In Volume Five, Chapter Fourteen, we sit down with Baltimore-based artist Dream—an educator, poet, writer, photographer, and meditation guide. In our conversation, Dream discusses her creative journey, releasing her spoken word pieces on streaming platforms, and talks about the influence that her family’s creativity has had on her. We dive into poetry, writing, the benefits of meditation, and the beauty of helping others. A conversation about art, presence, intentionality, and more.

Contact Dream:
Instagram: @dreamreallovec Threads: @dreamreallovec

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Reagan Myers – Depression Is Funny Like That
Instagram: @reagancmyers

Imani Cezanne – Flowers
Instagram: @imanicezanne

Marshall Davis Jones – Touchscreen
Instagram: @marshalldavisjones
Website: tonalinfluence.com

Elizabeth Acevedo – A Love Letter To My Beloved
Instagram: @acevedowrites Website: acevedowrites.com

King Yaw – Ancestral Ghosts
Instagram: @kingyaw_

In Volume Five: Chapter Thirteen, we welcome Poet, Writer, and Author of the poetry collection, “Elegy For Opportunity”, Natalie Lim.

Natalie Lim (she/her) is a Chinese-Canadian poet living on the unceded, traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Peoples (Vancouver, BC). She is the author of a full-length book of poetry, Elegy for Opportunity (Wolsak & Wynn, 2025) and a chapbook, arrhythmia (Rahila's Ghost Press, 2022). Winner of the 2018 CBC Poetry Prize and Room Magazine’s 2020 Emerging Writer Award, her work has been published in Arc Poetry Magazine, Best Canadian Poetry 2020 and elsewhere.

Contact Natalie:
Instagram: @natalielimwrites Threads: @natalielimwrites
Website: natalielim.ca Order Elegy For Opportunity

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Timothy DuWhite – The Story of How He Happened
Instagram: @call.me.ugba
Threads: @saber.my.champagne

Denice Frohman – Accents
Instagram: @denicefrohman Website: denicefrohman.com

Kenneth Something – Rape Poem
Instagram: @kennethpoetry
Instagram: @kennethsomething

Mike Rosen – When God Happens
Instagram: @heymikerosen

Javon Johnson – Black and Happy
Instagram: @javonism

In Volume Five: Chapter Twelve, we welcome Poet, Writer, Playwright, and Author of the forthcoming poetry collection, "I Hope This Helps", Samiya Bashir.

Samiya Bashir’s honors include the Rome Prize in Literature, the Pushcart Prize, Oregon’s Arts & Culture Council Individual Artist Fellowship in Literature, plus numerous other awards, grants, fellowships, and residencies including MacDowell, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and the New York Council on the Arts. She is the author of three books, and her fourth “I Hope This Helps” is scheduled to be released May 13th.

Contact Samiya:
Instagram: @scryptcreeper Threads: @samiyabashir
Website: samiyabashir.com Order I Hope This Helps

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Melissa Newman-Evans – Nine Things I Would Like To Tell Every Teenage Girl
Instagram: @saber.my.champagne
Threads: @saber.my.champagne

L3thal Po3t – Superhero First Appearance: Here
Instagram: @poetic.dreamcatcher Second Appearance: Here

Tucker Bryant – Facts About Myself
Instagram: @iamtucks
Website: tuckerbryantspeaks.com

Meccamorphosis – Thriftshop
Instagram: @meccamorphosis
Website: meccamorphosis.com

Natasha Hooper – A Letter To Whomever Is Next
Instagram: @natashadeepoetry

n Volume Five: Chapter Eleven, we welcome Poet, Writer, Performance Poet, and Poet Laureate of Aurora Colorado, Ahja Fox.

Ahja is a mother, educator, freelancer, and the current Poet Laureate of Aurora, Colorado for a four-year term which ends Spring of 2026. She has editorial, hosting, unique performance and teaching experience through working with or for the City of Aurora, Art of Storytelling, Poetix University, Copper Nickel, Poetry Brothel Denver, Kallisto Gaia Press, Poetix University, Progenitor Literary & Art Journal and more. Currently, she teaches with Lighthouse Writers as a youth instructor, hosts Poetry Breakfast with Hoffman Library, and is a board member for Soul Stories, and commits to delivering poetry-focused lessons at various schools and public places.

Contact Ray Jane:
Instagram: @aefoxx Threads: @aefoxx
Website: dangerspoetics.wordpress.com

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Lyrical Faith – Bilingual
Instagram: @lyricalfaithpoetry
Threads: @lyricalfaithpoetry

Rudy Francisco – Scars To The New Boyfriend
Instagram: @rudyfrancisco
Website: iamrudyfrancisco.com

Steven Willis – The Hustle Speaks
Instagram: @stevenwillispoetry
Website: stevenwillispoetry.com

Ashley Davis – Lesson In Healing
Instagram: @ashleydavis_art
Threads: @ashleydavis_art

Sonya Renee Taylor – The Body Is Not An Apology
Instagram: @sonyareneetaylor
Website: sonyareneetaylor.com

In Volume Five: Chapter Ten, we welcome Poet, Writer, and Author of the new book "Root of the Matter" Sharnnell Spivey.

