The Crew

 Meet the Crew

 

Mark Lipman, US National Beat Poet Laureate 2024-2025; founder of the press Vagabond, the Culver City Book Festival, and the Elba Poetry Festival; winner of the 2015 Joe Hill Labor Poetry Award; the 2016 International Latino Book Award and the 2023 L’Alloro di Dante (Dante’s Laurel – Ravenna, Italy), a writer, poet, multi-media artist, activist and author of fifteen books, began his career as the writer-in residence at the world famous Shakespeare and Company in Paris, France (2002-2003). Since then he has worked closely with such legendary poets as Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Jack Hirschman on many projects, and for the last twenty years has established a strong international following as a leading voice of his generation. He’s the host and foreign correspondent for the radio program, Poetry from Around the World, for Poets Café on KPFK 90.7FM Los Angeles. As Mark continues to travel the world, he uses poetry to connect communities to the greater social justice issues, while building consciousness through the spoken word.

 

 

 

Damian Rucci is a poet and organizer from NJ who is the author of 10 books of poetry and founder of The Poetry Renaissance. He is the focus of the PBS documentary Voices in the Garden & writes Poets Like Us

 

 

 

 

Alexander Ragsdale is, despite his appearance, not Kurt Cobain. He’s a New Jersey based writer and musician The current residing host of Poetry in the Port and assists in organizing with The Poetry Renaissance.

 

 

Kit Johnson, a New Hampshire-based Texan, brings a unique blend of irreverence and introspection to her poetry. Her work navigates the tender, the raw, and the mischievously sublime. A touring member of Bards On The Rocks, she thrives within the screwy brilliance of the New England Poetry Renaissance. Discover more of her world on Instagram: @poetry4losers

 

 

Claire Conroy, Beat Poet Laureate of Maine 2024-2026, has self-published two books of poetry (“Listen” in 2018 and “Silent” in 2022) and a chapbook (“Rumors From Dead Lips” in 2024).  Born in Portsmouth, NH, she is a proud board member of the Portsmouth Poet Laureate Program and is the host of their open mic, The HOOT. She has been published in over 20 anthologies and has been translated into Hindi by Devesh Path Sariya. Claire’s passion, in addition to writing both beat style and format poetry is reading poetry. With a deep appreciation for jazz poetry, she loves the opportunity to perform poetically with musicians. She has also added the dance troupe “Sisters Phoenix” to her book launch performance for her second book, “Silent” in 2022.  She is happy to travel for poetry and does so as often as possible.  Claire was thrilled to be a featured reader at PoetFest in St Augustine, Florida in April of 2024. Her ultimate honors so far have been to receive state Laureateship from the National and International Beat Poetry Foundation in August of 2024 and to perform with David Amram and his band at Lowell Celebrates Kerouac Festival in October of 2024. Claire holds poetry workshops in Sanford, Maine where she lives.

 

 PW Covington is the NBPF’s ‘New Mexico Poet Laureate (2024-2026). Covington has spent decades traveling the highways of North America, sharing his poetry and prose. With numerous Best of the Net and Pushcart nominations, PW has been invited to share his work from Woodstock, NY to The Beat Museum in San Francisco. In 2019, his collection of flash fiction ‘North Beach and Other Stories’ was selected as a Finalist in LGBTQ+ Fiction by the International Book Awards. PW lives just south pf Historic Route 66, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he has worked on film and television projects including ‘Better Call Saul’.

 

 

Marshall James Kavanaugh is a Philadelphia-based dream laborer and performance poet. He has performed his poetry at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Barnes Foundation, Monument Lab, and the Philadelphia International Airport. As Dream Poet For Hire, Marshall creates stream-of-subconscious inspired poetry on demand for the general public. In 2017-2019, he co-organized with the Poets For Peace, a series of readings across the country focused on uplifting marginalized identities, civil rights, and giving space to grief. The tours culminated in the publication of two zines by the Poets For Peace in the summer of 2020 as a mutual aid response for Black Lives Matter. He has published two collections of short stories, several small chapbooks of travel fiction, and two collections of haikus with the small press, A Freedom Books. His most recent poetry book, Travel By Haiku: Volumes 6-10, Far Out On The Road With Friends (released March 2021) is a modern ode to the community found on the road, with collaborative haikus written by six navigators of its far reaches over the course of three separate road trips.

 

 

Āvila Sól-Rey is a Harvard Graduate Uke Singer/Songwriter from Surf City, NJ. When she’s not on stage, Āvila loves making Films, most notably an upcoming flick ‘Dante & Loui’, shot in Melbourne Aus. She recently finished writing her debut album ‘RIDER-DIE’, & sneak previews of the unreleased album can be caught at vagabond tour shows across the country this spring

Ashby Logan Hill is a poet, writer, artist, and educator from Harrisonburg, VA currently living in Richmond.  He has been blessed to study extensively with poets including James Tate, Dara Barrois-Dixon, Lynn Xu, Peter Gizzi, Camille Rankine, Lilah Hegnauer, and Laurie Kutchins and with writers including Hilary Holladay, Sabina Murray, Edie Meidav, Jeff Parker, Shastri Akella, and Noy Holland, among others. He holds an MFA in Poetry from UMASS Amherst (2017) where he was a reader for jubilat. His work can be found in voicemail poems, WHURK Cultural Review, River City Poets Anthology, and the 2024 Virginia Poetry Society Anthology among other places.

 

 Westley Heine is the author of Busking Blues: Recollections of a Chicago Street Musician and Squatter (Roadside Press 2022), and a short story collection 12 Chicago Cabbies (Newington Blue Press 2021). Most recently Page Telegram Press has released his novella Picture Book, and Roadside Press has released a poetry collection Street Corner Spirits, audio excerpts of which are now available on all streaming services under the same title. In April 2025 Roadside Press will release a new collection of short stories and poems entitled Cloud Watching in the Inferno.