Steven Frost (he/him) makes visible the hidden histories of materials through collaborations, objects, and performances. A fiber-based artist, he uses the history of textiles as a window into issues of community building, queer culture, and conservation. His work includes investigations into the secret life of Liberace, collaborations with civic organizations, marketing in the firearms industry, and projects exploring fiber and masculinity. Frost holds a BFA from Alfred University and an MFA in Fiber and Material Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Currently based in Boulder, Colorado, he has performed and exhibited his work across the country for nearly 20 years. He hosts monthly Sewing Rebellions at the Boulder Public Library. Frost recently presented his research on the history of the marketing and production of pink firearms at the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles. On March 30th, he will host an evening of performances and workshops at the Denver Art Museum. Frost is also an instructor of Media Studies and Performance Art at the University of Colorado Boulder in the College of Media Communication and Information.

Kealey Boyd (she/her) is an art historian, writer and museum educator. She is a regular contributor to Hyperallergic and has published art criticism with College Art Association (CAA Reviews), ArtBeat Magazine, and Artillery Magazine. She is also a lecturer in Art History at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Her research interests include methodologies for interpreting painting and other visual forms as an integral element of political and cultural discourses.

Noel Black (he/him) is poet, publisher, translator, and radio producer who was born in Tucson and grew up in Colorado Springs. He is the author of three full-length collections: Uselysses (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2012), La Goon (Furniture Press Books, 2014), and The Natural Football League (The New Heave-Ho, 2016). Black translated Puerto Rican poet Mara Pastor’s Llámame Láctea/Children of Another Hour (Argos Books, 2014). Pastor and Guillermo Rebollo-Gil translated Black’s long poem Prophecies for the Past/Profécias Para El Pasado (2.0.1.3. Editorial, 2015). With Julien Poirier, he is coeditor of Kevin Opstedal’s Pacific Standard Time (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2016). His other chapbooks include: Lunch Poem, This is the Strange Part, Night Falls/Under Days, November to June, Vacancy, Shoplifter’s Honor, InnerVisions, and In The City of Word People. His most recent chapbook is High Noon (Blue Press Books, 2018).

Black was the coeditor of Log Magazine with Ed Berrigan in the late 1990s, and from 1998 to 2004 he ran Angry Dog Press and published the Angry Dog Midget Editions. From 2004–2006, he published and edited The Toilet Paper, a satirical monthly newspaper in Colorado Springs. After dropping out of the MA in Poetics program at the now-defunct New College of California in 1998, he will earn an MFA in poetics and creative non-fiction from the Mile-High MFA Program at Regis University in summer 2018. He lives in Manitou Springs, Colorado with his family.

Rick Griffith (he/him) is a British-born graphic designer of West-Indian origin, and the Design Director of the communication design studio MATTER in Denver, Colorado. His free graphic works are often nested in a writing practice and often produced on 19th and early 20th-century printing presses with a combination of traditional and avant-garde techniques. He is a scholar of typographic history and frequently lectures throughout North America and internationally on design history, typography, and his unique model of professional practice. He is a DJ and has been collecting (and playing) music for over 30 years.

Katherine Guinness (she/her) is a theorist and historian of contemporary art. She is Assistant Professor and Director of Art History in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. Her first book, Rosemarie Trockel: Schizogenesis, is forthcoming in Fall 2019 from the University of Minnesota Press.

Molina Speaks (he/him) is an artist, musician, writer, poet, and filmmaker, a cultural futurist, living word architect, and human bridge.  His first film, ROOT, is an independent venture that premiered in his home city of Denver, Colorado on March 31st, 2018.  ROOT then captured the Premio Ometeotl Award for New Media at its film festival debut at Su Teatro Cultural and Performing Arts Center XicanIndie Film Fest. In addition to his own music, poetry and film work, Molina performs regularly with Chicano Afrobeat orchestra Pink Hawks and punk/hip-hop act Roots Rice and Beans (Best of Denver 2018 Best New Band). Molina was named 2017 Mastermind by Westword Magazine, and was voted top Solo Rap Artist in Westword’s 2018 Music Awards.

Offstage, Molina is a community-focused educator. He teaches cultural and media studies courses at the university level and works with young people at all age levels to develop their imaginations, creativity, and sense of wonder about their existence. Most notably, Molina coordinates Youth On Record’s Fellowship program for 18-23 year-old emerging artists. The Fellowship program was recently recognized with a Westword Best of Denver 2018 award for Best Place to Find the Future of the Music Business. This program is also the recipient of a 2018-19 Arts in Society Award, for its role in addressing race and class inequities in the creative industries.

Sheree “lovemestiza” Brown (she/her) is a writer, poet, AfroMestizaFuturist, deep creative, educator, and mother. She dances with the cosmos and writes the futures of her people in her spare time. A great deal of her writing is a blend between poetry and prose, and an amalgamation of experience and dreams. Sheree is a writing instructor with Lighthouse Writers, and she is the founder of Ancestral Herbalism—a community collective of dozens of kitchen herbalists, holistic health practitioners and healers of many traditions. Sheree has featured at Lighthouse Writer’s Annual Literary Festival, Cafe Cultura, Queenz of Hip-Hop, The Renaissance Poetry Night at the Kasbah, and has taught and led workshops at dozens of school and community events through Lighthouse Writers and other arts and literary organizations.

Sheree’s first book is titled lovemestiza, and is an ode to her mixed ancestry. A self-described “Woman of many colors,” she reflects on her journey as a Black woman and Chicana with mixed “Mestiza” and Indigenous roots. Her four-part book also traces her experiences becoming a mother, and healing from intergenerational, personal, and social traumas. In addition to poetry and prose, lovemestiza contains polaroids, quotes, and original plant-based medicinal recipes crafted by la “lovemestiza” herself. LoveMestiza is love work. What does your love work look like?

Meagan Estep (she/her) is a museum educator who believes deeply in the power of online tools to create conversation. Meagan leads social media initiatives at the National Gallery of Art, where she creates participatory experiences using a variety of platforms. Previously, Meagan managed K-12 digital and educator initiatives at The Phillips Collection, designed interdisciplinary teacher resources at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and coordinated youth & family programs at both the Corcoran and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. She received her MAT in art education from the Corcoran College of Art + Design, Washington, DC, and a BA in art history from the University of Richmond, Richmond, VA.

Sarah Wambold (she/her) is the executive producer and content strategist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where she leads a team of editors and producers who create interpretive media, including videos, articles, essays, and podcasts. With more than 18 years in the arts and culture sector, she has also worked for the Clyfford Still Museum and the MCA Chicago, and is the co-founder of Denver-based non-profit Tilt West, an organization whose mission is to promote critical discourse on arts and culture in Denver.