Alzheimer’s Poetry Project : Poets

Alzheimer’s Poetry Project Staff and Poets

Medical Consultant, Kristen H. Sorocco, Ph.D.
Dr. Sorocco is an Assistant Professor of Research in the Donald W. Reynolds Department of Geriatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Dr. Sorocco overseas the gathering of data and gives guidance on the research component of the APP. She leads the conversion of the research to publication of the data and disseminates the research on using poetry with dementia to the medical community.

Director of Public Relations/ New Mexico Director, Poet Don McIver
McIver has been published in The Albuquerque Alibi as well as many literary journals including The Harwood Review and Conceptions Southwest. He is the host/producer of KUNM radio Spoken Word Hour and co-produced The Poetry of Vietnam, recognized by the National Federation of Community Broadcasters as a Program of Special Merit. New Mexico currently serves 26 facilities in 15 cities.

Click here to hear a sample of McGiver's hour-long radio special: Remembering Poetry: The Alzheimer's Poetry Project on Public Radio Exchange. The piece has aired on a number of public radio stations around the country. Including: KSJD, WEKU, Yellowstone Public Radio, WSKG, KSFR and KUNM.

Kathleen Cook writes about the piece, "This program is thought-provoking in that it brings forth the idea of using poetry as a form of therapy and enrichment in thelive of people with Alzheimers. It puts poetry in the same usefullness as music and other forms of art. The audio clips of the people in the nursing homes is touching and engaging. It also gives hope to those who have had to cope with a love one suffering from Alzheimers disease. I found it inspiring."

mcgiver
Don McIver reading in Albuquerque

Spanish Language Program Director, Editor-Spanish Anthology, Anacelie Verde Claro
Verde Claro became a fluent Spanish speaker and dreamer in San Jose, Costa Rica. She uses her dual-language skills to translate the work of her favorite Spanish and Latin American authors, as well as to create her own writing style. Her work has appeared in The Bellingham Review, The Bloomsbury Review, The Blue Mesa Review, and The American Literary Review. She works as a freelance editor and translator in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She can be contacted at anacelie@verde-claro.com.

Alzpoetry-

(Alzpoetry is the German Branch of the Alzheimer's Poetry Project)

Alzpoetry, German Director, Lars Rupple
Rupple is a nationally recognized poet and workshop leader. He is the author of three books of poetry published by Lektora Verlag Paderborn. He is the organizer and producer of the Hessen Slam and a member of the band Smaat. More info on Rupple at http://larsruppel.de/

Rupple
Lars Rupple leads an intergenerational workshop at Wollenbergschule, Wetter, Germany

Alzpoetry Poet, Wolf Hogekamp, Berlin
Wolf Hogekamp lives as an a/v editor and poet in Berlin. Since 1994 Wolf Hogekamp is reading and performing poetry and organizes regularly Poetry Slams in Berlin He is a pioneer of the German Poerty Slam scene. Since 2000 Hogekamp is the mentor of the Bastard Slam in Berlin, one of the most important and biggest Poetry Slams of the german spokenword scene. He was the founder of the first national of german speaking poetry slam in 1997, also he managed the 10th in 2007 in Berlin. More than 400 appearances with Poetry-Slams and readings on all important German-speaking stages.

Arizona

Arizona Director/ Poet Christopher Lane, 1972-2012
We were deeply saddened to learn of Christopher's death in August of 2012. In the early stages of the APP Lane was the first person Glazner asked to help expand the APP to other states. He was an amazing advocate for poetry. On working with elders living with dementia Lane said, "I just see them as my Grand Ma and Grand Pa and hug them just like I would my own loved ones." He will be truly missed.

Lane was the director and founder of the Arizona chapter of the Alzheimer's Poetry Project, sponsored by Northern Arizona Poets, (NORAZ Poets) began in 2003, under Lane's direction and became an official 501(c)(3) organization in 2005.

