Olivia Abtahi (she/her) is a film director and writer based in Denver, Colorado. Born to an Iranian father and an Argentine mother, she is a melting pot of distinct cultures. Growing up in the DC area, Olivia always had a passion for cinema and storytelling. She is a graduate of NYU Film School and VCU Brandcenter, and has lived in New York, San Francisco, Richmond Virginia, and Dublin, Ireland. She holds a BFA and MaSC.

Kate M. Nicholson (she/her) is a civil rights attorney, arts activist, and the founder and Executive Director of the National Pain Advocacy Center, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing the health and human rights of people with pain. She has spoken at TED, universities, and think tanks, testified in state legislatures, and briefed the U.S. Congress. Her opinion pieces have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Washington Monthly, Hill, STAT, and MedPage Today. Her advocacy has been featured by the New York Times, Guardian, Washington Post, NBC, Scientific American, BBC, Newsweek, NPR, the ACLU’s At Liberty, and elsewhere.  She previously served on the collecting committee at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and the Advisory Board of the University of Colorado Art Museum in Boulder, and she currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Ulrich Museum. Nicholson was a founding board member of Tilt West and edits its written responses to roundtables.

Whitney Carter (she/her) has two decades of expertise in the art world, encompassing roles as an art dealer, fine art logistics specialist, collector, and co-founder of Tilt West. She holds an M.A. in Art History with a focus on Feminist Studies and an M.S. in Business Analytics. Currently working as a Data Analyst in environmental services, Whitney's passion for the art world remains ever-strong.

Manuel Aragon (he/him) is a Latinx writer, director, and filmmaker from Denver, CO, with nearly 20 years of experience in nonprofit work, focusing on community engagement, project management, and film/TV production. He has worked at six nonprofit organizations, building community-led programs, inclusive spaces, and art experiences.

Manuel holds a BFA in Film/TV from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He is currently working on Norteñas, a speculative fiction short story collection centered in the Northside of Denver, a Mexican and Mexican-American community. His work has been featured in ANMLY, and his short story "A Violent Noise" was nominated for the 2020 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. He is a 2021 Periplus Collective Fellow, a 2021 NYFA IAP Mentor, a 2023 Tin House Residency winner, and a Colorado Book Award finalist as editor of the anthology All The Lives We Ever Lived: Vol 2.

Manuel's film work, including writing and directing, has been showcased on MTV, Pitchfork, and Stereogum. He won the CineLatino Pitch Latino Award for Emerging Filmmakers with his web series Welcome to the Northside, a comedic take on gentrification and Latino displacement in North Denver. He lives in Denver with his wife, Sarah, and their four children.

Mary Grace Bernard (MG, she/her) is a transmedia and performance artist, educator, advocate, and crip witch. Her practice finds itself at the intersection of performance art, transmedia installation art, art scholarship, art writing, curation, and activism.

Brice Maiurro (he/him) is a poet and storyteller living in Denver, Colorado. He is the Poetry Editor for Suspect Press and the Editor-In-Chief of South Broadway Ghost Society. He is the author of two collections of poetry, Hero Victim Villain and Stupid Flowers. You can find him at www.maiurro.co.

Assetou Xango (they/them) is a poet and community activist born and raised in Colorado. They have been writing since they were in 8th grade. As a teenager, Xango was featured on HBO’s Brave New Voices 2010. They are a two-time TEDxMileHigh Speaker. Xango has represented Denver in spoken word poetry competitions across the nation and has been featured as one of Westword’s Top 100 Creatives. Their work has been published in Glyph, Santa Fe University of Art and Design’s literary journal.

Xango is currently the Poet Laureate of Aurora, Colorado (2017–2021). They run their own coaching business, helping Black Femmes heal their unworthy stories and live the lives they desire. In all of their work, Xango is dedicated to advancing the visibility and rights of womxn and gender non-conforming people of color and to promoting the use of storytelling to dismantle binaries and divisions.

Bobby LeFebre (he/him) is an award-winning writer, performer, and cultural worker from Denver, Colorado. He is a two-time Grand Slam Champion, a National Poetry Slam Finalist, an Individual World Poetry Slam Finalist, and a two-time TEDx speaker. His work has been showcased nationally and internationally on NPR, the Huffington Post, and The Guardian, and the LA Times. LeFebre has performed at hundreds of cultural events, social actions, detention centers, conferences, and colleges and universities across the United States and abroad. He is co-founder of Café Cultura, a non-profit organization that uses poetry as a tool for youth development and he is also founder of #WeAreNorthDenver, a grassroots and digital campaign dedicated to using art as an entry point for discussing gentrification in Denver. LeFebre has been named a 100 Colorado creative by Westword Magazine, is a National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures fellow, and has recently been appointed by the Mayor of Denver to serve as the Co-Chair of the Denver Commission on Cultural Affairs. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Metro State University and a master’s degree in Art, Literature, and Culture from the University of Denver.

Suzi Q. Smith (she/her) is an artist, activist, and educator who lives with her brilliant daughter in Denver, Colorado. She has shared her poetry on stages throughout the U.S., sharing stages with Nikki Giovanni, Talib Kweli, the late Gil Scott Heron, and many more over the years. Her work has appeared in Union Station Magazine, Suspect Press, Muzzle Magazine, Malpais Review, Peralta Press, and more, and her collection of poems, Thirteen Descansos, is available from Penmanship Books. She currently serves as the Executive Director of Poetry Slam, Inc.