About

16 | Georgia, USA

A multimedia artist and passionate student leader, Elizabeth is eager to use and grow her skillset in this new role. As an activist and advocate for justice, she is heavily involved in her school’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Programs, and is highly interested in learning about and contesting the systems that keep environmental racism in place. She has spent countless years in leadership positions and will be stepping down as the Student Head of School in the Spring of 2022 to pursue her passion for engineering – to create a better world. Additionally, Elizabeth is an athlete who loves contributing to campus life and her personal growth through varsity sports like track and field, swimming and diving, etc. She is the founder of her school’s Electronics & Robotics club, and Multicultural affinity, as well as President of the Model United Nations Team and Vice President of the Tech For All club. A fun fact about her is that she is a fire cadet, and is determined to make her mark on society through meaningful contributions!

16 | Georgia, USA

Aarushi is an avid environmentalist and passionate advocate for the future. In addition to her officer position in her school’s Environmental Club, she has sought out opportunities to continue to make change. She is a member of the RE-Volv Solar Ambassador Program, which helps convert local and national nonprofits to solar energy. She is also a member of the National Green Youth Council. She received the Gold Award in the 2021 Ocean Awareness Contest for her creative writing piece. She is super excited to be more involved with Bow Seat and to join the Future Blue Youth Council!

17 | Uttarakhand, India

Dhruv is a child-rights and climate justice advocate from Uttarakhand, India. He uses emotive writing to highlight the unique climate stories of children from climate-exposed and marginalized communities. He believes that environmental justice cannot exist without the meaningful and sustained involvement of children in climate discussions. Therefore, he has engaged with young people worldwide to work on toolkits, resource lists, and online workshops geared towards informing children about their rights and guiding them towards opportunities to contribute to child-friendly environmental advocacy spaces. Back home in his state, Dhruv works with his parents on a culture-conscious, green startup that rejuvenates traditional water mills and village streams to preserve our local ways of milling flour. They generate employment in the rural areas of Uttarakhand to curb mass migration from his state.

17 | Almaty, Kazakhstan

Growing up in a landlocked country, Kazakhstan, the demise of the Aral and Balkhash Lakes due to oil pollution and irrational usage of water has accentuated Malika’s will to contribute to a green future where we and our nature will live in harmony. However, she believe that by only making people feel guilty and frustrated will not accomplish any change; instead, we need to let young voices lead us to a thriving and prosperous world. Malika is the founder of an Eco Club, GenGreen, at her school, which unites all passionate kids who are not willing to abide by the status quo. In addition, she writes eco-themed articles for her school press, featuring latest activism achieved by teenagers from different parts of the world. Malika strives to become even more engaged in the topic of climate advocacy, and to potentially propose her own solutions to environmental issues in Kazakhstan and the world!

16 | California, USA

Satvika is a high school junior from Milpitas, California. She has worked to integrate climate-friendly practices in her school district, including instating a daily plant-based option at the school cafeteria, serving over 5,000 meals. Satvika believes in the power of equitable policy and has worked with the White House, USDA, and members of the U.S. Congress on legislative initiatives to incentivize healthy options and minimize waste in food systems. As an Opinions Editor for her school newspaper and President of her school’s Environmental Society, she knows the impact education and conversation can have on real change. When she’s not hiking or watching “Our Planet,” you can find her playing volleyball and softball or experimenting in the kitchen, creating her new favorite snack!

16 | Delhi, India

Ishan is a passionate diver with a keen interest in economics, politics, and the environment. He is a rising senior at Wellington College, UK. Ishan’s experiences in the oceans opened his eyes to the harsh realities of environmental pollution, climate change, and biodiversity loss. Driven to develop a solution, he founded The Blue Voice, a campaign that helps conserve marine life, regrow coral reefs, and reduce pollution, while empowering weaker sections of society. Through the campaign, which is supported by the Bow Seat Fellowship Grant Program, single-use plastic bags are transformed into sleeping mats for the unhoused population in New Delhi, India.

16 | Georgia, USA

Shaomin is an avid artist, environmentalist, and aspiring businesswoman. She is particularly passionate about endangered animals and habitat degradation. She is involved in numerous activities, such as being the owner of @keewicreations on Instagram; being a lead designer for a local design/apparel business; and running a nonprofit, Creative Diversity, to teach art to the underprivileged to reignite creativity in the younger generation. Through the Future Blue Youth Council, Shaomin hopes to spread awareness about the issue of climate change and how we can use the arts to make important changes.

