Lynne Thompson is the 2021-22 Poet Laureate for the City of Los Angeles and the author of Start With a Small Guitar and Beg No Pardon, winner of the Perugia Book Award and the Great Lakes Colleges Association’s New Writers Award, and Fretwork, winner of the Marsh Hawk Poetry Prize. A Pushcart Prize nominee and Artist Fellow for the City Thompson’s work has been published in Pleiades, The Common, Ploughshares, and Best American Poetry 2020, among others. She sits on the Board of the Los Angeles Review of Books and recently completed her term as Chair of the Board of Trustees at her alma mater, Scripps College.

Born on January 7, 1954, Cornelius Eady was raised in Rochester, New York. He attended Monroe Community College and Empire State College.

He is the author of several collections of poetry, including Hardheaded Weather (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2008); Brutal Imagination (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2001), which was a finalist for the 2001 National Book Award in Poetry; The Gathering of My Name (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 1991), which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize; and Victims of the Latest Dance Craze (Ommation Press, 1986), which was chosen by Louise Glück, Charles Simic, and Philip Booth for the 1985 Lamont Poetry Selection of The Academy of American Poets.

In 1996, Eady and the poet Toi Derricotte founded Cave Canem, a nonprofit organization serving Black poets of various backgrounds and acting as a safe space for intellectual engagement and critical debate. Along with Derricotte, he also edited Gathering Ground (University of Michigan Press, 2006). In 2016, she and Eady accepted the National Book Foundation’s Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community on behalf of Cave Canem.

Novella Ford is a New York-based cultural producer, curator and current Associate Director of Public Programs and Exhibitions at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Her work operates at the intersection of community, scholarship, visual arts, and popular culture, connecting audiences to dynamic voices and global Black perspectives through dialogue, performance, exhibitions and the archives. In more recent years, she has pursued an ongoing interest in the interplay between literature and the visual arts. She has served as the guest editor of Pen + Brush Gallery’s literary magazine, In Print No., launched the Schomburg Center Literary Festival in 2019, served as the guest curator for 2022 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair Forums, and currently serves as board of Cave Canem Foundation, a home for the many voices of Black poetry. She is a graduate of Howard University and NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

Hao Wang (Treasurer) is a digital product manager at Capital One, with previous experience in finance and tech startups. He grew up in Kentucky, where he became a member (and student of) the Affrilachian Poets. He is a graduate of the Huntsman Program at the University of Pennsylvania. He has been on Cave Canem’s Board of Directors since 2019. Hao and his family live in Montclair, New Jersey.

After graduating from Stanford Law School, Allen served as law clerk to the Honorable A. Joe Fish, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. He went on to practice general commercial litigation at Simpson Thacher LLP, and then, in 2003, joined Cohen Lans LLP, a highly-regarded matrimonial boutique. Immediately prior to forming Drexel LLC, Allen practiced family law at Hogan & Hartson LLP, where he represented individuals in matters involving substantial estates and novel legal issues.Allen has delivered CLE presentations and written on matrimonial law issues.

He is a member of the Executive Committee of the New York State Bar Association’s Family Law Section and Co-Chair of the Section’s Marriage Equality Committee, and Allen is also a member of the Family Law Section of the American Bar Association. From 2005-08, Allen co-chaired the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Rights Committee of the New York City Bar Association, and he has been cited in the New York Times, the New York Law Journal, New York Magazine, The Daily Beast, Above the Law, and other publications regarding family law issues.

Kelly Davis, MPA is the Executive Director of New Voices for Reproductive Justice, a non-profit dedicated to transforming society for the holistic health and wellbeing of Black women, girls, and gender-expansive people in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Prior to joining New Voices, she helmed initiatives at the National Birth Equity Collaborative and the NYC Health Department, where she catalyzed NYC’s first HIV public awareness campaign totally focused on women and served as one of the founding members of the Center for Health Equity, where she conceptualized the Family Wellness Suites—community respite and healing spaces for parents and children. In her last role at the NYC Health Department, she was responsible for identifying gaps in public health efforts to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in maternal, infant, and reproductive health by incubating new initiatives and supporting anti-racist policy and advocacy strategies. As Director, she spearheaded a severe maternal morbidity/maternal mortality initiative supporting 14 maternity hospitals in a long-term institutional transformation process that addresses structural racism, bias, resilience, and trauma-informed care. She also is the Co-Founder and Chief Equity Officer of KINSHIFT, a boutique consulting firm that supports healthcare and public health transformation through evidence-based practices rooted in actionable principles of trauma-and-resilience-informed care and anti-racism.

