TalkWithME

Matt performs slam poetry across the country, because “Words are the expression of the spiritual.” Part of The P.O.E.T. Movement, Matt co-hosts several live-streamed P.O.E.T. Radio shows. Matt lives in Topeka, KS while completing a business degree at Washburn University. He hosts “The Faces by Mayfield Poetry Series” monthly in Topeka. His poetry collection from Spartan Press will be released May 2017. For info on P.O.E.T. Radio and more, www.IAmPoet.org or [email protected]

Author of four chapbooks: A Beggars Book of Poems, Bumblebee Petting Zoo, Fools’ Song & Unformed Creature, with more in-progress. His poems have appeared in Ghost City Review, Guide to Kulture Creative Journal, Five-to-One Magazine #thesideshow, Rusty Truck Zine, Poems-For-All, The Buffalo News & Plurality Press. Acquisitions Editor for CWPCollective Press. Voted best poet in Buffalo by Artvoices’ “Best of Buffalo” in 2016. A madcap, punk-rock, D.I.Y. Buffalo bred & corn-fed poet. Follow Cringe-Worthy Poets Collective at www.facebook.com/CringeWorthyPoetsCollective

Taurean LaCharles is a native of Lawrence, KS and a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he studied classical theatre. As an androgynous gay African-American male, Taurean has known discrimination throughout his life. Taurean and host Marcia Epstein engage in a lively conversation about Performance Arts in Lawrence, KS. And about Racism in Arts in the USA. Follow Taurean at www.facebook.com/Taurean.LaCharles

Crista grew up in Iowa. BFA in Painting and Creative Writing from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2015. Visual work has been show at the Dodge Painting Gallery, Blue Djin Gallery, Vacant Farm, Green Lady Gallery, ArtsBar, Night Blooms Darkroom and Bookstore, H&R Block ArtSpace, and LUMA Westbau museum in Zürich, Switzerland. Poetry has been published in Sprung Formal, KCAI’s Compendium, Not Sorry Zine, and Retrograde Craft. First book of poetry, Fleeting, Sacred on Spartan Press in 2015. Her practice—paralleled in both visual and written works—is an exploration of the body and the mind’s relationship to environment, trauma, time, and phantasmagoria. More Crista at https://www.instagram.com/bansheelaundry/ and https://www.instagram.com/cristasiglin/

Ezhno doesn’t believe in pronouns! And is a long-time member of the Poetic Underground in Kansas City, with roots at Prospero’s Books and the Uptown Arts Bar. Ezhno’s collection Beautiful & Abominable is by Spartan Press. Ezhno is the founder of EMP, a growing empire specializing in publishing poetry. #Beer by Ezhno was their inaugural project. In 2017, EMP releases books by Samantha Slupski and others. www.facebook.com/EMPzine

Mark is and has been a FORCE in the Midwest-and-More Music and Poetry scenes for years. As a teacher at the university and high school levels, he challenges minds to expand. Expose yourself to his books, CD’s, performances. More about his current band at

Mark is and has been a FORCE in the Midwest-and-More Music and Poetry scenes for years. As a teacher at the university and high school levels, he challenges minds to expand. Expose yourself to his books, CD’s, performances. More about his current band at

Annette is an African-American Kansas poet, playwright, actress and nurse, who now offers by sharing her poetry and prose. She has written two collections of poetry, one-act plays and numerous short stories.

Her book of poems, A Net Full of Hope, garnered the Topeka, Kansas, 2015 ARTSConnect Arty Award for Literature.

More information can be found at: http://anetfullofhope.com/

“Descants for a Daughter, a collection of affirmations/meditations, reads like a blessing for all daughters, for all humanity. It inspires us to recognize our own worth, to resist the forces that threaten to diminish us as we move along life’s path, and to remind the people we love to do the same. It is a collection to be returned to many times.”

Buy here: https://www.amazon.ca/Descants-Daughter-Annette-Billings-ebook/dp/B01MQQAYO0