Quraysh Ali Lansana is author of the poetry collections The Walmart Republic w/ Christopher Stewart (Mongrel Empire Press, 2014) , mystic turf (Willow Books, 2012), They Shall Run: Harriet Tubman Poems (Third World Press, 2004) and Southside Rain (Third World Press, 2000); two children’s books: A Gift from Greensboro (Penny Candy Books) and The Big World (Addison-Wesley, 1999); and four poetry chapbooks, reluctant minivan (Living Arts Press, May 2014), bloodsoil (sooner red) (Center for the American Land, May 2009), Greatest Hits: 1995-2005 (Pudding House Publications, 2006) and cockroach children: corner poems and street psalms (nappyhead press, 1995). He is the editor of Glencoe/McGraw-Hill’s African American Literature Reader (Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2001), and I Represent and dream in yourself, which are two anthologies of literary works from Chicago’s award-winning youth arts employment program, Gallery 37 (Tia Chucha Press, 1996 and 1997, respectively). He is also co-editor of Dream of A Word: The Tia Chucha Press Poetry Anthology (Tia Chucha Press, 2006), and Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature and Art (Third World Press, 2002). Our Difficult Sunlight: A Guide to Poetry, Literacy & Social Justice in Classroom & Community (with Georgia A. Popoff) was published in March 2011 by Teachers & Writers Collaborative and was a 2012 NAACP Image Award nominee. His most recent books include the skin of dreams: new and collected poems 1995-2018 (The Calliope Group/Purple Basement Poetics, 2019); The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop (Haymarket Books, 2015); A Gift from Greensboro (Penny Candy Books, 2016), The Whiskey of Our Discontent: Gwendolyn Brooks as Conscience & Change Agent (Haymarket Books, 2017) and Revise the Psalm: Work Celebrating the Writings of Gwendolyn Brooks (Curbside Splendor, 2017). Quraysh’s work has been published widely in journals and magazines across the country and internationally, including Callaloo, Gulf Coast, and American Poetry Review, among others. He is currently a Tulsa Artist Fellow and an Adjunct Professor at Oklahoma State University-Tulsa. He is a former faculty member of both the Writing Program of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Drama Division of The Juilliard School. Quraysh served as Director of the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing at Chicago State University from 2002-2011, where he was also Associate Professor of English/Creative Writing. Lansana is a former Reading/Language Arts editor for Scott-Foresman/Pearson Education, Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, and Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Quraysh was Lead Consultant/Contributing Poet for the Jamestown Reading Navigator Poetry Slam On-line Program. Quraysh served as Poetry Editor for Black Issues Book Review for five years and is currently a Contributing Editor of Oklahoma Today magazine. Passage, his poetry video collaboration with Kurt Heintz, won the first ever Image Union/Bob Award from WTTW-TV (PBS). He is the recipient of other awards, including: the 2006 Securing the Future Award from ETA Creative Arts Foundation, the 2000 Poet of the Year Award, presented by Chicago’s Black Book Fair; the 1999 Henry Blakely Award, presented by Gwendolyn Brooks; and the 1999 Wallace W. Douglas Distinguished Service Award, presented by Young Chicago Authors, Inc. Quraysh earned a Masters of Fine Arts degree at the Creative Writing Program at New York University, where he was a Departmental Fellow. He has been a literary teaching artist and curriculum developer for over two decades and has led workshops and professional development sessions in prisons, public schools, and universities in over 30 states. He is a member of the Tri-City Collective.
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Rosa Hernandez immigrated to the United States at the age of four, I am a Native Mexican. I have worked with our local undocumented community for about 4 years now. Fighting against local and national anti-immigrant policies, and empowering undocumented youth with DREAM Alliance Oklahoma Tulsa.
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Kelli is originally from Shreveport, Louisiana, and grew up in a church that taught her God loves us and wants the best for us. This message (God loves us!) is what called her into ministry. She wants everyone to know about that love! Kelli went to Texas Christian University in Fort Worth earning a BA in Religion (Christianity and World Religions). She went to seminary at Brite Divinity School at TCU. Following seminary, she moved to Kansas City in service of Community Christian Church. There, Kelli met her husband, Nick Crews, a Tulsa native. Kelli and Nick have a daughter, Charlie. They also have 2 bird dogs that are more interested in earning treats than retrieving quail.
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Scott Carter received his Ph.D. in Economics from the New School for Social Research in New York City in 2004. His research includes empirical and theoretical inquiries in functional income distribution, Sraffian and Marxian political economy, capital theory, comparative theories of value, distribution and growth, the economics of immigration, and the history of economic thought. He is currently working on (i) the intellectual history of the neoclassical capital theorist C.E. Ferguson; (ii) original research at the Sraffa Archives in Cambridge, U.K.; (iii) developments in the Marxian theory of value and the "problem" of the transformation, with special emphasis on the so-called "New Solution"; (iii) the economics of immigration in the State of Oklahoma regarding the recent passage of anti-illegals legislation; and (iv) empirical tests of convergence in factor shares across advanced economies.
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Jessica joined OK Policy as a Communications Associate in January 2018. A Mexican immigrant, she was a Clara Luper Scholar at Oklahoma City University where she obtained a B.A. in Political Science and Philosophy. Prior to joining OK Policy, Jessica worked at a digital marketing agency in Oklahoma City. She is an alumna of both the National Education for Women (N.E.W.) Leadership Institute (2013) and OK Policy's Summer Policy Institute (2015). In addition to her role at OK Policy, Jessica serves as a board member for Dream Action Oklahoma in OKC and communications director for Dream Alliance Oklahoma in Tulsa.
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Claudette Grinnell-Davis is an assistant professor at the Anne and Henry Zarrow School of Social Work, University of Oklahoma (Tulsa). Prior to completing her PhD in social work and psychology at the University of Michigan, she provided family reunification and children’s mental health services. Her research examines origins of child maltreatment, youths becoming parents in foster care, and the role of culturally affirmative early childhood education in promoting mental health in young Indigenous children.
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