Art & Poetry Challenge 2022

Tomasen M. Carey, M.Ed., is a Senior Lecturer in the English Department at the University of New Hampshire. She is the Director of the UNH Writers Academy, the Field Coordinator for the Learning Through Teaching Program, and Instructor of the New Hampshire Literacy Institutes. She loves working alongside writers of all ages to help them find their creative spirit and voice. She is the voice behind the blog, conversationeducation.com.

Emily M. Hinnov, Ph.D., is a professor of English and program coordinator for the English major at Great Bay Community College, where she teaches college writing, women's literature, film studies, and British literature from Beowulf to Virginia Woolf. As a scholar in the field of literary modernism, she has published several essays and chapters in academic books and journals, as well as a monograph and a co-edited volume. At Great Bay, she is a regular contributor to and supporter of the NH Humanities Collaborative, an Andrew Mellon Foundation-funded initiative to bring humanities programming to NH students and citizens across the community college and university systems.

Courtney Marshall, Ph.D., posted on her Facebook page: “I am a Black feminist fitness instructor and high school English teacher. Let’s get free!” Courtney leads dialogues on race, gender, and social justice issues and is an advocate for—and writer on—prison reform. She was a facilitator for the UNH MLK Leadership Summit for students and has run literacy groups at the Berlin, New Hampshire, Correctional Facility in hopes of improving prison life by bringing literature to inmates. Over the years she has taught as a professor of English and Women’s and Gender Studies at UNH and as an English teacher at Phillips Exeter Academy.  

Hannah Rubin is an eleventh grader at Phillips Exeter Academy. Her writing has been honored by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and 2021 Racial Unity Art & Poetry Challenge competition and has been featured in The Poet’s Touchstone and the Black Matter is Life poetry series. She is a member of the NH Teen Poet Laureate Team, part of the Writing the Land project, and the Submissions Coordinator for The Poet’s Touchstone volume 64, issue 1. At her school, she is a co-head of three clubs related to classical music, trans-disciplinary art, and volunteer music lessons.

Kathleen McCaffery-Pomerleau is a compassionate dynamic educator, who has taught second graders for 15 years at the Main Street School, in Exeter, New Hampshire. She earned, from the University of New Hampshire, a Bachelor of Arts with a concentration in Studio Arts, and a Master of Education in Art Education K-12  and Elementary Education K-6. She recently worked on updating the NH Arts Standards with the Department of Education. She has worked with the Lorenzo De’ Medici School of Art and UNH FAMILYHOSTEL to plan art education units for families touring the artistic sites of Florence, Italy, including the Uffizi Gallery. 

Cynthia Velasquez is a native of Los Angeles, California, and her work reimagines home as a space shaped by queer diaspora and memory. Her spatial reimagining is influenced by a frugal use of cultural materials. Using photos, storytelling, song, and scent, she develops a visual element toward remembering in a more permanent way. Mediums include multimedia painting, ink, clay, and photography. She has participated in several solo and group shows and film festivals nationally and internationally. She studied at Cal Arts in the Aesthetics & Politics Program, School of Critical Studies. Cynthia is an Admissions Counselor for Diversity at UNH. She serves as a gallery reviewer for 3S Artspace and other national organizations like Escondido Canyon (Art House) and Movimiento Archivo (archive) and does digital and analog portraits!  www.cynthiakvelasquez.com