Artist Bios
Shannon Bourne's current body of work explores her experiences with congenital hip dysplasia. Visceral landscapes depict figures that are detached from their systems, and muscular forms make their home in cavernous environments. Bourne is looking to create networks and relationships between each of these disconnected masses and follow a search for convergence and balance, in both her work and her own body. Bourne received a BFA from University of Nebraska and a MAM from Columbia College. She currently works as a freelance grant writer and consultant to various artists, musicians, and non-profits.
Lauren Herrmann is an independent photographer, musician, and writer. She is currently the visual director at Lethal Poetry. She recently acquired a BFA in Photography from UIC. Her photography has appeared in over a dozen local art exhibits, including a solo show at New Works Gallery featuring her documentary work from Nepal during its revolution in 2008. Lauren currently lives at the Lethal Poetry Residence in Chicago.
Ross Hickerson is a photographer and poet from Omaha, Nebraska. His poetry has appeared inThe Nervous Breakdown, Paddlefish Review, and one time, he printed out one of his photos and hotglued it to the cover of the The New Yorker. A fan of Moriyama-inspired street photography and elegant poems, you can often find him sticking cheap cameras in random people's faces, and then placating them with cheap books of poetry. Ross can walk on water, chew nails, and pee thumbtacks, but he always forgets your birthday until the last minute.
American Artist David Maddy’s piece entitled “The Stages of Attraction” uses the format of character study to deal with the role that identity plays in social interaction. "Stages" is a time-based multimedia installation composed of a series of twenty drawings that illustrate an audioplay. Born in 1984 in San Francisco, California, Maddy and his family moved to Interlochen, a small town in Michigan, in 1998. From 2002 to the present, he has studied art and music at several institutions, most recently Indiana University.
Beth Massura is a graphic designer by trade, as well as an amateur photographer and writer. Throughout much of her work, she attempts to capture the beauty of subjects that are imperfect, tattered, discarded or overlooked. Beth has a BA/BS from Purdue University and a MAM from Columbia College. She resides in Chicago, IL.
Kevin Simmonds is a writer, musician and photographer originally from New Orleans. His writing appears or is forthcoming in Asia Literary Journal, Chroma, fuselit, jubilat, Kyoto Journal and the anthology War Diaries. He wrote the music for the 2009 Emmy Award-winning documentary Hope: Living and Loving with HIV/AIDS in Jamaica. Orient, his newest project (huggingasians.com), considers the historical and contemporary relationships of Blacks and Asians in America. He taught the first-ever poetry workshop in Singapore's Changi Prison and has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Jack Straw, Fulbright, San Francisco Arts Commission, and Squaw Valley. He lives in San Francisco.
S. Mojdeh Stoakley, is a 4x award winning bi-racial American-born writer, performer & interdisciplinary artist. Her work is about the intersections of race, trauma, and social stigma. She has a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and she is the founder of The Mojdeh Project and Lethal Poetry Inc.
Lauren Herrmann is an independent photographer, musician, and writer. She is currently the visual director at Lethal Poetry. She recently acquired a BFA in Photography from UIC. Her photography has appeared in over a dozen local art exhibits, including a solo show at New Works Gallery featuring her documentary work from Nepal during its revolution in 2008. Lauren currently lives at the Lethal Poetry Residence in Chicago.
Ross Hickerson is a photographer and poet from Omaha, Nebraska. His poetry has appeared inThe Nervous Breakdown, Paddlefish Review, and one time, he printed out one of his photos and hotglued it to the cover of the The New Yorker. A fan of Moriyama-inspired street photography and elegant poems, you can often find him sticking cheap cameras in random people's faces, and then placating them with cheap books of poetry. Ross can walk on water, chew nails, and pee thumbtacks, but he always forgets your birthday until the last minute.
American Artist David Maddy’s piece entitled “The Stages of Attraction” uses the format of character study to deal with the role that identity plays in social interaction. "Stages" is a time-based multimedia installation composed of a series of twenty drawings that illustrate an audioplay. Born in 1984 in San Francisco, California, Maddy and his family moved to Interlochen, a small town in Michigan, in 1998. From 2002 to the present, he has studied art and music at several institutions, most recently Indiana University.
Beth Massura is a graphic designer by trade, as well as an amateur photographer and writer. Throughout much of her work, she attempts to capture the beauty of subjects that are imperfect, tattered, discarded or overlooked. Beth has a BA/BS from Purdue University and a MAM from Columbia College. She resides in Chicago, IL.
Kevin Simmonds is a writer, musician and photographer originally from New Orleans. His writing appears or is forthcoming in Asia Literary Journal, Chroma, fuselit, jubilat, Kyoto Journal and the anthology War Diaries. He wrote the music for the 2009 Emmy Award-winning documentary Hope: Living and Loving with HIV/AIDS in Jamaica. Orient, his newest project (huggingasians.com), considers the historical and contemporary relationships of Blacks and Asians in America. He taught the first-ever poetry workshop in Singapore's Changi Prison and has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Jack Straw, Fulbright, San Francisco Arts Commission, and Squaw Valley. He lives in San Francisco.
S. Mojdeh Stoakley, is a 4x award winning bi-racial American-born writer, performer & interdisciplinary artist. Her work is about the intersections of race, trauma, and social stigma. She has a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and she is the founder of The Mojdeh Project and Lethal Poetry Inc.