Naomi Ayala
Poet Educator--Human Being Supreme
A Washington, DC resident since 1997, Naomi Ayala is the author of three books of poetry – Wild Animals on the Moon (Curbstone Press); This Side of Early (Curbstone/Northwestern University Press); and Calling Home: Praise Songs and Incantations (Bilingual Press, University of Arizona) – as well as of the chapbook Molinos: Primeros Poemas. She’s the translator of La sombra de la muerte/Death’s Shadow, a novel by His Excellency José Tomás Pérez, the Dominican Republic’s Ambassador to the U.S., and of Luis Alberto Ambroggio’s poetry collection La arqueología del viento/The Wind’s Archeology. A proud recipient of artist fellowships from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Legacy of Environmental Justice Award, as well as Special Recognition for Community Service from the U.S. Congress, Naomi’s essays have appeared in The Massachusetts Review and Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.
(© 2025 Sheba Amante)
Carmen Calatayud
Poet Supreme
Carmen Calatayud is the daughter of immigrants: A Spanish father and Irish mother. Her second book This Tangled Body was published by FlowerSong Press, in conjunction with Letras Latinas, in June 2024. Her first book In the Company of Spirits was a runner-up for the Academy of American Poets Walt Whitman Award and an Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize finalist. She is a Larry Neal Poetry Award winner, a Best of La Bloga winner, a Virginia Center for the Creative Arts fellow and a member of the Macondo Writers Workshop. She supports the immigrant, migrant and refugee rights movement through poetry and activism.
(© 2025 Truth Thomas)
Melanie Henderson
Poet, Photographer--Supreme Art Consultant
Melanie Henderson was born, raised and lives in Washington, DC. She is an alumnus of Howard and Trinity Universities. Prior to earning an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA, she studied poetry at the Voices Summer Writing Workshops (VONA) in San Francisco, CA. Her debut collection of poems, Elegies for New York Avenue, won the 2011 Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award.
(© 2025 (Melanie Henderson)
Joseph Ross
Poet and Educator Supreme
Joseph Ross has authored five books of poetry: Crushed & Crowned (2023), Raising King (2020), Ache (2017), Gospel of Dust (2013), and Meeting Bone Man (2012). His poems have appeared in a wide variety of publications including The New York Times Sunday Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, The Southern Quarterly, Xavier Review, Poet Lore, Tidal Basin Review, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, and Sojourners. His work appears in many anthologies including What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Trump, edited by Martin Espada. Over the last several years, his poems also appear in anthologies including Collective Brightness, Poetic Voices without Borders 1 and 2, Full Moon on K Street, and Come Together; Imagine Peace.
(© 2025 Ted Schroll)
Truth Thomas
Artist
Truth Thomas is a singer-songwriter, poet, and photographer born in Knoxville, Tennessee and raised in the sacred DMV. An NAACP Image Award-winner, he is the Inaugural Poet Laureate of Howard County, Maryland.