Among Lane's awards include: the 2010 Bill Desmond Writing Award; Arizona Commission on the Arts, the 2009, Mayor's Arts Award; City of Sedona Individual Category, the 2009: Artist Project Grant; City of Sedona Arts and Culture Commission, the 2008, Gardens for Humanity; Visionary Grant and a 2006, Emerging Artist Grant; City of Sedona Arts and Culture Commission. He has been a featured reader at Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference at Arizona State University and the Tucson Poetry Festival. Lane was the author of "who is your god now?" published by Woodley & Watts. For more info For more info on the Arizona Chapter

Christopher Lane reading in Sedona

California

Poet, California, Rachel Kann
Kann has performed at the California Plaza, Disney Concert Hall, Royce Hall, The Palace of Fine Arts and the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Kann has published 4 books of poetry and appears in various book anthologies and compilation CDs. She produces poetry / hip-hop / music / performance painting extravaganza, "co-lab:ORATION" in Santa Monica, CA.

Connecticut, Florida

Poet, Connecticut, Florida, Elizabeth Thomas
Thomas designs/teaches writing programs and workshops for schools and organizations throughout the U.S. These programs promote literacy and the power of the written and spoken word for all ages. Thomas is the founder of UpWords Poetry, an organization dedicated to creative arts programming, particularly for young writers.

Illinois

Poets, Chicago
The Speak'Easy Performance Poets- Joel Chamara, Molly Meacham, Tim Stafford, Dan Sullivan, Mary Fons, and Robbie Q, under the direction of poetry slam founder Marc Smith. They have been featured at the City of Chicago's "Stirring Things Up Food Festival" produced by the Chicago Arts Commission, as well as the Green Mill.

Massachusetts and Rhode Island

Skip Shea, Co-Founder Center for Peaceful Living
Skip Shea is an artist, actor, performer, poet and writer and founder of the Center for Peaceful Living, Inc. His multi-media one man show Catholic (Surviving Abuse & Other Dead End Roads) chronicles his life as a survivor of clergy sexual abuse, the death of his daughter, his road to wellness and the search for personal peace. The show opened in December 5, 2005 at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City. An accompanying book of his poetry from the show of the same title was published in 2006.

As an actor, Skip has appeared in a number of feature films and now writes and directs his own short films including Video Diary: Last Entry and They Serve Breakfast Here All Day Long. He also adapted and directed Bertolt Brecht's The Jewish Wife for the anniversary of Human Right's Day, a presentation by the Center for Peaceful Living, Inc., a seminal event for the Center and Skip's mission to raise awareness of the potential of personal and lasting peace for all.

As an artist, his works have been on exhibit in venues such as the As220 in Providence, The Warwick Museum of Art, The Center for Peaceful Living, Inc. and chezTGN in Brooklyn, NY.

Anna Chinappi, Co-Founder Center for Peaceful Living
Anna Chinappi is president of The Center for Peaceful Living, Inc., a nonprofit organization founded by her husband Skip Shea, with the mission of supporting artists, healers and social creatives whose work forwards personal peace and a non-violent society. With more than 30 years of experience in media, government communications and public education and engagement, her area of personal focus is on raising awareness of the potential of peace and healing through the creative expression and the healing arts.

As Director of Communications and Community Engagement at the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, she works on issues surrounding stigma and discrimination, civic engagement, advocacy and public service.

Minnisota

APP MN Director, Poet, Zoe Bird
Zoe Bird, professional writer/editor and director of Pegleg Press, was APP's New Mexico Poet-in-Residence for three years. She has recently relocated to Minnisota and is starting the an APP there.

Bird is an award-winning documentarian and poet whose work has appeared in art installations, and publications including Runes, The Harwood Anthology, Santa Fe Poetry Broadside, Curbside Review, and Central Avenue Poetry Magazine. She co-hosted Santa Fe's monthly Poets for Peace readings for seven years and Open Poetry readings for five, taught creative writing in the Documentary Studies Certificate Program at the College of Santa Fe, was a staff member of the Center for Contemporary Arts, served on the board of PEN New Mexico and as art director for Not Drowning, Waving, a literary and art magazine. Bird has published three chapbooks, The Buried Flower (2002), Shedding Lions (2007) and Victrola (2009), and is at work on Poultice for a Wooden Leg, a full-length poetry collection.

Zoe and students perform poetry.

Poet, Minnesota, Rachel Moritz

Rachel Moritz, APPMN Poet, is the author of Night-Sea (2008) and The Winchester Monologues (2005), both from New Michigan Press, and Elementary Rituals (2013, Albion Books). Her poems have been published in American Letters and Commentary, Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, HOW2, Indiana Review, 26, TYPO, and other journals. Among her awards are a 2008 SASE/Jerome grant and 2005 and 2010 fellowships from the Minnesota State Arts Board. Rachel has taught writing in a wide variety of community and academic settings, and she also edits poetry for Konundrum Engine Literary Review.