17 | California, USA

Passionate about sustainability, environmental science, and ArcGIS, Yuzuna hopes to serve communities disproportionately affected by climate change through environmental law. As the student ex officio member of Glendale’s Sustainability Commission, she helps guide policymaking and is the lead of the Commission’s public outreach and green spaces/urban heat island projects. When she is not competing with her mock trial or moot court team, she participates in and develops citizen science projects using ArcGIS. ArcGIS has provided Yuzuna with many opportunities: she received Bow Seat’s Silver Award for her StoryMap and presented her methane monitoring project at the Esri Climate GIS Forum. She looks forward to inspiring meaningful leadership and promoting environmental stewardship across the globe with the Future Blue Youth Council.

16 | Lima, Peru

Ariana is enthusiastic about science, learning languages, marine biology, and soccer. After the oil spill on Peruvian beaches in 2022, which caused the deaths of hundreds of species, she decided to contribute to a solution by participating in beach cleanups. She also attended protests to raise her voice and show her concern about the environmental problems her country was going through. Ariana believes the Future Blue Youth Council is the best way to achieve her goal of spreading awareness among young people, since they have the power to shape the future. When she is not reading the latest news about oil spills around the world, she is volunteering at tree-planting campaigns, assisting dog shelters, or organizing recycling projects with her friends.

19 | Florida, USA

Sarah is a college sophomore studying biology on the pre-veterinary track and is passionate about the natural sciences, environmental activism, climate justice, and field of animal studies. Sarah strives to excel in STEM while pursuing her interests in preserving marine life and protecting the planet for future generations. She is the founder and president of the CARE Club, a nationwide environmental club started in 2020. She’s engaged in countless individual and group initiatives, including the creation of petitions, hosting of fundraisers, and participation in community events. Sarah was awarded First Place in the “A Voice for Animals” contest by the Humane Education Network and Animal Welfare Institute for her entry on the effect of plastic pollution on the endangered species of sea turtle. In her spare time, she enjoys nature walks, and her favorite creative outlet is music, especially singing. She also volunteers at the local animal shelter, veterinary clinic, and zoo to educate others on the importance of conservation efforts in helping preserve keystone species in our ecosystems. Sarah is excited to be an active member of the Future Blue Youth Council!

16 | Utah, USA

A high school senior from Salt Lake City, Jayashabari is extremely excited to be serving on the 2023 Future Blue Youth Council. She is deeply interested in the intersection of science and the humanities, particularly in relating to the environment. Her work has been recognized and published in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times High School Insider, United Nations’ ISSCY Competition, and the University of Edinburgh’s New Americanist Journal. Jayashabari’s natural language processing research on history education has been published in the European Union’s TODO Open Data Project. In the future, she would also like to look at the impact of different NLP models on environmental education, perhaps while working part-time in science journalism.

18 | Dubai, UAE

Riya hopes to advance sustainable development in the UAE and beyond. She believes that through advocacy for the environment, even at the grassroots level, ripples of change can be created. Her activism is propelled by the joy nature brings.

The nonprofit she founded, Biology for Better, advocates for the SDGs and for educational equity in STEM. As a MASDAR Youth4Sustainability Ambassador, FFAC Advocacy Intern, YOUNGO NDC WG member, UAE Dolphin Project volunteer, and IRENA Youth Forum member, she strives to increase dialogue on social and environmental issues. Awarded the Paryavaran Mitra Puraskar by the Indian Government, she is always looking for new, creative conservation methods and routes to collaboration with other environmental activists.

17 | Maryland, USA

Emily is a high school student residing in Maryland, USA, known as home to the famous blue crabs and Chesapeake Bay. Ever since she encountered this watershed in her community, she has been fascinated with the environment: biodiversity, sustainable engineering, and how we can use the arts to promote it all. Currently, Emily conducts research at Johns Hopkins University, where she leads projects analyzing fungi that can break down oil spills and tobacco-control methods. Her science writing work has been published in the New York Times, and she is a Conrad Challenge “Pete Conrad Scholar” for her biodegradable menstrual product invention. She’s incredibly excited to serve on the Future Blue Youth Council this year, and to keep fighting climate change!

16 | North Carolina, USA

Sunook is a youth leader who is dedicated to helping his community and the environment. Attending Episcopal High School as a student-athlete, Sunook is the co-founder of the Environmental Droners, which is a youth-led initiative that helps reduce the amount of pollution in the environment using technology. Using drone technology to raise awareness about environmental issues and mobile/cellular technology to create global collaboration, he makes sure to be the light that sparks youth leaders around the world to pursue their passions and be the change for their community, environment, and world.