Kelly holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University, where her senior thesis explored how Black women and Latinas experienced contraception in the 20th Century, and a Master of Public Administration degree from New York University’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

Teri Ellen Cross Davis is the author of a more perfect Union (winner of The Journal/Charles B. Wheeler Poetry Prize) and Haint (winner of the Ohioana Book Award for Poetry). She is the recipient of the Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award and the Poetry Society of America’s Robert H. Winner Memorial Prize. She has received fellowships and scholarships to Cave Canem, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Hedgebrook, Community of Writers Poetry Workshop, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and more. Her work has appeared in print, online, and in many journals and anthologies including: Harvard Review, PANK, Poetry Ireland Review, and Kenyon Review. She is the O.B. Hardison Poetry Series Curator and Poetry Programs manager for the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. and lives in Maryland with her husband, poet Hayes Davis and their children.

Kwame Dawes is the author of numerous books of poetry and other books of fiction, criticism, and essays. His most recent collection UnHistory, was co-written with John Kinsella (Peepal Tree Press, UK). Dawes is a George W. Holmes University Professor of English and Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner. He teaches in the Pacific MFA Program and is the Series Editor of the African Poetry Book Series, Director of the African Poetry Book Fund, and Artistic Director of the Calabash International Literary Festival. Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Kwame Dawes is the winner of the prestigious Windham/Campbell Award for Poetry and was a finalist for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature. Dawes is a recipient of the Order of Distinction Commander class by the Government of Jamaica.

Dawn Lundy Martin (she/they) is an American poet, essayist, memoirist, and author of five books of poems: Instructions for the Lovers (2024); Good Stock Strange Blood, winner of the 2019 Kingsley Tufts Award; Life in a Box is a Pretty Life; DISCIPLINE; and A Gathering of Matter / A Matter of Gathering (Cave Canem Prize 2006). Their nonfiction can be found in n+1, The New Yorker, Ploughshares, Best American Essays 2019 and 2021, and elsewhere. Dawn was a 2022 United States Artist Fellow, the inaugural Toi Derricotte Endowed Chair in English at the University of Pittsburgh, and the Founding Director of the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics. She is now a Distinguished Writer in Residence at Bard College. Her memoir, When a Person Goes Missing, is forthcoming from Pantheon Books.

Both a Cave Canem fellow and faculty member, Dawn works in collectivity and is the co-founder of several organizations and artists collectives including HowDoYouSayYamInAfrican? (“Yam Collective”), Black Took Collective, and Third Wave Foundation (now Third Wave Fund). From her experience on the Third Wave’s Executive Committee, Dawn co-edited The Fire This Time: Young Activist and the New Feminism (2004), which uses a gender lens to describe and theorize young activist work in the U.S. Dawn continues her activism by working to provide BIPOC gender justice analytical frameworks to assist philanthropic organizations in strategic philanthropy to level the playing field and animate social justice reforms.

Janet Sarbaugh served as the Vice President of the Creativity Program for The Heinz Endowments until her retirement in December 2022. Under Sarbaugh’s direction, The Heinz Endowments’ Creativity program focused on Creative Artists and Organizations, Creative Places, and Creative Learning, and distributed approximately $16 million annually. Prior to her appointment as Vice President, Ms. Sarbaugh served as Director of Arts and Culture Programs at The Heinz Endowments, and as a program officer at the Pittsburgh Foundation and The Heinz Endowments.

She holds a B.A. from Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia; an M.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and a Masters Degree in Public Management from Carnegie Mellon University. Ms. Sarbaugh has served on the boards of Chorus America, Americans for the Arts, Grantmakers in the Arts, the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Grantmakers of Western Pennsylvania, and Leadership Pittsburgh. Janet currently serves on the boards of City of Asylum and the Pittsburgh Symphony. She was named Pittsburgh’s number one cultural force by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2003. In 2011, she received the Greater Pittsburgh YWCA’s Tribute to Women Leadership Award in Arts & Culture.

Lisa Willis is a creative space maker with over 20 years of experience managing multi-disciplinary projects in both the non-profit and commercial arts. She has held diverse consulting and management roles in development, programming, and operations for numerous organizations and artistic projects, including New York Live Arts, home of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company.

