About

18 | Guayas, Ecuador

Rafael Bonilla Abad is a newfound adult with a passion for the environment and sustainable technology. He is a senior at Colegio Alemán Humboldt de Guayaquil, in Ecuador and aspires to pursue a STEM degree in college. He has been involved in environmental conservation efforts since 2018, including trips to the Galápagos Islands and the Ecuadorian Amazon, having removed ~2 tons of waste and invasive species. Besides interests in STEM, he has multiple creative hobbies including photography and creative writing. He also participates in MUNs and successfully organized the first one at his school, serving as Deputy Secretary General (second in command). As a kid he lived four years in Illinois; he speaks English, Spanish, and German.

20 | Kakamega, Kenya

Purity is a passionate environmental advocate leading the Mazingira School Drive Project in Ikolomani, Kenya. Focused on restoring land and water degraded by gold mining, they work with the local community to rehabilitate abandoned mines, plant native trees, and revitalize River Isiukhu. By empowering women through sustainable land management and educational workshops, Purity helps them reclaim traditional stewardship roles. Using creative arts and cultural performances, they raise awareness about environmental health and sustainability. Their work reflects a commitment to fostering a resilient, empowered, and environmentally conscious community.

16 | Delhi, India

Interestingly, the term ‘citizen’ in ancient Greece wasn’t a title presented to everyone who was simply ‘born’ there, like it is done today! It was a title that had to be earned by embracing responsibility, in one’s community and for one’s environment. Thus, to volunteer is to be a citizen. Suhani takes initiative as a responsible citizen by writing letters to the editor, addressing her city’s loss of green spaces and advocating for stricter regulations on firecrackers to reduce pollution. She empowers the disaster-affected groups in Delhi by penning their experiences and organizing educational and medical drives. As the co-founder of Global Inkwell, she leads writing workshops for young writers worldwide on global issues like the environment. With the Future Blue Youth Council, Suhani is eager to embark on a year of impactful service and collective growth, embodying true global citizenship.

18 | Dhaka Division, Bangladesh

Omor Faruque is a passionate youth advocate for human rights, environmental sustainability, health equity, and harnessing technology for social good. As the youngest penholder for the UN Policy Network on Meaningful Access (PNMA) and Policy Network on Artificial Intelligence (PNAI), he champions youth voices in global policy discussions. He has actively contributed to key UN initiatives, including the Global Digital Compact and the Pact for the Future, adopted by 193 nations, even being featured by the Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology. As Co-Chair of the UN Dynamic Teen Coalition (DTC) by UN IGF, he empowers young people to engage in internet governance. Having participated in over 100 international events, Omor envisions leveraging technology and AI for positive social impact. He is also the founder of Project OMNA, a mobile app dedicated to children’s mental health and rights.

16 | Michigan, USA

Nethanya is a Sri Lankan-American environmentalist who founded Plant it Forward, an organization dedicated to environmental remediation, conservation, and justice. She harnesses the power of words to advocate for creatures and communities through her award-winning poetry. Nethanya is the recipient of the Craig Tufts Naturalist Scholarship and the Best Conservation Impact Award from the Detroit Zoo Teen Conservation Summit. She serves on the Sterling Heights Sustainability Commission and the Youth Advisory Board for the Michigan Department of EGLE. She leads her school’s ASL Club and Ecology Club, and has organized many projects, including securing a grant for the microforest she is planting in the City of Warren, helping to raise funds for The Thirst Project, and planting over 350 trees and monitoring their growth as a Citizen Scientist for Living Carbon. She hopes to do conservation work in Sri Lanka, specifically with mangroves. Somewhere in the deep sea, there is a blue whale that she and her ecology club adopted through the WWF.

16 | Virginia, USA

Stella is an avid gardener and plant enthusiast who became empowered to advocate for environmental sustainability after witnessing the alarming effects of climate change on her garden. As the publicist for her school’s environmental club, Stella frequently engages students in composting initiatives, stream cleanups, and native plant projects to promote sustainability within her school community. She also founded the Vienna Vegetable Exchange, a co-op that exchanges surplus vegetables from gardens in Vienna to avoid food waste. In her free time, she loves to run track and cross-country, garden, and read. Stella is excited to help contribute to Bow Seat’s mission of environmental advocacy and work with passionate environmentalists from around the world!

17 | Singapore

Gerselle is a 17-year-old environmental advocate and vegetarian dedicated to climate action. As a Newsletter Coordinator and Grants Coordinator for Re-Earth Initiative, she has helped amplify youth and frontline voices globally while leading efforts to distribute $250,000 to climate organisations. Gerselle is also a Project Manager for Fashion Parade, promoting sustainable fashion through education and events. Her passion for storytelling earned her 1st place in WWF Singapore’s Young Reporters for the Environment competition. Outside her advocacy work, Gerselle enjoys exploring sustainable practices and inspiring others to take action for a greener future.

16 | Berlin, Germany

Ziqing is an eager environmental advocate dedicated to addressing climate issues through art, leadership, and writing. As the founder of the Art & Climate Club, she has led impactful workshops and exhibitions that use visual art to highlight the effects of pollution. As a Youth Ambassador for Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Germany, Ziqing has represented youth voices and championed climate action by speaking at international forums like LCOY and YouthCON Berlin. Her leadership as a key Student Council representative helped raise $1000+ for environmental and humanitarian causes through various initiatives. As a self-published author of two books and founder of the blog, ArchInspires, where she wrote 30+ articles, Ziqing aims to support Bow Seat through her creative writing. Beyond climate action, she is a long-distance runner, reader and accomplished STEM student, recognised by the Berlin Senate for her achievements in physics and excelling in national tournaments.

17 | Amman, Jordan

Nafisa is a high school junior who uses the arts to increase environmental awareness in and for climate-vulnerable communities. Her fascination with the natural world started when she saw someone growing mushrooms from a box of mycelium at a farmers’ market in Boston. She was instantly hooked and soon became the youngest member of the Mycological Society of San Francisco.

Nafisa believes that the most effective solutions to our world’s ecological challenges lie at the intersection of nature and innovation. She has immersed herself in aquaponics and permaculture and is always looking to learn more about biomimetic alternatives to modern technologies.

Outside of environmental pursuits, she can be found sparring in her Brazilian jiu-jitsu dojo, bottle-feeding abandoned kittens, and baking with the help of her “pet” sourdough starter that she refuses to name.

21 | Afghanistan

Mariam Paktiawal, from Afghanistan, is an aspiring software engineer and advocate for women in STEM. Despite the Taliban’s restrictions on education and work, Mariam founded her high school’s first robotics team, inspiring girls to pursue STEM. She has volunteered with Earth Safety Valve on climate research and aims to develop software that empowers women in tech. Currently studying computer science online, Mariam aspires to attend an Ivy League university and create an online university for women. She seeks to expand her leadership through the Future Blue Youth Council Fellowship.

16 | Utah, USA

Narayani is a junior in high school, who is very excited to start her journey with the FBYC! She loves combining her interests in STEM with the humanities and writing. Currently, she organized an initiative called “EcoMind” that received the Hershey Heartwarming Young Hero award and support from NOAA as one of their Youth Ambassadors. She helped organize the first Youth Climate Summit at the state museum, wrote an educational textbook on the oceans viewed by more than 1000 students, and worked with the city mayor to pass legislation on increasing citywide recycling access. She has even presented her environmental work at the United Nations.

