Mahogany L. Browne : The Cave Canem, Poets House and Serenbe Focus Fellow alum is the author of several books including Swag & Dear Twitter: Love Letters Hashed Out On-line , recommended by Small Press Distribution & listed as About.com Best Poetry Books of 2010. She has released five LPs and is co-founder of Brooklyn Slam (currently ranked 2nd in the world) and has toured Germany, Amsterdam, England, Canada and recently Australia as 1/3 of the cultural arts exchange project Global Poetics. Her journalism work has been published in magazines Uptown, KING, XXL, The Source, Canada's The Word and UK's MOBO. Her poetry has been published in literary journals Pluck,Manhattanville Review, Muzzle, Union Station Mag, Literary Bohemian, Bestiary Brown Girl Love and Up The Staircase. She is the Artistic Director of Urban Word NYC (as seen on HBO's Brave New Voices) and facilitates performance poetry and writing workshops throughout the country. She is the publisher of Penmanship Books, curator & FridayNight Slam host at Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and Program Director of BLM@Pratt Institute.

Theodore Taylor III is an artist, designer, and photographer living in Washington, D.C. When the Beat Was Born is his first picture book.