Pushcart Nominee 2023. The sisters published Mirrored Images and Different Sides of the Same Coin. This edgy writing duo appears in over 10 published poetry Anthologies. You will find them always writing. Creating written legacies one book at a time. Jackson & Wallace are writer's that have found their poetic voice.

Different Sides of the Same Coin: A Collection of Poems - https://a.co/d/fCfkyiH

Mirrored Images - https://a.co/d/4VlSww8