New Mexico

Poet, New Mexico, Anne Applegarth
As poet Applegarth holds readings sessions in Roswell. Applegarth was awarded an Academy of American Poets prize at the University of New Mexico in 1980, and her work has appeared in publications. She has taught poetry to children and adults, and has volunteered in hospitals and care centers in Texas, Oregon, and New Mexico.

Poets, New Mexico, Cari Griffo and Willa Jay Edwards- APP's only mother and daughter team
Cari Griffo's publications include her book and CD, Ripening, and numerous anthologies including Manorborn. She is a performance poet, performing in collaboration with musicians at such venues as, The Nuyorican Poets Cafe and Site Santa Fe. In 2009, she appeared with Santa Fe New Music where composer/conductor, John Kennedy, wrote an original score to Griffo's poetry.

Willa Jay Edwards, age 9, attends the fourth grade at Turquoise Trail Charter School, in addition to writing original poetry, she loves music and plays piano. She has sung in two operas.

Poet, New Mexico, Michelle Otero A writer, performer, and teacher, Michelle Otero is the author of Malinche's Daughter, an essay collection based on her work with women survivors of sexual assault in Oaxaca, Mexico. Her work has appeared in Artful Dodge, Brevity, and Puerto del Sol, and her awards include an Associated Writing Programs Intro Journal Award and a Fulbright Fellowship. She is member of the Macondo Writers' Workshop.

Together with visual artist Chrissie Orr, she teaches multigenerational art and storytelling workshops through El Otro Lado: The Stories that Connect Us. She holds a B.A. in History from Harvard University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College. A tenth-generation New Mexican, she is Creative Director of Valle Encantado, an organization promoting sustainable development initiatives in the Atrisco historic core in Albuquerque, and co-founder of Connecting Community Voices, an Albuquerque-based organization building positive social change through creative community expression.

Michelle Otero
Photo credit: Henry Rael, Arts of Aztlan

Poet, New Mexico, Joanne D. Dwyer
Joanne Dominique Dwyer has lived in New Mexico since 1980. She attended the College of Santa Fe, studying with Dana Levin, Greg Glazner, Mark Behr and Matt Donovan. She earned a degree there in Creative Writing in 2005. In 2009 Dwyer completed an MFA with the Warren Wilson Program for writers. A recipient of a Rona Jaffe Award for emerging women writers, she has been published in The American Poetry Review, Conduit, FIELD, The Massachusetts Review, The New England Review, Tri-Quarterly and elsewhere.

Joanne Dominique Dwyer

New York

Poet, New York, Amanda Deutch
Born and raised in New York City, Amanda Deutch is a poet who traveled the world only to return to the borough in which both of her parents were born. Amanda Deutch's work has been published widely in such magazines as Barrow Street, EOAGH, 6x6, Listenlight, Upstairs at Duroc and Full Metal Poem. She was the recipient of a Footpaths to Creativity residency in the Azores, Portugal and is a member of the Dusie Kollektiv and Rewords (www.rewords.blogspot.com). Her writing has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and she has been invited to read in venues throughout the United States, Europe and North Africa. Deutch is the Founder and Creative Director of Parachute: The Coney Island Performance Festival in Coney Island as well as an arts organizer and educator. A former Counselor and Case Manager for at-risk youth in Portland, Oregon, she has designed and led poetry workshops for runaways, homeless teenagers, and adult cancer survivors. Whether hitting the pavement or inking the pen, Deutch dedicates herself to revealing the poetry everywhere.

Amanda.5378.jpg
Amanda Deutch

Poet, New York, Spanish Language Programming, Fabian Saucedo
Saucedo is a poet/emcee/educator hailing from El Paso, Texas. He is currently teaching Poetry, Performance, & Hip-Hop Activism at New Design High School and Facing History School, in New York. As well, as the Director of Education and Outreach for the Bowery Poetry Club (www.bowerypoetry.com), he develops programming to bridge the gap between education and the arts, specifically poetry and literacy.

