Meet the staff of Twelve Literary Arts

DANIEL GRAY-KONTAR
Executive Artistic Director
Gray-Kontar has lectured at universities, public schools, arts organizations and scholarly conferences across the US. His Ted Talk discussing youth leadership in public school education has affected the ways public school administrators think about the inclusion of youth and their families in the process of re-making school cultures and curricula. He is the proud father of his daughter Paloma Manning-Gray.

Stephanie Ginese
Director of Programs in Residence

Tricia Vidovic
Marketing & Outreach Coordinator
Tricia is an extrovert that loves to meet and talk to new people- she has never met a stranger! Tricia has worked both professionally and as a volunteer for over 20 years in Northeast Ohio to match individuals with services that support one’s physical, social, and emotional needs and well-being by providing education and creating awareness in the communities that are served. She joined Twelve Literary Arts in November 2020 as the Marketing & Outreach Coordinator for Youth Programs.

Eric M. ODUM
Youth Program Coordinator
Eric Odum is a queer poet, brother and friend who enjoys pushing the boundaries of conventional education and is a strong advocate in acknowledging the past as framework for developing new classics.

Mary Barrett
Youth Program Coordinator
Mary Barrett is a dancer, choreographer, poet, lecturer, and teaching artist from Cleveland, Ohio. She began her work with Twelve Literary Arts as an intern at the One Mic Open after-school fellowship and over the years evolved into Twelve’s current Youth Programs coordinator. She is also a member of the Hough Youth Advisory Board. Her writing merges critical race theory, feminist theory, afrofuturism, and hip hop cultural studies with spoken word aesthetics.

Raja Belle Freeman
Lead Teaching Artist
Raja Belle Freeman is a performance poet, college graduate, visual artist, and flautist. She has worked with Twelve Literary Arts as an intern, a member of the Six of Twelve Youth Performance Poetry Ensemble, and was a two-year member of the One Mic Open Youth Poetry Slam Team. She is currently a senior at Cleveland State University majoring in English with a concentration in Creative Writing and minoring in Black Studies.