Collectivists

A Queen of many crowns or hats. Wynter is the Executive Director or UBLAC and Mother to a handsome baby boy; has been a poet since the age of eight. Having her first poem published in second grade, Poetry was the first time she felt like she could express herself with meaning and purpose. Wynter has taken creative writing classes her entire life, to continue to explore what was already inside: Poetry. Since then, she has competed in many poetry slams locally. Wynter made her debut in the 2018-19 Salt Lake City Slam Poetry Season and made the team in the same year. She creates poems about justice, healing, self-love, queerness, and the power to overcome. She is the 2018 Ogden Pride Poetry Slam winner. And a member of the 2019 Salt Lake City Slam team where she went on to be a 2019 Salt Lake City Pride Finalist, a Rustbelt Team finalist, and a Southwest Shootout team finalist. She has learned to live in the moment and love it, her moments have been beautiful and full of lessons; for that she is grateful.

Mariam Dickerson is a poet, community organizer, and designer, raised in the Salt Lake City poetry community. She is interested in continuing to build community and having conversations on social construction and deconstruction. Most likely to be found scribbling a few more lines to the back end of a poem before publishing.

Meligha Garfield (he/him) is the inaugural director for the Black Cultural Center (BCC) at the University of Utah—a center that works to holistically enrich, educate, and advocate for students, faculty, staff and the broader Salt Lake community through Black centered programming, culturally affirming educational initiatives, and retention strategies. Hailing from Rochester, New York, Garfield holds a B.A. in Government, with a minor in colonial Latin American history and Africana studies and a Master of Public Administration from New Mexico State University (NMSU) in which his concentration was public policy and race & politics. When not working in the Black cultural center, Meligha can be found in the field of voice over, emceeing and podcasting and poetry/spoken word. With over 8 years of experience in radio and emceeing, Meligha knows how to rock a platform, connect with a crowd and provide an environment where heart filled stories can be told. Here in Utah, He is a part of serval organizations such as: Curly Me!, Utah Black Chamber of commerce, and the Utah Black Roundtable. In under three years he has made impactful partnerships with Utah division of Multicultural affairs, Utah business Mag, Lucid, Domo, Utah museum of fine arts, Neighborhood works, UVU, Weber State, Utah System of Higher Education, Utah Black Chamber of Commerce. He is also a proud member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Incorporated, an historically Black fraternity.

TBA

TBA

Bashaun is a native of Lubbock, Texas. As a Junior and Senior, he was captain of his Varsity Basketball team and a member of Ballet Lubbock's pre- professional Company. He first started his formal dance training at the age of 16 in Texas under Yvonne Racz-Key, Artistic Director. In 2007, Bashaun relocated to Salt Lake City to attended the University of Utah on both academic and artistic merit scholarships, in the department of ballet. While at the U, he was a member of the departments resident company for 4 years and danced Principal and Soloist roles. In 2011, Bashaun joined Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company. He has been fortunate to have toured extensively throughout the United States, Africa, France, Mongolia and South Korea as a performer and educator. While with RW, he also has had the pleasure of working with renowned choreographers such as Stevan Novakovich, Edward Truitt, Val Caniparoli, Rick Tija, Johannes Weiland, Bill T. Jones, Charlotte Boye-Christensen, Doug Varone, Yin Yue, Raja Feather Kelly and Daniel Charon, among others. Bashaun is forever grateful for the opportunity to perform, teach, inspire and grow alongside such a wonderful community of people here in the Salt Lake area.

As the first black female Principal Artist with Ballet West, Katlyn’s passion for ballet can only be rivaled by her passion for giving back to the community. She is a multifaceted artist, paving the way for the future of ballet through her commitment to her artistry, her love of choreography, and her dedication to teaching a new generation of dancers. Katlyn Addison was born in Ontario, Canada, and began her ballet training at the age of 10 at the Quinte Ballet School Of Canada. She later trained at Pacific Northwest Ballet, Boston Ballet, and Houston Ballet Ben Stevenson Academy. Katlyn started her professional career as a Corps de Ballet member of the Houston Ballet in 2007 and, in 2008, she received the Sarah Chapin Langham Award at Youth America Grand Prix. She joined Ballet West as a Corps de Ballet dancer in 2011 and was promoted to Demi Soloist in 2014, to Soloist in 2016, and again to First Soloist in 2018. Katlyn performed as a guest artist in Principal and Soloist roles with the Scottish Ballet in the fall and winter of 2019 to 2020. In 2021, Katlyn was promoted again. This time, she made history by becoming the first Black female Principal Artist at Ballet West in their 58-year history. Katlyn also acted in a Miu Miu “Woman’s Tales”, a short film that premiered at the Venice Film Festival and on the Prada Miu Miu website in 2017. She made history as Ballet West’s first Black ballerina to dance the role of the “Sugar Plum Fairy” in Frederick Ashton’s “The Nutcracker”. Performance for the United Nations dancing the role of Mother Earth in “Way of Rain / Earth Movement” at the yearly UN conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. Katlyn has choreographed for Ballet West Academy, individual dancers YAGP from Ballet West, AVA Ballet Theater, Artemotion Adult Summer Program, and Dance Tech in Park City. In 2015 and again in 2018, Katlyn choreographed “The Hunt”and “Hidden Voices” for Ballet West’s Works from Within Choreographic Program, and Utah’s Arts Festival in the Summer of 2019.

TBA

Franque is a poet who loves to share what makes her laugh and what makes her cry. She is also a passionate organizer that works to create opportunities for art to bring healing to our communities. She is convinced that the key to happiness is bringing your ideas to life and helping others do the same. She currently works to build community through storytelling in Salt Lake City.

Michelda George is a Haitian American from South Florida living in Salt Lake City. Between 2008 to 2012, she ran a family business where she developed the resilience to thrive in the world of business. As a result of the recession, she dreamed of a world where she could create opportunities for BIPOC worldwide to own their own businesses. Today, she is a banker, a performance poet, an Economics student at Brigham Young University, and engaged in building her non-profit known as Versatile Image; an organization devoted to empowering the Black experience. In service to the black community, Michelda holds regular workshops at universities throughout Utah teaching the fundamentals of credit, budgeting, practical best practices on day-to-day banking, and the history of black wealth. Because she believes building wealth is a birthright she works to gain full licensure to open her own financial firm in the next three to five years to open doors for Utah’s BIPOC communities.

Avery Franklin is a mixed race African American actor, artist, and graphic designer. Avery had been seen at the Ogden Arts Festival and has been awarded "Best emerging artist" for the work presented under Dizmo7. Avery has performed as an actor at Good Company Theater and The Ziegfeld theater for several years. Avery is also a certified graphic designer who received his documentation from the Ogden Weber Technical College.

Everett Spencer is an Actor, Musician, and Model with a long list of credits in Los Angeles, California, and Salt Lake City, Utah. He received his training from the Los Angeles City College School of Performing Arts and the Michael Flynn Actors Workshop in Utah. Everett is a highly skilled African Percussionist who has performed numerous times under the group Mel Soul and The Messenger.