16 | Seoul, Republic of Korea

Jina loves harnessing journalism and public speaking to spotlight environmental issues worldwide. Her passion for storytelling has driven her to become a writer for her school newspaper, The Korea Herald, Greener is Cleaner, and the MUNITY Press. Jina also led sustainability agendas throughout chairing numerous international Model United Nations conferences. When behind the camera, she directs journalistic documentaries focused on climate justice, with her latest featured at the ConnectHer Film Festival.

In her neighborhood, Sangam-dong, Jina works as an activist against a second trash incinerator, organizing international forums and monitoring nano pollution. Her open letter on the issue earned recognition from the New York Times. Additionally, Jina is an executive of her school’s WWF Club, where the team leads community sustainability and collaborates with South Korea’s official WWF. As a co-founder of EnvoNomics, she seeks to tangibly empower climate action by applying economics. Ultimately, Jina is thrilled to continue cultivating a community for sustainability action as a Future Blue Council Member!

16 | California, USA

Witnessing firsthand the devastating effects of environmental degradation, Gavin wants to be part of the solution. Therefore, he is going to dedicate his life to environmental reform, with a focus on environmental policymaking. His journey towards this goal is already well underway—founding Pencil 2 Planet, collaborating directly with the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) to increase youth engagement, serving as a student member on the Calabasas Environmental Commission, and more. In addition, he uses environmental artwork as a way of expressing his thoughts on environmental damage. Gavin is excited to continue this journey as a member of the Future Blue Youth Council!

16 | New York, USA

Cynthia is an environmental activist, researcher, and artist driven by the wonders of the natural world. She founded Monarchs Matter, a 2024 True Blue Fellowship nonprofit dedicated to combating biodiversity loss by sharing the captivating story and metamorphosis of the monarch butterfly. She enjoys raising awareness of environmental issues through the creative arts, including her Ocean Awareness Contest Gold Award-winning short film “ReWild Your Yard, Revive Our World” and World of 8 Billion Climate Change contest winning video “One Degree and the Loss of Biodiversity.” She is also the Social Media & Web Committee Chair of ReWild Long Island, a grassroots nonprofit aiming to promote sustainable landscaping and native plantings for biodiversity and climate resilience. As a junior in high school, she is committed to engaging youth in environmental stewardship as the President of AREA-C (Animals Rescue & Environmental Awareness Club) and advancing biodiversity and species conservation through her school’s research program. She deeply resonates with Bow Seat’s mission of empowering youth through environmental artivism and is excited to further this cause as a member of the Future Blue Youth Council!

Carolina is an Assistant Professor in the Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. As a public artist, Carolina engages in transdisciplinary collaborations—where art, science, technology, and community, coalesce—to create innovative art installations designed to increase public engagement with local issues of climate change. Carolina recently has been named as one of 2020 Codaworx Creative Revolutionaries; her artwork has been displayed at the World Bank’s Art of Resilience exhibit, as well as showcased in multiple venues, including the National Park Service’s “100 Years of Arts in the Parks.”

Based in Boston, MA, Erin has a strong background in Marine Science and Data Analytics. She holds a B.A. in Marine Science from Boston University and currently works as a Data Analyst at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Previously serving as a Policy & Advocacy Intern at Women Working for Oceans, Erin played an integral role in growing the organization’s social media presence. She curated impactful call-to-action social media posts, drawing from her thorough research of marine science literature. Erin’s dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion was evident as she led initiatives aimed at fostering an inclusive environment.

Ely is an Art Director at Havas Chicago. In 2018, she was honored with a gold award from Bow Seat and has been lucky to be an alumni judge ever since. Throughout the years, she has collaborated with the awesome Bow Seat team to create content that makes waves.

If you are a student working on your entry, remember to trust the power of your unique voice!

Amy is an environmental artist, writer, and researcher from Providence, Rhode Island. Her 2023 Thomas J. Watson Fellowship explored the intersection of art and the environment around the world. During that time, she met with over 240 scientists, artists, community leaders, activists, and academics to understand how art can be a tool for change.

When she is not speaking with artists, she is making art. Some recent projects include: facilitating community murals, creating a commissioned tapestry for COP 28’s Hope House in Dubai, making costumes from trash, and drawing large illustrations about projected climate impacts in her community. She is also creating an illustrated book featuring 25 female-identifying SDG changemakers, including Christiana Figueres, Dr. Kim Cobb, Xiye Bastida, and Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner, to name a few.

@amyspencerart
www.amyspencerharff.com

Ari is a contemporary artist based in Boston’s Fort Point neighborhood. His work consists of multimedia works, which cover a broad spectrum of topics, styles, and materials. His art resides in collections spanning the globe and has been shown throughout Boston and beyond, including being featured at the Museum of Fine Arts.

In addition to creating compelling art, Ari also operates under the alias Mr. Hauben, or Mr. H to his students. Ari has taught for over a decade in a 100% special education Boston Public High School, designed for students who struggle with emotional and behavioral challenges. Ari was named 2018 Boston Public School Educator of the Year.

@arihaubenart
www.arihauben.com

Dara is a political illustrator, art educator, and art activist who continuously uses her artwork to advocate awareness in the world.

Following a career as a biologist—first as an academic and then an administrator—Nigella has combined her passion for the environment and science with photography. She is particularly interested in expressing the environmental issues that face us today through images that capture the beauty of our planet but remind us of the problems we face, especially climate change and the ocean. Nigella is presently a visiting scientist at the Center for Ecosystem Sentinels at the University of Washington, and a founding member of the consulting group Ocean Collectiv.

Monica Jahan Bose is a Bangladeshi-American artist and climate activist whose work spans painting, printmaking, film, performance, and installation. Her socially engaged work highlights the intersection of climate, racial, gender, and economic injustice through co-created workshops, art actions, and temporary installations and performances. She has exhibited her work extensively in the US and internationally (23 solo shows, five large-scale public art projects, and more than 25 performances) including solo exhibitions at the Bangladesh National Museum and MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art Rome.

Sofia sits among many worlds: art, science, writing, conservation, nature education. She has a BSc in Environmental Science (Carleton University) and MSc in Marine Biology (James Cook University) and has spent 5 years conducting marine and aquatic research. She is also a self-taught artist who works and brings conservation science to life through infographics (wiseart.net). Recently she moved to a small island off the west coast of Canada to reconnect with her original inspiration for it all: nature. Here she has been learning about nature connection practices as taught by the 8 Shields Institute. She assists in running programs that connect people to nature through animal tracking, bird language, ancestral skills, ethnobotany, etc. She hopes to bring awareness and connection to nature through her current paintings and writing.

Nadine is a mixed-media artist and Art Teacher in Maui, Hawaii. Previously, she taught Environmental Art at The Island School and intermittently lived aboard a sailboat in The Bahamas. This experience heightened her passion for ocean conservation and art advocacy. She holds a BFA in Fine Arts and a MA in Art Integration.

