Nisha Patel is a queer spoken word poet & artist. She is the City of Edmonton’s Poet Laureate, and the Canadian Individual Slam Champion, and has been performing and writing in her community for five years. In 2021, she will be acting as one of the Edmonton Public Library’s Writers in Residence. She is the founder of Moon Jelly House, a publishing house centering the voices of marginalized poets by publishing chapbooks for emerging spoken word artists. She is two-time Canadian Festival of Spoken Word finalist. During this time, Nisha was also recipient of the Edmonton Artists’ Trust Fund Award, and is the current Executive Director of the Edmonton Poetry Festival, Western Canada’s largest poetry festival.
raquel gutiérrez is an arts critic/writer, poet and educator. Born and raised in Los Angeles Gutiérrez credits the queer and feminist DIY post-punk 'zine culture of the 1990s plus Los Angeles County and Getty paid arts internships with introducing her/them to the various vibrant art & music scenes and communities throughout Southern California. Gutiérrez is a 2021 recipient of the Rabkin Prize in Arts Journalism, as well as a 2017 recipient of the The Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant. Her/Their writing has recently appeared in or is forthcoming in Art In America, NPR Music, Places Journal, and The Georgia Review. Gutiérrez teaches in the Oregon State University-Cascades Low Residency Creative Writing MFA Program. Her/Their first bo
