STAFF
ANDREA CHANGE
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Andrea is poet, writer and a long-time friend of the Guild Complex. She has been a part of the Chicago poetry community for over 20 years. Her work has been published in a number of poetry magazines, journals and included in such poetry anthologies from Tia Chucha Press as Powerlines and Stray Bullets. Her poetry was also included in the 2001 Steppenwolf Theatre production, Words on Fire.
A hometown girl, born and raised in Chicago, much of her poetry is inspired by her experiences growing up in the city. Other influences range from the classic poetry of Browning, to Pablo Neruda, to poets from the Harlem Renaissance and the beat poets of the ’60s. A graduate from Northwestern University, she is still learning and is constantly fascinated by the great voices she hears at local area poetry readings. She is mother of one son, Phillip, and Sasha, the dog. Still an active member of the poetry and arts community, she currently resides in Rogers Park.
Andrea’s first Guild event was when a friend invited her to see Sterling Plumpp at the book store. “I’d never been to a poetry reading in a book store before so it was quite a novelty. Sterling Plumpp was amazing and right away I was hooked. But my favorite memory is of days when I would meet at a café, usually a place called the Why Not? Café, and sitting with Michael Warr (Guild founding Director), Rohan Preston, Quraysh Ali Lansana (former Staff and Board) and my son, Phillip, in tow. They weren’t just these intellectual giants of Chicago Poetry, they were also just guys who never made me feel uncomfortable or left me out of the conversation, and always treated me like an equal. So many good conversations, I always walked away feeling enriched.”
MEREDITH BOE
Development Associate
Meredith is a writer, editor, and critic with experience in book publishing, marketing, and grant writing. She earned an MA in writing and publishing from DePaul University, and, aside from her role with the Guild, she takes on copywriting, copyediting, and development work on a contract basis.
Meredith is the author of the chapbook What City, which won the 2018 Debut Series Chapbook Contest from Paper Nautilus, and her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Passengers Journal, Newfound, Another Chicago Magazine, Chicago Reader, After Hours, Mud Season Review, and elsewhere. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and contributes to the Chicago Review of Books.
Alanis Zoë Castillo Caref
PROGRAMMING Coordinator
Alanis Zoë Castillo Caref is a Chicanx writer and poet from Chicago. She received her BA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Communication and Creative Writing. Alanis was a finalist for the 2021 Undergraduate Creative Writing Awards and won second place in The Hip Hop Workshop 2022 Spoken-Word Competition. She also has poetry published in The Fashion Network magazine. Alanis has performed at Story Lab Chicago, Slam Diáspora, Exhibit B, The Chicago Poetry Center, La Hora de Antojitos, and more. Currently, she is a Programming Coordinator at the Guild Literary Complex and a co-curator of Exhibit B.
Téa Jones-Yelvington
PROGRAMMING Coordinator
Téa Jones-Yelvington (she/they) is a transfemme writer and organizer with more than 17 years of experience creating and implementing effective initiatives and strengthening justice-seeking organizations within and outside the nonprofit sector, bringing expertise in systems thinking, grantmaking, collective impact, collaboration, meaningful stakeholder engagement, youth development, racial, social and environmental justice, and community development and organizing. She is involved in movements for police and prison abolition, disability justice, and caregiver issues. In her substack Transitional Wisdoms (https://transitionalwisdoms.
CAROLINE MCCRAW
DIGITAL SERVICES COORDINATOR
Caroline McCraw is a Chicago-based writer and designer. She received her MFA in Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and MA in Digital Humanities from Loyola University Chicago, and likes to read + make work related to found language, digital poetics, and archives. | ccmcc.biz
VOLUNTEERS
Mary Hawley
Palabra Pura Coordinator
Christian Vásquez Infante
PALABRA PURA VOLUNTEER
Christian Vásquez Infante is a researcher, editor, and cultural promoter from Bogotá, Colombia. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Northwestern University, where his research focuses on cultural initiatives in Colombia. He is co-editor and contributing author of Un gabinete para el futuro (2022), and a collaborator of Animal Extinto, a Colombian independent publishing collective.
In 2022, he led the Palabra Pura program, curating a dynamic series of virtual and in-person literary events featuring Latin American authors from Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, and Mexico. Through strategic partnerships with various Northwestern departments and programs, he secured funding that enabled events to take place across Chicago—in bookstores, galleries, public parks, and on the university campus. In 2023, he co-coordinated the participation of Guild-selected writers in FLECHO, Chocó’s Writing and Reading Festival in Colombia. This collaboration led to the creation of Juntando Orillas, a cross-cultural exchange program that fosters dialogue between Latinx writers in the U.S. and Afro-Colombian communities. In 2024, Christian helped bring the initiative full circle by organizing a second round of events in Chicago, supported by Northwestern and hosted in diverse community spaces. That same year, he co-produced a documentary on the project, sponsored by the Guild Literary Complex and the Poetry Foundation.
Since 2023, he has also served as the cultural programming coordinator for Fiesta de la Lectura y la Escritura del Chocó -FLECHO-.