A Dominican-American visual whose community-centered murals form connections across disciplines and cultural boundaries. Silvia uses joy as an act of resistance and celebration through her vibrant murals world-wide. She is proud recipient of several recognitions for her work including a Common Good Award from MassArt, a Leadership in Public Art Award by New England Foundation for the Arts and The Boston Foundation’s Brother Thomas Fellowship Award.

Free’s current work pulls inspiration from his childhood experience of moving to America as a refugee and experiencing this country as an outsider. He loves that he belongs to multiple cultures because it helps him weave together distant narratives and create a final product that feels both foreign and familiar. His goal is for people to experience his work as dissonant dreamscapes that connect subconscious and conscious realities.

I’m a recent graduate of College of the Atlantic, where I focused on pottery and marine sciences. I find power of voice through my art practice, drawing inspiration from the ocean and its myriad of creatures. Currently, I sell my own work and teach children and adults pottery at Gorham Arts Alliance. GAA is an art organization whose mission is to inspire, enrich, and strengthen our community by offering cultural and educational experiences through the Arts.

Stephen Mishol is an Associate Professor in the Department of Art and Design at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting from the Massachusetts College of Art. As an undergraduate, he was also a recipient of a Yale-Norfolk Fellowship. In 1986 he was awarded a Fulbright Research Grant and lived and worked in Warsaw, Poland. In 2006, Mishol received an Artist Resource Trust Grant.

Holly is a Marine Research Associate IV at the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography (URI-GSO). Her work involves the development, coordination, and promotion of interactive ocean science websites, public outreach and science communication programs, and ocean science community events and workshops. She works on projects and with partners in ocean observing, ocean exploration, underwater acoustics, and more. In 2019 she even got the chance to host ship-based, live interactions from the Arctic AND the Antarctic!

Lisa is an architect, artist, and environmental activist. She grew up in Mexico among a community of socially and politically active artists. A graduate of Columbia University and University of Pennsylvania, she has practiced as an architect and taught at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).

In her career as an artist, Lisa focuses on climate change. Much of her art addresses the conflict of the natural world with constructed systems, and on sea rise due to global warming. Colorful paintings of coastal ecosystems depict sinking cities and rising seas. Lisa has authored many articles on art and the environment. She frequently lectures at universities and environmental conferences on how artists interpret climate change. Recently she was invited by the Courtauld Institute of Art in London to speak at their conference on Art and Climate Change.

Griffin is a digital artist and AI researcher at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). His work explores how technology is changing artmaking, as well as what separates humans, animals, and machines. His classes at RISD include Machine Learning, Digital Culture, and Text Transformed: Writing with AI. He earned an MFA in Digital Art and a Bachelor’s in Creative Writing from Brown University.

A painter, muralist, sculptor, and graphic designer, Jason “SWAT” Talbot creates artwork to explore and observe the world around him. He attended the Art Institute of Boston and has a career spanning decades in the art world. In his personal practice, he has produced dozens of murals for businesses in Boston and beyond, working with multiple collaborators to deepen the world view of their communities.

As AFH’s Co-Founder and Managing Director of Program, Jason creates opportunities to engage and mentor teen artists and their artistic mentors advancing AFH’s programmatic goals while building long-term creative connections. Jason champions AFH’s Youth Arts Enterprise model, serving as a thought leader and spokesperson to expand AFH’s reach. He participated in the 2009 Cohort of the Emerging Leaders Program, University of Massachusetts Boston; received the 2013 Mentor of the Year Award from Youth Design; was named a member of 2014’s Top 40 Under 40 by the Boston Business Journal; and attended the Arts & Cultural Organization Management Program, at Harvard Business School in 2021. Jason is an active member of WGBH’s Community Advisory Board.

Through his artistic practice and leadership at AFH , Jason “SWAT” Talbot works to help others observe the world in a deeper way.

Sophy Tuttle is an English-born American muralist, and installation artist. Her work celebrates nature and creates new narratives that explore regenerative culture-building among humans and all other forms of life.

Sophy received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration from Rhode Island School of Design in 2008. She also holds a certificate in Graphic Design from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (2015) and a Master’s in Interdisciplinary Art from the University of Hartford Art School (2019).

Gwenan is a rising junior at USC double majoring in animation and human biology with a minor in marine science. She was the recipient of the Gold Award in the Senior division of the 2019 Ocean Awareness Contest, and is so excited to be coming back as a judge!

An award-winning reporter and documentary filmmaker, David has covered war in the Balkans, unrest in Latin America, national security issues in Washington D.C., terrorism in New York and Boston, and climate change and poverty throughout New England. David and his colleagues at the The Boston Globe won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News for their coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings. David now covers environmental issues at the Globe, focusing mainly on climate change.

David has directed many award-winning films, including: “Sacred Cod,” about the historic collapse of the iconic cod fishery in New England; “Gladesmen: The Last of the Sawgrass Cowboys,” about the government’s $16 billion effort to restore the Everglades, one of the planet’s most damaged ecosystems;  “Lobster War: The Fight Over the World’s Richest Fishing Grounds,”about a climate-fueled conflict between the U.S. and Canada over waters that both countries have claimed since the end of the Revolutionary War; and “Entangled,” about how climate change has accelerated a collision between one of the world’s most endangered species, North America’s most valuable fishery, and a federal agency mandated to protect both.

Eric has seen firsthand how early engagement with the ocean can lead to a lifelong commitment to protecting it. As a toddler, he became enamored with a jellyfish washed up on the beach. Later trips to the National Aquarium and National Museum of Natural History only cemented his love of the natural world. Drawing from his love of museums, he looks for ways to engage with the environment outside of a traditional classroom. Eric served as Bow Seat’s Contest Program Director from 2021-2023 and now brings public programs to the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture in Cambridge, MA.

Sydney is a Computer Science and Film, Television, and Media major in her senior year at the University of Michigan. She first learned about Bow Seat when entering the Ocean Awareness Contest years ago. Since then, she has only grown more interested in learning about and educating others on climate change and other pressing issues threatening the environment.
While she unfortunately doesn’t get to see much of the ocean living in Michigan, being surrounded by the Great Lakes has let her see firsthand the beauty and importance of water. She enjoys creating and editing videos and is looking forward to being inspired by all of this year’s incredible entries.

Nicolle is Group Account Director at GYK Antler, a full-service, creative ad agency with offices in Boston and Manchester, New Hampshire. She brings over 10 years of experience in global marketing, with a particular emphasis on effectively using storytelling to drive action. As former Marketing Director for the New England Aquarium, Nicolle focused on repositioning the Aquarium as a conservation organization, while also driving ticket sales. She also led the organization’s communication strategy through the Aquarium’s reopening process during COVID-19.

Nicolle is also the co-founder of the Palau Pledge, a groundbreaking environmental initiative that won the inaugural Cannes Lion dedicated to the Sustainable Development Goals, along with a D&AD black pencil, multiple Clio, and other leading advertising industry awards. The initiative has since been adopted by a number of destinations across the globe, including New Zealand.

