TalkWithME

Jeanetta is the 2017-18 Oklahoma State Poet Laureate. Her most recent books are What I Learned at the War, a poetry collection (West End Press, 2016) and Oklahomeland: Essays (Lamar University Press, 2015). Her 2009 poetry collection, Work Is Love Made Visible (West End Press) won an Oklahoma Book Award, a Wrangler Award, and the WILLA Award from Women Writing the West. Dr. Mish is also Director of The Red Earth Creative Writing MFA at Oklahoma City University where she also serves as advisor to Red Earth Review and as a faculty mentor in writing pedagogy, professional writing, and the craft of poetry.

Follow Jeanetta Calhoun Mish at www.TongueTiedWoman.com

Robert “Bob” Walicki constructs poetry, poetic events, community, and plumbing in Pittsburgh, PA. He curates the Versify Poetry Series. His poetry has appeared, or is forthcoming, in a number of journals including Vox Populi and The Kentucky Review. A Pushcart nominee, his most recent chapbook, The Almost Sound of Snow Falling (Night Ballet Press, 2015), was nominated to the 2016 New York Showcase of Books at The Poet’s House in NY.

Follow Robert Walicki’s poetic work at https://www.facebook.com/Robert-Walicki-1961568937400784/ & Versify Reading Series at https://www.facebook.com/getversified/

Each month, the Transformational Jennie Washburn joins Talk With ME host, Marcia Epstein, for real life conversation. This Month: Celebrate Cultures and Community. Many opportunities are shared! Jennie is a Licensed Esthetician & a member of Spiritual Entrepreneurs, Pryor Transformation, Shift 2 Degrees, Lawrence Women’s Network, & One Hundred Good Women. She also enjoys being onstage, including as a two-time contestant in Transformations, a charity gala. Find Jennie at https://skincarebyjennie.net

Chris is a professor of sociology at Washburn University. His work explores what it means to be an LGBT+ person in an era of heightened visibility. He has been a contributing author to VItal Voice, Camp KC, and QVegas magazine. He is completing an article on Grindr, and a book project on the electronic dance music subculture.

Follow Chris Conner’s work at https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=eVwGqiQAAAAJ&hl=en

MsAmanda Love is the big, bright, beautiful, and boozy comedy queen from Lawrence, KS. She has been building her drag career all over Kansas and the surrounding states for the last 5 years. Known for her crazy comedy mixes, naughty parody’s, and colorfully loud costumes, makeup, and hair, MsAmanda will make you laugh, cry, and go home happy.

The weekly “MsAmanda Presents Thirsty Thursday” drag show and dance parties are a weekly open and inclusive LGBTQI night at The Jazzhaus in Downtown Lawrence, KS every Thursday. Each week is represented with a different style and title: 1st Thursday Bangerz Ball, 2nd Thursday (Drag King) Novacayne’s Panty Party, 3rd Thursday $#!+ Show, and Final Thursday Showcase Showdown, where everyone is a winner and performers sign up that evening.

Even if you can’t find MsAmanda Love on FB, you can still find Thirsty Thursday events at The Jazzhaus of Lawrence www.facebook.com/pg/jazzhaus

Jason is a licensed Addiction Counselor and Clinical Social Worker, the artist of Keezograms www.facebook.com/keezograms, and a member of the Guild Theater.

John is the Artistic Director of the Guild Theater. Besides heat vision, his other super power is using his 16 years of improv experience and 33 years of theater experience to bring the best in theatrical instruction, comedy, and entertainment to the people. Past careers include high school teacher, donut maker, hypnotist and newspaper reporter. Find his book “Improv For Everybody”on Amazon. He ashamedly enjoys reality TV, has seen exactly 14 movies in his entire life, and is painfully single, an experience made more painful by his two amazing and loving children. Lawrence, KS has been his home for the past five years, and he can often be seen wandering through natural areas gawking at birds.

The Guild Theater – Lawrence, KS is the home of improv classes, rehearsals, and performances of The Lawrence Improv Guild www.facebook.com/LawrenceGuildTheater

Jeanette curates the generative performance art venue, Uptown Arts Bar, and is the Acquisitions Editor for KC based, indie press EMP Books. She also co-directs the arts non-profit Chameleon Arts with legendary print-maker Hugh Merrill and is Treasurer/grant-writer for KC’s annual small press fest. She is the author of six books of poetry, including her newest release “Don’t Lose Your Head” through EMP in 2017. She is an alumni resident of Osage Arts Community and The Lemon Tree House and can most often be found riverside with her hound dog, Olly Mas.

“Don’t Lose Your Head” is an experimental book of poetry and drawings which revolves around the concept of childhood trauma and its effects on adult life. The genesis of the book was 40-year-old Jeanette’s discovery of the truth of how her father died when she was four years old and follows the trajectory of family secrets, dysfunction and alienation. This work of art is raw, vulnerable and reaches deeply into the often untold shards of what is swept under rugs and kept folded in the back closets of family shame.

Follow Jeanette Powers’ art & adventures on Facebook & on Twitter @jeanettepowers & at www.JeanettePowers.com

Alexis creates art full of beauty, light, darkness, life, death, sex, and personal power. Alexis is the author of How I Lost My Virginity To Michael Cohen and other heart stab poems, (2014), State of Grace: The Joshua Elegies, (2015), and the brand new, erotic, LA-centric collection, Enter Here (2017). She is published in The Best American Poetry 2016, Rattle, Slipstream, Plume, Nashville Review, Diode, Glass, and elsewhere. Her photos are published worldwide. Since 2013 Alexis has been nominated for 11 Pushcart Prizes, 1 Best Small Fiction, and 4 Best of the Net awards. She is Poetry Editor of Cultural Weekly and lives in Los Angeles.

Find Alexis Rhone Fancher’s art & event schedules at www.facebook.com/alexis.fancher & www.AlexisRhoneFancher.com

Mercedes is the author of the chapbook In the Garden of Broken Things (Flutter Press, 2016, available at www.Lulu.com) and winner of the Langston Hughes Creative Writing Award for Poetry. Her writing has appeared in New Orleans Review,Curbside Splendor, Paper Darts, The Chicago Tribune’s Printers Row Journal, The Pinch, Heavy Feather Review, and Whitefish Review among others. She is a recent Glimmer Train “Short Fiction Award” Finalist and has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is currently the Fiction Editor of Beecher’s and curates a collection of works dedicated to the experiences of autism and developmental disabilities through the online literary magazine, Spectrum Extract. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Northwestern University and is currently pursuing her PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Kansas. Follow her work on Twitter @loose_arrow and at www.MercedesLucero.com

Alexis creates art full of beauty, light, darkness, life, death, sex, and personal power. Alexis is the author of How I Lost My Virginity To Michael Cohen and other heart stab poems, (2014), State of Grace: The Joshua Elegies, (2015), and the brand new, erotic, LA-centric collection, Enter Here (2017). She is published in The Best American Poetry 2016, Rattle, Slipstream, Plume, Nashville Review, Diode, Glass, and elsewhere. Her photos are published worldwide. Since 2013 Alexis has been nominated for 11 Pushcart Prizes, 1 Best Small Fiction, and 4 Best of the Net awards. She is Poetry Editor of Cultural Weekly and lives in Los Angeles.

Find Alexis Rhone Fancher’s art & event schedules at www.facebook.com/alexis.fancher & www.AlexisRhoneFancher.com