Keynote Presenters and Special Guests

Keynote Presenters

Exodus Brownlow: Exodus Oktavia Brownlow is a writer, editor, seamstress and budding beekeeper currently residing in the enchanting pine tree forest of BlackHawk, Ms. Her books include I'm Afraid That I Know Too Much About Myself Now, To Go Back To Who I Knew Before, And Oh Lord, Who Will I Be After I've Known All That I Can,and Look at All The Little Hurts of These Newly-Broken Lives and The Bittersweet, Sweet and Bitter Loves. You may find her, and more of her work at exodusoktaviabrownlow.com.

Ada Cheng: Dr. Ada Cheng, an educator-turned artist, producer, speaker, and community builder, has utilized storytelling to illustrate structural inequities, raise critical awareness, and build intimate communities. Committed to amplifying and uplifting marginalized voices, she has created numerous storytelling platforms for BIPOC and LGBTQIA community members to tell difficult and vulnerable stories. Dr. Cheng has been a speaker for Illinois Humanities Road Scholars Speakers Bureau since 2019. She has been named 2023-24 Lund-Gill Chair in the Rosary College of Arts and Sciences at Dominican University. Her interests encompass academia, storytelling/performance, and advocacy. Website, Instagram.

Marianela Medrano: Marianela Medrano was born and raised in the Dominican Republic and has lived in the United States since 1990. A poet and a writer of nonfiction and fiction, she holds a PhD in psychology. Her poetry has been translated into Italian and French. She is a faculty mentor for the PhD program in Visionary Practice and Regenerative Leadership at South Western College in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her individual publications include: Oficio de Vivir (Buho,1986), Los Alegres Ojos de la Tristeza ( Buho,1987), Regando Esencias/ The Scent of Waiting (Alcance,1998), Curada de Espantos (Torremozas, 2002), Diosas de la Yuca, (Torremozas, 2011), Prietica (Alfaguara, 2013). Rooting (Owlfeather Collective, 2017). Website, LinkedIn, Facebook, Youtube, Instagram.

Glenn North: Glenn North is the Director of Inclusive Learning and Creative Impact at the Kansas City Museum. He received an MFA in Creative Writing from UMKC and is the author of City of Song, a collection of poems inspired by Kansas City’s rich jazz tradition. He is a Cave Canem fellow, a Callaloo creative writing fellow and a recipient of the Charlotte Street Generative Performing Artist Award. His ekphrastic and visual poems have appeared in art exhibitions at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the American Jazz Museum, and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art. Glenn is also an adjunct English professor at Rockhurst University and is currently filling his appointment as the Poet Laureate of the 18th & Vine Historic Jazz District. Website, Documentary, Instagram, Twitter.

Poets Laureate

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg: Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg is the 2009–13 Kansas Poet Laureate, and founder of Transformative Language Arts. Author of twenty-four books, including a memoir on cancer and community, and other prose, she leads community writing workshops for people living with serious illness and teaches widely. Her most recent books are How Time Moves: New & Selected Poems and Miriam's Well, a novel. She also coaches and consults on writing and creativity, and co-leads collaborative workshops and retreats: Writing from the Soul and the Art of Facilitation with Joy Roulier Sawyer, Brave Voice with Kelley Hunt, and Your Right Livelihood (retreat and class) with Kathryn Lorenzen.

Eric McHenry: Eric McHenry is the author of three books of poetry, most recently Odd Evening (Waywiser, 2016). His honors include the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, the Theodore Roethke Prize from Poetry Northwest, and a term as poet laureate of Kansas. His poems have appeared in The Threepenny Review, The New Republic, The Times Literary Supplement, Field, and The Yale Review. His prose appears in The American Scholar and The New York Times Book Review. He teaches English at Washburn University.

Huascar Medina: Kansas Poet Laureate Emeritus and Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow, Huascar Medina is a father and arts administrator. He’s an op-ed writer at Kansas Reflector, an editor for seveneightfive magazine, Southbroadway Press, and latinidad.us. Medina also sits on the National Council on the Arts.