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 a multidisciplinary artist, Bow Seat alumna/judge/friend! She graduated from The University of Texas at Austin in 2021 with a BFA in Studio Art and is a full-time Art Director in Chicago. Her art lives across mediums and disciplines because conceptual consideration is at the core of her practice. Ely believes in the power of art to create conversation through collaboration.

Amy is an environmental artist, writer, and researcher from Providence, Rhode Island. Her current Thomas J. Watson Fellowship explores the intersection of art and the environment around the world. Since starting in August 2021, she has met with over 120 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 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.

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.

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.

Mackenzie is a student at the College of the Atlantic, pursuing an education in marine biology and ceramics. She uses art as her voice when advocating for issues most important to her, such as climate change and coral bleaching. Ceramics is a way she can reach a broad audience and contribute to supporting Earth’s ocean ecosystems.

Holly is the Manager of Education and Outreach at the University of Rhode Island’s Inner Space Center (ISC) located at the Graduate School of Oceanography in Narragansett. Her work at the ISC involves the development, coordination, and promotion of interactive ocean science websites and public outreach and science communication initiatives, including ocean science exploration camps, interpretive programs, professional development programming, and live, interactive ocean science broadcasts—in 2019 she hosted ship-based interactions from the Arctic AND the Antarctic!

Prior to her position at URI, Holly worked on large whale conservation and management issues with NOAA Fisheries. Holly graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a Bachelor of Science (marine biology focus) and a minor in Art. She then went on to receive her Master’s Degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Science from Texas A&M University, studying the diving behavior and movement patterns of young Steller sea lions in Prince William Sound, Alaska.

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.

As an author, artist, and educator, Peter’s work explores the evolutionary wisdom and interconnectedness of endangered creatures, cultures, and ecosystems. Since 1983 he has presented more than 60 solo shows and over 100 group exhibitions at galleries and museums in the United States, Canada, and England. His Art & Science (STEM/STEAM) Journaling workshops bring his contagious enthusiasm for observing and understanding the natural world to students of all ages. His recent book, Waltzes with Giants: The Twilight Journey of the North Atlantic Right Whale (Skyhorse, 2012), is a moving portrait of one of earth’s largest endangered mammals, winner of the USA Best Book Awards for Children’s Hardcover Non-Fiction, and a selection of the Children’s Book-of-the-Month Club.

As Artists For Humanity’s (AFH’s) Co-Founder and Managing Director of Programs, 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.

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.

Sydney is a Computer Science and Film, Television, and Media major in her junior year at the University of Michigan. She first learned about Bow Seat when entering the Ocean Awareness Contest three 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 has spent the past year as a Bow Seat TikTok intern. She 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.

Molly is a recent college graduate of San Francisco State University with a B.A. in Cinema and a B.A. in French. This will be the 6th year that she has been a judge in the Film category for the Ocean Awareness Contest. She is very excited to see the films that students have worked so hard on this year!

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 is a Miami-based film director, environmental communicator, and visual anthropologist. With years of experience working in the film worlds of New York, Los Angeles, and Miami, Georgia is particularly interested in documenting shifting relationships between marine ecosystems and coastal cultures, and engaging multispecies and sensory ethnographic practices in her work. Georgia holds an MA in Environment, Culture + Media from the University of Miami’s Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy, a joint BA in Art History and English Literature from the University of Edinburgh, and a professional certificate in Sustainability from UCLA.

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.

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.

Maris is a writer and illustrator of mostly science-y comics, whose work has taken her to the middle of the ocean, to the top of a volcano, and to the ice of Antarctica. Maris’s books include art for the New York Times best-selling graphic novel Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Birute Galdikas, and Astronauts: Women on the Final Frontier, both written by Jim Ottaviani, as well as her solo books, Human Body Theater and Coral Reefs: Cities of the Ocean. She has also written, drawn, and colored comics for SpongeBob Comics, Marvel, and DC, and the picture books Dragon Bones and You and the Bowerbird for Roaring Book Press. Maris is currently working on a graphic novel about what it’s like to live and work in one of the most remote places on Earth: Antarctica! (spoiler alert: there are lots of penguins).

Kai is a composer and pianist from Vancouver, British Columbia, graduating with a Bachelors in Composition from the Schulich School of Music at McGill University, where they studied composition with Melissa Hui and piano with Sara Laimon. They are currently working on 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.

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.

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, they completed a brass quintet “Dream Transmission of Phoenix” as the Composer-in-Residence, and are currently working on scores for short and feature-length independent films. Most recently they have received the ROSL composition award and commission for the London Sinfonietta to write “Night, the automaton dreams,” a piece for six players which will be premiered at the Southbank Centre.

