CONTRIBUTORS

CONTRIBUTORS

Liz Abrams is a longtime member of Writers Room and a TRIPOD Writerin-Residence (2020-21).

Ayana Allen-Handy is a native Philadelphian and former elementary school teacher and high school counselor, Dr. Allen-Handy’s 19-year career has been dedicated to advancing justice in all of its forms, particularly education, racial, and social justice. She received a PhD in Education Curriculum & Instruction, specializing in Urban Education from Texas A&M University, a MEd from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, TX, and a BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, double majoring in Management & Society and Spanish. She is also a former Post-Doctoral Fellow of The Urban Education Collaborative at UNC-Charlotte.

Brenda Bailey has been on this journey for several years. Her involvement with Writers Room has been a great experience. She has learned the importance of words, research, and using them to express yourself. She is a TRIPOD Writer-in-Residence (2017 to present).

Kelly Bergh is a graduate of the Drexel University Masters in Publishing program. She has helped to design and create numerous Writers Room publications, including Quaranzine 2020: A New Ritual.

Hari Bhatt is a TRIPOD Writer-in-Residence and Drexel University student.

Norman Cain was born in 1942 and raised on Olive Street in West Philadelphia. He graduated in 1964 from the Bluefield State College in West Virginia, where he majored in social science and minored in English. A retired social worker, teacher, father of five, and grandfather of seven, he is active in several writing groups, including the Best Day of My Life So Far at the Germantown Senior Center.

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Rosalyn Cliett is a native resident of Philadelphia, a life coach and teacher officiated by a higher power, who loves to write. Her goal is to enlighten others on solutions to life situations, through her writing. Something she calls “food for thought.” Becoming a part of Writers Room and the side-by-side classes—which were educating and exciting—have enlarged the steps that are essential to her destiny (removing the rest of the grave clothes). She is a TRIPOD Writer-in-Residence (2017-2021).

Robert Decker ’21 is a writer and filmmaker and was a regular participant in Writers Room this year. He’s fascinated by artistic processes and crossdisciplinary art-forms.

Alicia DeSimone ’19 is a photographer and writer. This year she helped to create Quaranzine 2020: A New Ritual.

Eden Skye Einhorn ’21 is a writer and visual artist. For her senior project (fashion design) she created her own fabric.

Valerie Fox is a Teaching Professor at Drexel University and a Faculty Writing Fellow with Writers Room. She’s a poet but recently has been writing a lot of flash fiction. With Jacklynn Niemiec, she created The Real Sky, a handmade book featuring words and art.

Natasha Hajo was a Tripod writer-in-residence (2017-2019). She graduated from Drexel University (BS English ‘19) and was an ArtistYear AmeriCorps Fellow at Paul Robeson High School

Husnaa Hashim has taught numerous workshops with Writers Room over the past several years. She was the 2017-2018 Youth Poet Laureate of Philadelphia and is the author of the poetry collection Honey Sequence (The Head & The Hand). Currently she is a student at the University of Pennsylvania.

389 Contributors

CONTRIBUTORS

Briyanna Hymms majored in Biological Sciences and minored in Writing at Drexel University (BS ’18). She’s a lab tech on weekdays and a self-taught artist/plant-sitter on weekends. She’s a longtime member of Writers Room.

Victoria Huggins Peurifoy recently completed her bachelor’s degree at Peirce College, focusing on organizational leadership. She is an author, poet, and spoken word artist. She facilitates a poetry and discussion group of senior citizens and she cofacilitates a story writing group called the Best Day of My Life So Far. She is a mother of 3 and a grandmother of 8. She is a TRIPOD Writer-in-Residence (2017-21).

Angel Hogan has performed as part of the Black Women’s Arts Festival, Literary Death Match, Moonstone Presents, First Person Arts and the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Angel is interested in storytelling as a vehicle for tolerance, peace, and community building. Her first film, By Law, By Love, was completed in March 2019

Kyle Howey graduated from Drexel (English BA ‘19) and was a TRIPOD Writer-in-Residence (2017-2019), as well as Writers Room Alumni Fellow (2020-2021). This year he was a co-creator of Quaranzine 2020: A New Ritual.

Dejah McIntosh is a photographer and aspiring fashion designer. She’s a graduate of Robeson High School (’19). She always makes clothes that she would wear and hopes to attend Drexel University, and to continue making new clothes that reflect her personality. For Writers Room in the spring of 2021, she co-curated and photographed an exhibition of portraits of Robeson High School seniors.

