Vanessa Micale is a mixed Uruguayan American multidisciplinary artist who creates across monikers and mediums as a poet, writer, singer-songwriter and performer. Their Pushcart nominated work appears in The Hopper, Roxane Gay’s The Audacity, and more. Vanessa holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Randolph College, with support from VONA, Anaphora, Latinx in Publishing, Literary Arts, Sou’wester Artist Residency, Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC), and Escaramuza’s El Fuego. Vanessa offers somatic coaching, facilitation and creative collaboration through Poderosa Voz.

Eileen's mother is Maria Cruz, her grandmother is Eloisa, and her great grandmother is Ysidora, matriarch of the Ñätho (Otomi Peoples of Michoacan/Guanajuato, Mexico). As an IndigiQueer leader, community member, educator and as an artist, everything she does and creates is influenced by her many intersecting identities and lived experiences. Eileen learned how to carve at a linocut 101 workshop in 2018 and has not stopped carving since. Eileen uses linocut and mixed-media techniques to develop her own ways of telling stories in the complex layers that they exist in, as well as to demonstrate the ways that we are connected to the Land and to each other. In her current body of work, she focuses on the embodiment of the divine that is manifested through our bodies and our hands specifically. In her work, you will also see her commitment to centering the stories of joy that flow through our communities. Eileen loves sharing what she knows about linocut and art with her community through community workshops in classrooms, museums, galleries, and community orgs.