Since 1994, over 100 teaching artists have served in WritersCorps. Here are just a few of the talented writers who have taught and inspired San Francisco youth through WritersCorps.
Chrissy Anderson-Zavala is a Xicana writer from Salinas, California. She studied and taught poetry in June Jordan’s Poetry for the People at UC Berkeley, where she graduated with a dual-degree in English literature and peace and conflict studies. In Salinas, she tutored young people with a focus on youth activism and community violence prevention. She served in WritersCorps for three years, teaching at Downtown High School, Everett Middle School, Mercy Services and the public library.
Cathy Arellano is a San Francisco-born, Mission District-raised writer. Her creative work has appeared in books, literary journals, magazines and grassroots publications, including Curve Magazine and “Chicana Lesbians: The Girls Our Mothers Warned Us About.” She published a chapbook, “I Love My Women, Sometimes They Love Me,” in September 2002. From interviews she conducted, she edited and wrote portraits of women for the publication “I Will Survive: Women Living with HIV.”
Russell Reza-Khaliq Gonzaga is a poet, writer, performance artist and community activist. He taught during the 1999-2000 WritersCorps program year at Ida B. Wells High School, Phoenix Middle School, and the Columbia Park Boys and Girls Club, Excelsior Unit. He also served as an Artist-in-Residence during the 2001-02 WritersCorps program. He taught spoken word classes and coached youth in the Youth Poetry Slam League.
Uchechi Kalu is a Nigerian-born poet, performer, activist, teacher and survivor of life who grew up in Missouri, Texas, and Massachusetts. She spent four years with the June Jordan’s Poetry for the People program at UC Berkeley where she received a BA in African American Studies. Uchechi has performed at many venues and events throughout the West Coast and is the author of a book of poetry, “Flowers Blooming Against a Bruised Gray Sky.”
Michelle Matz taught poetry for eight years with WritersCorps, focusing on high school ESL students in the last four years. She is a recipient of the Mary Merritt Henry Prize for poetry at Mills College, where she received an MFA degree. Michelle has a BA in psychology from Wesleyan University and a MEd from Stanford. Her chapbook, “Atilt,” was published in fall 2006 by Finishing Line Press.
Danielle (Dani) Montgomery is a queer youth activist and poet who grew up in Tucson and San Diego. She has taught poetry with June Jordan’s Poetry for the People. At Mills College, where she received an MFA, she founded the Community Workshops Project. Through the Project, she taught poetry at Oakland High and the Pacific Center. Her poems have appeared in the Santa Clara Review, Anything That Moves, Icarus, as well as in the anthology, “Revolutionary Voices.”
Kim Nelson taught poetry workshops at Log Cabin Ranch with WritersCorps for nine years. She initiated a Poetry Night series and helped create the Log Cabin Ranch Library. For six years she co-hosted “Poetry Show” on KUSP public radio in Santa Cruz. Kim was the co-writer and executive producer of the short film “60 Seconds of Distance” which cast former students from the Ranch. In 2005, Kim edited a journal designed for incarcerated youth, “Inside the System.”
Ishle Yi Park is a Korean American woman who is Poet Poet Laureate of Queens, New York. Ishle has taught poetry in prisons, high schools, junior high schools, conferences and community centers. Her first book, “The Temperature of This Water,” is the winner of three literary awards, including the PEN America Beyond Margins Award for Outstanding Writers of Color. The New York Times says, “Ms. Park has an angelic face and the soul of a rock star.”
Andres Saito writes plays, poetry and essays. He has lived in Guatemala where he taught theater and poetry through the ArtCorps program. He also taught poetry in June Jordan’s Poetry for the People program at UC Berkeley, where he graduated with a BA in Ethnic Studies. He has studied with Cherr’e Moraga, Alfred Arteaga, Jeannie Barroga, Octavio Solis, and Joan Holden. He has published two chapbooks of poetry and written six plays.
Jime Salcedo-Malo is a Xicano writer, performance poet, teacher and cultural worker born in Los Angeles. He has worked with many civic, youth and nonprofit community organizations, and has a strong commitment to the arts, education and self-empowerment. Jime combines hip-hop and spoken word to teach writing, expression and self-determination with youth.
Toussaint Haki Stewart is a community cultural worker born and raised in Oakland, California. He is a poet and journalist, theater and spoken word performer, workshop facilitator and educator. Haki founded SEEDS, a bi-monthly newsletter documenting the spoken word movement of the East Bay, and founded 10 Poets Plus a Mic, a collective that fuses spoken word, poetry, live music and theater. In 1998, he published his first book, “Stretch Marks,” a collection of autobiographical poems and prose.
Chad Sweeney served in WritersCorps for seven years, leading poetry workshops and events with the youth of Mission High School and other schools. He is the author of four chapbooks, most recently “A Mirror to Shatter the Hammer” from Tarpaulin Sky Press. Sweeney is co-editor of the new poetry journal, Parthenon West Review, a journal of contemporary poetry and translation. He is currently translating a book of Farsi poetry by H.E. Sayeh.
Gloria Yamato worked with WritersCorps for seven years, both as a teaching artist and as a program associate. She has an MA in interdisciplinary arts from SFSU with a concentration in creativity and arts education. She was a member of the 2006 Intergenerational Writers Lab, a joint project of Kearny Street Workshop and Intersection For the Arts. She was recently selected to participate in the 2007 James P. Shannon Leadership Institute.
