Nayeli Knudsen
Nayeli Knudsen is a Los Angeles based poet, actor, & educator with a B.A. in Theater from UC Berkeley and an M.Ed in Educational Policy from University of Washington. She has appeared on Season 5 of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, NPR, & KPFA broadcasts. She has been featured alongside such notable artists/writers as Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Wyclef Jean.
Nayeli played the principal role in the critically acclaimed film Opal – winner of the Directors Circle Award at Cannes Film Festival . She was additionally featured in the Magic Mirror Theater’s Production of Marry, F***, or Kill where she received acclaim from critics as one of the “best performances to hit the Los Angeles theater scene”.
Bobby Gordon
Bobby Gordon is a Los Angeles based poet, participatory arts practitioner, lecturer, and performance artist with an M.A in Applied Theater Arts from USC and a B.A in World Arts and Cultures from UCLA. He has conducted workshops at the 2013 International Pedagogy and Theater of the Oppressed Conference and the 2013 Imagining America Conference. Gordon has also led other around the U.S., in Mexico, India, and South Africa about everything from image theater techniques to performance poetry strategies.
His original one-man show, Debbie Does My Dad, was featured for a 23-night run at the Bedlam Theater at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and also had runs at Highways Performance Space and the Drama For Life Festival in Johannesburg, South Africa. Fringe Review gave Debbie four stars and called it a “Highly Recommended Show.”
Brian Sonia-Wallace (RentPoet)
Brian Sonia-Wallace (alias Rent Poet) makes poetry and live art, and is interested in community development, cultural literacy, and people talking to each other. He is the currently poet laureate of West Hollywood and recently published his first full length book, The Poetry of Strangers, with Harper Collins Inc. His first book of poems, I Sold These Poems, Now I Want Them Back, was published by Yak Press in 2016. As a theatre maker, Brian has been nominated for the 2015 Doris Duke Impact Award, received NEA funding for his Bike Odyssey LA, and served as Artistic Director of Tabula Rasa Productions in Scotland from 2008-2011. Other poetry publications may be found in The Poetry Circus (2015), Fools Guild Quarterly (2012), New York Academy of Medicine (2012), and Inklight Journal (2011). Past accomplishments include residencies with the National Parks System, LACMA, Shuar Nation (Ecuador), Gallerie Ulrike Petschelt (Germany), and Dollar Shave Club. Brian has an MA in Sustainable Development from the University of St Andrews, Scotland.
Linda Ravenswood
Linda Ravenswood is a Poet and Performance artist from Los Angeles. She was short listed for Poet Laureate of Los Angeles 2017.Published in over 50 books, and literary journals, Linda is a 2016 Vermont Studio Centre grantee in Poetry, Finalist for Poet Laureate of West Hollywood (2016), and three time nominee for The Pushcart Prize for Poetry. Linda is a lecturer, dramaturg, and teaching artist.
2017 publications include The Acentos Review, The Hawai'i Review, FogLifter Press, The Cantabrigian Magazine, Intersections, Leimert Park REDUX (LMU Press), Inlandia, Entropy, Angels Flight Literary West, 1888, and The New York New Works Festival.
She is a NDN/ First Nation, (Pokanoket, Wampanoag) and a Mayflower descendant on her mother’s side, and an Indigenous Mestizaje from Baja California Sur on her father’s side. She was raised in Los Angeles by Jewish Holocaust survivors from WWII.