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.

Kellen is an artist and musician from Phoenix, Arizona. He is currently studying Human Biology and Computer Science at Stanford University. One of his passions is using music to educate others and bridge the divide between disciplines. 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. In 2019, he wrote, directed, and edited a music video about calculus that won first place in Mu Alpha Theta’s national Mathematical Minutes contest. He now writes for The Sequels, an indie band that creates music based on books and literature. This year, he’s 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.

Alondra was named Boston’s first-ever Youth Poet Laureate in January 2020. Through her own work, she demonstrates how creative expression can be a powerful tool for youth to examine feelings around issues, find their voice, and speak up about the changes they want to see for their future. Alondra is the author of a collection of poems entitled “With Clipped Wings.”

Elizabeth is the author of five collections of poetry, most recently Toward Antarctica, which uses haibun and photographs to query her work as a naturalist in Antarctica, and Theorem, a collaboration with artist Antonia Contro. She is also co-editor of Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, Poetry, and Broadsided Press: Fifteen Years of Poetic/Artistic Collaboration, 2005-2020. Liz’s work has appeared in The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, Poetry, The Sun, and her honors include the Audre Lorde Prize and a Stegner Fellowship. Based on Cape Cod, Liz works as a naturalist, teaches at Brandeis University, and runs Broadsided Press. www.ebradfield.com

Mary is the author of six collections of poetry, including Navigating the Reach (Salmon Poetry, 2023), Virology and /klaʊdz/(Lily Poetry Review Books, 2022 and 2021), einfühlung/in feeling (Main Street Rag, 2018), Aerialist (Gold Wake, 2015; finalist for the May Swenson Poetry Award, semifinalist for The Journal/Wheeler and Perugia Press Prizes), and There is only the sacred and the desecrated (Lily Poetry Review Books, forthcoming, Paul Nemser Book Prize, Honorable Mention). Her poetry appears in AGNI, Laurel Review, Nimrod, On the Seawall, phoebe, Plume, Salamander, Salt Hill, Seneca Review, and elsewhere. Buchinger volunteered for the Peace Corps in Ecuador and earned a doctorate in linguistics from Boston University. She teaches at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences and serves on the board of the New England Poetry Club. 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 is a student journalist, fiction writer, and abolitionist community organizer. She is a Mellon Mays fellow at the University of Chicago and works as a barista in the basement coffee shop of the divinity school.

Jennifer’s poetry collections include VOZ, OBJECT LESSON, and THE FOOL. Her teaching resource book is OBJECT LESSON: a GUIDE TO WRITING POETRY. She’s received honors, residencies, and fellowships from the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, DISQUIET/Dzanc Books, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Her Story Is collective, the Academy of American Poets, the Kolkata International Poetry Festival, and the Women’s Federation for World Peace. Jennifer’s poetry and co-translations have appeared in POETRY, Rattle, The Common, Waxwing, On the Seawall, DMQ, Salamander, Terrain, and elsewhere. Jennifer is the senior program manager of 24PearlStreet, the Fine Arts Work Center’s online writing program.

Tayllor 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, Sweet Epiphanies: To be Determined, and working to accomplish her mission to find new ways poetry can empower and soothe the wounded and disturb the status quo, setting us all on a path to freedom.

Ellen is an award-winning nonfiction writer and poet whose work has been extensively published both in print and online. A solo writing trip to Ireland inspired her to launch Gold Boat Journeys (Creative Cultural Travel). She is certified as an Amherst Writers and Artists workshop leader and is a member of the American Association of Writers and Writers Programs. She has 25 years of experience directing marketing communications programs for museums, aquariums, and environmental organizations. She lives near a Marine Protected Zone in Laguna Beach, California.

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.

Duy Quang 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 duyquangmai.com.

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.

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 Callaloo, Gulf Coast, Harvard Review, The Kenyon Review, Mississippi Review, The Missouri Review, Prairie Schooner, Publishers Weekly, the Golden Shovel Anthology, and elsewhere. Recipient of fellowships from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and the Vermont Studio Center, he teaches writing 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.

As an author, artist, and educator, Peter’s work explores the evolutionary wisdom and interconnectedness of endangered creatures, cultures, and ecosystems. Since 1983 he has presented more than 60 solo shows and over 100 group exhibitions at galleries and museums in the United States, Canada, and England. His Art & Science (STEM/STEAM) Journaling workshops bring his contagious enthusiasm for observing and understanding the natural world to students of all ages. His recent book, Waltzes with Giants: The Twilight Journey of the North Atlantic Right Whale (Skyhorse, 2012), is a moving portrait of one of earth’s largest endangered mammals, winner of the USA Best Book Awards for Children’s Hardcover Non-Fiction, and a selection of the Children’s Book-of-the-Month Club.