Malika is an incoming university student majoring in Business, Informatics, and Marketing. She is a professional video editor for various international companies and also enjoys making videos for fun. She’s currently working as a content creator for a global educational company impacting 6000+ on TikTok. Malika believes that films and videos are the most effective activism tools and feels honored to be judging students’ works for the Ocean Awareness Contest.

Megan is a writer and educator currently living in Missoula, Montana, where she is pursuing an M.S. in Environmental Writing & Education. She holds an M.A. from the Bread Loaf School of English. She has five years of experience teaching at the high school level, including two years at The Island School in the Bahamas where she taught “Literature of the Sea” and worked with student groups to survey beach plastic and raise awareness of plastic pollution. Her work has appeared in Camas: The Nature of the West, Flyway Journal of Writing & Environment, and Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies.

Hanji Chang is a Taiwanese-Korean painter, illustrator, graphic designer, and animator. She also teaches animation at Maine College of Art. Andy O’Brien is a Rockland, Maine-based writer, voice actor, and co-founder of O’Chang Comics and Puckerbrush animation. He is also the communications director for the Maine AFL-CIO. Hanji and Andy co-founded Puckerbrush Animation, which produces the popular “Temp Tales” cartoon series as well as educational and commercial animations.

Georgia Stockwell is a film director, visual anthropologist and marine conservation communicator exploring relationships between marine ecosystems and coastal cultures. In addition to filmmaking, Georgia works with NOAA Fisheries SERO on community engagement strategy for the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale.

Sam lives in Chilmark, MA, on Martha’s Vineyard and in Cambridge, MA. He worked for more than three decades in public radio at WBUR in Boston overseeing the news and content. He’s married to Emily Bramhall, who lives on the Vineyard full-time. He has a 33-year-old son, Wilder, who is also a journalist. Sam grew up in central Pennsylvania outside of Harrisburg.

Aileen is a junior at MIT who is majoring in computer science. She started programming in fifth grade, where she was immediately drawn to the endless possibilities of using coding to help people. In her freshman year, she took a web development course where in a team of three, she built a website to take people on virtual vacations during the COVID era.

Designing and programming are some of her main passions, and she is eager to share her knowledge while also helping the environment. Aileen served as Bow Seat’s Digital Design and Web Development Intern in 2022.

Yuzuna is a student pursuing a B.S. in Environmental Science with an emphasis in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, alongside a minor in Geospatial Information Systems & Technology.

With her background in GIS research and passion for storytelling, she aims to produce creative data visualizations that tell compelling stories about our most vulnerable ecosystems and communities, sparking important conversations.

Yuzuna has been a past award winner in Bow Seat’s Ocean Awareness Contest in the Interactive & Multimedia
category where she submitted her ArcGIS StoryMaps, as well as a former member of the Future Blue Youth Council where she mentored awardees of the Fellowship Grant Program from all over the world. With this opportunity, Yuzuna looks forward to giving back to the Bow Seat community and engaging with the incredible stories of student environmentalists from all walks of life.

In her free time, you can find her enjoying the company of her three cats, scuba diving, or birding!

Alvin is an undergraduate at Yale University, interested in studying applications of computer science from his bioinformatics research to develop games that raise awareness of climate change. In his free time, he enjoys going on runs on local nature trails.

Trevor lives and works in Central Pennsylvania, where he is an avid advocate for the outdoors, a favorite destination for his wife, Jeanette, and three kids. Favorite activities include hiking, kayaking, and camping. His passion for the outdoors started in his youth when he got his Scuba Diving certification, which was a catalyst to explore. Trevor is the co-founder and managing partner of Cross & Crown, a digital agency committed to helping their clients educate, advocate, and thrive in a digital world.

Kai Kubota-Enright is a composer/performer based in Los Angeles.

Their musical output encompasses a variety of works for both concert and film, as well as contributions to various interdisciplinary projects. Their music often incorporates improvisational, electronic, and site-specific elements, and may be found as part of larger multimedia collaborations involving dance, installation art, and projection art. Their concert music primarily focuses on the relationship between sound and spatial environments, both natural and human-made, as well as how these various elements interact with personal memories and subjectivities; drawing from a variety of western and Japanese influences.

Originally from Vancouver, British Columbia, they graduated with a bachelors in composition from the Schulich School of Music at McGill University, studying composition with Melissa Hui and piano with Sara Laimon. Currently they are pursuing a masters in composition at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, studying with Camae Ayewa. They recently completed a commission for the London Sinfonietta exploring experiments techniques inspired by the work of Pauline Oliveros—asking performers to audiate pitches from ambient noise, as well as attempt to communicate these pitches to each other through telepathy.

In 2018 they received an award from Bow Seat for their piece “Aquas,” which utilizes a motif derived from climate data of the seas and terrain, and have also returned annually as a judge for musical works which respond to the climate crisis. As well, in 2019 they received a SOCAN Foundation Young Composer Award for Isaac, an electroacoustic piece which explored the fragmentation of memory and psyche. From 2021-2022 at McGill University they completed a brass quintet “Dream Transmission of Phoenix” as the Composer-in-Residence, and also received a commission and premiere by the London Sinfonietta as part of the 2022 ROSL Composition Award.

Saoirse is a singer-songwriter from San Francisco. After graduating from Wesleyan University with a degree in Anthropology and Writing, she moved to Ireland for six months working as a server and a travel specialist, and spending time with extended family. She is now based in San Francisco and works as a studio manager at Whipsaw, a highly acclaimed industrial and digital design firm.

In 2019, she received the Gold Award for her original song “Our Changing World.” This is her 5th year serving as a guest judge, where she is consistently inspired by the creative artists and activists advocating for the planet and ocean. She continues to write music, and you can follow more of her work @saoirse.1.1 on instagram.

Brooklyn born and raised, Ademola is a singer, poet, writer, educator, and activist. He has been singing and performing his written work since he was 8 years old. His love for music and creativity has taken him coast to coast, performing in Southern California and New York, and working on a second album with his father, Abiodun Oyewole of The Last Poets, as well as his debut album, Lib(er)ation. Having taught for over 7 years with organizations like Urban Word NYC and various independent/charter schools, Ademola utilizes his skills to create a conscious, critical, and creative experience for students, keeping in mind his mission to give voice to truth and power to justice. Currently, Ademola is working on his debut album while being a DEI and education consultant.

Warrior and healer. Tender and unbreakable. Destiny “Divine” Polk, whose name means “That which has been firmly established, God has answered, Dance,” is an Afro-Indigenous choreographer and producer, multi-disciplinary artist, community organizer/space holder, art educator and founder of art-activist platform Radical Black Girl. Known for doing interactive art shows likes RESISTDANCE and Black Woman is God, Destiny’s work is concerned with speaking truth to a country that attempts to rewrite its own history while having actively tried to suppress African and Native American history and culture. Destiny took her Being the Change workshop to SXSW 2019 and premiered her short film “When the Sea Rises” at the ILLUMINUS Festival 2019. She was the keynote speaker for the Youth Arts for Social Change Summit in 2020 and the recipient of the National Center of Afro-American Artist’s Ralph F. Browne, Jr. Award for Civic Engagement.

