Brandon Leake
Brandon Leake, founder and CEO of Called To Move – CTM, roots lie in the ghetto’s of south side Stockton, California.  In 2012 Brandon started Called To Move – CTM at Simpson University with a small group of artists just trying to share their gifts and encourage others to do so, which has lead its way into inspiring others through poetry all across the country. Brandon Leake released a debut album entitled, “In My Thoughts”, which lead him to traveling from Los Angeles to New York and everywhere in between for a year and a half performing his pieces, leading spoken word poetry workshops, and keynote speaking.
Amani Edmonds-Torres
Amani Edmonds-Torres is from a city outside of Chicago, Illinois. He fell in love with poetry at a young age. He credits a 10th grade poetry assignment and multiple incarcerations as the inspiration to change from fighting those that bullied or mocked him to writing to inspire the people he loves and try to do right by all.

 Arturo Desimone

 Arturo Desimone, Arubian-Argentinian writer and visual artist, was born in 1984 on the island Aruba. At the age of 22 he emigrated to the Netherlands. He is currently based in Argentina (a country two of his ancestors left during the 1970s) while working on a long fiction project about childhoods, diasporas, islands and religion. Desimone’s articles, poetry and short fiction pieces have appeared in CounterPunch, Círculo de Poesía, Acentos Review, New Orleans Review, DemocraciaAbierta, BIM Magazine. He writes a monthly blog on movements in Latin American poetry for Drunken Boat, ''Notes on a Return to the Ever-Dying Lands''. https://arturoblogito.wordpress.com/
 Ryan "Roc the Prophet" Jordan
Ryan Jordan currently lives in Port St. Lucie, Florida but is originally from Kansas City, Mo.  He started out writing music at the age of 10 and received his Comprehensive Audio Engineering Certificate in 2011 from the Florida Institute Of Recording Sound & Technology. These two pieces were recorded & produced in his home studio. The soundscapes were created from scratch to enhance the listening experience & to add depth. Headphones are recommended.  

Susan Marie 

Susan Marie is a Spoken Word Poet, Writer, Author, and Broadcast Journalist. She appeared in South Florida Poetry Journal's Interview With A Poet in September 2017  You can find her website at  Susan Marie

Marcia Pelletierre

Marcia Pelletiere is a poet, singer/composer, and interdisciplinary artist. She has also taught classes and workshops in creative writing, language arts, and ESL at various colleges and arts organizations in NYC and NJ. Marcia was born and raised in Massachusetts, spent the next 28 years in NYC, and now lives in NJ.
Check out this and other incredible Marcia Pelletiere videos at: 
​http://www.marciapelletiere.com/
​https://vimeo.com/130981317

Winston Plowes 

Winston Plowes: Notes from the original posting: "Background - Following the launch of this years Hebden Bridge Arts Festival and the exhibition of photographs from last year, some visitors to the Town Hall may have noticed an antique typewriter on a table in the foyer. Some of you may even keyed in some words about the photographs and your thoughts. In the latest development of Festival Pop Up Poet Winston Plowes' project Type Cast he has taken this long thin spool of words and edited it (rather like a film might be cut and spliced). The resulting 'found poem' has been recorded on film and set to his voice and a backing of typewriter sounds."
Larry Rhu 
Larry Rhu lives in Columbia, SC. He has published books and essays about the European and the American Renaissance. His poems have recently appeared in Fall/lines and Pinesong and online in Conversations, Quorum, and Jogos Florais. He was a Fulbright lecturer at the University of Lisbon in 2005 and 2016.
​Images contributed by Karen Murphy.

5-Star Rental
 
for my landlady, Felicidade

​Creio que uma folha de erva não vale menos que a jornada das estrelas.
               — Walt Whitman, Canto de Mim Mesmo  (tr. José Agostinho Baptista), xxxi, 1
 
Midway through your bilingual “Song of Myself,” I find
a shopping list with pão at its head. As I read on,
the rendering of “I believe a leaf of grass is no less
than the journey-work of the stars” in Portuguese
translates me west-by-southwest overseas to the High Road
to Taos and Española’s low-riders, north of Santa Fe
where tourists succumb to night skies though locals take
what’s given for granted.
 
                                                In Lisbon, my day’s work done,
I return to rented rooms lined with books in Portuguese
passing mosaics of Camões swimming for Goa and Pessoa--
four of him, at least, all dreams with souls all their own--
Moorish geometries and blue and white azulejos,
wall after wall bearing tales, Latinate words and names
opening up, vowel after vowel, even at the Metro stop:
Roman arena becomes A-re-e-i-ro.
 
                                                            The train’d soprano
sustains those sounds in my inner ear, rewording
the world of Leaves in another’s mother tongue.


Curtis R. Smith 
Curtis R. Smith performs spoken word at Stone Spiral Coffee and Curio in Maplewood, MO. From his book, "I, Poetic Confessions, II."
​Visit Curtis' official page: http://www.curusm.com