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).

Laniesha (she/her/hers) is GrubStreet’s Program Coordinator. She holds an M.F.A in Poetry and an M.A. in English Literature from McNeese State University. Her work has appeared in The Caribbean Writer, The Hunger, the minnesota review, and more. She has also been recently featured as a 2021 Boston Poet of the Day by the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture. When she’s not writing, she enjoys playing fetch with her cats and eating fried plantains.

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 creative writing instructor at GrubStreet and a community organizer. She has a B.A. in Creative Writing and a B.A. in Comparative Politics from Pitzer College. She is currently pursuing a dual Master in Public Policy and Master in Social Welfare (Social Work) from University of California Los Angeles, Luskin School of Public Affairs. Kayla’s political work focuses on labor, immigration, transformative justice/abolition, and human rights. Her creative writing has been published in [PANK] Magazine, Okay Donkey, ANMLY, and elsewhere; and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. As a returning judge, Kayla is excited to once again witness youth power at the intersection of activism and artistry.

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 junior at Middlebury College, pursuing a B.A in Environmental Policy with a minor in Creative Writing. The ocean has always inspired her creative work, and she received the Gold Award for Prose from Bow Seat’s Ocean Awareness Contest in 2017. She also helped launch Bow Seat on TikTok last fall as an intern. Cara loves swimming, gardening, making jewelry, 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 is a writer, journalist, and educator. She is the author of Water Carrier, a book of poetry, and I Still Did It, an intergenerational anthology on resilience. Nakia is the director of communications for Mayor Michelle Wu’s Community Engagement Cabinet for the City of Boston.

She was a co-writer for Here Comes the Break, a fictional audio-drama podcast for Double Elvis. Nakia’s writing has been published in the Boston Globe, Boston Art Review, Fodor’s Travel, and CRWN Magazine.

Nakia’s background is in journalism and in the arts education nonprofit sector. She is seasoned in launching and directing impactful programming and producing publications for youth. Learn more about Nakia by visiting nakiahill.com.

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 is a Girls Who Invest Scholar and prose reader for Bodega Magazine, and has interned with the the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. Sylvia has received a Gold Award and a Notable Award from the Ocean Awareness Contest.

Blu 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.

Sara is a Cuban/Peruvian artist, writer, translator, and educator from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her poetry and fiction have been published in literary journals and anthologies and use both speculative and realist lenses to explore themes of migration, ecology, and memory. Her drawings, sculptures, and community-based installations focus on text-in-space as social intervention. She was awarded a 2017 St. Botolph’s Emerging Artist Award, the 2018 Stephen Dunn Prize in Poetry, and was selected as a 2019 Story Maps Fellow with the Santa Fe Art Institute, as well as a 2022 Tin House resident in speculative fiction. Her debut book of poetry, THE BLUE MIMES, is forthcoming from Graywolf Press in 2024.

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.

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 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, Sweet Epiphanies: To be Determined, and working to accomplish her mission to find new ways poetry can empower and soothe the wounded and disturb the status quo, setting us all on a path to freedom.

Jason is a co-founder and alumnus of Artists For Humanity (AFH), a Boston-area nonprofit that fuses art-making, entrepreneurial and business training, experiential arts and STEM learning, and audience engagement to create empowering and transformational experiences for under-resourced teens. Currently serving as Deputy Director and member of AFH’s Board of Directors, Jason has dedicated the last 29 years of his life ensuring that Boston’s young people are guided towards a successful life by encouraging their self-expression through art.

Jason was selected as one of Bank of America’s 2012 Neighborhood Builders, and he has received the Mentor of the Year Award from Youth Design. Jason is a member of WGBH’s Board of Advisors, and in 2014 he was awarded a spot on the Boston Business Journal’s “40 Under 40.” Jason is also still producing his own brand of visionary street art.

Nakia is a writer, journalist, and educator. She is the author of Water Carrier, a book of poetry, and I Still Did It, an intergenerational anthology on resilience. Nakia is the director of communications for Mayor Michelle Wu’s Community Engagement Cabinet for the City of Boston.

She was a co-writer for Here Comes the Break, a fictional audio-drama podcast for Double Elvis. Nakia’s writing has been published in the Boston Globe, Boston Art Review, Fodor’s Travel, and CRWN Magazine.

Nakia’s background is in journalism and in the arts education nonprofit sector. She is seasoned in launching and directing impactful programming and producing publications for youth. 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.