In Volume Five: Chapter Nineteen, we welcomed Educator, Poet, Writer, Spoken Word Artist, host of the Chasing After Wind podcast, and Author of the chapbook How Much We Must Have Looked Like Stars To Stars, Dr. Alysia Nicole Harris.

Alysia has dedicated her life to studying words in their spiritual, social, linguistic and creative capacities. Renowned internationally as a spoken word artist, Alysia has had a professional career as a performance artist and speaker since 2010, amassing over nine million views on YouTube. The author of the prize-winning chapbook How Much We Must Have Looked Like Stars to Stars (2016) received her MFA in poetry from New York University in 2014 and her PhD in linguistics from Yale University in 2019.

Alysia has written, performed, and taught workshops in twelve countries for organizations including but not limited to: U.S. Mission to Ukraine, U.S. Mission to South Africa, U.S. Mission to Jordan, NAACP, Yale Center for Faith & Culture, Virginia Theological Seminary, City Seminary New York, The Disrespected Literatures Conference, Morehouse Center for Excellence in Education, University of Birmingham, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, MoMA: PS1, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Nasher Sculpture Center, The Big Quiet, Button Poetry, and many schools and universities. She is currently working with members of a Texas community to restore a 108-year-old former CME church in Texas and transform it into an intergenerational space for community storytelling. Through this work she hopes to preserve Black places and celebrate Black stories in the U.S. South.

Contact Alysia:
Instagram: @poppyinthewheat
Website: alysiaharris.com

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Ebony Stewart – How We Forget (after Loyce Gayo)
Instagram: @gullyprincess Website: ebpoetry.com

Sabrina Ali – MisterOgyny
Instagram: @sabsie_ali

Roscoe Burnems – Agnostic
Instagram: @roscoeburnems

Alysia Harris – Situations Like This
Alysia Harris – This Woman

In Volume Five: Chapter Eighteen, we welcomed Writer, Poet, Editor, and Author of the forthcoming poetry collection "Ajar", Margo LaPierre.

Margo edits fiction and creative non-fiction. She completed an undergraduate degree in philosophy at Toronto Metropolitan University in Toronto, and graduated from the Toronto Metropolitan Chang School’s Publishing Program. She is currently completing a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia. In her volunteer work, she is the newsletter editor of Arc Poetry Magazine, the interim fiction editor of Untethered magazine, and a poetry selection jury member of Bywords.ca (www.bywords.ca). In 2019, she was the sole recipient of the Claudette Upton Scholarship, an annual, national award that recognizes a promising student editor from among Editors Canada’s student affiliates. She is a member of the poetry collective VII, also comprising Manahil Bandukwala, Ellen Chang-Richardson, Conyer Clayton, nina jane drystek, Chris Johnson, and Helen Robertson.

Contact Margo:
Instagram: @margo_lapierre
Website: margolapierreeditor.com

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Andrea Gibson – For The Days I Stop Wanting A Body
Instagram: @andreagibson Website: andreagibson.com

Alyesha Wise – Flowers
Instagram: @alyeshawise Website: alyeshawise.com

Christopher Diaz – Again
Instagram: @lightbulbchris Website: christopherdiazcreates.com

Asia Samson – Enough
Instagram: @theasiaproject Website: theasiaproject.com

Ania D – Colors
Instagram: @anitadpoetry

In Volume Five: Chapter Seventeen, we welcomed Educator, Writer, Poet, Playwright, and Author of the poetry collection "Here in the (Middle) of Nowhere", Anastacia-Reneé.

(From anastacia-renee.com):

Anastacia-Reneé (She/They) is a queer writer, educator, interdisciplinary artist, playwright, former radio host, TEDX speaker, and podcaster. She is the author of (v.) (Gramma/Black Ocean), Forget It (Black Radish); Sidenotes from the Archivist (HarperCollins/Amistad, ), and Here in the (Middle) of Nowhere (HarperCollins/Amistad). Side Notes From The Archivist was selected as one of “NYPL Best Books of 2023,” and, The American Library Associations (RUSA) “Notable Books of 2024.” Anastacia-Reneé is a recipient of the James W. Ray Distinguished Artist Award and, she was selected by NBC News as part of the list of "Queer Artist of Color Dominate 2021's Must See LGBTQ Art Shows," for “(Don’t Be Absurd) Alice in Parts” an installation at the Frye Art Museum. Anastacia-Reneé served as Seattle Civic Poet (2017-1019) during Seattle’s inaugural year of UNESCO status.

