Toya L. Groves is a lifelong teacher and writer who currently works with formerly incarcerated students at Laney College in Oakland, California. She holds a BA in African American studies from UC. Berkeley, a MA in Women’s Spirituality from Sofia University, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College. Her writing includes attributes that reveal both the challenges of her journey while also highlighting the victory of forgiving herself and those who once trespassed against her. After losing the use of her right dominant hand in a car accident she re-learned to write and navigate the world, as a black person and as a woman, literally single handedly. It is her life’s work to illuminate the dark, by telling the story of Motherhood as she sees and experiences it with hopes to inspire others to raise up their voices in chants for healing, love, and freedom.

Mia Boykin is a daughter of California, originally born and raised in Los Angeles and currently finds home in The Bay. Known mainly by her stage/pen name, Mimi Tempestt, she is a multidisciplinary artist and poet. She is the creator of the wonderful archival interview series Black.Queer.Alive. which highlights the personal narratives of Black and queer people throughout the world. Her debut collection of poems, The Monumental Misrememberings, is forthcoming with Co-Conspirator Press. She was chosen for Lambda Literary Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices for poetry in 2021, and is currently a creative fellow at The Ruby in San Francisco.

Muriel Leung is the author of Imagine Us, The Swarm, forthcoming from Nightboat Books in 2021, and Bone Confetti, winner of the 2015 Noemi Press Book Award. A Pushcart Prize nominated writer, her writing can be found in The Baffler, Cream City Review, Gulf Coast, The Collagist, Fairy Tale Review, and others. She is a recipient of fellowships to Kundiman, VONA/Voices Workshop and the Community of Writers. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Gold Line Press and the Poetry Co-Editor of Apogee Journal. She also co-hosts The Blood-Jet Writing Hour Podcast with Rachelle Cruz and MT Vallarta. She is a member of Miresa Collective, a feminist speakers bureau.