Kira Bunkholt (any pronouns) is a multi-genre writer, theorist, filmmaker, singer-songwriter, and organizer from Saint Paul, MN. Their multidisciplinary practice explores love, revolution, spiritual transformation, and collective healing--guided by the question: Why am I here? Rooted in both personal and political storytelling, Kira’s work draws from Black feminist traditions of truth-telling, community care, and interconnectedness with each other and the earth. Their art is a continuous negotiation of relationship, identity, and self-confrontation. Kira has performed throughout the Twin Cities, led poetry workshops, facilitated conversations on disability justice and creativity, and supported grassroots artists through grant writing. Their work has appeared in Salty Magazine and other platforms. They are currently a fellow in More Than A Single Story’s Go Back and Fetch It cohort for emerging Black writers and Mama Papaya StorySeeds Fellow for emerging BIPOC filmmakers in Minnesota.

Keng Xiong (he/him) is a Hmong American creative artist and storyteller based in Minnesota. He graduated from the University of Minnesota with a BA in English and a BIS in Creative Writing, Leadership, and Asian American studies. He loves writing poems and performance-based texts, including spoken word poetry and plays. He is interested in exploring and sharing Hmong and immigrant stories with a focus on queer identity, language, and family. He is also passionate about arts advocacy, storytelling, and education. Keng has been published in The Tower, Asian American Literary Journal, Button Poetry, the minnesota review, Queer Voices MN, and more. His work has also been presented at Exposed Brick Theatre, the 2025 SEA Change Lab, and Paper Lantern Project at Xia Art Gallery. He currently is an apprentice in the 2025–2026 year-long poetry cohort at the Loft Literary Center where he is working on a collection of poems, titled “when I sing to you a birdsong.” This collection explores Hmong American boyhood, merging the genres of poetry and play.

Adrienne (she/they) is a writer, curator, and artist organizer. They make meaning from the connective and vulnerable aspects of identity, lineage, memory, and the systems that bring them to form. Adrienne is a co-founder of Burn Something Collective, which creates opportunities for technical development and autonomy for Black and POCI femme, nonbinary, and trans artists in the Twin Cities.

구연아 Yeon Ah Koo is a Korean Italian literary artist and 2025 Queer Voices Emerging Artist Fellow. They write poetry to relish in the sweet spots of life, examine vulnerable truths in their non-fiction, and dream of fictional worlds rooted in self-discovery, love, culture, and nature. Yeon Ah writes to heal, nurture, and cultivate abolitionist community-centered futures through storytelling. They spend their most joyful moments laughing loudly with loved ones, snuggling up with their regal Nebelung and a book, eating good, immersing themselves in their once-lost Korean culture, and often scrawling at their roll-top desk late into the night. Follow 구연아 Yeon Ah Koo on Threads and Instagram! @kooyeonah on all platforms.