Wisconsin

Wisconsin Director, Poet, Lisa Marie Brodsky Auter
Auter received her B.A. in Creative Writing from Loyola University of Chicago and her M.F.A. in Poetry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her chapbook of poetry, "We Nod Our Dark Heads" which weaves her experience of working with people living with Alzheimer's disease, was published by Parallel Press in 2008. A second poetry collection is forthcoming in 2013 from Salmon Publishing. Auter has had poetry, fiction, and nonfiction published nationally and internationally. She was the founder of "Inside Out Writing," a creative writing workshop in Madison where she combined her desire to help those in emotional need with her love of the written word. She currently works as a job coach for disabled adults and lives with her husband and three stepchildren in Evansville, a small town south of the capitol.

Lisa Marie Brodsky Auter performs poetry.

Poet, Fabu Carter Brisco
Fabu Carter Brisco was appointed as Madison's third Poet Laureate by Mayor Dave Cieslewicz from 2008 to 2011. Her appointment is supported by the Madison Arts Commission. Fabu holds a double Masters from the University of Wisconsin- in African Languages and Literature and African-American Studies. The University of Nairobi Press will publish "In Our Own Tongues" later in 2010 and Parallel Press in Madison will publish "African-American Life in Haiku: Journey to the Midwest" in 2011. She is also a founding member of the Hibiscus Collective, a local group of multi-cultural women writers, and a guest columnist for The Capital Times and The Capital City Hues. More info at: http://artistfabu.com/index.html

Fabu Carter Brisco

Wisconsin Poetry Consultant- Rusty Russell
Rusty Russell is the coordinator of the Cheap At Any Price Poets' collective in Madison. He was a member of the Madison Poetry Slam Team, which competed in the 1992-1994 National Poetry Slams. Russell teaches workshops on how to write poetry and how to present poetry effectively out loud. Russell has won a Wisconsin Arts Board grant for literature, and his poetry and short fiction have been published in dozens of literary journals. He is experienced teaching high school and college-age students, and has performed and taught throughout the U.S. and Mexico.