Caitlin Roberts is a performer, dancer, and choreographer originally from Anchorage, Alaska! She recently graduated with a BA in dance from Loyola Marymount University. She kicked off her professional dance career by performing in the Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show and dancing in parades with Disneyland Entertainment! Growing up so near to the ocean gave her a great appreciation for the sea and the importance of protecting it. This led her to participate in the Ocean Awareness Contest during her high school years, and then later become a judge!

Kellen is an artist and musician from Phoenix, Arizona. He graduated in 2023 from Stanford University with a B.S. in Human Biology and a Minor in Computer Science. After graduating, he spent a year working at a health tech startup in Palo Alto as a software engineer. He is now a medical student at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City, where he hopes to integrate art, medicine, and technology to design innovative solutions for human health.

In 2018, he received a Silver Award from Bow Seat for his original song “Shore to Shore,” which tackled the effects of climate change on the oceans. This is Kellen’s fourth year serving as an alumni judge—he is looking forward to seeing the inspiring work generated by students across the globe!

Dzidzor (pronounced Jee-Joh) is a Ga-Ewe folklore, performing artist, writer, and curator. Dzidzor’s style of call and response, sound collage combines poetry, storytelling and sound as a way to usher the audience in an experience of being present in their bodies. Her performance art demystifies the role of an artist being watched and invites the audience to “perform” and be a part of the performance. Dzidzor’s work is full of curiosity and questions surrounding the ideas of God, community and church, home, blackness, and identity. While acknowledging those ignorantly consumed by the impact of a system that hasn’t benefited black and brown folx. She is often exploring how oppressed bodies can release internalized oppression in the mind and body through rest, an active practice of stillness and lifelong journey to living. Dzidzor is currently working on a project called, “Wilderness,” a performance piece that is exploring what it means be black, living and woman.

Akhila is an octopus lover, poet, and friend from Phoenix, Arizona. The recipient of Bow Seat’s Gold Award for Poetry, her poetry has been featured by Greenpeace USA, The Ocean Project, Joppa Flats Education Center, among others. She is studying psychology, anthropology, neuroscience, and ecology at Princeton. Akhila feels most at peace around big bodies of water, reading, or laying in the sun. She’s so excited to be a judge again this year!

Shauna is the author of the poetry collection Cape Verdean Blues (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018). Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The New Yorker, Ploughshares, Boston Review, AGNI, Iowa Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Poetry Society of America, PBS Newshour, and others. She was nominated for PEN America’s 2019 Open Book Award and was a 2018 Disquiet International Luso-American fellow. Shauna received her MFA from Bennington College in Vermont and is currently working on a compilation of stories.

Maithreyi is an incoming undergraduate student from the Bay Area whose work has been recognized by Bow Seat, The Poetry Society, and the Scholastic Writing Awards, among others. In her free time, she likes reading, going on walks, and trying new food. She is looking forward to being a judge this year!

Mary Buchinger is the author of five full-length books of poetry: The Book of Shores (Lily Poetry Review Books, 2024; Permafrost Book Prize in Poetry finalist; Hillary Gravendyk Prize, semifinalist), Navigating the Reach (Salmon Poetry, 2023, longlisted for the Massachusetts Book Award), Virology (Lily Poetry Review Books, 2022), einfühlung/in feeling (Main Street Rag, 2018), and Aerialist (Gold Wake, 2015; May Swenson Poetry Award finalist, The Journal /Wheeler Prize semifinalist and Perugia Press Prize semifinalist), and two chapbooks: /klaʊdz/(Lily Poetry Review Books, 2021) and Roomful of Sparrows (Finishing Line Press, 2008; New Women’s Voices Series semi-finalist). She has received poetry awards from the New England Poetry Club and the Virginia Poetry Society, a Norton Island Residency, and over a dozen Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations. Her poetry appears in AGNI, Gargoyle, Laurel Review, Lincoln Review, Nimrod, On the Seawall, Plume, Salt Hill, Seneca Review, South Dakota Review, Sugar House Review, Queen Mob’s Teahouse, and elsewhere. She was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador and earned a doctorate in linguistics from Boston University. She teaches at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences and served on the board of the New England Poetry Club for many years. www.MaryBuchinger.com

Based in Boston, MA, Erin has a strong background in Marine Science and Data Analytics. She holds a B.A. in Marine Science from Boston University and currently works as a Data Analyst at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Previously serving as a Policy & Advocacy Intern at Women Working for Oceans, Erin played an integral role in growing the organization’s social media presence. She curated impactful call-to-action social media posts, drawing from her thorough research of marine science literature. Erin’s dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion was evident as she led initiatives aimed at fostering an inclusive environment.

Michelle Garcia Fresco is a Dominican poet, performer, and Programming Director based in Boston. She currently graduated from the University of Massachusetts Lowell, with a dual degree in Creative Writing and Sociology.

Believing in the power of poetry as a medium for social justice. Garcia`s writing is often inspired by the women in her family, social and racial injustices in America, coping with loss and mental health, as well as her Dominican roots.

Her work has appeared in Wbur/The Artery, Tinderbox Poetry, the Rising Phoenix ,She is also the winner of Stirling Spoons “2020: Identity in America” contest.” Chosen by Richard Blanco, former US Inaugural Poet and author.

Kelly X. Hui is a fiction writer and abolitionist community organizer. A Luminarts fellow, she received the 2023 Adroit Prize for Prose, selected by Ocean Vuong, and recently turned down the 2024 PEN/Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers in solidarity with Palestine and the Palestinian liberation struggle. You can find her on Twitter @halfmoonpoem.

Jennifer Jean is the author of Where Do You Live? أين تعيش؟, VOZ, The Fool, Object Lesson, and Object Lesson: a Guide to Writing Poetry; as well, she’s edited Other Paths for Shahrazad: a Bilingual Anthology of Contemporary Poetry by Arab Women. Jennifer’s received honors from the Kenyon Writers Workshop, DISQUIET, the Mass Cultural Council, Her Story Is, and the Academy of American Poets. Also, she’s published poems and co-translations in POETRY, Rattle, the L.A. Review, The Common, and On the Seawall. Jennifer teaches in the Solstice MFA program and manages 24PearlStreet–the Fine Arts Work Center’s online writing program.

Tayllor Johnson is a poet, writer, educator, performer, activist, and founder of Sisterhood (verb), Inc. A published poet, she has been writing and performing her poetry and written works for over 15 years. She has been featured in museum exhibits in New York and California and published in several anthologies. She liberates, investigates, and celebrates herself through her written and spoken word and invites others to do the same. Having taught for over ten years, her undergraduate (Mount Holyoke College) and graduate (New York University) research centered around establishing art as a community norm in disenfranchised schools through arts-integrated curriculum development and community outreach. Tayllor’s journey fighting for justice and healing as a Black woman in America led her to create Sisterhood (verb), Inc., a creative consulting business dedicated to uplifting Black women and youth through art and community and consulting with other organizations in arts education, social justice, and community building with creativity at the center. Currently, Tayllor is in Santa Barbara, CA, finishing up her first poetry book, Waves Retreat, Revive, Return: A Reflection in Threes, and working to accomplish her mission to find new ways poetry can empower the disenfranchised and soothe the wounded and disturb the status quo, setting us all on a path to freedom.

