Mary Seymour is a creative arts activist who believes in the power of our individual narratives. She is a theatre artist, historian, and an alumna of Stony Brook University and Suffolk County Community College. Seymour's acting and directing credits include Broadway Production of the musical "HAiR, The Musical," a co-starring role in "Raisin the Musical. In 2025, as an adjunct theatre arts professor at Suffolk County Community College, she directed "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert."
Lora René Tucker, Brooklyn born and educated, is a poet, social justice activist, and essayist. Her “nine to fives” were a corporate interior designer, and licensed social worker and psychotherapist. With over 40 years advocating for racial and social justice; she has taught master’s level classes in diversity, racism, oppression. and privilege.
Known as the “Therapeutic Poet,” Lora has been featured in NYC since 1992. She conducts workshops in poetry therapy, speaks and facilitates professional mental health seminars and racial justice workshops. She has been featured and published in venues such as: The Write America Podcast, The East Hampton Star, Canio’s Bookstore, “The Church” in Sag Harbor, the Knitting Factory, The Southampton Revue, and Brooklyn Poets. She has also blogged for POZ online magazine and Harlem World.
Since settling in Sag Harbor, Lora co-facilitated a wellness workshop for the Parrish Museum, was involved in racial justice seminars with Canio’s bookstore, and facilitated film discussions titled “Tough Talk” at the John Jermain Memorial Library. She is currently studying for her MFA in Creative Writing at Stony Brook University/ Southampton; her thesis is on her search for her father’s patriotic contributions as a Tuskegee Airman. She twice received the Sarah Martell Award for mature women returning to academia and was a research assistant for the Pulitzer-prize winner, Paul Harding. Currently she is the poetry editor for African Voices literary magazine and conducts therapeutic poetry/writing workshops for Stony Brook/Southampton Hospital’s Wellness Center. She will be reading at “The Church” in Sag Harbor, and is performing in “The Vagina Monologues” for an agency supporting survivors of domestic violence onthe East End of Long Island.
Chip Williford 2025-2027 Suffolk County Poet Laureate, Director and Co-host of Poetry Street,
Long Island Poetry & Literature Repository board member, also a member of Northport Arts
Coalition and a Northport Arts Poetry Path Exhibit Sponsor, Ambassador for the poetry division
of fuwimu.com (Fund With Music)
Chip is a prose, poetry, and short story writer. He is a passionate equal rights advocate,
filmmaker, documentarian, family historian, good listener, and relatable storyteller. ”His prose
and poetry has been published in numerous publications and anthologies.
“I write from my heart. I write about my childhood. I write about people I don’t even know. I
think poetry is a way to communicate when you can’t really say the words or tell the whole truth
of what is happening. When you can’t talk about abuse or can’t talk about mistreatment, poetry
helps to get those feelings out.
chipwilliford.com
Kris Janvier is an author and poet residing in Baldwin, NY. He was born in Brooklyn, NY and raised in Hempstead, NY. He graduated from Hempstead High School in 2013. He studied in SUNY Old Westbury majoring in Media and Communications and later changed to Visual Arts. He has performed in local open mics and festivals around Long Island and New York City since 2017. In 2025, he was featured in 4 festivals including the New York City Poetry Festival. His poems have been published in numerous anthologies (Maintenant 19, Benzo Logic, Nassau County Voices in Verse, etc.). He has self-published his own books titled "Drift" , "Drift 1.5" and "Drift 2" which are available now on Amazon. He is currently a promoter for The Scene Magazine.
George Wallace is writer in residence at the Walt Whitman Birthplace, author of 45 chapbooks of poetry, and winner of the 2025 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award. A New York City native, he travels internationally to share his work and in 2024 was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Royal Academy of Spain (CIESART).
Jen Senft holds an MFA in Writing from Southampton College and has been a writing instructor for over 15 years: she teaches English and Humanities at SUNY Suffolk, leads writing seminars and workshops, and works with individual clients as a writing coach. She also tutors high school and college students. Jen is an occasional understudy host of Poetry Street! She has been writing since age seven and views being an artist as both a gift and…its opposite. When not writing or working, Jen can be found meditating, birding, reading, drinking ginger tea, or nursing a migraine. She also holds a Master’s degree in Psychology and a Bachelor’s degree in Film, both from NYU. Her poetry, stories, and essays have been widely published.
Sarah Goodman is the Suffolk County Teen Poet Laureate from 2024-2026, Teen Ambassador for the Northport Arts Coalition, and a junior at Commack High School. Her mission is to introduce and encourage a love and respect for the literary arts in the Suffolk County youth. Since assuming the title, she has worked toward this by organizing and running programming for teens an children at various libraries across Suffolk County, speaking at Suffolk County schools, and hosting and featuring at various poetry open mics. Sarah has also organized and judged the first Suffolk Youth Poetry Competition. She has been published in various anthologies and magazines. She has also participated at local events and book fairs. Sarah has a long-standing passion for philanthropy, including clothing and book drives for at-risk youth, and is an active supporter for cancer foundations.
