DAVID BLAIR
DAVID BLAIR
Embedded Files
David Blair is the author of five books, including his most recent collections Barbarian Seasons and Walk Around: Essays on Poetry and Place, both from MadHat Press. He lives with his wife and daughter in Somerville. davidblairpoetry.com
ALONDRA BOBADILLA
ALONDRA BOBADILLA
Alondra Bobadilla nurtured her love for writing since she learned her first letters. In January 2020, she was named Boston's first-ever Youth Poet Laureate. Alondra uses her writing to highlight social issues that impact her and her community. Through her own work, she demonstrates how creative expression can be a powerful tool for youth to examine feelings around issues, find their voice, and speak up about the changes they want to see for their future. She is 18 years old and a Senior at Fenway High School. alondrabobadilla.com
JEF CZEKAJ
JEF CZEKAJ
Jef Czekaj is a cartoonist, children's book author and illustrator, and musician. Jef has written and/or illustrated 13 books with titles like Hip and Hop in the House!, Cat Secrets, A Call for a New Alphabet, and Austin, Lost in America. His books have been named Junior Library Guild selections, designated "Must Read" by the Massachusetts Center for the Book, and won awards with names like the Black-Eyed Susan Book Award and the Young Hoosier Book Award. His comic, Grampa and Julie: Shark Hunters, ran in Nickelodeon Magazine for more than 10 years, and was collected in a graphic novel of the same name. Jef lives and works in Somerville, MA. BTW, Czekaj is pronounced "check-eye"! www.czekaj.com
JOSÉ LUIS FALCONI
JOSÉ LUIS FALCONI
Born in Lima, José Luis Falconi is Lecturer of Latin American Art at Brandeis University and President of Cultural Agents, Inc. an NGO which promotes civic engagement and creativity through artistic education. He is a former member of the Department of Art History and Architecture, Harvard University, where he received his doctorate in Roman Languages and Literatures. His latest academic publications include Portraits of an Invisible Country: The Photographs of Jorge Mario Múnera (2010), A Singular Plurality: The Works of Darío Escobar (2013), The Great Swindle: A Project by Santiago Montoya (2014) and Ad Usum / To be used: The works of Pedro Reyes (2017). His monograph on Mexican artist Pia Camil, There are no Friendly Fires, will be published in 2021. In the USA, he has been appointed Lecturer in the Department of Art History and Architecture, University of Boston and in the School of the Arts, University of Connecticut. In Latin America he has been “Bicentennial” Visiting Professor of Aesthetics, University of Chile; "International Professor", National University of Colombia; Visiting Professor at the Center for Latin American Studies; "Manuel Galich", Universidad San Carlos of Guatemala and Distinguished Visiting Professor, University of Costa Rica. culturalagents.org
VER: José Luis Falconi lee a Gabriela Mistral (español)
VER: José Luis Falconi lee a Jorge Eduardo Eielson (español)
BRIAN FOLKINS-AMADOR
BRIAN FOLKINS-AMADOR
Brian Amador is the musical director, composer, guitarist and vocalist for the award-winning Latin ensemble Sol y Canto. He's written many, many songs in Spanish and English, in a wide variety of styles for all ages, and has shared songwriting insights and techniques with students from elementary to college age. solycanto.com
VER: Una canción para mamá con Brian Amador (español)
WATCH: A Song for Mom with Brian Amador (English)
TANYA LARKIN
TANYA LARKIN
Tanya Larkin, Poet Director of Somerville Poetry Open 2021, is a Somerville poet. Her collections include My Scarlet Ways (Saturnalia) and Hothouse Orphan (Convulsive Editions). Recent poems have appeared or will appear in Pangyrus and The Bennington Review. She teaches poetry writing at Tufts University and is the interim managing editor at Transition Magazine. Find her poem, "The Path" about raising her son on the stretch of community path between Davis and Union here at The Critical Flame. tanyalarkin.com
DANIELLE LEGROS GEORGES
DANIELLE LEGROS GEORGES
Danielle Legros Georges is a writer, translator, academic, and author of several books of poetry including The Dear Remote Nearness of You, winner of the New England Poetry Club’s Sheila Margaret Motten book prize. She is director of the Lesley University MFA program in creative writing, and taught in the Joiner Institute for the Study of War and Social Consequences Writer’s Workshop, at the University of Massachusetts, Boston for more than a decade. Her awards include fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Boston Foundation, and the Black Metropolis Research Consortium. She was appointed the second poet laureate of the city of Boston, serving in the role from 2015 to 2019. daniellelegrosgeorges.com
WATCH: Danielle Legros Georges: Writing About Your Community
JILL MCDONOUGH
JILL MCDONOUGH
Jill McDonough is the author of Here All Night (Alice James, 2019), Reaper (Alice James, 2017), Where You Live (Salt, 2012), Oh, James! (Seven Kitchens, 2012), and Habeas Corpus (Salt, 2008). The recipient of three Pushcart prizes and fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fine Arts Work Center, the New York Public Library, the Library of Congress, and Stanford’s Stegner program, she taught incarcerated college students through Boston University’s Prison Education Program for thirteen years. Her work has appeared in Poetry, Slate, The Nation, The Threepenny Review, and Best American Poetry. She teaches in the MFA program at UMass-Boston and started a program offering College Reading and Writing in two Boston jails. jillmcdonough.com
