“I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.”
-Audre Lorde
Jaylene Clark Owens
Jaylene (jay-LEEN) Clark Owens is a Philly resident from Harlem, NY. She is a highly acclaimed poet, as well as an AUDELCO (uh-DELL-co) and Barrymore Award winning actress. Jaylene is proudly an alum of the prestigious theatre-in-verse BARS Workshop at the Public Theater, led by Rafael (ra-fa-ELL) Casal (cah-SAAL) and Daveed (Dah-VEED) Diggs. Her debut book of poetry, AfroPoetic, is available, along with other merch, on her website, JayleneClarkOwens.com. Jaylene’s acting abilities earned her a place in The Wilma Theater’s resident acting company, HotHouse. She is also a co-host for the video podcast, #PoppaPank (PA-pa PANK), with fellow actor, Justin Jain. Jaylene aims to captivate, motivate, and educate people with her poetry.
I am from, and was raised in, Harlem, New York City. Being from Harlem influences my work because I love to talk about my home and my experiences living in Harlem. The gentrification that is taking place there led me to write a play with three other women called, "Renaissance in the Belly of a Killer Whale," which weaves theatre, spoken word poetry, music, and more to talk about the changes to our community. Being from New York City is laced throughout my voice, how I speak, how I sound, and that is evident in my work. Being from Harlem also has given me a strong pride in my Black culture and I often use my work to talk about, celebrate, and educate others on, the Black experience.
I began writing poetry out of necessity. It was a way to express myself and release any emotions that were building. I remember being in middle school and writing spoken word poems about boys, and other pre-teen subjects, although I didn't know it was called "spoken word" at the time. Poetry definitely gives me a space to express myself authentically because I get to perform my words, my thoughts, in my voice. I don't have to pretend to be anything that I am not in my poetry. I can be unapologetically me through my poetry, which is how I aim to be in life as well
Link to Afro Poetic: https://www.jayleneclarkowens.com/shop
Link to info on Renaissance in the Belly of a Killer Whale: http://www.harlemkwproject.com
Thalia Sablon
Born in Haiti and raised in Queens, New York, I have my mother’s tongue and a New York accent. I began writing poetry in high school after I joined the poetry club. Poetry allows me to express emotions in an honest and vulnerable way, combining images and thoughts about how the world around me is moving. Poetry is my favorite method of introspection. I let myself explore the full depths of my emotions and the many different associations that my mind makes.
Thalia Sablon is an actor and a graduate student at Rutgers University where she is earning her MFA in Playwriting. Currently, she is working on her adaption of Chekhov's classic The Cherry Orchard that takes place in an artists’ commune. She is also working on a web series titled Dayroom, which she has written and stars in. Since her graduation from SUNY Purchase where she earned her BA in Theatre and Performance, she has worked as a freelance stage manager for various productions, a Junior producer for the Heal Me Too Theater Festival, first assistant director on The Retreat web series, and an actor for Susan Lori Parks’ NYU class. Some of her selected acting credits include: Citizen (Citizen 2), Abducted (Tia), It's Not a Trip, It’s a Journey (Rain), and Flinted (Babe). In July of 2018, she was a finalist in the Hudson Guilds Summer Festival for the Best Play category for her piece titled REP. She was also a Space on Ryders farm Finalist in 2019. She creates art that showcases black bodies being radically happy, unfazed, and unpredictable.
instagram: thalilya
website: tlaloczine.carrd.co
Azmera Hammouri-Davis
I grew up near the beaches, in Keaáu, Hawaii. I've moved several times all to places where the ocean is near, which results in a theme of nature and the four elements in my writing. The earliest poem I have recorded was in Kindergarden, so I guess I began writing poetry in Kindergarten. Poetry and visual storytelling allows me to continue to dream and scheme. That is, it lets me continue to imagine new possibilities to dismantle white supremacy, capitalism and patriarchy while honoring the deepest feelings inside of me. This to me is the ultimate form of liberation. More of my work can be found at azmerarymes.com
Instagram: @azmerarymes , @followthekeepers , @btb_features
Website: azmerahrymes.com
Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay
I am from Kolkata, India and that is the home I refer to.
Poetry, in the writing of it, has no master. There is no power structure besides the one I create. Sure, all work is informed by other work, but as Audre Lorde says, “poetry is not a luxury.” It does not have to be a hierarchical elite system if thought; it has the freedom to exist on a page. Thus voice, especially for poems no one will ever read, is an imperative.
Liberation, in its true sense, is at the same time a struggle for independence and a practice in outrage. I believe poetry does that for me. It is a place I am allowed to be angry, or rather indignant. But also a place informed by craft, not Twitter fingers. Robin D.G. Kelley, in one of my favorite wisdoms, calls this “poetry, and therefore revolt.”
Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay was the first Nashville Youth Poet Laureate and the 2016 Poet Ambassador for the Southeast. She has been published in Nashville Arts Magazine, The Tennessean, Chapter 16, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Shanghai Literary Review, Atlas and Alice, The Felt, Indian Lit, and Poetry Society of America. Her first book "this is our war" was released through Penmanship Press in 2016. Her second book "everything is always leaving" was released through M.C. Sarkar & Sons in Kolkata, India in 2019. And also, very recently her poetry album ‘i don’t know anyone here’ has been published and released in Nashville, TN.