Featured Readers
Jamaal May’s creative projects explore the tension between polarities to render arguments for the interconnectivity of people, worlds, and ideas. He has exhibited at the Smithsonian and his writing has appeared in periodicals and anthologies internationally. Jamaal’s first book of poems, Hum (Alice James, 2013), won a Lannan Foundation grant, and American Library Association’s Notable Book Award. Jamaal’s second collection, The Big Book of Exit Strategies (Alice James, 2016), received the Benjamin H. Danks Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Both books were NAACP Image Award Nominees. Jamaal has worked as a hotel “av guy,” a freelance audio engineer/producer, and as an Inside Out Writer-in-Residence in Detroit Public Schools. He is currently an assistant professor at Wayne State University, working on the multisensory project, Qualia Bridge, and launching the musical co-op Jamtramck Beat Systems as part of Organic Weapon Arts. @maalimachine on social media.
Ola Faleti is an artist and arts educator raised & based in Chicago. Her writing has appeared in Pearl Press, TriQuarterly, The Chicago Reader, Interim, Jet Fuel Review, and elsewhere. The curriculum for Ola’s workshop with 826CHI, “Poets in Revolt!” was distributed nationally and birthed an anthology of youth writing. Her favorite number is nine, and she believes there’s no such thing as too many flowers. Keep up with her at www.olafaleti.com.