Before transitioning to the nonprofit sector, Lisa was the founding administrative manager for Columbia Artist Music (CAMI Music), a leading international performing arts company specializing in artist management, touring, and global event production. During her time there, she established administrative protocols and oversaw logistics for prominent artists, including Lang Lang, Tan Dun, Savion Glover, American Ballet Theatre, and others involved in international film, diplomatic, and special events. Notably, she provided project management support for artists performing in the annual Nobel Prize Concert, the World Economic Forum opening performance in Davos, and coordinated details for the key musical transition in the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In 2007, she coordinated Lang Lang’s memorial performance for Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, commissioned and planned alongside the office of King Charles III. She also managed artist sponsorships for Adidas, AUDI, and Montblanc events, including the 2010 benefit for UNICEF at Carnegie Hall featuring Wyclef, Lang Lang, and artists of the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra conducted by Christoph Eschenbach.

Lisa’s prior experience in the arts directly informs her current work and advocacy in the Black literary landscape for the conditions that foster creativity and cultural preservation, of which she actively expands the research informing cultural and social progress. This includes her role as co-Principal Investigator on Magnitude and Bond: A Field Study on Black Literary Arts Organizations, which examines the organizational needs, strategies, and models enabling Black literary organizations in the United States to thrive despite adverse socioeconomic conditions.

Dante Micheaux is the author of Circus, which won the Four Quartets Prize from the Poetry Society of America and the T. S. Eliot Foundation and Amorous Shepherd. His poems and translations have appeared in African American Review; The American Poetry Review; Callaloo; Literary Imagination; Poem­-A–Day; Poetry; Rattapallax; and Tongue—among other journals and anthologies. Micheaux’s other honors include an Amy Clampitt Residency, the Ambit Poetry Prize, and a fellowship from The New York Times Foundation. He is a Fellow and Artistic Director at Cave Canem Foundation. Micheaux’s most recent work is the libretto for Rolf Hind’s opera Sky in a Small Cage.

Dorothy Chen received her B.A. from UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance. Before joining Cave Canem, she was a grant writing consultant, the Development Associate for Pentacle, the Business Operations Manager for Girls on the Run NYC, and an arts administrator for Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre. As a dancer, Dorothy has worked with choreographers such as Vic Marks, Cheng-Chieh Yu, Alexx Shilling, Sara Silkin, and Sophie Sotsky, and has performed in venues including REDCAT, LACMA, New York Live Arts, Judson Church, and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Dorothy practices Vipassana meditation daily and participates in, and volunteers at, meditation courses throughout the year. She currently splits her time between California and Brooklyn, NY.

Channél Jordan (she/they) is a seasoned marketing professional and content creator based in Brooklyn. With experience ranging across the art, media, and legal industries, they love using social media as a tool to democratize access to cultural history and decipher its influence on the zeitgeist.

Channél worked as the Operations Director at Strada, building infrastructure to help the organization scale its operational and programming opportunities. Before this, they worked in the legal field, first as a Volunteer & Program Coordinator at a legal services non-profit before joining an AmLaw 100 law firm, supporting the marketing team’s business development initiatives.

In her spare time, Channél freelances for various agencies, artists, and podcasts, with current and past clients including Black Fashion Fair, Dayna’s House, Diana Sinclair, and the Tea with Queen & J. Podcast. She also creates fashion history content, getting recognition for her work from publications like i-D Italia; renowned streetwear brand, FUBU; and famed ANTM judge Miss J Alexander.

Channél received their dual B.A. in Political Science and Psychology from Rutgers University – New Brunswick.

Naja McCain (she/her) is an arts administrator based in Brooklyn. She is passionate about increasing access to cultural work and experiences.

Prior to Cave Canem, Naja served as the Development Assistant at El Museo del Barrio, where she managed the Museum’s membership program and handled departmental administrative work. She has previously held positions at The Museum at FIT, the Brooklyn Museum, and Tommy Hilfiger. Naja received her B.S. in International Trade & Marketing for the Fashion Industries from the Fashion Institute of Technology. Outside of work, she engages in daily mindfulness practices and yoga.

Elizabeth is a visual designer and illustrator with over six years of experience in brand identity, digital design, and visual storytelling.

She holds an MFA in Graphic Design from North Carolina State University and a BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Florida. During her time at UF, she had the opportunity to deepen her interests in co-design, disability justice, and equity through both coursework and independent study.  She continued to explore those interests in her postgraduate career, focusing her research on promoting the usability of digital library environments for low-vision users.

Elizabeth previously worked as the Communications and Design Lead at NC State’s Pappas Program managing the program’s visual communications, communication strategy, and execution.