WELCOME - Promote Peace Through Arts - ZO ARTS Global

Marcia Parker

Irydia Velsari — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 18:32:08 +0000

Poet — Writer — Entrepreneur
| ZO Affiliate|CURATOR — Owner-operator at Marcia Parker Productions and Event Coordinator at The Original Melodic Mondays

Marcia has coordinated, judged, and helped us manage a few ZO Expos. She is also a gifted chef, speaker, actress, and unique Spoken Word Artist known as Motha Nature.

We’d like to thank her for her work with ZO and Artitude in this joint promotional video.

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Karen Connelly

Irydia Velsari — Wed, 06 Nov 2019 00:41:23 +0000

Author | Poet
| 2018 ZO Teen Expo Poetry Judge

Karen Connelly

In the words of CBC Radio host Bill Richardson, Karen Connelly is “one of our smartest, fiercest and most intrepid writers. She has turned an innate and turbulent restlessness to her and to our advantage: never content with just one form, never content with just one place, never allied to just one idea. She’s a poet, an essayist, a novelist, a provocateur.”

Her works have been translated into fourteen languages and published in seventeen countries. She lives with her family in Toronto and, during the summers, in Greece.

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Mario René Padilla

Irydia Velsari — Sat, 11 May 2019 21:36:16 +0000

Writer: prose, poetry, songs and fiction
| One of ZO’s First Judges for our 2014 Poetry Expo

We all really loved the rhythmic poetry that Mario shared at ZO’s live launch at The Tropics in Hollywood, CA

Mario René Padilla is a writer of prose, poetry and songs. His poetry and fiction have appeared in North American Review, The Antioch Review, New Letters, Alligator Juniper, The Ledge, INKWELL Magazine, Americas Review, Atlanta Review, Visions International. His first collection of poetry, Reaching Back for the Neverendings, appeared in 1994. He wrote the music and lyrics for Hercules on Normandie in 2006 at the Greenway Court Theater. His unpublished manuscript of poetry, Postcards on the Invented Road, has been a recent finalist in book awards: Red Hen Press, Crab Orchard Review and Silverfish Review’s Gerald Cable Book Award. He earned his M.A. in English from Loyola Marymount and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from U.S.C. He teaches Creative Writing and English literature at Santa Monica College in California.

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Harry Grammer

Irydia Velsari — Sat, 11 May 2019 21:12:19 +0000

Scholar — Poet — Founder & CEO for New Earth
| ZO Poetry Expo Judge

ZO was honored to have Harry at our launch event and as a judge for our first Poetry Expo!

Harry Grammer is an activist and award winning reformer working with the juvenile justice nationwide system. In 2017, Harry was honored as a CNN Hero and in 2018 selected as an inaugural Obama Foundation Fellow. As the Founder and President of New Earth, Harry brings his leadership and visionary spirit, along with an extensive background in teaching poetry, advocacy and leadership to incarcerated and at-risk youth. For the past 14 years, Harry has been the head instructor and training for all New Earth programming that is offered to over 1,500 incarcerated and formerly incarcerated youth per year in Los Angeles County. Harry has personally worked directly worked with over 10,000 youth since the inception of the organization. In addition to developing and teaching core curriculum, and designing new programs, Harry also trains and manages New Earth staff both in detention centers and at New Earth’s two charter school re-entry centers for system-involved young people. He has a stellar track record in keeping the youth he works with from recidivating and on a path of productivity. Harry has his Ph.D. from the Community, Liberation, and Ecopsychology program at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara.

Photo credit: Obama Foundation

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Don Kingfisher Campbell

Irydia Velsari — Sat, 11 May 2019 20:35:55 +0000

Poet — storyteller — author
| 2014 ZO Poetry Expo Judge

We are so grateful to Don Kingfisher Campbell for being a Judge for our very first POETRY EXPO! He also shared poetry at our Cloud Z live launch and has been a great encouragement since connecting. Don has an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles, is listed on Poets & Writers, founder of POETRYpeople youth writing workshops; publisher of Spectrum magazine; leader of the Emerging Urban Poets writing and Deep Critique workshops; and host of the Saturday Afternoon Poetry reading series in Pasadena, California. He has taught Creative Writing in the Upward Bound program at Occidental College and been a Guest Teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District for 34 years. Want a poet in your classroom, library, bookstore, coffeehouse, or event?

You can find more of Don’s poetic work at: http://fourfeatherspress.blogspot.com

Check out a snippet of Don and other poets on this video at ZO’s live launch at the Tropics.

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Tonya Ingram

Irydia Velsari — Sat, 11 May 2019 01:24:31 +0000

poet. author. lupus legend. dialysis diva. kidney transplant hopeful. mental health advocate. friend.
| ZO 2015 Poetry & Art Expo Judge

“Where The Wild Things Are … Lover of God and People. Performer. Writer. Accidental Hipster. NYU Alumna. Otis Grad Student. Cincinnati Native. Bronx-bred Introvert. LA Odd Soul.”

October 6 at 11:43 am

By Tonya Ingram

sometimes self-care is binge watching ‘how to get away with murder’ while planning your future wedding while eating all of the chocolate because you’ve gotta take care of yourself, kid. even when the self-doubt keeps you in bed. even when guilt gives you a name you have already given yourself. so go ahead, devour your favorite snack. rewatch your favorite show on netflix. weep into the phone as you tell a friend how the days are heavy. rid your clothes and dance like everything about you is a marvel. say forgiveness. delete the number of the one who does not deserve you. sing your name like it is wind. i promise, my friend, there is enough room for you.

Tonya Ingram — Another Black Girl Miracle

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Jane Varley

Irydia Velsari — Sat, 11 May 2019 01:11:47 +0000

University Professor – Poet – Writer
| ZO Poetry Expo Judge Expo

Jane Varley is the Chair of English and Coordinator of Creative Writing at Muskingum University in New Concord, Ohio. She teaches writing and literature, and writes and publishes poetry and nonfiction.

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Shikha Malaviya

Irydia Velsari — Sat, 11 May 2019 01:01:00 +0000

Poet – Writer
| ZO Poetry Expo Judge

Shikha (Saklani) Malaviya is a poet & writer, born in the U.K. and raised in Minnesota and India. Her book, Geography of Tongues, was launched in December 2013, in India, and featured in The Times of India Literary Carnival, Lit.mus & other festivals. Shikha is co-founder of The (Great) Indian Poetry Collective, a literary press.

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Alyssa Long

Irydia Velsari — Fri, 10 May 2019 21:25:09 +0000

Poet – Writer
| ZO’s first Teen Judge for the 2016 Teen Media Expo

Alyssa Long (at the time of the Expo) was a 19 year old graduating senior from Ohio Wesleyan University; pursuing a joint MFA/Ph.d. in Poetry and English Literature.

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Dakota R. Garilli

Irydia Velsari — Fri, 10 May 2019 20:09:46 +0000

Poet — Writer
| ZO Teen Poetry Expo Judge

Dakota R. Garilli is a queer poet and essayist originally from the great state of New Jersey.

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