Blupoetres is a Brooklyn native with over two decades of experience as a New York City high school English teacher. After experiencing burnout in 2023, she transitioned from the classroom to a dean's role, seeking to make a broader impact on students. Her educational background includes an Associate in Arts, a Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education, a Master of Science in Education, and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing.
In 2008, she founded her own business, Blupoetres Creations. This is a passion-driven brand dedicated to celebrating the richness of the Black and Brown experience through custom, handmade t-shirts. Each piece is designed to empower, inspire, and connect, featuring Afrocentric themes and positive messages that resonate deeply with our community. Her brand, Blupoetres Creations, believes in the power of wearable art to tell stories and express identity. Blupoetres believes in celebrating culture, creativity, and individuality not just with her words but with her products.
Blupoetres’ passion lies in crafting poetry that highlights the experiences of marginalized communities and sparks meaningful dialogue. She recently published a heroic crown of sonnets, Call Her Woman and Bend the Knee, which was a three-year labor of love that reflects a piece of her soul on every page. Blupoetres has already self-published a journal and a poetry collection. Encouraging students to pursue their dreams has been a cornerstone of her career, and now, she’s excited to finally chase her own.
Robert Savino (born Jamaica, NY) is a native Long Island poet, Suffolk County Poet Laureate 2015-2017, Bards Laureate 2019-2021, Board Member at the Walt Whitman Birthplace and at the Long Island Poetry & Literature Repository Center. He is the winner of the 2008 Oberon Poetry Prize, Association of Italian American Educators - Cristoforo Colombo Award for Literary Leadership (2019), and Town of Islip Italian American Heritage Award for Visual & Performing Arts - in Literature (2019).
Robert is co-editor of two bilingual collections of Italian Americans Poets, No Distance Between Us. His books include fireballs of an illuminated scarecrow, Inside a Turtle Shell and I’m Not the Only One Here.
William Edward Graham III, also known as Will Succeed The Artist (The Will To Succeed of the Bronx NYC), is a talented poet and songwriter who is dedicated to uplifting and inspiring fellow artists. He draws inspiration from his peers in the underground scene and is passionate about creating a supportive community. Will discovered his own unique voice by humming tunes to accompany his writings, and he went on to excel in poetry slams, winning Top 5 every time as his life is a testament to the power of living poetry. Will has organized numerous open mic events throughout New York City, including the popular "Too Much and Extra" series, where he and his team, foster a spirit of appreciation and encouragement by giving roses to the audience to show their admiration for their favorite performers of the night.
In addition to hosting his own open mic events, Will actively participates in Squad 301 of "The Harlem Bomb Shelter", a cultural literary initiative that unites creatives. Unity is all that matters to Will
Author of the collection Tomorrow Smells Invisible (Words With Wings Press, 2020) and the soon to be released Don’t Take The Laughter (Words With Wings Press, 2025),
Brooklyn native Dd. Spungin taught special needs children in the New York City school system. Writing was her quiet place. Once retired, that quiet place expanded into the poetry world, especially on Long Island where she hosts poetry events for Performance Poets Association.
An award winning poet, her work has appeared in many anthologies, and in journals, both online and print.
Several of her poems have been set to music by NY composer, Julie Mandel.
Spungin lives on Long Island with her very supportive husband, Neil.
She lives for love, prays for peace and writes for her sanity.
Heru Smith’s journey with words began at the age of thirteen, when he first started expressing his unsettled feelings through writing. It was his eighth-grade poetry teacher, however, who encouraged him to channel those emotions into poetry, pushing him to explore the power of words. By the time he turned 25, Heru was grappling with the complexities of living with a disability and the emotional weight of feeling “different.” His writing became an essential outlet for navigating these challenges.
In 2021, he began performing his poetry, and in December 2023, he published his debut poetry collection, Thru Shai’s Eyes, available on Amazon. Heru has shared his work at numerous venues, including The Rose Garden, TroubleMAkers, Karma Comes Before, TriMic, House of Khaos, and One Love One Mic. Beyond performing, he serves as the Safe Space Manager at kcbthemagazine.com
Rosalind Benner is an artist who creates paintings, poetry, collage and stained
glass in her East Hampton studio. She shows prolifically and works on commissions as
well. Her glass is installed in synagogues, churches and homes and her paintings are
collected in many beautiful venues. She has a joint MFA in visual art and poetry and has
many publications in journals, as well as four poetry books published by small, respected
poetry presses.
Rosalind uses color passionately, calling on the viewer to travel her art, capturing
attention with a figure nearly obscured but present, a passage of landscape, and uplifting
movement, to beckon us further into the depth of the work.
Her abstractions reveal alphabets and recognizable objects. Her latest work is
figurative abstraction and expressionistic. She loves to paint female figures in joyful
dance. She uses color to further the illusion of entering a world that she sees and one
which she wishes her viewer to share.
Rosalind's work is a fusion of the traditional and the purely imaginative. She
paints her spirit, her vision of beauty. Her stained-glass background is evident in her use
of color, line and shape. Her works are in oil, acrylie, watercolor, monotype.
Hers is a subjective emotional expression of her thoughts, memories of place,
reaction to events, love of life, emerging on paper or canvas through the act of making
art.