Poetry Speaks: A Response to Nathaniel Mary Quinn

THE POETS
ISHA CAMARA is a college sophomore hailing from South Minneapolis. She’s been writing and performing poetry since the
age of thirteen, working and learning in youth programs and workshop spaces. She was able to write a compilation of poems
highlighting her life from birth to eighteen to create her first self-published chapbook, Selfish. Most subjects she writes about
circle thoughts and experiences of her identity as a Black Muslim woman and the ways in which she navigates in America;
then understanding how America responds to her. Isha’s purpose is to give a narrative that creates conversations driven by
sympathy and encourages readers to be caring and gentle to a life not theirs, and learn how there are beings with dreams,
fears, and desires outside of their way of living that are just as normal and human.
FABU, as she is professionally known, is a poet, columnist, storyteller, and educator who works and writes to encourage, inspire
and remind. The Madison Poet Laureate from 2008 to 2012, she continues to share experiences living in the South, the Midwest,
and in Africa. A scholar of African American literature, Fabu published four books of poetry, Poems, Dreams and Roses; In Our
Own Tongues; Love Poems; and Journey to Wisconsin: African American Life in Haiku—which won an Outstanding Achievement
in Poetry award from the Wisconsin Library Association. She is a Madison Magazine “M” 2018 award winner, a Pushcart Prize
nominee in poetry and her words have appeared in literary journals, at the South Madison Library, and on the sidewalks on
Madison’s near east and west sides.
ROB FRANKLIN, also known as Rob Dz, is the Media Projects Bubblerarian for the Madison Public Library. As a Kennedy Center
certified teaching artist for the Making Justice program, his primary focus is on creating workshops in Hip Hop, spoken word,
and personal branding as positive forms of self-expression. Rob has held numerous residencies for youth in the Madison area.
As a musician, he has performed with the likes of Nas, Eminem, Common, Talib Kweli, and Dead Prez, among others. In 2017,
he was inducted into The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and the National Museum of African American
History and Culture as a member of the StoryCorps program.
DEREK JOHNSON fell in love with the art of spoken word poetry over 20 years ago. He uses spoken word poetry to reflect
on his life, personal experiences, and perspectives. Derek hosted the first city-wide spoken word poetry competition for high
school students in Madison, Wisconsin, titled “Can You Spit?” Over the years, he has worked with a variety of community
centers, schools, detention centers, group homes, and other community-based organizations to help youth connect to the art
of spoken word poetry. For Derek, spoken word poetry has been both therapeutic and recreational. Moreover, it has been a way
for him to give back to the community by inspiring and motivating others through spoken word poetry.
DANA MAYA is from the Mexican diaspora by way of Colorado. She was educated at Vassar College and the University of
Texas-Austin. Her work has been published in Feminist Formations, Volta, the anthologies Listen to Your Mother, and Basta:
100+ Latinas against Gender Violence, and has appeared in diverse public spaces and media. She collaborates with other artists
on interdisciplinary public art projects for social change and writes with a collective of poets called the Spontaneous Writing
Booth. Recent poetic projects have responded to youth incarceration, guns, strangers, longing, diagnosis, immigrations, screens,
and belonging, which is to say: ways of being human.
OSCAR MIRELES has been writing poetry for the past 35 years. He is the current Poet Laureate of Madison and editor of
two anthologies. As a dedicated educator he has assisted over 1,500 young adults with securing GED/HSED credentials and
currently serves as executive director of Omega School in Madison, Wisconsin. He has been named Hispanic Man of the Year by
the United Migrant Opportunity Service (UMOS) and Man of the Year by the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC),
and was recognized by the Wisconsin State Journal as “10 Who Make a Difference.”
Originally from Los Angeles, CHERENE SHERRARD is the author of the poetry collection Vixen and a chapbook Mistress,
Reclining. A Cave Canem fellow, her poetry has recently appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Obsidian III, Verse Daily,
Tidal Basin Review, Los Angeles Review, and Prairie Schooner. She is a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-
Madison.
ANGIE TRUDELL VASQUEZ received her MFA in creative writing with a concentration in poetry from the Institute of American
Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her work has been published in Taos Journal of Poetry, Yellow Medicine Review, Raven
Chronicles, Return to the Gathering Place of the Waters, and Cloudthroat among other journals and anthologies. She has a
page and poems from her first two books on the Poetry Foundation’s website, and was a Ruth Lilly fellow as an undergraduate
at Drake University. She has new work forthcoming from RED INK: International Journal of Indigenous Literature, Arts &
Humanities. Her third book of poetry, In Light, Always Light, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press in May 2019. It is part of
the New Women’s Voices Series, in which she was a finalist in 2018.