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George Jenkins has 25 years of experience in construction and building energy efficient housing. For the last ten years, he has been the Green Building Coordinator of YouthBuild Philadelphia Charter School. He certifies students in construction and educates them on the importance of renewable energy. They have an outstanding solar program and each year his goal is to have several students hired as PV installers. He has a BS in Building Construction Technology, a LEED GA, and OSHA 30 Certification. George loves his job as educator, mentor, role model, and in being an inspiration to young people.

Aaron Jeong is a student at Drexel University (‘21), majoring in applied environmental science, and is a regular participant in Writers Room workshops and open mics.

Uk Jung is an architect and educator in the Department of Architecture, Design, & Urbanism in the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design. In 2016, he founded Studio HADA, a design and consultation practice in Philadelphia. His research is focused on the availability of affordable housing and affordable commercial spaces in underserved communities undergoing rapid development and gentrification.

Mallika Kadovatiganti (’21, Biology) says the best decision she made was walking into the Writers Room studio two years ago. Her passions include giving her dog belly rubs, drinking coffee, and now writing. She is a TRIPOD Writer-in-Residence.

Janae Kindt ’21 (English) is a founding editor of LitEq (www.liteq.org). The LitEq mission statement: “Our goal is to equalize—to level out the noise that dictates what artists can and cannot do through human-centered processes that contribute to a culture of equity.”

391 Contributors

CONTRIBUTORS

Mella LaFrance contributed to Quaranzine 2020: A New Ritual. Find more work by Mella at www.mellalafrance.net.

Lauren Lowe has been a member of Writers Room since she was 19 and is a fervent Sixers fan—both have taught her how to trust the process. She is currently an MFA candidate in the Creative Writing Program at New York University.

Alina Macneal teaches architecture classes at Drexel University in the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, as well as with the Pennoni Honors College. She’s a poet and longtime member Writers Room.

Artist/writer Kelly McQuain is the author of VELVET RODEO, which won the 2013 Bloom Chapbook Prize, judged by poet C. Dale Young. The collection includes poems published in several national journals, including “Scrape the Velvet from Your Antlers,” which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize by the journal Kestrel. McQuain is a writer, artist and college professor now living in Philadelphia.

Alysha (Aly) Meloche is a PhD candidate and research assistant at Drexel’s School of Education. Her research interests include formal and informal art education, creativity, and aesthetics in interdisciplinary contexts. Her dissertation in progress features innovative mixed methods to study aesthetics and viewers’ experiences in museums. Some of her research experience involves using critical, participatory methods to co-create diverse, inclusive, social-justice-oriented, community cultural-preservation projects. Aly earned both her BA and MA in Art History from Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture. Her Master’s focus was on Late Antique architecture. She has many years of experience teaching college-level art history interdisciplinary design thinking and creativity courses.

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Danielle Morris was a contributing photographer for But We Keep Going: Robeson ’21 Voices and Portraits.

Amina Mosley is a TRIPOD Writer-in-Residence and student at Paul Robeson High School.

As a socially responsive designer and researcher, D.S. Nicholas draws on her personal experiences as a person of Middle Eastern (MENA) descent who spent part of her childhood overseas, to understand the experiences of those that have been marginalized.

Cosmo Randazzo (’21, Chemical Engineering). From a young age and now at 20, Cosmo’s passion for reaching the hearts and minds of others extends across mediums such as STEM work, food, illustration, music, mental health advocacy, and writing. With empathy and self-truth as fuel, they use poetry, psychological fiction/nonfiction, and spoken word as vessels through which they can connect with the world in a deeply personal way.

Tariq Rhodes is a TRIPOD Writer-in-Residence and student at Paul Robeson High School.

Chanda Rice is known to her friends as Muffy. She was born in 1961 on the train from New York to Philadelphia and was raised in North Philly by her maternal grandmother. Not only is a survivor, she is an overcomer, and by God’s grace she is here to deliver her story. She is a resident of Mantua.

393 Contributors

CONTRIBUTORS

Ciani Richardson is a Tripod Writer-in-Residence and student at Paul Robeson High School.

Carol Richardson McCullough is a Founding Member of Writers Room who has been an integral part of each stage of the program’s growth. Her work as Cultural Liaison has helped forge partnerships with institutions including The Free Library of Philadelphia and Mural Arts Philadelphia. Her work as a researcher on the Corporation for National and Community Service study utilizes her expertise as a writer and her experience as a secondary language arts teacher. She is Old School. Vintage. Currently she is checking her receipts and writing it all down.