Home Dementia Arts on Capitol Hill On-Line Training Memory Arts Cafe About APP What is Alzheimers? Affiliates APP Sparking Memories Nutreme Hoy Coming Events On Reading Poetry Research APP Online Resources Contact APP » Poets APP Poems APP Early Stage Workshops APP LGBT Programming APP Spanish Language Programming APP German Language Programming APP Hebrew and Yiddish Language Programming APP Advisory Board APP Tax deductible donations may be sent to: Brooklyn Arts Council c/o Alzheimer's Poetry Project 55 Washington Street Brooklyn, NY 11201-1074 All donations fund poets to work with people living with Alzheimer's disease.	So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this and this gives life to thee. -William Shakespeare, SONNET 18 Alzheimer’s Poetry Project Staff and Poets Medical Consultant, Kristen H. Sorocco, Ph.D. Dr. Sorocco is an Assistant Professor of Research in the Donald W. Reynolds Department of Geriatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Dr. Sorocco overseas the gathering of data and gives guidance on the research component of the APP. She leads the conversion of the research to publication of the data and disseminates the research on using poetry with dementia to the medical community. Director of Public Relations/ New Mexico Director, Poet Don McIver McIver has been published in The Albuquerque Alibi as well as many literary journals including The Harwood Review and Conceptions Southwest. He is the host/producer of KUNM radio Spoken Word Hour and co-produced The Poetry of Vietnam, recognized by the National Federation of Community Broadcasters as a Program of Special Merit. New Mexico currently serves 26 facilities in 15 cities. Click here to hear a sample of McGiver's hour-long radio special: Remembering Poetry: The Alzheimer's Poetry Project on Public Radio Exchange. The piece has aired on a number of public radio stations around the country. Including: KSJD, WEKU, Yellowstone Public Radio, WSKG, KSFR and KUNM. Kathleen Cook writes about the piece, "This program is thought-provoking in that it brings forth the idea of using poetry as a form of therapy and enrichment in thelive of people with Alzheimers. It puts poetry in the same usefullness as music and other forms of art. The audio clips of the people in the nursing homes is touching and engaging. It also gives hope to those who have had to cope with a love one suffering from Alzheimers disease. I found it inspiring." Don McIver reading in Albuquerque Spanish Language Program Director, Editor-Spanish Anthology, Anacelie Verde Claro Verde Claro became a fluent Spanish speaker and dreamer in San Jose, Costa Rica. She uses her dual-language skills to translate the work of her favorite Spanish and Latin American authors, as well as to create her own writing style. Her work has appeared in The Bellingham Review, The Bloomsbury Review, The Blue Mesa Review, and The American Literary Review. She works as a freelance editor and translator in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She can be contacted at anacelie@verde-claro.com. Alzpoetry- (Alzpoetry is the German Branch of the Alzheimer's Poetry Project) Alzpoetry, German Director, Lars Rupple Rupple is a nationally recognized poet and workshop leader. He is the author of three books of poetry published by Lektora Verlag Paderborn. He is the organizer and producer of the Hessen Slam and a member of the band Smaat. More info on Rupple at http://larsruppel.de/ Lars Rupple leads an intergenerational workshop at Wollenbergschule, Wetter, Germany Alzpoetry Poet, Wolf Hogekamp, Berlin Wolf Hogekamp lives as an a/v editor and poet in Berlin. Since 1994 Wolf Hogekamp is reading and performing poetry and organizes regularly Poetry Slams in Berlin He is a pioneer of the German Poerty Slam scene. Since 2000 Hogekamp is the mentor of the Bastard Slam in Berlin, one of the most important and biggest Poetry Slams of the german spokenword scene. He was the founder of the first national of german speaking poetry slam in 1997, also he managed the 10th in 2007 in Berlin. More than 400 appearances with Poetry-Slams and readings on all important German-speaking stages. Arizona Arizona Director/ Poet Christopher Lane, 1972-2012 We were deeply saddened to learn of Christopher's death in August of 2012. In the early stages of the APP Lane was the first person Glazner asked to help expand the APP to other states. He was an amazing advocate for poetry. On working with elders living with dementia Lane said, "I just see them as my Grand Ma and Grand Pa and hug them just like I would my own loved ones." He will be truly missed. Lane was the director and founder of the Arizona chapter of the Alzheimer's Poetry Project, sponsored by Northern Arizona Poets, (NORAZ Poets) began in 2003, under Lane's direction and became an official 501(c)(3) organization in 2005. Among Lane's awards include: the 2010 Bill Desmond Writing Award; Arizona Commission on the Arts, the 2009, Mayor's Arts Award; City of Sedona Individual Category, the 2009: Artist Project Grant; City of Sedona Arts and Culture Commission, the 2008, Gardens for Humanity; Visionary Grant and a 2006, Emerging Artist Grant; City of Sedona Arts and Culture Commission. He has been a featured reader at Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference at Arizona State University and the Tucson Poetry Festival. Lane was the author of "who is your god now?" published by Woodley & Watts. For more info For more info on the Arizona Chapter Christopher Lane reading in Sedona California Poet, California, Rachel Kann Kann has performed at the California Plaza, Disney Concert Hall, Royce Hall, The Palace of Fine Arts and