Christopher is the author of Valuing (University of Georgia Press, 2019), selected by Jericho Brown as a winner of the National Poetry Series, by Library Journal as a Best Poetry Book of 2019, and as a finalist for The Believer Book Award in Poetry, as well as the book-length poem Contrapuntal (Free Verse Editions, 2013). He has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the I-Park Foundation, the University of Denver, and Columbia University. Recent poetry appears or is forthcoming in New England Review, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, The New York Review of Books, West Branch, Washington Square, and The Yale Review. An associate editor for 32 Poems, he teaches for Eastern Oregon University’s low-residency MFA program.

Sharon acknowledges that her home is on the unceded territory of the Kanyen’kehà:ka and the territory of other Nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, a place called Deux-Montagnes, or Two Mountains, in Québec.

A teacher and editor, Sharon has been writing for several years. Her work includes ocean landscapes, lakes, rivers and streams and explores the worlds and perspectives of our non-human animal neighbors. Her short story collection Shattered Fossils was published by Guernica Editions in 2020, and she’s working on a poetry collection and novel. Sharon’s love is nature, and she spends her summers in boreal forests and near lakes, oceans and streams. Through her teaching, writing and activism, she’s interested in closing that ever-widening breach between our natural habitat and the urban, where many of us find ourselves.

Cynthia is an undergraduate at Harvard College whose writing has been recognized by Bow Seat (2019 Gold), Bennington College, the National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, and YoungArts. She enjoys painting watercolors in her free time, and has a soft spot for cold, rocky New England beaches.

Quang Duy Mai is from Hanoi, Vietnam. His poems have been published in American Poetry Review, AAWW, diaCRITICS, among others. He is the author of the chapbook Journals to (Story Factory, 2019). More of his work can be found at quangmai.framer.website.

Brooklyn born and raised, Ademola is a singer, poet, writer, educator, and activist. He has been singing and performing his written work since he was 8 years old. His love for music and creativity has taken him coast to coast, performing in Southern California and New York, and working on a second album with his father, Abiodun Oyewole of The Last Poets, as well as his debut album, Lib(er)ation. Having taught for over 7 years with organizations like Urban Word NYC and various independent/charter schools, Ademola utilizes his skills to create a conscious, critical, and creative experience for students, keeping in mind his mission to give voice to truth and power to justice. Currently, Ademola is working on his debut album while being a DEI and education consultant.

Laura has a passion for the ocean and what it can teach us. She is a poet/writer, public speaker and supporter of youth to boldly know and save the wilds. She is the founder and executive director of Ocean Matters, a nonprofit that supports youth in being stewards for the marine environment through service. Laura has over 25 years of experience nurturing and supporting social responsibility in young people including educational outreach projects she developed for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Ben & Jerry’s, the NBA, Frontline, and others. Laura’s love for literature as a tool for empowering young people stretches back to early in her career when she was briefly a high school English teacher. She serves on the boards of Women Working for Oceans (W20) and Earth, Ltd., and has a masters degree in education from Harvard University and a bachelors of arts in English Literature from Boston College.

Craig Santos Perez is a Pacific Islander from Guam. He is the author of seven books of poetry and the co-editor of nine anthologies.

Wesley is the author of SUBWOOFER (New Issues, 2017). A California native, he has lived in Boston, Aix-en-Provence, Port Townsend, DC, and Chicago, never far from a major body of water. He has taught writing, rhetoric, and literature for many universities, and in other venues for young people and adult learners, including the National Gallery of Art, Grub Street Writer’s Workshop, and Upward Bound programs. His writing has been featured in Bennington Review, Boston Review, Gulf Coast, Harvard Review, The Hopkins Review, The Missouri Review, The Slowdown, Southern Humanities Review, the Golden Shovel Anthology and Elsewhere. Recipient of fellowships from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, he teaches at Howard University.

Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, Elisa is a writer, educator, and poet. Their work has appeared in WBUR, Massachusetts Review, Boston Art Review, and elsewhere. You can find more of their work at www.elisarowe.com.

Griffin is a digital artist and AI researcher at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). His work explores how technology is changing artmaking, as well as what separates humans, animals, and machines. His classes at RISD include Machine Learning, Digital Culture, and Text Transformed: Writing with AI. He earned an MFA in Digital Art and a Bachelor’s in Creative Writing from Brown University.

Previously awarded the Gold Award in Poetry in Bow Seat’s Ocean Awareness Contest as well as a past member of the Future Blue Youth Council, Nuan Ning is an avid lover of the literary arts and harbors a passion for ocean conservation. She is excited to begin her undergraduate studies in English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford in the fall of 2024. Having been involved in various Bow Seat endeavors for almost five years, she is eager to explore the intersectionality of activism through art.

Karen comes to ocean awareness through history and science. She investigates the oceans’ living past using historical documents and objects, then collaborates with scientists in order to tell a more complete, more human story about the changing ocean. She has practiced historical ecology at the University of New Hampshire and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and currently researches, writes and edits in western Massachusetts. Her articles include “Tambora and the Mackerel Year” (Science Advances, 2017), she has contributed to many documentaries, including Cod Comeback? (PBS 2013), and her edited volumes include Shifting Baselines, the Past and Future of Ocean Fisheries (Island Press 2011).

Dhruv is a passionate advocate for child rights and climate justice from Uttarakhand, India. He uses emotive writing to bring the unique climate stories of children from climate-exposed and marginalized communities to light. Dhruv firmly believes that true environmental justice can only be achieved with children’s meaningful and sustained involvement in climate discussions. To this end, he works with young people worldwide, collaborating on toolkits, resource lists, peer mentorship, research, and online workshops to educate children about their rights and empower them to participate in child-friendly environmental advocacy.

At home in Uttarakhand, Dhruv works alongside his parents on a culture-conscious, green startup dedicated to rejuvenating traditional waterways and supporting rural communities. He loves writing on social justice themes and cannot wait to read this year’s amazing entries!

Abbey Cahill is a Boston based artist, writer, and environmentalist. She is the founding editor of the Quinobequin Review, a seasonal collection of art and writing inspired by the Charles River Watershed. Inside each issue, local artists and writers contemplate the relationship between where we live and who we are, revealing unexpected connections between culture, ecology, and identity.

Prior to founding the Review, she worked in environmental consulting at 3Degrees Group, helping companies achieve their renewable energy and decarbonization goals. In 2022, Abbey was selected for the Kenyon Review’s Summer Residential Writers Workshops in the category of non-fiction. She has a degree in English and creative writing from Dartmouth College.

Eric has seen firsthand how early engagement with the ocean can lead to a lifelong commitment to protecting it. As a toddler, he became enamored with a jellyfish washed up on the beach. Later trips to the National Aquarium and National Museum of Natural History only cemented his love of the natural world. Drawing from his love of museums, he looks for ways to engage with the environment outside of a traditional classroom. Eric served as Bow Seat’s Contest Program Director from 2021-2023 and now brings public programs to the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture in Cambridge, MA.

