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Twelve Literary and Performative Arts Incubator Teaching Artists
Our teaching artists have a combined 85 years of experience working as poets, writers, educators, and researchers. Here's who we are:
Daniel Gray-Kontar
Twelve Executive Artistic Director, Teaching Artist | Hip Hop Culture for MC's, Playwriting for Social Change, Poetry for Publication, Literary Theory
Daniel Gray-Kontar is a poet, teacher, youth mentor, rapper, journalist, and education activist. He has worked as an advocate for social transformation in the city of Cleveland for more than 25 years. Gray-Kontar is an education consultant for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; the former chair of the Literary Arts Department at the Cleveland School of the Arts; and a former graduate school fellow at UC Berkeley's College of Education. His work in arts education has been showcased on PBS Newshour. 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.
Kisha Nicole Foster
Teaching Artist | Introduction to Poetry, Poetry & Performance, Advanced Poetry
A nominee of the Cleveland Arts Prize, Kisha Nicole Foster is a poet, educator, and youth mentor. Kisha has represented Cleveland several times nationally – competing at National Poetry Slam 2003, Individual World Poetry Slam 2008, and Women of the World 2009. The Poets and Writers League of Greater Cleveland (now The Lit Center), awarded Kisha as one of the Top 25 Writers of Greater Cleveland in 2006. In 2010, KNF produced her first one – woman show, “Remember Rebirth WeLive” at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Her first full-length collection of poems, titled “Poems: 1999-2014” was published in 2015 (GTK Press). She has read and lectured at colleges and universities across Northeast Ohio and she is currently coaching Cleveland’s national youth poetry slam team that will compete at Brave New Voices, in Washington D.C. in July 2016. Kisha Nicole Foster guides poets young and old to find their voices and focus on their craft.
Eric M. Odum
Director of One Mic Open, Teaching Artist | Poetry & Performance
Eric M. Odum is a graduate of Cleveland School of the Arts, where he double majored in Creative Writing and Theater. Odum is the current president of the Youth Poetry Slam team in Cleveland (One Mic Open), and has been an active part of the youth performance poetry scene as performer, coach, and administrator for nearly a decade. He has taught at various schools, ranging from Orange to Lakewood, as well as Cleveland School of the arts. He actively engages youth in conversations about their art as it relates to the world around them, in hopes of fostering confidence in their artistic, and individual voice.
James Brandon Irby
Coach, One Mic Open, Teaching Artist | Introduction to Poetry, Poetry & Performance
James Brandon Irby is a graduate of the Literary Arts Department at Cleveland School of the Arts. He is a former member of the Cleveland Youth Poetry Slam Team, and is the present coach of the Slam Team representing the city of Cleveland at the annual Brave New Voices competition.
Eva Barrett
Teaching Artist | Introduction to Poetry, Playwriting for Social Change, Literary Theory
Eva Barrett is a poet and playwright from Cleveland, OH. She is a 2014 graduate of the Cleveland School of the Arts and is currently studying History and German at Case Western Reserve University. Eva’s primary artistic focus is studying discourse as power in dialogue and public space, and translating the nuances of human interactions into written and spoken word. She has facilitated classes and workshops in playwriting, poetry, and the historical analysis of poetry, centered around the intersections of postcolonial studies and erotic subjectivity. Eva was the 2016 recipient of the Rocks Experiential Learning Fellowship, with which she travelled to participate in the James Madison University Undergraduate Writing Conference. She is currently an artist in residence at the Cleveland School of the Arts.
Alana Belle
Administrator, One Mic Open, Teaching Artist | Poetry & Performance
Alana Belle is a well-regarded poet on-the-verge. She is a current administrator for the Cleveland Youth Poetry Slam Team, and community activist. Belle is also a former coach and member of the Youth Poetry Slam Team; and a graduate of Cleveland School of the Arts' Literary Arts Department.
Teaching Interns
Each fall, spring and summer, Twelve hires paid interns to support our education programming. These youth are an indelible part of facilitating writing workshops, co-constructing our curriculum, managing our website, and capturing, editing and posting video to social media.
Here is our roster of interns for summer of 2016:
Mary Barrett
Poetry, website development, education
Mary Barrett was born August 2, 1999 in Cleveland, Ohio. Now 16 years old, she attends the Cleveland School of the Arts as a senior in the Literary Arts department. Her writing is best known for its womanist outlook on life as well as its repetitive use of symbolism using the sun and ocean. Her greatest piece of work, a womanist choreopoem titled "Henosis", was her first real breakthrough in finding her voice as a young poet.
Taylor Benford
Poetry, performance, education
Is a 17 year old student, attending New Tech at Collinwood where they’re senior year. Taylor has only recently started writing poetry , but has found it a therapeutic way to connect to others while speaking their own truth. Taylors main focus is writing poetry that connects to their experiences as a nerdy queer person of color. Taylor is a current member of One Mic Open youth program slam team representing the city of Cleveland at the Brave New Voices Youth Poetry Festival and Competition.
Nick Vitello
Raja Freeman
Poetry, Short Fiction, Education
Raja Freeman is a Cleveland’s current youth poetry grand slam champion.Freeman will represent the city of Cleveland at the Annual Brave New Voices Festival and Competition in San Francisco this summer. She is a poet, musician, and visual artist, who has also placed second in the Ohio poetry Association’s student contest. Freeman was also a Lieutenant Governor for Key Club International. She will attend Cleveland State University this Fall.
Deija Vinson
Poetry, performance, Education
Raja Freeman is a Cleveland’s current youth poetry grand slam champion.Freeman will represent the city of Cleveland at the Annual Brave New Voices Festival and Competition in San Francisco this summer. She is a poet, musician, and visual artist, who has also placed second in the Ohio poetry Association’s student contest. Freeman was also a Lieutenant Governor for Key Club International. She will attend Cleveland State University this Fall.
Tiana Wilson
Poetry, Videography, Video editing
Tiana Wilson is an 18-year-old student who graduated from Cleveland School of the Arts in May of 2017. A literary arts major at CSA, Tiana`s main focus was poetry and screenwriting. Her short film ”Dance Of The Night” debuted at the Greater Cleveland Urban Film Festival in the Fall of 2016. Tiana enjoys weaving classic mythology stories into her own vision of the contemporary world. She has been admitted into Cleveland State University, where she will major in film/cinema and minor as a creative writer. Tiana has performed at several venues, including Cleveland Playhouse, Cleveland Public Theatre, Karamu Theatre. Tiana hopes to one day be able to help youth in her city get the same opportunities she had while she was growing up.