contributors

Dkéama Alexis (she/they/he) is a Black trans— writer, diviner, and dreamtender based on Mvskoke and Tsalaguwetiyi land (metro Atlanta, GA). Their work is a bricolage-borne expanse that draws connections between Black feminisms, Black/African/Indigenous spiritual technologies, wake work, tarot, music, film, and more.

My names are Lluvia and Bastet. I am a Biracial trans fae (Black and Indigenous to Turtle Island). I grew up along the Rio Grande and have stayed near the water. I am a multi-disciplinary artist using my eyes and hands to put on paper what we have heard in our nightmares but have no name for. I write about subversion because it is the only way I know. I write about what I witnessed surviving abuse with tears and laughter to reveal the absurdity of it all while recognizing evil for what it is. I am my own muse. There is nothing pure about me. That is on purpose. I clean up nothing. I subdue at once the belief that the stories of survivors should be obscured and lay it all bare. My intention and hope are that my sharing opens a portal to connect us to a future where pleasure exists without threats. I speak of a very distant past before violent ideologies called for the destruction of the erotic. In my writing, righteous rage and despair have a home. I trust that the tears on the pages I fill can nourish worlds even if they are worlds I only dream of but don’t live to see in the flesh.

Carrie-Yvonne’s creative interest lies in the intersections of Black Southern space-time, memory work, and archival documentation. This practice of theirs relies on poetry, film photography, and music as technology. By weaving rhythm, sound, and imagery in meter, Carrie-Yvonne’s footnotes become visual markers for language. It is here where they make memory tangible and find spirit, this embodied space being in arms reach. Carrie-Yvonne’s process of citational politics (e.g footnotes) serves as both a bibliography and record of home – experiences, geographies, language, and state of being.

Sara Makeba Daise aka Geechee Gal Griot (she/her/hers) is a Black, queer, fifth-generation Gullah Geechee woman, Griot, Afrofuturist, space & time-traveler, dimension-hopper, gatekeeper, Cultural History Interpreter, Writer, Singer and Healer from Beaufort, SC.She received a B.S. in Communication and a minor in African American Studies from the College of Charleston. She received an M.A. in Public History with distinction from Union Institute & University. Her creative thesis: “‘Come on in The Room’: Afrofuturism as a Path to Black Women’s Retroactive Healing” was a 2018 recipient of the Brian Webb Award for Outstanding MA Thesis in History & Culture from Union Institute & University. Her acclaimed 2020 essay “Be Here Now: The South is a Portal”, explores the South as a portal for Africana and Indigenous ways of knowing. Sara currently consults as a translator, advisor, and Cultural Accuracy and Sensitivity Reader for numerous creative projects relating to Gullah Geechee and Africana history & culture. She also assists folk in facilitating their own healing and connecting with their ancestors.

IMANI HARMON kaj lindberg writes to live.

Joanne Godley is a retired physician, writer, and Pushcart-nominated poet who, until recently, resided in Alexandria, Virginia. She now lives in Mexico City. Her prose has appeared or is forthcoming in the Kenyon Review, Juked, the Massachusetts Review, and Memoir magazine. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Kosmos, Mantis, the Bellevue Review, the Poeming Pigeon, FIYAH, among others. She attended the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, VONA, and the Kenyon Writer’s Workshop. She received a Voice of Color Fellowship from the Martha’s Vineyard Institute for Creative Writing and scholarships for the Poetry of Resilience workshop and an MWPA fiction workshop scholarship. Her poetry chapbook is entitled Picking Scabs from the Body History. She is a member of the Poetry Witch Community and the Author’s Guild.

Tiffany Grantham is a contributing writer of Black Powerful, a book enthusiast, and the creator of Creatiffwriting. com. A North Carolina native with a love for coffee, new adventures, and good music.

Jessica Griffin holds a B.A. in French language and an M.A. in translation. She works as a subtitle editor and lives in Atlanta, GA.

Imani Harmon is an Afrofuturist astrologer, multidisciplinary artist, and culture worker using the indigenous sciences of astrology, land stewardship, animism and herbalism to explore Black feminist thought for liberatory and fugitive practices. These ideas are explored through print media (zines, independent press, and writing), digital art, podcasts, space curation/altar building, and meditations. This summer she launched a multi-year project called black speculative astrology aimed at archiving and creating astrological techniques to envision Black pasts, presents and futures. She has published work for Earth in Color digital magazine, was commissioned by The Town Hall NYC for A Blue Moon Halloween: Sun Ra and the Comet Kohoutek, and spoke at Black Quantum Futurism’s Black Womxn Time Camp 004. She is currently working with The Omi Collective, a DC-based women-led art collective.