Leatra is from St. Louis, MO., but has lived in Texas for the last 13 years. She moved to Texas and worked several different jobs, mainly in the medical field, before finding her career in broadcasting. She has written three books and ghostwritten two.
Karina Guardiola-Lopez, is an American-Honduran, Jewtina from New York City. She is writer, poet, actor and educator. She has been published in various magazines, anthologies and websites including: Great Weather for Media, The Scrib Arts Journal, Poetica Magazine, Indolent Books, Acentos Review, New Voices Anthology, The BX Files, Abuela Stories, Latinoauthor.com, Latinabookclub.com just to name a few. She has also featured at various venues including: The NYC Poetry Festival at Governor’s Island, National Black Theatre Bowery Poetry Club, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Q-Boro Lit Crawl, The Bronx Museum and many other locations.
In addition to writing poetry, Berry also provides free reviews for her fellow poets in hopes that modern poetry can be shared with a wider audience.
After having once been forced by circumstance to ignore poetry, Berry has since dedicated her life to it. She has fallen madly, deeply in love with this craft.
2018 was an amazing year and a new beginning for me. For over 20 years, I was in the EMS field; first as a volunteer Firefighter, then working as an EMT, Paramedic, Flight Medic and Instructor. My life has now taken a huge, exciting turn. My new adventure all started when I began waking up at 3am each morning and started to write down my thoughts and dreams. These writings ultimately became a collection of lyrical poems which are songs telling stories of my life and my journey with the Lord. I have never done anything like this before and I felt like I was writing words that were being given to me by God. Throughout these poems, the theme is around the many battles of good and evil which I feel we all struggle with in various ways. For me, things that were once negative and difficult, I now see in a positive light. The nightmares in my mind, have been replaced with dreams of positivity and inspiration. I have been truly blessed to be able to publish my collection of poems in 2019 and pray that this book of life’s journeys is a blessing to you and uplifts your heart!
Live Big Girl” is a Poetic play about 3 women and their different and not so different experiences of living in a body that is not celebrated. There is root deep digging towards self- awareness, self- acceptance, and self-love.Through poetry, in movement and in stillness, offering a prescription for healing, in the taking back of their bodies from the mouths of critics.Fierceness comes when truths are shared.
The Cast:
Vanessa Chica (Dominican) -Writer, Actor
Karina Guardiola-Lopez (Honduran) Writer, Actor
Rebeca Lois Lucret (Puerto Rican/Cuban) Writer, Actor
Peggy Robles Alvarado (Dominican/ Puerto Rican) Director
Matt Nagin is a writer, educator, filmmaker, and standup comedian. His poetry has been published in Antigonish Review, Oxford Magazine and The East Bay Review. Kirkus Reviews deemed his first poetry collection, ‘Butterflies Lost Within The Crooked Moonlight,’ ‘powerful verse from a writer of real talent.’ His second collection, ‘Feast of Sapphires,’ reached #12 on the Amazon Best Seller List. Matt has performed standup in seven countries, and acted in numerous film and tv productions. His first short film, Inside Job, won acting and directing awards on the festival circuit.