Contact Anastacia-Renee:
Instagram: @anastaciarenee5
Website: anastacia-renee.com

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Nia Lewis – Closed
Instagram: @nia.lewis

Edwin Bodney – Good Morning
Instagram: @edwinbodney

Aleah Bradshaw – Questions
Instagram: @nyfe

Gabrielle Smith – Blackbird
Instagram: @bygabriellesmith

Dasan Ahanu – Double Entendre
Website: dasanahanu.com Instagram: @dasanahanu

In Volume Five, Chapter Sixteen, we welcomed Poet, Artist, Writer, and Author Dre Hill.

Dre is a Black literary and visual artist. Hill tags himself as an artist, writer, and storyteller. He is a published fiction writer, poet, photographer, painter, and more.

He graduated from Trimble Tech High School in 2017, then earned his B.A. in Animation and Writing from Drury University in 2021. While at Drury, he had two pieces published in the literary magazine Currents. His work was featured in the “Race in America” art exhibit. His senior film, “Solace”, won second place in the 2022 MBEA competition.

Hill’s work is both individualist and collective, seemingly speaking for and to each reader respectively as well as to and for groups as a whole. His work is vivid, colorful, and animated in nature. There are heavy Afrocentric, and often supernatural or metaphysical themes, in his work. Often exploring the connections between some of life’s mundane experiences and the almost extraordinary ways in which black people engage and grapple with them.

Contact Dre:
Instagram: @drehillart Website: drehillart.com

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Alysia Harris – Controlled Burn
Instagram: @poppyinthewheat Website: alysiaharris.com

Bianca Phipps – Born To Embody It
Instagram: @biancaphipps

Taalam Acey – Seldom Seen
Instagram: @taalamacey
Website: taalamacey.com

Barbara Fant – Brown Bodies Burning
Instagram: @iambarbarafant Website: barbarafant.com

Danez Smith – Dear White America
Instagram: @danez_smif Website: danezsmithpoet.com

In Volume Five: Chapter Fifteen, we welcome Poet, Writer, and Spoke Word Artist Asia Samson.

(From theasiaproject.com):

Since 2009, The Asia Project has toured over 2000 colleges with an acoustic music poetry act that has amazed audiences all over the country. On the microphone is Asia Samson: writer, poet and part-time ninja. He has been seen on HBO Def Poetry Jam and has shared the stage with such artists as Janelle Monae, Jill Scott, DMX, Mos Def, Dead Prez and KRS-One. Accompanying him on the guitar is his brother-in-law Jollan who uses music to create an atmosphere that brings poetry to emotional levels you would never expect. They have been featured on HBO Def Poetry, Button Poetry, TEDx, NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest, SoFar Sounds, Story Conference, and Entrepreneur’s Organization. They have worked with companies such as the US Military, Nokia, Disney, To Write Love On Her Arms and AEvolve. They have broken college-booking records for the most booked poetry act in the college market garnering them the awards of APCA College Performer of the Year and thrice APCA Spoken Word Artist of the Year.

Contact Asia:
Instagram: @theasiaproject
Website: theasiaproject.com

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Sunni Patterson – Black Back
Instagram: @sunnipatterson
Website: sunnipatterson.com

Ashley Lumpkin – Inheritance
Instagram: @lumplestiltzken Website: ashleylumpkin.com

Ephriam Nehamiah – Teaching My Son How To Say No
Instagram: @ephraimnehemiah
Website: ephraimnehemiah.com

Asia Samson – As I Am
Instagram: @theasiaproject

Asia Samson – Enough
Website: theasiaproject.com

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