25TH Annual Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Awards

Heather ‘Byrd’ Roberts was born and raised on the Southside of Chicago. She received her Bachelors in Special Studies in Performance Art from Cornell College and received a Masters in Organizational Leadership from St. Ambrose University. Byrd returned to Chicago and completed her Spoken Word Pedagogy Certificate program at Concordia University in 2015. Byrd’s work focuses on the intersectionality between form and freedom – being black and a woman. A quilt stitched together shining a light on the best and the worst parts of her experiences. Byrd’s poems are in lineage of Lucille Clifton, Ntozake Shange, and Gwendolyn Brooks. Her stories span from childhood epiphanies to unexpected lessons and celebrations. Each story tastes like ripe mangoes, cayenne pepper, or a eclectic combination of the two. Her favorite words are bubble and balloon. Byrd is currently the Senior Education Programs Manager at Young Chicago Authors, Home of Louder Than A Bomb. Twitter: @BluByrdsWorld

Ava Serra grew up fantasizing about worlds and adventures outside life in Suburban Michigan. Chicago provided ample opportunity for her imagination and development when she was seventeen. It was here she discovered her passion for LGBT+ and POC representation. Thanks to her first poetry professor and friend, she began to channel her experiences into this literary form, often using her lens as a queer, mixed race woman to examine and question her surroundings. Since stepping into poetry, poets such as Marty McConnell, Franny Choi, Mary Oliver, Audre Lorde, and C. Russell Price have served as tremendous inspiration. Oftentimes, she continues to search for new, marvelous voices in the shelves of Women and Children’s First and hope to contribute her own works someday.

Marjorie L. Skelly‘s cross-genre book, The Unpublished Poet: On Not Giving Up on Your Dream, was endorsed by former Indiana Poet Laureate Norbert Krapf and published by In Extenso Press. It consists of essays, short stories, and poems. She has won first place awards from Poets and Patrons, the Jo-Anne Hirshfield Poetry Memorial Contest, and the Palatine Public Library. She has twice reached finalist status for the Word Works Washington Prize for a poetry book, and twice reached semi-finalist status in the Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Poetry Contest in Chicago. Marjorie has taught writing at several universities, poetry writing (revision) at Harold Washington Library, and poetry and fiction writing at Eisenhower Library, all in the Chicago-land area. Most recently she taught a class on the history of Handel’s Messiah at both Eisenhower and Highland Park Libraries.

Jimmie Smith Jr. was born in Detroit, Michigan. He has two Bachelor of Arts degrees (in Journalism and in English) from Michigan State University. He also holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Chicago State University, and he has lived in Chicago for nine years. He has attended the Hurston/Wright Writers’ workshop and the Bread Loaf Writing workshop. He is a freelance sports announcer who loves poetry and sports simultaneously.

Myron Stokes has been writing poetry for fifteen years. He is a member of the Illinois State Poetry Society, Poets and Patrons, the Oak Park Writers Group and the National Federation State Poetry Society. His work is published in Margie, International Journal of American Poetry, the Ellen LaForge Poetry Prize, and Encore. He won first place in the 2012 Margaret Reid Poetry Contest for Traditional Verse and received honorable mentions for several poems as well as short stories. He is a nine year USAF veteran and currently works as a psychotherapist treating veterans that have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He is originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and the proud father of a lovely 22 year old daughter.

Erin Sweeney graduated DePaul University with a Master’s in Writing and Publishing. She was well known on the Chicago slam scene in the 90s as a member of Young Chicago Authors. She currently lives in Skokie, IL.

My name is Savastiana Valle, I am nineteen years old and this year has been a whirlwind. I got very ill in February of 2018 and I am still recovering. Poetry was my only comfort through months of tests and hospitals. I wrote every day as much as I could. It was the only way for me to feel normal again. I physically could not do much, and slowly typing away on my computer became some amazing therapy. I am thankful for all poetry has done for me and I just hope to do my words some justice. Thank you all for the opportunity!

With a background in music journalism, copy editing, and writing overall, Marlena Wadley is switching lanes and stepping into the film industry. Marlena has won the Sarah Mook National writing award, competed and won gold place in NAACP’s Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO) competition, and she will be published in the second Golden Shovel Anthology dedicated to Gwendolyn Brooks. Marlena has worked under music journalist Tara Mahadevan, and has interned with Young Chicago Authors. Through them she is published on their blog, TheseDays, and Fake Shore Drive. Currently she is a student studying Communications at UIC and hopes to go to Grad school for Film.

Erin Watson is a Southern person living in Chicago. She was a finalist for the 2014 Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Award and one of New City’s best emerging poets in Chicago in 2014. She works in nonprofits and volunteers with Chicago Books to Women in Prison when she is not reading books, riding bikes, or petting her perfect dog. Twitter: @ErinW

Arne Weingart lives in Chicago with his wife Karen. He is the principal of a graphic design firm specializing in identity and wayfinding. He has been awarded residencies at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Vermont Studio Center and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and has been a featured panelist/reader at the Southern Festival of Books. His work has been widely published in journals and has also been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His first book, “Levitation for Agnostics,” was the winner of the 2014 New American Press Poetry Prize and was released in 2016.

Alternates

Mary DeYoe is a writer and arts administrator from Chicago, IL. Her poems and articles have appeared in INSIGHT Magazine, The Honeyland Review, Newcity, Chicago Gallery News, and The SEEN. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing, Poetry from Vanderbilt University where she was the recipient of the Academy of American Poets Prize. Currently, she is the Director of Development & External Relations at the Chicago Artists Coalition.

Natasha Estevez currently resides in Chicago. Originally from Harlem, NY, she is a 22 year old Afro-Latina creative writer and spoken word artist continuing her art practice after having graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Creative Writing program in May of 2018.

Sheila Yarbough I love the sound and the look of words. I spend most of my days as an administrator and a parent. I write occasionally.