Presenting the Graduates of the Spring 2021 Teaching Artist Project (TAP) Class. This anthology is a compilation of their work, experiences, and the fun we've all had together this spring. Community-Word Project's TAP is in its 23rd year and is the longest-standing professional development program open to the Teaching Artist field by a non-profit organization in New York City. TAP is a collective of diversely experienced arts educators training emerging and working teaching a

Aishwarya Madhav is an Indian classical dancer, choreographer, and educator. Trained from the age of six in Bharathanatyam and Kuchipudi, she began her solo performing debut at nine. Since then, she has widely performed across India and the US, at prestigious venues like 92StY, Lincoln center, and Yale University, as well as in Drive East, Jamaica, and other dance festivals, showcasing her art forms. Aishwarya has also conducted dance workshops at the American Ballet Theater

Amanda Monti (any pronoun) is a cross-disciplinary poet, who works in literature, translation, radio, performance and scholarly research. Through playful research methodologies and a deep commitment to queer worlding and kinship Amanda lifts poetry off the page and into poetry as a practice of living with a sense of wonder, tenderness and care. As a TA, Amanda wants to empowering students to use the art of storytelling to observe and inquire and subsequently create, partake a

Through subjective intellectual interpretation and unconventional techniques, Anu Annam captures individual mental states, auras, and nuances of personalities in their portraiture, focusing on self-portraiture during times of introspection. They have become nationally and internationally renowned for their ability to capture the emotional essence of their subjects using her impressionistic to semi-abstract style. Annam is an award-winning, internationally acclaimed exhibiting

“There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.” - Toni Morrison Ariel Mercado is a Queer Afro-Bori conceptual artist from the Bronx who explores the intersections of poetry and visual arts. Their work centers around the domestic space, transcendental psychology, consciousness, the diaspora, and the nature/quality of identity. They explore semiotics as a Black Bi-

"Let joy be an act of resistance." Crystal Yeung is a queer femme Asian American poet with an MFA in Poetry from the College of New Rochelle. She holds a BA in English literature and was a part of the CCNY Language & Literacy MA program. Her writing can be found in Rabbit Catastrophe Review, Poets & Writers, Perigee, TAYO, and descant. She is recipient of Poets & Writers Amy Award and descant Betsy Colquitt Poetry Award, serves as chair for the PEN Prison Writing Program, and

"Wherever you go, go with all your heart." - Confucius Cynthia Schmidt is a passionate believer in the power of words. She recognizes the profound importance of both human connections and the stories of our world, and therefore received her Bachelor's degree from High Point University in both Human Relations and English Writing. She has decided to further her mission of pursuing academic and creative excellence with her MFA in Writing, Speculative Fiction track, at Sarah Lawr

Originally from Austin, Texas, Elisabetta recently graduated from Columbia University. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn New York as a video editor, filmmaker, and photographer. TAP Work: "Deepened my reflective practice as an educator and met some new, very inspiring and wonderful people." Most Memorable TAP Moment: "Love my care team!" Find out more about Elisabetta here: http://ffc.twu.edu/issue_10-1/feat_Negron-Muntaner-and-Diorio_10-1.html

“There are some things one can only achieve by a deliberate leap in the opposite direction.” —Franz Kafka Helayne was born in the Bronx and is a lifelong New Yorker. She is a ceramic artist, printmaker and graphic designer. Art has always been an important part of Helayne’s life, first exploring drawing on her own and then attending the High School of Music and Art, and later earning a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Always curious to learn, Helayne has p

"Nada es mas Valioso que la risa. Reirte con todas tus fuerzas y dejarte llevar por esta, te libera y te hace sentir en paz." - Frida Kahlo I'm a creative soul that loves recycling and using unconventional materials and making them into fashion, art, and embellishments. I am into abstract creative art from costumes, Make-up and creative wig styles. I have been an artist all my life, however the past 20 years it has only refined my skills. I am a licensed cosmetologist from Ca