Liz is the author of of the award-winning Ocean Country: One Woman’s Voyage from Peril to Hope in her Quest to Save the Seas, with a foreword by Carl Safina, and Talking Politics: Choosing the President in the Television Age. Her writing has appeared in publications such as Alternet.org, Earth Island Journal, GreenBiz, the Marin Poetry Center Anthology, The Outward Bound International Journal, Seven Seas Magazine, Times of the Islands, and The San Francisco Chronicle. She has collaborated with institutions such as the Academy for Educational Development, the Constitutional Rights Foundation, the Tides Foundation, and the Smithsonian Institution. An accomplished public speaker, she speaks to audiences in a wide range of settings, from inner-city high schools to universities and large public venues such as the Commonwealth Club, The New York Times Building, and the New England Aquarium. She is the co-founder of KurtHahn.org, the online archive for the founder of Outward Bound, Kurt Hahn. Learn about her work at www.lizcunningham.net.

Kayla (she/they) is a Filipina-American creative writing consultant and teacher at GrubStreet. She is also a social justice activist, focusing on the intersection of labor, immigration, gender-based violence, and human rights. Blending the real and the mystical, her creative work often meditates on place, loss, and memory. Kayla’s writing has been published in [PANK] Magazine, Okay Donkey, ANMLY, and elsewhere; and has been nominated for the Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. When she is not writing, teaching writing, or doing research for the UCLA Labor Center, you can find Kayla hiking in the mountains of Southern California. As a returning Ocean Awareness Contest judge, Kayla is excited to witness youth art-activism for a fourth summer in a row.

Melinda grew up exploring the coasts of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Maine. She went on to research deep sea sharks while she was a student at The Island School, and majored in Biology and Environmental Studies as an undergraduate at Colby College. After graduating, she worked on a schooner in Newport, Rhode Island where she developed sailing skills and shared stories of Narragansett Bay with guests. Most recently, she worked for the Marine Conservation Action Fund at the New England Aquarium, which supports grassroots marine conservation projects around the world. Her favorite ocean activities are scuba diving, boating, and paddle boarding.

Rick is a sixth and seventh grade English teacher at the Dedham Country Day School in Dedham, MA. Though more of a hiker and fresh-water person, he has frequent contact with the ocean when he visits family on Cape Cod and Jamestown, RI, where he enjoys kayaking, paddleboarding, and boating. Two of his daughters attended The Island School, and their experience has helped him appreciate the importance of protecting our oceans and the marine life in them.

Sarah is the Founding Director of The 51 Percent Project, a climate communication initiative at Boston University’s Institute for Sustainable Energy. She holds faculty appointments at Boston University’s College of Communication and at the Graduate Program in Urban Biogeoscience & Environmental Health.

Sarah is the founding partner of WeSpire, whose behavior-change platform is used at S&P 100 corporations to engage employees on sustainability and other purpose-driven initiatives. Her ongoing research investigates barriers and accelerators to corporate climate action, including stakeholder engagement, in collaboration with Princeton University’s Behavioral Science for Policy Lab.

Sarah serves on the Advisory Council of Boston Harbor Now and its Climate Roundtable. She is on the boards of ecoAmerica and the Planetary Health Alliance. She began her career at The New Yorker and continued at The Atlantic and at iVillage, where she was the launch content director. Publications include The Atlantic, HuffPost, and mindbodygreen. Sarah holds a B.A. in English from Princeton University, and an M.A. from the Middlebury College Bread Loaf School.

Cara is a senior at Middlebury College, pursing a double major in Environmental Policy and Creative Writing. The ocean has always inspired her creative work, and she received the Gold Award for Prose from Bow Seat’s Contest in 2017. Her Honors thesis at Middlebury also focused on the ocean and the relationship between water and language. Cara loves swimming, gardening, arts & crafts, and writing. She looks forward to supporting Bow Seat’s mission on the Contest judging panel.

Anna is a student at the University of Chicago studying Political Science and Public Policy. She is passionate about the intersection of political advocacy, environmental issues, and creative writing. Anna won the Ocean Awareness Contest’s Silver Award in Senior Prose in 2018, and an Honorable Mention in Junior Poetry in 2016. She is very excited to return to Bow Seat this year as a judge!

Nakia Hill is a writer, poet, journalist, and educator. A proud native of Roxbury, with over 15 years of experience in journalism, writing, and education, Nakia is passionate about creating and amplifying stories that reflect the diversity, resilience, and creativity of women and girls of color globally.

Nakia is a prolific writer and educator, who has authored three books, co-written a podcast, and published articles in various media outlets including the Boston Globe, Fodor’s Travel, CRWN Magazine. She was a Teaching Fellow at GrubStreet in 2023, where she taught and mentored writers and fostered a culture of learning and collaboration. Nakia is a former Boston Artist-in-Resident and a recipient of multiple awards and honors for her work. She is committed to using her skills and expertise to inspire, inform, and empower others through the power of storytelling.

Learn more about Nakia by visiting nakiahill.com.

Eson’ work has appeared in Sycamore Review, Stories from the Stage, and more. She is the recipient of The Studios at MASSMoCA Writing Residency, a NJ Council on the Arts Fellowship, and the David B. Saunders Prize for Creative Nonfiction. She serves as the Director of Community Engagement at GrubStreet.

Jennie is a freshman at Northeastern University, currently majoring in Journalism and English. She has always been passionate about environmental issues, and she received the Gold Award in the Creative Writing Category for the 2023 Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Contest. Jennie loves to watch movies, listen to music, and read books. She is eager to contribute to Bow Seat’s mission through participating in the Contest judging panel.

Sharon acknowledges that her home is on the unceded territory of the Kanyen’kehà:ka and the territory of other Nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, a place called Deux-Montagnes, or Two Mountains, in Québec.

A teacher and editor, Sharon has been writing for several years. Her work includes ocean landscapes, lakes, rivers and streams and explores the worlds and perspectives of our non-human animal neighbors. Her short story collection Shattered Fossils was published by Guernica Editions in 2020, and she’s working on a poetry collection and novel. Sharon’s love is nature, and she spends her summers in boreal forests and near lakes, oceans and streams. Through her teaching, writing and activism, she’s interested in closing that ever-widening breach between our natural habitat and the urban, where many of us find ourselves.

Cynthia is an undergraduate at Harvard College whose writing has been recognized by Bow Seat (2019 Gold), Bennington College, the National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, and YoungArts. She enjoys painting watercolors in her free time, and has a soft spot for cold, rocky New England beaches.

Megan is a writer and educator currently living in Missoula, Montana, where she is pursuing an M.S. in Environmental Writing & Education. She holds an M.A. from the Bread Loaf School of English. She has five years of experience teaching at the high school level, including two years at The Island School in the Bahamas where she taught “Literature of the Sea” and worked with student groups to survey beach plastic and raise awareness of plastic pollution. Her work has appeared in Camas: The Nature of the West, Flyway Journal of Writing & Environment, and Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies.

Ashira is a freelance writer based between Sofia, Bulgaria, and Tallahassee, Florida. Her reporting on environmental issues and the arts has been published by PBS NewsHour, Boston Art Review, and Artforum, and she is an adjunct instructor for the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications. She helped organize Bow Seat and Conservation Law Foundation’s Healthy Whale, Healthy Ocean Challenge in 2019.

