Maya Williams (ey/they/she) is a Black Mixed Race queer nonbinary person, suicide survivor, and poet residing in Portland, Maine. They currently serve as MaineTransNet’s Sexual Assault Program Coordinator, where they develop peer support groups for trans survivors and educational material on trauma informed trans competency for advocates. They also serve as co-host of the video series Dying/Laughing, which analyzes the representation of suicide and mental health in TV and film. Maya has published poetry in glitterMOB, Occulum, The Portland Press Herald, Littoral Books, FreezeRay, and more. Ey has received residencies from organizations such as Sundress Academy for the Arts (SAFTA), Voices of Our Nation Arts (VONA) Foundation, The For Us by Us Fund’s Words of Fire Retreat, and Hewnoaks Artist Colony. She is a Maine Writers and Publishers Association (MWPA) Chapbook finalist, a Best of the Net Nominee, and a winner of PortFringe’s Patron’s Choice Award for her spoken word performance “When Speaking to an Extraterrestrial.” You can see Maya as one of the three selected artists of color to represent Maine in The Kennedy Center’s Arts Across America series, hosting open mics Tuesdays for Port Veritas, and facilitating writing workshops for Quill Books & Beverage Sundays. Follow them at their website mayawilliamspoet.com

Midori Samson (she/her) is a bassoonist, educator, activist, and scholar. She is happiest participating in artistic projects that engage all of these identities. Her recent activities include collaborations with Artists Striving to End Poverty, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and Yo-Yo Ma, and the Ubumuntu Arts Festival in Rwanda. She is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Trade Winds Ensemble, a group of teaching artists that lead music composition workshops in partnership with social impact organizations around the world. She is currently the Lecturer of Bassoon at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, a member of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and a doctoral candidate in bassoon and social welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Catherine Sarah Young is an award-winning artist, designer, and writer. She uses her background in molecular biology, fine art, and interaction design to create interdisciplinary and experimental artworks on the environment. She has an international award, exhibition, publication, and fellowship profile and has collaborated with researchers, industry, and non-profit organisations most recently in China, Southeast Asia, Austria, and the Amazon rainforest. She is a Scientia scholar at UNSW Sydney working on climate change and sustainability, an Obama Leader for Asia-Pacific, a Creative Peacebuilder for The Peace Studio, a resident at Sydney Observatory, and is part of Team HB6 of Homeward Bound for Antarctica. She writes science fiction and holds a second-degree black belt in taekwondo.

A native of Japan, Satoko Hayami is an active collaborative and solo pianist, also performing on harpsichord and toy piano. A versatile artist, Satoko has performed and taught piano chamber music and accompanied instrumental and vocal repertoire all over the world, most notably, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, and Canada, as well as throughout the United States. A passionate performer of new music, she co-founded Sound Out Loud Collective, a contemporary chamber ensemble, which won the first prize in Chamber Music Performance, American Award in 2018. She is on the piano faculty at Beloit College and serves local communities in Madison through her community engagement projects, and was a Public Humanities Exchange Scholar at UW-Madison Center for the Humanities. Satoko holds masters degrees in Collaborative Piano from Rice University and the Cleveland Institute of Music. She was awarded a Paul Collins Fellowship, and is pursuing a DMA at UW-Madison under the mentorship of Professor Martha Fischer. www.shxpiano.com