the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Kann has published 4 books of poetry and appears in various book anthologies and compilation CDs. She produces poetry / hip-hop / music / performance painting extravaganza, "co-lab:ORATION" in Santa Monica, CA. Connecticut, Florida Poet, Connecticut, Florida, Elizabeth Thomas Thomas designs/teaches writing programs and workshops for schools and organizations throughout the U.S. These programs promote literacy and the power of the written and spoken word for all ages. Thomas is the founder of UpWords Poetry, an organization dedicated to creative arts programming, particularly for young writers. Illinois Poets, Chicago The Speak'Easy Performance Poets- Joel Chamara, Molly Meacham, Tim Stafford, Dan Sullivan, Mary Fons, and Robbie Q, under the direction of poetry slam founder Marc Smith. They have been featured at the City of Chicago's "Stirring Things Up Food Festival" produced by the Chicago Arts Commission, as well as the Green Mill. Massachusetts and Rhode Island Skip Shea, Co-Founder Center for Peaceful Living Skip Shea is an artist, actor, performer, poet and writer and founder of the Center for Peaceful Living, Inc. His multi-media one man show Catholic (Surviving Abuse & Other Dead End Roads) chronicles his life as a survivor of clergy sexual abuse, the death of his daughter, his road to wellness and the search for personal peace. The show opened in December 5, 2005 at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City. An accompanying book of his poetry from the show of the same title was published in 2006. As an actor, Skip has appeared in a number of feature films and now writes and directs his own short films including Video Diary: Last Entry and They Serve Breakfast Here All Day Long. He also adapted and directed Bertolt Brecht's The Jewish Wife for the anniversary of Human Right's Day, a presentation by the Center for Peaceful Living, Inc., a seminal event for the Center and Skip's mission to raise awareness of the potential of personal and lasting peace for all. As an artist, his works have been on exhibit in venues such as the As220 in Providence, The Warwick Museum of Art, The Center for Peaceful Living, Inc. and chezTGN in Brooklyn, NY. Anna Chinappi, Co-Founder Center for Peaceful Living Anna Chinappi is president of The Center for Peaceful Living, Inc., a nonprofit organization founded by her husband Skip Shea, with the mission of supporting artists, healers and social creatives whose work forwards personal peace and a non-violent society. With more than 30 years of experience in media, government communications and public education and engagement, her area of personal focus is on raising awareness of the potential of peace and healing through the creative expression and the healing arts. As Director of Communications and Community Engagement at the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, she works on issues surrounding stigma and discrimination, civic engagement, advocacy and public service. Minnisota APP MN Director, Poet, Zoe Bird Zoe Bird, professional writer/editor and director of Pegleg Press, was APP's New Mexico Poet-in-Residence for three years. She has recently relocated to Minnisota and is starting the an APP there. Bird is an award-winning documentarian and poet whose work has appeared in art installations, and publications including Runes, The Harwood Anthology, Santa Fe Poetry Broadside, Curbside Review, and Central Avenue Poetry Magazine. She co-hosted Santa Fe's monthly Poets for Peace readings for seven years and Open Poetry readings for five, taught creative writing in the Documentary Studies Certificate Program at the College of Santa Fe, was a staff member of the Center for Contemporary Arts, served on the board of PEN New Mexico and as art director for Not Drowning, Waving, a literary and art magazine. Bird has published three chapbooks, The Buried Flower (2002), Shedding Lions (2007) and Victrola (2009), and is at work on Poultice for a Wooden Leg, a full-length poetry collection. Zoe and students perform poetry. Poet, Minnesota, Rachel Moritz Rachel Moritz, APPMN Poet, is the author of Night-Sea (2008) and The Winchester Monologues (2005), both from New Michigan Press, and Elementary Rituals (2013, Albion Books). Her poems have been published in American Letters and Commentary, Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, HOW2, Indiana Review, 26, TYPO, and other journals. Among her awards are a 2008 SASE/Jerome grant and 2005 and 2010 fellowships from the Minnesota State Arts Board. Rachel has taught writing in a wide variety of community and academic settings, and she also edits poetry for Konundrum Engine Literary Review. New Mexico Poet, New Mexico, Anne Applegarth As poet Applegarth holds readings sessions in Roswell. Applegarth was awarded an Academy of American Poets prize at the University of New Mexico in 1980, and her work has appeared in publications. She has taught poetry to children and adults, and has volunteered in hospitals and care centers in Texas, Oregon, and New Mexico. Poets, New Mexico, Cari Griffo and Willa Jay Edwards- APP's only mother and daughter team Cari Griffo's publications include her book and CD, Ripening, and numerous anthologies including Manorborn. She is a performance poet, performing in collaboration with musicians at such venues as, The Nuyorican Poets Cafe and Site Santa Fe. In 2009, she appeared with Santa Fe New Music where composer/conductor, John Kennedy, wrote an original score to Griffo's poetry. Willa Jay Edwards, age 9, attends the fourth grade at Turquoise Trail Charter School, in addition to writing original poetry, she loves music and plays piano. She