ALISON MITCHELL
ALISON MITCHELL
Alison Mitchell is a librarian at the Somerville Public Library, West Branch. She loves finding just the right book for each person! This year, she is challenging herself to read a book set in each of the 50 U.S. states. Alison lives with her husband, two teenage daughters, and two cats. @alisonreads2020
CLIFF NOTEZ
CLIFF NOTEZ
Award-winning multi-digital media artist, musician, organizer & filmmaker, Cliff Notez’ art is a continuous exploration of the black mind. Rooted in hip hop, their art tackles the political and the personal, exploring the intimate consequences of a society where black bodies are easily ignored, forgotten, or disregarded. Cliff's Second full-length album, Why The Wild Things Are, was released September 11th 2019. Their films have won over 5 and been official selections for 20 and counting film festivals globally. In 2017 they was the grand prize winner of the March on Washington Festival and honored alongside Ta-Nehisi Coates. In 2018 they took home Best New Artist at the Boston Music Awards while racking in over 11 nominations between 2019-2020 including Artist of the Year and Live Artist of the Year. In 2019 Cliff became the first musician to be named"Musician of the Year" for Boston Magazine's Best of Boston and their 100 Most Influential Bostonians in 2020. Follow Cliff on Instagram: @CliffNotezz
WATCH: Cliff Notez: 16 Bars Part 1 Free Write / Sculpture
PORSHA OLAYIWOLA
PORSHA OLAYIWOLA
Black, futurist, poet, gay, hip-hop feminist, womanist: Porsha is a native of Chicago who now resides in Boston. Olayiwola is a writer, performer, educator and curator who uses afro-futurism and surrealism to examine historical and current issues in the Black, woman, and queer diasporas. She is an Individual World Poetry Slam Champion and the artistic director at MassLEAP, a literary youth organization. Olayiwola is an MFA Candidate at Emerson College. Porsha Olayiwola is the author of i shimmer sometimes, too forthcoming with Button Poetry and is the current poet laureate for the city of Boston. porshaolayiwola.com
ALLI ROSS
ALLI ROSS
Alli Ross is a dance theater artist, choreographer, educator and collaborator most curious about embodied HERstories. She is a founding member of Excavate, a performance collective, exploring legacy and landscape. Favorite performance projects include Healing Wars in collaboration with choreographer Liz Lerman, the company and U.S. veterans. From 2009-2011, Alli worked with Punchdrunk on the award winning production of Sleep No More where she originated the role of Lady Macduff in both the American Repertory Theater and Emursive's NYC production. In Education, Alli is an Assistant Professor at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee in the Theater division where she teaches Movement for Actors, and Theater and Community Arts Practice. With the support in 2019/2020 from NEFA’s New England Dance Fund 2020, Danza’s Organica We Create Festival, Studio 550’s Creative residency, and CATALYST artist at dance complex, Alli continues to develop Bubbasafiss, an autobiographical reckoning and celebration of ancestral memory.
LLOYD SCHWARTZ
LLOYD SCHWARTZ
Lloyd Schwartz is the Frederick S. Troy Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Boston and the current poet laureate of the city of Somerville. His latest poetry collection is Who's on First? New and Selected Poems, due this summer (University of Chicago Press). His poems have been published in, among many other journals, The New Yorker, Poetry, The Atlantic, The New Republic, Paris Review, Kenyon Review, Agni, Consequence, and Ploughshares, and have been selected for the Pushcart Prize, The Best American Poetry (three times), and The Best of the Best American Poetry. An authority on the poet Elizabeth Bishop, he co-edited the Library of America’s Elizabeth Bishop: Poems, Prose, & Letters and edited the centennial edition of Bishop’s Prose. He’s also the classical music critic for National Public Radio’s Fresh Air and the Contributing Arts Critic for WBUR’s the ARTery. His reviews for Fresh Air are collected in Music In—and On—the Air. For many years, he was the Classical Music Editor of the Boston Phoenix, for which he was awarded the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. He has lived in East Somerville since 1984.
JULIA STORY
JULIA STORY
Julia Story is the author of Post Moxie (Sarabande Books), winner of the 2009 Katherine A. Morton Prize and the Ploughshares' John C. Zacharis First Book Award; The Trapdoor (Dancing Girl Press); Julie the Astonishing (Sixth Finch Books); and Spinster for Hire (The Word Works). Her work has been awarded a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in many publications including Diode, Ploughshares, The Paris Review, Sixth Finch, and The New Yorker. She is from Indiana and now lives in Massachusetts. julia-story.com
GILMORE TAMNY
GILMORE TAMNY
Gilmore Tamny is a writer, musician, and artist living in Somerville, MA. Her poems, stories, essays, interviews, and artwork have appeared both online and in print. She regularly produces zines. She plays with the band Weather Weapon as well as is spokesmodel for The Mystery, which by way of loop pedal, guitar, poetry, and cheap theatrics, simultaneously provides both entertainment and an invocation to eternity. She is a committed artiste, feminist, rawk fan, old master painting fangirl, audio book junkie as well as enthusiastic Girls Rock Camp Boston volunteer.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse