POEMS

Vanessa Chandler is an event producer, moderator, curator and public art project manager committed to amplifying underrepresented voices, making art accessible to all, and connecting everyday people to extraordinary experiences. She’s worked with over 120 local artists and managed more than 35 arts-focused events and initiatives, including the Healing Verse Germantown million-dollar grant funded public art project. A known mover and shaker, her belief that artists deserve to be seen, celebrated, and compensated has established her as a trusted voice in Philly’s creative ecosystem.

Valerie V. Gay (Val Gay®) is a Creative, Certified Financial Planner, non-profit administrator, recording and performing artist and thought leader. While a classically trained soprano, Val is an active performer across several genres, having widely performed, including a solo performance at Carnegie Hall and a feature on NPR Music.

Val was recently appointed by the Mayor of Philadelphia as Chief Cultural Officer for Creative Philadelphia, and the first executive director of the City’s office of arts and culture to serve in the Mayor’s Cabinet in Philadelphia.

In 2019, Val received an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from St. Joseph’s University and has earned a Professional Studies Certificate and a Master of Music in Vocal Performance at Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance, a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from the University of the Arts and completed degree course work at Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University.

Marguerite is a licensed architect and arts professional with over 20 years of experience in the planning, design and creative industries. As Public Art Director for the City of Philadelphia, she oversees the commissioning of permanent, site-specific public art at recreation centers, libraries, parks, and civic spaces through the City’s Percent for Art program, as well as other special public art commissions. She also oversees the stewardship and management of the City’s world-renowned collection of more than 1,000 works of public art. As an artist and architect, she is interested in finding innovative ways to bridge gaps between art, the built environment, and the human experience.

Noni Clemens (she/her) joined Creative Philadelphia as the Assistant Public Art Director in June 2023. In this role, she supports the Public Art team in commissioning and managing permanent public art projects, leading collections management and conservation of the City’s 1,000+ works of public art, and producing professional development workshops for local artists looking to grow their public art practice. Noni came to Creative Philadelphia with 15+ years of experience developing and leading community-driven public art and art education initiatives for arts organizations including Mural Arts Philadelphia and Arts New Orleans. She resides in the Mount Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia with her partner and their child.

Morgan Nitz is a queer interdisciplinary artist who earned their BFA in Sculpture and the Edith Weil Hecht Memorial Award in Sculpture from Tyler School of Art in 2018. They were an inaugural curator for Tyler School of Art’s Alumni gallery Straw, and a co-curator and founder of the pop-up gallery The Legume Room. They have completed a residency at Jasper Studios, and have exhibited at The Institute of Contemporary Art, Vox Populi, Pilot Projects, and Practice gallery. Their art writing has been featured in Philly Artblog, the Philadelphia Citizen, and their poetry published by Damaged Goods Press. Currently, they are the Communications and Community Engagement Manager for Creative Philadelphia and a Nextgen Advisor to Forman Arts Initiative.

Trapeta B. Mayson was born in Liberia and raised in North Philadelphia and Germantown. She earned her BA in Political Science and Master’s Degrees in Social Services and Business from Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research and Villanova University School of Business respectively. The author of two self-published poetry collections, Mocha Melodies and She Was Once Herself, Mayson also released the music and poetry projects SCAT and This Is How We Get Through, in collaboration with jazz guitarist Monnette Sudler. A Cave Canem, Pew, and Aspen Words fellow, she was awarded a Leeway Transformation Award and is a Pennsylvanian Council on the Arts grantee. Mayson is a licensed clinical social worker and Chief Program Officer at a community mental health agency in Philadelphia. She is a member of the Greene Street Artist Cooperative in Germantown and was the 2020-2021 City of Philadelphia Poet Laureate. In 2021, she received an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship.

Yolanda Wisher is author of Monk Eats an Afro and co-editor of the anthology Peace is a Haiku Song with Sonia Sanchez. Born in Germantown, Wisher was named inaugural Poet Laureate of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania and third Poet Laureate of Philadelphia. A Pew and Cave Canem Fellow, Wisher received the Leeway Foundation’s Transformation Award in 2019 for her commitment to art for social change and was named a Philadelphia Cultural Treasures Artist Fellow in 2022. Wisher taught high school English at Germantown Friends School for a decade, co-founded the Germantown Poetry Festival, and served as Director of Art Education for Mural Arts Philadelphia. Wisher works as the Senior Curator at Monument Lab. Her curatorial projects include Love Jawns: A Mixtape, Stellar Masses, The Re-Emancipation of Social Dance, and Declaration House. She performs a blend of poetry and song with her band Yolanda Wisher & The Afroeaters.

Rob Blackson’s curatorial initiatives include Symphony for a Broken Orchestra, Funeral for a Home, 100 People Listening: A Shared Decade, 2021 – 2031, Philadelphia Doll Museum Forward with Barbara Whiteman, and reForm with Pepón Osorio and the Fairhill community. He is the director and curator of Washington College’s Kohl Gallery.  For over ten years, Blackson served as the founding director of Temple Contemporary at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture. Prior to moving back to the US from the UK in 2011, Blackson was the curator of BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle/Gateshead and curator of public programs at Nottingham Contemporary. An Andy Warhol Curatorial Fellow, and author of numerous publications including If There Ever Was: a book of extinct and impossible smells. His curatorial work has contributed to a momentum of artistic programs that share poetic and practical social purpose.