Wicked Spun Sugar

The Cave Canem Fellow is the author of several books including Swag & Dear Twitter: Love Letters Hashed Out On-line, recommended by Small Press Distribution & listed as About.com Best Poetry Books of 2010. She has released five LPs including the live album Sheroshima. As co-founder of the Off Broadway poetry production, Jam On It, and co-producer of NYC’s 1st Performance Poetry Festival: SoundBites Poetry Festival, Mahogany bridges the gap between lyrical poets and literary emcee. Browne has toured Germany, Amsterdam, England, Canada and recently Australia as 1/3 of the cultural arts exchange project Global Poetics. Her journalism work has been published in magazines Uptown, KING, XXL, The Source, Canada's The Word and UK's MOBO. Her poetry has been published in literary journals Pluck, Literary Bohemian, Bestiary Brown Girl Love and Up The Staircase. She is an Urban Word NYC mentor, as seen on HBO’s Brave New Voices and facilitates performance poetry and writing workshops throughout the country. She is the publisher of Penmanship Books, a small press for performance artists and owns PoetCD.Com, an on-line marketing and distribution company for poets. Mahogany is currently host and curator of the Friday Night Slam at the famous Nuyorican Poets Cafe.

Shanelle Gabriel has both opened and featured on the 6th season premier of HBO's Def Poetry Jam along with Jill Scott and DMX. She recorded a nationally televised promo for the 2007 NFL Draft. She shared the stage with Nas for his 2008 album release concert for "The N Word," and featured in Q-Tip's video for "ManWomanBoogie." She was a member of the 2006 Nuyorican Poets Cafe National Slam Team and a competitor in the 2007 Individual World Poetry Slam Competition. Shanelle has also performed and worked with artists such as Les Nubians, Talib Kweli, Erick Sermon, Redman, and with comedians such as Rob Stapleton and Michael Blackson.

Shanelle presently tours the US and abroad, facilitates creative writing workshops independently and with Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in NYC, and she promotes Lupus awareness. Her amazing debut album, Start Something (winner of the 2008 Atlantic City Alternative Soul Best CD Award) fuses Shanelle's skill at spoken word poetry with her soulful, sultry singing. Using her upbeat pop, old school hip-hop, and inspirational soul sound, Shanelle's vibrant personality shines through each word and melody she shares.

Falu began writing at 14 years old and by age 16 she had began reciting. Highest ranked female poet in 2006 and seventh in the nation, she is well known as a performance artist throughout NYC and is currently a member of the 2006 Nuyorican Poets Cafe Slam Team. She has shared stages with some of today best poets, co-produced an all women's showcase "Lips, Hips and All That Jazz", opened up shows for R&B sensations and countless other charitable and political events. Although much has been accomplished in her short career, Falu is best known for her teaching ability and workshop leadership. She has taught at Medgar Evers College/ College Now program at the tender age of 19 and was featured on MEC radio and broadcast. She is a member of Reaching Back, an organization for young black poets and writers based out Lafayette High School. Her current projects include mentorship, workshop leadership and performances at In Progress Group @ St. John the Baptist and weekly performances with Falu Y Su Combo, an Afro- Cuban band founded by her father. She lives in Brooklyn, New York

Caits Meissner is a multi-disciplinary storyteller and arts educator. Winner of the OneWorld Poetry Contest, Caits attended the 2008 inaugural Pan-African Literary Forum in Accra, Ghana where she studied under Pulitzer Prize winner Yusef Komunyakaa. In addition to her own self-released work, she has been published in various literary journals and books, including Saul Williams' forthcoming anthology, CHORUS. Her well-received poetry/music EP, The Wolf & Me, was released in May 2010. Currently, in January 2012, Caits released The Letter All Your Friends Have Written You, a collaborative poetry book with poet Tishon, which arrived on the Well&Often imprint, a press in which Caits now serves as Founding Editor. Caits also produces the webseries "The Livingroom Sessions," which creates intimate portraits of independent artists in their home spaces, hosted on Creative Control TV.

As an educator, Caits has worked extensively through Urban Arts Partnership in New York City public schools, coached student poets to open the 24 Hour Plays on Broadway, written arts curriculum for PBS films, and pioneered a women and youth focused community-based performance series through the Lower Eastside Girls Club.

Elana Bell's manuscript, Eyes, Stones, was selected by Fanny Howe as the winner of the 2011 Walt Whitman Award, and will be published by Louisiana State University Press later this year. Her poetry has recently appeared in Harvard Review, Massachusetts Review, and CALYX Journal, among others. Elana is the recipient of grants and fellowships from the Jerome Foundation, the Edward Albee Foundation, and the Drisha Institute. She has conducted poetry workshops for educators, women in prison, teenagers across the country and abroad, as well as for the pioneering peace building and leadership organization, Seeds of Peace. She currently serves as the writer-in-residence for the Bronx Academy of Letters and resides in Brooklyn, New York.

