Sham-e-Ali Nayeem is an Indian American poet and artist of Hyderabadi descent. She is the author of City of Pearls and the recipient of the Loft Literary Center’s Spoken Word Immersion Fellowship.

Faleeha Hassan is a poet, teacher, editor, writer, playwriter born in Najaf, Iraq who has published 24 books. Her poems have been translated into English, Turkmen, Bosevih, Indian, French, Italian, German, Kurdish, Spain, Korean, Greek, Serbia, Albanian, Pakistani, Malayalam and ODIA language.

Alina Macneal & Jennifer Hook, Hosts, Open Reading Follows