Palabra at The Cheech

Barbara Fant (@iambarbarafant) has been writing and performing for nearly 20 years. She has competed in 9 National Poetry Slam competitions, is a 7x Grand Slam Champion, and a World Poetry Slam finalist. She is the author of three poetry collections, Paint, Inside Out (2010), Mouths of Garden (2022), and Joy in the Belly of a Riot (2025). Her work has been featured in the Academy of American Poets, Electric Literature, McNeese Review, The Ohio State University Press, Button Poetry, and Def Poetry Jam, amongst others. She has received residencies in Havana, Cuba and Senegal, West Africa. For over 15 years, she had led healing-informed poetry workshops for both youth and adults who are incarcerated, those in community, adults in recovery, and survivors of human trafficking and domestic violence. She is a certified Healing Centered Engagement specialist and holds both an MFA in Poetry and a Master of Theology. She is a member of the Recording Academy’s 2025 New Member Class and a 2025-2026 Poetry Coalition Fellow through the Academy of American Poets. She is the founder of Bloom Life Arts, Bloom Life Foundation Inc., and the Black Women Rise Poetry Collective, and co-founder of The Senghor Project, West African International Artist Residency. Currently, she serves as the Program Director for the Homeboy Art Academy at Homeboy Industries and as a Youth Network Advisor for Cause Communications, both in Los Angeles, California.

Anonymous 1 (@farmerstephenyorba) is a farmer, community activist, and poet from Pomona, CA., where he is lead farmer, founder, and Executive Director of Lopez Urban Farm. Recently back from his second trip to Palestine, his book, Falastin Hurra!, captures his experience farming in the occupied West Bank. A1’s work as a farmer/poet seeks to pay homage to the Zapatistas of Chiapas and the Fellahin of Palestine. “For Land and Liberty” is his calling; a pen and pickaxe are his tools. A1 is a graduate of Cal State Fullerton, American University, and Claremont School of Theology where his academic focus was comparative religion, philosophy and theology, with an emphasis on social justice and participatory activism.

Ceasar K. Avelar (@ceasarkavelar) is a Central American poet and is the Writer in Residence of Cafe Con Libros in the Pomona Arts District, where the mission is to bring Literature to the community. Avelar runs and hosts an open mic every second Saturday during the Pomona Art Walk called Obsidian Tongues Open Mic, held at Cafe Con Libros Press in downtown Pomona. He also coordinates writing workshops and a poetry reading with an open mic at Lopez Urban Farms. His collection of poetry, God of The Air Hose and Other Blue-Collar Poems, was published in 2023 by El Martillo Press. His mission is to promote poetry with the youth and bring poetry to public spaces such as the public library and schools. He served as the poet laureate of Pomona from 2023-2024 and is the co-editor of ILL Anthology. He graduated from Cal Poly Pomona with a degree in Sociology.