Aurora Barnes is a singer/songwriter, actor and accomplished violinist. Born and raised in New York City, the style and content of her music represent the vast melting pot she grew up in. Aurora's performance career has taken her to many stages including City Center in NYC, Central Park’s Summerstage, the White House, the Kennedy Center, Madison Square Garden, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Bryant Park, 92YTribeca, Brooklyn Museum, Knitting Factory, Bitter End, Bowery Poetry Club, Nuyorican Poet’s Café, The David Letterman Show, The Conan O'Brien Show and VH1's Concert of the Century and Fashion Awards. She has also performed at the Town Hall in Zurich, Switzerland. Aurora blends indie folk with catchy pop melodies to create an indefinable sound to support her powerful voice. Her lyrics combine personal reflection with stories of inner struggle that define her generation. This is what caught the eye of independent record label, Dramatico Entertainment, who signed Aurora to a publishing deal in the winter of 2009. In 2010, Michele Wiles, principal dancer from ABT, chose to dance a pas de deux to Aurora’s original song, “Bring On The Fire” for YAGP’s annual gala. As Michele and her partner, Wang Yi, danced, Aurora sang to a sold out crowd at New York City’s, City Center. Aurora studied at Columbia University and graduated from SUNY Binghamton with a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Law. She is the winner of the 2001 MERIT AWARD for Popular Voice from the National Foundation of the Arts. Aurora has been a staple on the New York City Theater scene since she was very young, beginning with TADA! Youth Theater and The NiteStar Program. She grew to perform in pieces by such writers as Suzan-Lori Parks, Jeanine Tesori and work with the likes of Ruben Santiago Hudson, Eisa Davis, Ben Vereen and Gwen Verdon. In 2010 she composed vocal selections for “Paradox Of The Urban Cliché” by Craig “muMs” Grant, produced by the LAByrinth Theater Company and Andre Royo. She made her feature film debut in 2009 with small roles in “The Last Film Festival” (Donnell Rawlings, Jacqueline Bisset, Dennis Hopper) directed by Linda Yellen and “Get Him To The Greek” (Jonah Hill, Russell Brand), under the direction of Nicholas Stoller. Aurora currently studies in NYC with acting coach, Harold Guskin and vocal coach, Adrienne Angel. She has performed on the stages of the Negro Ensemble Company, Abingdon Theater Company, New Dramatists Theater, The Public Theater and The Zephyr Theater in Los Angeles.

Rachel Eliza Griffiths is a poet and a photographer. She is the author of Miracle Arrhythmia (Willow Books), The Requited Distance (Sheep Meadow Press), and Mule & Pear (New Issues Poetry & Prose). A Cave Canem Fellow and a recipient of numerous fellowships, her literary and visual work has been widely published. Currently, Griffiths teaches at Sarah Lawrence College.

Keomi Rene’s first dance was pressed firm against her mother’s womb and she has continued dancing ever since, growing her art every year that passes. She began her tedious training at the age of 12 based in Lyrical, Modern, West African, Hip Hop, Ballet and Improvisational dance. Throughout the last decade Keomi has showcased her work on various stages and respected institutions such as San Diego State University, Yale University and the Brooklyn Museum of Art. She has also performed with, and choreographed for, many Southern California dance companies and is expanding her New York repertoire. Her recent move to New York to further pursue her career in dance has strengthened her vision and her message. Through dance, Keomi’s sole goal is to use her God given gift to inspire others to be great while reminding them how valuable they are. She hopes her message and work will provoke thought and love.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, Queen GodIs is an intricate yet accessible blend of Classic Hip Hop, Raw Spoken Word Poetry, Gut-wrenching Soul Music and Theater. Her celebrated debut album, "POWER U!" also highlights GodIs as a budding producer and musical visionary with a penchant for story-telling.

From Historic Clubs and Cafes to Concert and Lecture Halls, Queen tours internationally sharing the best of her creative work and processes. She is acclaimed for her artistic direction and coaching of both emerging and professional artists nationally and abroad.

Over a decade ago while on her way to study performance art in India, QG took off on her flight as Queen GodIs but landed as "Auntie Queen" when she became the auntie of beautiful little girls. The experience continues to inspire her own art and mentoring work with youth and young adults. QG is currently touring, facilitating performance art therapy workshops and creating content for her new projects...

Vanessa Hidary has aired three times on “Russell Simmon's Presents Def Poetry Jam" on HBO, and is featured in the short film, “The Tribe,” which was selected for the Sundance Film Festival, the Tribeca Film Festival, and the Jewish Motifs International Film Festival in Warsaw, Poland, where Vanessa attended as the film’s representative.

Vanessa was recently chosen as one of the 50 speakers to appear at the "2010 IdeaCity- Canada's Premiere Meeting of the Minds". She appeared at the 2009 Limmudfest in the UK, and in November 2010 performed at the opening reception for the Lion of Judah conference at the Jewish Federation's General Assembly convention in New Orleans.

Other performances include: Central Park's Summerstage, NBC's 9/11 tribute "Concert for America," B.A.M. Cafe, Princeton University, Cornell, Syracuse, NYU, University of Florida, SUNY Purchase, USC, and countless other schools around the nation. She was a Grand Slam Poetry Finalist at The Nuyorican Poets Cafe, her "poetry home," where you can almost always find her producing, hosting, and performing.

She has conducted poetry and racism workshops with Bnai' Brith Youth orginization and is the director/developer of "MONOLOGUES" produced by Birthright Israel NEXT.

Vanessa received an M.F.A. in acting from Trinity Rep theatre Conservatory. She is a member of SAG and AFTRA. She lives in Manhattan and recently released "The Last Kaiser Roll in the Bodega."