Since she was young and exploring the tiny creek by her home, Sylvia has always been interested in the natural world and its preservation. An English and Italian double major at Wellesley College, she hopes to combine English with climate science to create stories that spur climate action and encourage ocean conservation. She was a Girls Who Invest Scholar and is a prose reader for Bodega Magazine, and has interned with the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. Sylvia has received a Gold Award and a Notable Award from the Ocean Awareness Contest.

slandie is a Haitian-born writer who tests the boundaries of literary landscapes. She uses language to probe, dissect, re-imagine, engender distinct worlds and empowering realities. Her work has appeared in L’Union Suite, GRLSQUASH, Boston Art Review, and The Caribbean Writer. Currently, she is working on her first biomythograpy memoir and hopes to teach creative writing as a healing device.

Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, Elisa is a writer, educator, and poet. Their work has appeared in WBUR, Massachusetts Review, Boston Art Review, and elsewhere. You can find more of their work at www.elisarowe.com.

Jonathan is a writer and freelance copyeditor raised between Boston, Massachusetts, and Johannesburg, South Africa. His work has been published in Calaloo Journal, Boston Art Review, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, and elsewhere, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Maya is a writer of speculative fiction, holding a B.A. Honors in Creative Writing from Brown University. As a fundraiser for 826 Boston, which provides free writing and publishing programming to Boston students, she is passionate about the impact writing has on young people who are exploring their identities and finding their voices. In her teens, she was a volunteer educator at the New England Aquarium, an experience which opened her eyes to the plight of our oceans and the realities of climate change. Maya’s current in-progress works explore themes of the sublime power of nature, the consequences of buried trauma, and humans’ responsibility to the natural world and to one another.

Daria recently graduated from Swarthmore College with a degree in Biology and English Literature. Their hobbies include hiking, swing dancing, and LARPing; they can often be found in the mountains collecting data for field biology research.

Tayllor Johnson is a poet, writer, educator, performer, activist, and founder of Sisterhood (verb), Inc. A published poet, she has been writing and performing her poetry and written works for over 15 years. She has been featured in museum exhibits in New York and California and published in several anthologies. She liberates, investigates, and celebrates herself through her written and spoken word and invites others to do the same. Having taught for over ten years, her undergraduate (Mount Holyoke College) and graduate (New York University) research centered around establishing art as a community norm in disenfranchised schools through arts-integrated curriculum development and community outreach. Tayllor’s journey fighting for justice and healing as a Black woman in America led her to create Sisterhood (verb), Inc., a creative consulting business dedicated to uplifting Black women and youth through art and community and consulting with other organizations in arts education, social justice, and community building with creativity at the center. Currently, Tayllor is in Santa Barbara, CA, finishing up her first poetry book, Waves Retreat, Revive, Return: A Reflection in Threes, and working to accomplish her mission to find new ways poetry can empower the disenfranchised and soothe the wounded and disturb the status quo, setting us all on a path to freedom.

A painter, muralist, sculptor, and graphic designer, Jason “SWAT” Talbot creates artwork to explore and observe the world around him. He attended the Art Institute of Boston and has a career spanning decades in the art world. In his personal practice, he has produced dozens of murals for businesses in Boston and beyond, working with multiple collaborators to deepen the world view of their communities.

As AFH’s Co-Founder and Managing Director of Program, Jason creates opportunities to engage and mentor teen artists and their artistic mentors advancing AFH’s programmatic goals while building long-term creative connections. Jason champions AFH’s Youth Arts Enterprise model, serving as a thought leader and spokesperson to expand AFH’s reach. He participated in the 2009 Cohort of the Emerging Leaders Program, University of Massachusetts Boston; received the 2013 Mentor of the Year Award from Youth Design; was named a member of 2014’s Top 40 Under 40 by the Boston Business Journal; and attended the Arts & Cultural Organization Management Program, at Harvard Business School in 2021. Jason is an active member of WGBH’s Community Advisory Board.

Through his artistic practice and leadership at AFH , Jason “SWAT” Talbot works to help others observe the world in a deeper way.

Nakia Hill is a writer, poet, journalist, and educator. A proud native of Roxbury, with over 15 years of experience in journalism, writing, and education, Nakia is passionate about creating and amplifying stories that reflect the diversity, resilience, and creativity of women and girls of color globally.

Nakia is a prolific writer and educator, who has authored three books, co-written a podcast, and published articles in various media outlets including the Boston Globe, Fodor’s Travel, CRWN Magazine. She was a Teaching Fellow at GrubStreet in 2023, where she taught and mentored writers and fostered a culture of learning and collaboration. Nakia is a former Boston Artist-in-Resident and a recipient of multiple awards and honors for her work. She is committed to using her skills and expertise to inspire, inform, and empower others through the power of storytelling.

Learn more about Nakia by visiting nakiahill.com.

Free’s current work pulls inspiration from his childhood experience of moving to America as a refugee and experiencing this country as an outsider. He loves that he belongs to multiple cultures because it helps him weave together distant narratives and create a final product that feels both foreign and familiar. His goal is for people to experience his work as dissonant dreamscapes that connect subconscious and conscious realities.

Yanka is a multimedia artist and educator from Curitiba, Brazil, via Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her work is inspired by her journey as an immigrant and explores gender, sexuality, intimacy, relationships, and comfortability. Shortly after graduating high school, Yanka joined Cambridge Community Television (CCTV) as a teaching artist. She also taught and mentored youth at Artists for Humanity. Yanka now serves as CCTV’s Youth Media Coordinator.

Warrior and healer. Tender and unbreakable. Destiny “Divine” Polk, whose name means “That which has been firmly established, God has answered, Dance,” is an Afro-Indigenous choreographer and producer, multi-disciplinary artist, community organizer/space holder, art educator and founder of art-activist platform Radical Black Girl. Known for doing interactive art shows likes RESISTDANCE and Black Woman is God, Destiny’s work is concerned with speaking truth to a country that attempts to rewrite its own history while having actively tried to suppress African and Native American history and culture. Destiny took her Being the Change workshop to SXSW 2019 and premiered her short film “When the Sea Rises” at the ILLUMINUS Festival 2019. She was the keynote speaker for the Youth Arts for Social Change Summit in 2020 and the recipient of the National Center of Afro-American Artist’s Ralph F. Browne, Jr. Award for Civic Engagement.

Mom. Student. Advocate. Poet. Wyze found her life’s passion as a social justice activist and youth advocate, which she is redirecting toward her education. As a proud Black and Native mom of two, she devotes herself toward her degree in the human services field. Through spoken word, she aims to provoke free thinking, radical self love, and healing. Wyze’s love for spoken word developed during a time when hip hop spoke through the silence. When silence is loud, not only words are spoken, but they are heard.

Marquis leads Elevated Thought’s vision, goals, and mission, and manages its contracts, commissions, and partnerships. In addition to being a poet and artist, Marquis has a master’s degree in Education from Lesley University and compiled over seven years of public-school experience before focusing on ET full-time; building and facilitating the art and social justice curriculum that serves as the foundation for all of ET’s creative youth development work. Marquis is currently pursuing his Doctor of Education at Northeastern University.