In the premiere Chapter of Volume Six, we welcomed Chicago-born and based Educator, Poet, Writer, Spoken Word Artist, and Dancer, Sunshine Lombré .

From her early start in ballet at the age of three to her decision to pursue dance and poetry professionally, Sunshine walks us through her artistic evolution—how physics gave way to poetry, how Craigslist led to one of her first choreography gigs, and how an unexpected injury became a spiritual and creative turning point.

We talk about the interplay between poetry and movement—how dance, especially fem-centered forms like burlesque and belly dancing, can carry memory and emotion in ways language sometimes can't. Sunshine opens up about how embracing her sensuality and femininity transformed not only her art but her relationship to herself.

She also shares her passion for healing through art, both personally and in community. From her work with Poetry for Personal Power to teaching in libraries and arts councils, Sunshine is deeply invested in using creativity to empower others—especially those who might not see themselves as “artistic.”

Toward the end of our conversation, we discuss her advocacy and activism, including the emotional weight and responsibility of poems like "For Gaza" and "Living in Portable Caskets". We explore what it means to create art that holds both sensuality and sorrow, joy and justice—and how those things can coexist.

Contact Sunshine:
Instagram:@ladylombre
Youtube: @sunshinelombre

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Kyla Janee Lacey– Pulled Out A Knife On Him
Instagram: @kylajlacey

Zach Goldberg – Blackout
Instagram: @gach_zoldberg Website: zach-goldberg.com Book: I'd Rather Be Destroyed

Javon Johnson – The Shotgun
Instagram: @javonism Book: Aint Never Not Been Black

Sunshine Lombré – For Gaza
Sunshine Lombré – Daydream

In Volume Five: Chapter Twenty, we welcomed Ajanae Dawkins.

Ajanaé is a poet, conceptual artist and theologian. She works through poetry, visual art, performance, and audio to explore the politics of faith, grief, and intimate relationships between Black women. As a theologian, she blends cultural criticism, memoir, and theology as autotheory to consider the relationship between Black church history, spirituality, and creation. Her work has appeared in the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, The Rumpus, Prairie Schooner, the Indiana Review, Frontier Poetry, The BreakBeat Poets Black Girl Magic Anthology and more. Her solo-exhibition, No One Teaches Us How To Be Daughters, debuted at Urban Arts Space in 2024. Her chapbook, BLOOD-FLEX, won the New Delta Review’s Chapbook prize and is forthcoming in Spring 2025.

Contact Ajanae:
Instagram: @moonsatdusk
Website: ajanaedawkins.com

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

FreeQuency – The Seven Deadly American Sins
Instagram: @freequencyspeaks Website: freequencyspeaks.com

Ya Ya Poet– Ling Ling
Instagram: @yayazhangpoet

Black Chakra – Pass
Instagram: @blackchakra88

Ajanaé Dawkins – When Viola Davis Won
Ajanaé Dawkins – For The Blonde Girl and the Classroom of Ghosts

In Volume Five: Chapter Nineteen, we welcomed Educator, Poet, Writer, Spoken Word Artist, host of the Chasing After Wind podcast, and Author of the chapbook How Much We Must Have Looked Like Stars To Stars, Dr. Alysia Nicole Harris.

Alysia has dedicated her life to studying words in their spiritual, social, linguistic and creative capacities. Renowned internationally as a spoken word artist, Alysia has had a professional career as a performance artist and speaker since 2010, amassing over nine million views on YouTube. The author of the prize-winning chapbook How Much We Must Have Looked Like Stars to Stars (2016) received her MFA in poetry from New York University in 2014 and her PhD in linguistics from Yale University in 2019.

Alysia has written, performed, and taught workshops in twelve countries for organizations including but not limited to: U.S. Mission to Ukraine, U.S. Mission to South Africa, U.S. Mission to Jordan, NAACP, Yale Center for Faith & Culture, Virginia Theological Seminary, City Seminary New York, The Disrespected Literatures Conference, Morehouse Center for Excellence in Education, University of Birmingham, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, MoMA: PS1, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Nasher Sculpture Center, The Big Quiet, Button Poetry, and many schools and universities. She is currently working with members of a Texas community to restore a 108-year-old former CME church in Texas and transform it into an intergenerational space for community storytelling. Through this work she hopes to preserve Black places and celebrate Black stories in the U.S. South.

Contact Alysia:
Instagram: @poppyinthewheat
Website: alysiaharris.com

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Ebony Stewart – How We Forget (after Loyce Gayo)
Instagram: @gullyprincess Website: ebpoetry.com

Sabrina Ali – MisterOgyny
Instagram: @sabsie_ali

Roscoe Burnems – Agnostic
Instagram: @roscoeburnems

Alysia Harris – Situations Like This
Alysia Harris – This Woman