From her Bio:

"Sharnnell Spivey was born and raised in Detroit, MI where she first realized her passion for writing. She started at a young age by keeping journals. Sharnnell wrote in her journal about her daily life and feelings that she felt as if she could not express to others. As a preteen, she took an interest in Maya Angelou and her writings. She looked at a woman that was so bold and used emotions and turned them into art; Sharnnell wanted to do the same. She began writing poetry and realized she had a heart for it.

She later published her first book of poetry at the age of 15 entitled, “So Many Emotions by One Little Girl”. She wrote her second poetry book “Keeping it Real” however she stopped writing for 6 years after experiencing a domestic violence situation. After coming out of her writers block, she spent 3 months writing about her experience in her nonfictional book entitled, “Domestic Drama: Her Truth”. It was hard to express the things that she experienced at that time however, she wanted to get her story out, hoping others come forward and remove themselves from such situations."

Contact Sharnnell:
IG: @sharnnells
Threads: @sharnnells
TikTok: @nell2267

Recorded Spoken Word Performances featured in this Chapter Included:

Taalam Acey – Willie Lynch LLC
IG: @taalamacey Website: taalamacey.com

Sherrika Mitchell – Crescent Love
IG: @legs_almighty

Roscoe Burnems – Metaphysics for White Privilege
IG: @roscoeburnems Website: roscoeburnems.com

Alex Dang – What Kind of Asian Are You
IG: @alexdangpoetry Website: alexdangpoetry.com

Thea Monyee – For Little Girls
IG: @theamonyee Website: theamonyee.com Podcast: Shaping The Shift

In Volume Five: Chapter Nine, we welcome Activist, Poet, and Author of the forthcoming poetry collection "antibody".

Rebecca (she/they) is a queer, racialized Latinx writer, editor, and community organizer. Published works include sulphurtongue (McClelland & Stewart), the knife you need to justify the wound (Rahila’s Ghost) and Guzzle (Anstruther).

Rebecca edits poetry for The Fiddlehead and Plenitude magazines, is a co-founder of BIPOC Pride Fredericton, and works as a graduate researcher for the Cymbeline in the Anthropocene research project.

Rebecca is currently completing a PhD on trauma, queerness, and ecopoetics, while living on the unceded territory of the Wolastoqiyik people.

Contact Rebecca:

Bluesky: @rsalazar
Website: rebeccasalazarca.wordpress.com

Featured Performance Poets in This Chapter:
AkeemJamal Rollins – Suicide Note
Instagram: @keemyjam

Jasmine Combs – Monster
Instagram: @jasminelcombs
Website: jasminelcombs.com

Darius Simpson – Genocide
Instagram: @_dariussimpson
Website: daruissimpson.com

Christopher Michael – Purse Clutchers
Instagram: @mrmichael310 Website: mrmichael310.com

GiGi Bella – Slut
Instagram: @gigibellag Website: gigibellapoetry.com

In Volume Five: Chapter Eight, we welcome back to the program Educator, Advocate, Poet, Spoken Word Artist, and Author of the book "Black Like That: Poems from a Conduit" Ray Jane.

Ray is a Brooklyn-born poet raised in Far Rockaway, Queens. She uses her poetry to lift herself and other women of color. Always aiming to strengthen her voice, Ray Jane was also the winner of the Verb Benders slam poetry team’s inaugural poetry slam. Some of her feature performances include: “Digital Verse,” sponsored by The Nuyorican Poets Café and The Green Space. You can find her expressing her perspective as a Black female artist on several podcasts, including We Be Imagining/Black Siren Radio and Sound Minds Podcast’s “Potent Women Wordsmiths.” She has moderated her own workshops with ¡Oyé Group! Poet’s Corner (2021- 2023) and Art Defined, and hosted The Nuyorican Poets Cafe Thursday Night Online Open mic (2022-2023) and “Freestyle Friday” for The Word Is Write.

Contact Ray Jane:
Instagram: @itsrayjane
Website: itsrayjane.com

Purchase Black Like That: Poems for a Conduit here and here

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Jared Singer – Just Take a Shower
Facebook: @jaredsingerwriter
Purchase Jared's book Forgive Yourself

Jahman Hill – White Heaven
Instagram: @jahman_rondo
Website: jahmanhill.com

Loyce Gayo – How We Forget
Instagram: @loycegayo
Website: loyceg.github.io

Ray Jane – Sobering
Ray Jane - Spoils

In Volume Five: Chapter Seven, we welcome the Author of the book "Las Bugambilias: A Bilingual Queer Novel" Lalo León.

Lalo was born and raised in Southern New Mexico near the U.S. Border with Mexico. He holds a structural engineering degree from New Mexico State University, a Master's Degree in architecture from Arizona State University, and is a retired Mariachi. “Las Bugambilias" is a work which reflects on his experience of being a conversion therapy survivor and how the interplay of Latino and American cultures have an impact on immigrant stories.

Contact Lalo:

Instagram: @thelaloleon
Website: thelaloleon.com

Featured Performance Poets in This Chapter:
Sarah Kay – Unreliable
Instagram: @kaysarahsera Website: kaysarahsera.com

Anna Maria Morris – A Love Poem For Myself
Instagram: @annamariamorris
Website: annmariamorris.com

Danez Smith – Waiting On You To Die So I Can Be Myself
Instagram: @danez_smif
X: danez_smif

Jasmine Mans – You Gon'Get This Work
Instagram: @poetjasminemans Website: jasminemans.com

Jay Ward – Gentrification
Instagram: @jward2030

Website: jwardpoetry.com