Hunter Robinson is a Senior at Drexel University with a major in Entertainment and Arts Management and a minor in Business Administration. She strives to stay on the creative side of the business and hopefully develop her own magazine someday.

Anjelikal Rogers is currently a senior at Drexel University majoring in animation and visual effects. When she graduates, she hopes to find work in the commercial or tv industry and one day own her own animation studio.

Aaliyah Sesay is a member of Drexel’s class of 2020 (BA English). “Easton” is an excerpt from her senior project, "We Make Plasas. Amen."

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Dominique Shatkin ’23 understands that chaos will work its way into a masterpiece, something that she’s come to realize through her identity as both a writer and a student with ADHD. She’s majoring in Global Studies to think critically about the world around her and make sense of her place within it. She is confident that Writers Room will be a significant part of her journey in making this a reality. Kimberly Sterin is a PhD student studying education policy and leadership. She became involved with Writers Room through a collaborative project in 2019. She is also a writer, teacher, and community builder. She believes in the transformative power of storytelling and the right to a quality public school education for all.

Jerusalem Tamire is a TRIPOD Writer-in-Residence and an economics major at Drexel University.

Rina Terry’s career has ranged from Continuing Education Coordinator for healthcare professionals, to high school teacher, to Assistant to the Dean of General Studies at a state college, to adjunct instructor, to Poet-in-theSchools for the NJ State Council on the Arts, to senior pastor of several churches, to Supervisor of Religious Services at a men’s state prison. Throughout, she has been a writer.

Nick Vonk (’21, Screenwriting) doesn’t always know what to write, but he does it anyway. He loves the Writers Room community and enjoys getting to know all of the members. He did his 2019-2020 Fall/Winter co-op as Program Assistant at Writers Room. Nick is a TRIPOD Writer-in-Residence.

395 Contributors

CONTRIBUTORS

Andrea Walls is a poet because a bunch of poets got in her head when she was young. She’s on the path set down by Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, Gwendolyn brooks, LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, Toni Morrison, Toni Cade Bambara, June Jordan, Etheridge Knight, Mari Evans, Carolyn Rodgers, Audre Lorde, Ntozake Shange, Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Henry Dumas, Paule Marshall, Gayl Jones, and many, many more. She became a photographer because she was given a camera at the moment she needed one. Her photographs want to be poems, too. She is pleased that her writing and visual art have been supported by organizations she admires, including The Leeway Foundation, VONA/Voices Workshops for Writers of Color, The Colored Girls Museum, Hedgebrook Residency for Women Authoring Change, Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, The Studio Museum of Harlem, and the Women’s Mobile Museum Collective. Andrea’s work has been published in venues open to alternative styles and points of view, including Kweli, Callaloo, Solstice Literary Magazine, New Delta Review, and The Fourth River.

Alex Wasalinko is a poet and teaching artist. She is originally from Scranton but currently lives in West Philadelphia. She co-edited Quaranzine 2020: A New Ritual.

Devin Welsh ‘20 edited the Robeson Portrait series in this volume. Devin is a writer and an ArtistYear Fellow at Paul Robeson High School in West Philadelphia. Originally from Lansdale, PA, he has had a passion for telling stories since he could hold a pencil. As a TRIPOD Writer-in-Residence with Writers Room he used the combination of personal narrative and photography to explore his sense of self and his community.

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Rachel Wenrick, Founding Director of Writers Room and Associate Teaching Professor of Englsh, has also worked as a waitress and a roofer. All of these jobs require paying attention. Being a writer has trained her to look for the through-lines that intersect to make a larger narrative. She received an MFA from Columbia University’s School of the Arts and is coauthor of singer and activist Angelique Kidjo’s memoir, Spirit Rising.

Patty West is a Landscape Architect who creates projects that bring together people and nature for the benefit of both. She is also the designer of Anthology 7 and other Writers Room projects including Home Book.

Lyric Wise, Paul Robeson High School, '21, is a TRIPOD Writer-inResidence and an incoming first-year student at Drexel.

Patrice Worthy is Assistant Director of Writers Room, where she provides high-level program support towards maintaining and building Writers Room’s civically-engaged partnerships. Prior to this, she was trained as a biochemist. Patrice enjoys working on creative projects that combine art with social impact.

Melody Wright is a graduate of Temple University’s MFA in Creative Writing program. Her book, Count, was recently published by Overpass Books.

397 Contributors