Carlos Andrés Gómez is an award-winning poet and actor from New York City. A former social worker and teacher, has has toured North America, Europe, the Caribbean, and Africa and has a lead role in Spike Lee's number one box office smash hit film "Inside Man" (Universal Pictures) alongside Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, and Clive Owen. A member of the 2004 Nuyorican Poets' Café Slam Team and the 2005 and 2006 louderARTS team, Carlos recently won a Rocky Mountain Emmy Award for his starring role in the groundbreaking "Respect Yourself" television spots and appeared on the third season of the popular Showtime series "The L Word." He is one of the headline acts on the critically acclaimed, MTV-U sponsored Fight Apathy National Tour. Over the past six years, he has shared the stage with a diverse range of well-known musical acts and literary icons, including Wyclef Jean, Amiri Baraka, MC Lyte, Martín Espada, Toots and the Maytals, Brook Valentine, Vaeda, Immortal Technique, The Slip, Pete Rock, Reel Big Fish, and Saul Williams.

Roger Bonair-Agard is a native of Trinidad and Tobago who moved to New York City at age 19. He has appeared three times on Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam on HBO, performed and facilitated writing and performance workshops at colleges, universities and high schools around the country, stirred audiences at festivals and concerts from Germany to South Africa to Anchorage, Alaska, and recently opened for calypso legend Shadow for an audience of 2,000 in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. The author of Tarnish & Masquerade (Cypher Books, 2006), and co-author of Burning Down the House (Soft Skull Press, 2000), Roger is also a Cave Canem fellow and a member of six New York City National Poetry Slam teams. Roger continues to perform and teach throughout the world, leading workshops and conducting performances in major universities; he has also appeared on The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour, Air America , Pacifica Radio's Beneath the Surface and other national radio programs. His one-man poetry concert, MASQUERADE: poems of calypso and home, will enjoy an extended off-Broadway run this November.

Oveous Maximus is a native New Yorker whose roots run back to the Dominican Republic. He started writing and performing in New York City in the summer of 2003 after he lost his only brother Carlos "Ziiinc Blue" to suicide. Oveous' presence on stage has become a symbol of honor in the name of his brother who is the eternal driving force behind Oveous' work to uplift   and rejoice the spirits of all people. Oveous has been seen on Showtime at the Apollo on NBC and UPN as well as on Current TV for a video performance entitled The Millions , as well as ESPN2's new reality series I'd Do Anything. He also stars in the recently released documentary "SP!T." A member of the 2005 Nuyorican Poets' Café Slam Team and the 2006 louderARTS team, Oveous has performed in countless venues across the U.S. and Canada as well as European cities including London, Paris, and Grenoble.

Rachel McKibbens is a total Capricorn . She has been writing poetry for six years and just can't seem to stop. She was a member of the 2001 West Coast Regional Poetry Slam championship team, was voted "Best New Poet" by OC Weekly her first year slamming. McKibbens has made six consecutive National Poetry Slam teams and has kissed exactly six boys in her life. She recently led the 2006 louderARTS Poetry Slam Team to a third place finish in the National Poetry Slam competition in Austin, Texas, and her favorite color is pink. She appeared on the fourth and fifth seasons of HBO's Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry and stars in the documentary Slam Planet: War of the Words . McKibbens is currently the SlamMaster for NYC/louderARTS and is an Urban Word mentor, teaching poetry through The Healing Arts Program at Bellevue Hospital. She collects butcher knives in her spare time.

Marty McConnell transplanted herself from Chicago to New York City in 1999, after completing the first of three national tours with the Morrigan, the groundbreaking all-female performance poetry troupe she co-founded. She received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, appeared on the second and fifth seasons of HBO's Def Poetry Jam , and competed in five National Poetry Slams with the NYC/louderARTS team. Her work has been published in numerous anthologies including Homewrecker: An Adultery Reader , Will Work for Peace, In Our Own Words: Poetry of Generation X , and the forthcoming Women of the Bowery anthology, as well as magazines including Rattapallax, Boxcar Poetry Review, Fourteen Hills, Thirteenth Moon, 2River View, Lodestar Quarterly , and Blue Fifth Review . She has performed and facilitated workshops at schools and festivals around the country, including The Dodge Poetry Festival, Connecticut Poetry Festival, Cornell University, the University of Utah, James Madison University, University of Connecticut, University of Arkansas, DePaul University, and more