Staff

Calley N. Anderson (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based playwright from Memphis, TN. Anderson spent three years in the Memphis non-profit arts sector before moving to New York City to pursue her Master's degree. Past and current affiliations include Page 73, National Black Theatre SOUL Series LAB, American Theatre Group BIPOC PlayLab, MacDowell, Liberation Theatre Company Writing Residency Program, Clubbed Thumb Early Career Writers Group, The Civilians R&D Group, and Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellows. MFA: New School for Drama | BA: Davidson College.

Nicole Di Luccio (she/her) was awarded her Bachelor’s in Creative Writing and Linguistics at SUNY New Paltz, a small school nestled within the Hudson Valley, with minors in communications. She enjoys cooking, reading, volunteering, and exploring disparate parts of the world while trying to make sense of it all. She can usually be found playing with her dog or eating some kind of dumpling.

Daisy Flores(she/her)  earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Cultural and Deviant Studies from John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY), minoring in English. Daisy enjoys writing, reading fiction, listening to music and drawing.

Judith Ohikuare (she/her) is a poet, fiction writer, and former journalist from Brooklyn, NY. She is currently the Director of Special Programming & Communications at NY Writers Coalition (NYWC), a nonprofit based in Fort Greene that provides creative writing workshops for underserved and marginalized groups across NYC. She has written for various outlets including Essence and Condé Nast Traveler, and was previously a staff writer at Refinery29 where she covered work and money and edited the popular “Money Diaries” series. Prior to Refinery, Judith worked on staff at Cosmopolitan and Inc. magazines writing and editing stories about entrepreneurship, technology, and personal finance; she also served as an editorial fellow at The Atlantic. Judith has read with SupaDupaFresh at Lincoln Center’s “Poets on the Plaza” Summer for the City series, had poems published in Variant Literature and HAD, is a 2023-2024 Fellow with poet Shira Erlichman’s “portable creativity school” In Surreal Life (ISL), and her story “Occur” (originally published in CHEAP POP) has been anthologized in 2023 Best Microfiction.

Ungrateful Black Artist (UGBA - 'oog ba') (pronoun inclusive) is a queer poet, rapper, playwright, actor, and activist based out of Brooklyn, NY. UGBA is the founder/host of CEREMONIES—a Brooklyn based monthly Black-Queer artist showcase held in honor of Essex Hemphill. UGBA is also the founder of "Dark-Skin Support Group" a virtual support network for dark-skin Black Americans in need of a space to discuss the realities of colorism. In 2020, UGBA was named a “Black LGBTQ+ playwright you need to know '' by Time Out NY. UGBA is the former script assistant for the Pulitzer Prize winning and 5 time TONY nominated Broadway show "Fat Ham". He is an alumnus of the Public Theater’s #BARS program and Emerging Writers Group 2020-2023 cohort. He is a 2023 Artivism Fellow through Broadway Advocacy Coalition, a 2022 MAP Grant recipient, a 2020-2021 BAM Resident, a New York Stage & Film 2023 Founders' award recipient and current Artistic Director at NY Writers Coalition

Aaron Zimmerman (he/his) founded NYWC based on the success of the workshops he began in April 2000 at The Prince George, a supportive housing community for low-income, formerly homeless and special-needs populations. Aaron is a former co-chair of the Board of Directors of Amherst Writers and Artists, is an AWA affiiliate, and has been leading creative writing workshops using the AWA method since 1997.

Aaron was named a 2005 Petra Fellow by The Petra Foundation for his “distinctive contributions to the rights, dignity and autonomy of others,” and he served on the Petra Foundation Board of Directors from 2011-2015. He was named as one of the “Top 100 New Yorkers” of 2003 by New York Resident magazine for his work with NYWC. He also has taught creative writing at City College.

Aaron has an MA in Creative Writing from City College. His novel, By The Time You Finish This Book You Might Be Dead (Spuyten Duyvil, October 2003), was selected by Poets and Writers as a “New and Noteworthy” book. His fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous literary magazines, including The Brooklyn Rail, Georgetown Review, South Dakota Review, Jeopardy and Mid-America Poetry Review. In addition, Aaron has extensive business and legal experience in the entertainment field, most recently as Director of Law Administration for Showtime Networks Inc. Portrait by Zahra Mirmalek (https://www.zahramirmalek.com)