Poets on Payroll

Featured guests for this evening are: 

Anne Marie Wells

Carlos Ornelas

Eboni Echols

Kuahmel

AKoldPiece

Camari Carter-Hawkins

Sandra Sanchez

Alex Petunia

Ravina Wadhwani

Tommy Domino

Karo Ska

Andy Sanchez

& more!!

About Kuahmel: Meet Soul Brother No. 7. If you know a poet who has published a book with CLI, chances are he was responsible! He has rapped and hosted at famed Hip-Hop mic Project Blowed. He has featured and hosted at poetry events up and down Southern California. He is published in books Peace in the Pocket, Sounds from the Waters, and Knowledge of Self, all out now. He is Kuahmel.

RAVINA is a Los Angeles CA based poet who was born and raised in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Ravina is the author of YELLOW- a collection of poetry & prose recently published through World Stage Press. Ravina is active in the Community Literature Initiative (CLI) community as a faculty and alum as well as AIM4the Heart & Never Speak Long Beach. Ravina has performed at multiple stages on the West & East Coast and believes poetry is a tool to connect heart, mind & voice for collective healing & social change. You can find her debut collection on WorldStagePress.Org

Anne Marie Wells (She | They) is a queer poet, playwright, and storyteller navigating the world with a chronic illness. She is a faculty member of the Community Literature Initiative through the Sims Library of Poetry. She was the winner of the Crow House Press 2021 Poetry contest and the 2021 Peter K. Hixson Memorial Award in poetry. Connect with Anne Marie on social media @AnneMarieWellsWriter.

Eboni Echols is a Christian Artist who uses her voice by way of rhetoric writing, speaking, poetry and singing to honor God and inspire the lives of a diversity of people. She has experienced and overcome many life trials and test that have brought her to a position to relate to those who need inner healing, deliverance and a shift in their life. Her testimonies have inspired the lives of many.

Carlos Ornelas, a Los Angeles Native, is a Mexican American poet and the Author of the book titled, Ketchup, and has been doing poetry since High School. He is the first Author published by Hiram Sims and was a student during the creation of the CLI program. His poems have been published over the years in Voices of Compton, the Myriad, war for existence, if these pages could speak, and a few other publications. He was part of the living writers series and is the current press manager for the world stage press.