has sung in two operas. Poet, New Mexico, Michelle Otero A writer, performer, and teacher, Michelle Otero is the author of Malinche's Daughter, an essay collection based on her work with women survivors of sexual assault in Oaxaca, Mexico. Her work has appeared in Artful Dodge, Brevity, and Puerto del Sol, and her awards include an Associated Writing Programs Intro Journal Award and a Fulbright Fellowship. She is member of the Macondo Writers' Workshop. Together with visual artist Chrissie Orr, she teaches multigenerational art and storytelling workshops through El Otro Lado: The Stories that Connect Us. She holds a B.A. in History from Harvard University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College. A tenth-generation New Mexican, she is Creative Director of Valle Encantado, an organization promoting sustainable development initiatives in the Atrisco historic core in Albuquerque, and co-founder of Connecting Community Voices, an Albuquerque-based organization building positive social change through creative community expression. Michelle Otero Photo credit: Henry Rael, Arts of Aztlan Poet, New Mexico, Joanne D. Dwyer Joanne Dominique Dwyer has lived in New Mexico since 1980. She attended the College of Santa Fe, studying with Dana Levin, Greg Glazner, Mark Behr and Matt Donovan. She earned a degree there in Creative Writing in 2005. In 2009 Dwyer completed an MFA with the Warren Wilson Program for writers. A recipient of a Rona Jaffe Award for emerging women writers, she has been published in The American Poetry Review, Conduit, FIELD, The Massachusetts Review, The New England Review, Tri-Quarterly and elsewhere. Joanne Dominique Dwyer New York Poet, New York, Amanda Deutch Born and raised in New York City, Amanda Deutch is a poet who traveled the world only to return to the borough in which both of her parents were born. Amanda Deutch's work has been published widely in such magazines as Barrow Street, EOAGH, 6x6, Listenlight, Upstairs at Duroc and Full Metal Poem. She was the recipient of a Footpaths to Creativity residency in the Azores, Portugal and is a member of the Dusie Kollektiv and Rewords (www.rewords.blogspot.com). Her writing has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and she has been invited to read in venues throughout the United States, Europe and North Africa. Deutch is the Founder and Creative Director of Parachute: The Coney Island Performance Festival in Coney Island as well as an arts organizer and educator. A former Counselor and Case Manager for at-risk youth in Portland, Oregon, she has designed and led poetry workshops for runaways, homeless teenagers, and adult cancer survivors. Whether hitting the pavement or inking the pen, Deutch dedicates herself to revealing the poetry everywhere. Amanda Deutch Poet, New York, Spanish Language Programming, Fabian Saucedo Saucedo is a poet/emcee/educator hailing from El Paso, Texas. He is currently teaching Poetry, Performance, & Hip-Hop Activism at New Design High School and Facing History School, in New York. As well, as the Director of Education and Outreach for the Bowery Poetry Club (www.bowerypoetry.com), he develops programming to bridge the gap between education and the arts, specifically poetry and literacy. Wisconsin Wisconsin Director, Poet, Lisa Marie Brodsky Auter Auter received her B.A. in Creative Writing from Loyola University of Chicago and her M.F.A. in Poetry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her chapbook of poetry, "We Nod Our Dark Heads" which weaves her experience of working with people living with Alzheimer's disease, was published by Parallel Press in 2008. A second poetry collection is forthcoming in 2013 from Salmon Publishing. Auter has had poetry, fiction, and nonfiction published nationally and internationally. She was the founder of "Inside Out Writing," a creative writing workshop in Madison where she combined her desire to help those in emotional need with her love of the written word. She currently works as a job coach for disabled adults and lives with her husband and three stepchildren in Evansville, a small town south of the capitol. Lisa Marie Brodsky Auter performs poetry. Poet, Fabu Carter Brisco Fabu Carter Brisco was appointed as Madison's third Poet Laureate by Mayor Dave Cieslewicz from 2008 to 2011. Her appointment is supported by the Madison Arts Commission. Fabu holds a double Masters from the University of Wisconsin- in African Languages and Literature and African-American Studies. The University of Nairobi Press will publish "In Our Own Tongues" later in 2010 and Parallel Press in Madison will publish "African-American Life in Haiku: Journey to the Midwest" in 2011. She is also a founding member of the Hibiscus Collective, a local group of multi-cultural women writers, and a guest columnist for The Capital Times and The Capital City Hues. More info at: http://artistfabu.com/index.html Fabu Carter Brisco Wisconsin Poetry Consultant- Rusty Russell Rusty Russell is the coordinator of the Cheap At Any Price Poets' collective in Madison. He was a member of the Madison Poetry Slam Team, which competed in the 1992-1994 National Poetry Slams. Russell teaches workshops on how to write poetry and how to present poetry effectively out loud. Russell has won a Wisconsin Arts Board grant for literature, and his poetry and short fiction have been published in dozens of literary journals. He is experienced teaching high school and college-age students, and has performed and taught throughout the U.S. and Mexico.	Featured on NBC’s Today Show… Photo credit: NBC Today Show Clip (MOV, 6 MB) NPR Segment (MP3, 1.7 MB)
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