COORDINATORS
Tamiko Beyer, Development Coordinator
Tamiko Beyer is the author of the poetry collections Last Days and We Come Elemental. Her poetry and articles have been published widely, including by Denver Quarterly, Idaho Review, Black Warrior Review, and Georgia Review. She has received awards from PEN America and the Astraea Lesbian Writers Fund, among others. She publishes Starlight and Strategy, a monthly newsletter for shaping change. A social justice communications writer and strategist, she spends her days writing truth to power. tamikobeyer.com
photocredit: Susi Franco
Franny Choi, Founder, Operations Coordinator
Franny Choi is a queer, Korean American writer, former organizer, and author of three books: The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On (2022), Soft Science (2019), and Floating, Brilliant, Gone (2014). She developed her practice in community with artists and activists in Providence, RI, where she worked on campaigns for police accountability, youth power, and migrant justice. Her poems have been published in the New York Times, the Nation, and the Atlantic; taught in abolitionist trainings by Mariame Kaba; translated into five languages; and broadcast on NPR’s Code Switch and All Things Considered. She is Faculty in Literature at Bennington College.
Aurielle Marie, Book Fair Co-Coordinator
Award-winning poet, essayist, and cultural strategist Aurielle Marie is a Black queer storyteller, political organizer, and child of the Deep South by way of Atlanta. Their poetry debut, Gumbo Ya Ya, is the recipient of both the 2020 Cave Canem Prize and the 2022 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Poetry, and is out now with the University of Pittsburgh Press.
Lo Kwa Mei-en, Book Fair Co-Coordinator
Lo Kwa Mei-en is the author of Yearling (Alice James Books, 2015), The Bees Make Money in the Lion (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2016), and two chapbooks from The Lettered Streets Press and Bloom Books. She lives and works in Cincinnati, Ohio.
photocredit: Araminta Kellond-Knight
ADVISORY CIRCLE
Made up of Coordinators, Book Fair Committee Members, former Witches & Warriors Fellows, and other advisors, the Advisory Circle is the collective governing body of Brew & Forge. The Fall 2022 Advisory Circle included Tamiko Beyer, Franny Choi, MacKenzie River Foy, Lo Kwa Mei-en, MARS Marshall, Claire Schwartz, and Omkari Williams.
Andrea Schmid, Justice Ameer, Candace Wiley, Jess X. Snow, Tamiko Beyer, and MARS Marshall also participated in a Catalyst Circle in June 2021 to advise on the growth of B&F, including the Witches & Warriors Retreat.
WITCHES & WARRIORS FELLOWS
2022:
Sojourner Ahébée, Jamie Grace Alexander, Noa Coffrey-Moore, MacKenzie River Foy, Aarati Kasturirangan, Mon Mohapatra, Precious Chika Musa, Blue Nguyen, Bushra Rehman, Aftan Sethia, tae min suh, Omkari Williams
Participants in the 2021 Catalyst Circle, from top left: Andrea Schmid, Franny Choi, MARS Marshall, Justice Ameer, Tamiko Beyer, Jess X. Snow, Candace Wiley.
Staff of the 2022 Witches & Warriors Retreat. From top left: Tamiko Beyer, Amelia deGuzman, tae min suh, Franny Choi, Patricia Jeon.