Born in 1977, Ayana Vellissia Jackson received her Bachelor of Arts from Spelman College (USA) and studies as a guest student under Khaterina Sieverding at the University of Arts, Berlin (Germany). Ms. Jackson has exhibited her work in association with Rush Arts Gallery (USA), A Gathering of the Tribes Gallery (USA), The Washington DC Cultural Development Center (USA), Assembly International (Germany), Inter America Foundation (IAF) as well as academic and community based spaces in the US and Europe. Selections from her work on Ghanaian hip hop and portraits from her series on Afro-Mexican communities have been published in academic and lifestyle publications including “Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society” (Columbia University, USA), The Fader and Anthem Magazines (USA). In addition her work can be found in the Museum of Afro-Mestizo Cultures (Mexico) and the World Bank (USA) permanent collections.
Marco Villalobos’ writing has
appeared in various journals and major publications such as Step into a World:
a Global Anthology of the New Black Literature (John Wiley and Sons, 2000),
Bumrush the Page: a Def Poetry Jam (Crown, 2001), Dialogue Through Poetry 2001
Anthology (Rattapallax Press, 2001), Geography of Rage: the Los Angeles Riots
of 1992 (Really Great Books, 2002), and ReGeneration, (Tarcher/Putnam, 2003).
His journalism takes cues from emotion rather than science and has been sought
after by international publications such as Stress, Code, the Fader, Trace,
Anthem, and Fugue magazines. Poet and writer as well as performer, Villalobos
has presented his work on international stage and radio for over a decade. Author
of limited edition chapbook, Barrio Gold (Unilan Publishing, 2002), Villalobos
is a 2003-2004 Unesco-Aschberg Laureate and a 1998 Hispanic Scholarship Recipient.