Spoken Word Series

KEN YOSHIKAWA is a half-Japanese third culture American poet-actor-playwright from Portland, Oregon. In his theatre career he’s appeared at Artists Repertory Theatre, Portland Center Stage, NW Children’s Theatre, Oregon Adventure Theatre, and the Portland Playhouse. In 2019 he released his first spoken word album Quiver (Lightship Press), and performed his autobiographical poetic solo play The Art of Fly Swatting at the Pan Asian Repertory off-broadway in NYC. His poems have appeared in Nailed Magazine, Letters from the Void, Hapa Mag, and Discover Nikkei. His first full length poetry book Monster Colored Glasses is out now on Lightship Press at yoshikawaken.com

SARITA “Sincere” GOODS is a dedicated and hardworking wife and mother of two. She currently resides near Charleston, SC, which is where is originally from. Sarita has been involved in poetry for 20 years, starting with local open mics in Greenville, SC, before getting into slam. She has participated with and coached different Southern Fried teams over the years and discovered her love for nurturing the person while helping develop their craft. Additionally, she is a part of the New Danger Arts collective and has facilitated workshops and performed at schools across South Carolina.

Dr. ADAM HENZE is a researcher, educator, and spoken word artist, and has shared his work in over 30 states, as well as Puerto Rico, Canada, England, Ireland, and the United Arab Emirates. He is a co-director of Slam Camp, a summer writing academy for teenage poets, and founding director of Power of a Sentence, a prison literacy program in Indiana. Adam received his PhD from the Literacy, Culture, and Language Education department at Indiana University, and works as a Research Associate at the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community. His research interests include critical media literacy, youth literacies, prison pedagogy, and inquiry methodology. Adam currently serves as Director of Programming for Southern Fried Poetry, Inc., which hosts the longest-running annual poetry slam in the world. He is a Bureau Speaker for Indiana Humanities and was the Official Poet of the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500.