Glenn North: Glenn North is the Director of Inclusive Learning and Creative Impact at the Kansas City Museum. He received an MFA in Creative Writing from UMKC and is the author of City of Song, a collection of poems inspired by Kansas City’s rich jazz tradition. He is a Cave Canem fellow, a Callaloo creative writing fellow and a recipient of the Charlotte Street Generative Performing Artist Award. His ekphrastic and visual poems have appeared in art exhibitions at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the American Jazz Museum, and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art. Glenn is also an adjunct English professor at Rockhurst University and is currently filling his appointment as the Poet Laureate of the 18th & Vine Historic Jazz District. Website, Documentary, Instagram, Twitter.

Maryfrances Wagner: Maryfrances Wagner’s latest books are The Immigrants’ New Camera, The Silence of Red Glass, and Solving for X. Her book Red Silk won the Thorpe Menn Book Award. Co-editor of I-70 Review, she also serves as President of The Writers Place. She was Missouri 2020 Individual Artist of the Year and served as the 6th Missouri Poet Laureate 2021-2023. She is the daughter of four Italian immigrant grandparents.

Musicians

Kathryn Lorenzen: Kathryn Lorenzen coaches people at all life stages in career transition, career development, and creativity. Following a successful stint in marketing and advertising, she moved into the career field as a recruiter, uniting over 500 people with jobs and careers over 20 years. Now as a full-time coach, she is dedicated to helping people find their strengths, gifts, and ideal mode of work. Kathryn is also an accomplished singer songwriter and recording artist, with songs in TV/film and on streaming services. More here, Linkedin, and see Your Right Livelihood, the micro business she offers with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg.

Beth Watts Nelson: Beth Watts Nelson is a Kansas City based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and lifelong student of music. In addition to solo performances, she can be heard in several projects throughout the KC area including Konza Swamp Band, Catgut, and her latest endeavor, Little Miss Dynamite. Building upon a twenty year career in music education she is now the founder and director of Notorious Chorus, a community-based, group singing workshop for adults. Beth is available for booking or private lessons any time except the third weekend of September when she can be found near Stage 7 at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, KS. bethwattsnelson.com.

Vi Tran: Vi Tran is a preacher’s kid and the son of butchers. Born in the shadow of Sai Gon, Vietnam and raised in the cattle country of southwestern Kansas, he’s equal parts sea salt and wheat fields. He is founding owner and managing curator of The Buffalo Room performance event space and as the creator of The Butcher’s Son, an autobiographical refugee story and folk musical memoir about his family’s escape from Vietnam. Vi Tran Band has opened for legendary rock band Kansas and has opened for such acts as Bon Iver, Arcade Fire, Barenaked Ladies, Beck, Ben Folds, Counting Crows, KT Tunstall, Ray LaMontagne, Willie Nelson, and Violent Femmes. Their full-length album American Heroine, a symphonic rock, folk, and Americana song cycle, was included on Best-of lists by Mark Manning (KKFI 90.1 FM) and Timothy Finn (Kansas City Star). As a storyteller, actor, singer-songwriter, composer, and playwright, Tran examines topics as varied as the unpacking of inherited cultural trauma among refugee populations living in diaspora to the dismantling of the toxic masculinity within the mythos of the Hemingway Hero. YouTube, Facebook.

Joy Zimmerman cultivates joy as a touring folk singer-songwriter with a clear, rich voice. A former social worker, Joy brings audiences powerful, tender songs. Her two most recent albums debuted as Top Ten Albums of the Month on the Folk Alliance International (FAI) Folk Chart. Joy has received an Artist as Activist grant from the Mid-America Arts Alliance, ten Walnut Valley Music Festival NewSong Showcase wins, and Heartland Song Network Artist of the Month. You will often find Joy hiking in the woods with her wife or writing songs on her screened porch. Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube

Schedule-at-a-Glance | Travel & Lodging Info

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