Massachusetts Statewide Poetry Calendar

Laura Lamb Brown-Lavoie was born along the river called Charles—daughter of an English teacher and a Storyteller, she descends from mountain and ocean people in Western Europe and the British Isles. She has spent her adult life growing food and medicine plants for her community in the homelands of the Narragansett people around Providence, RI. The former co-host of the Providence Poetry Slam, she has twice represented Providence as a finalist at national slam competitions. Laura was the 2018 Fellow for Merit in Poetry from the RI State Council of the Arts, and the 2018-2019 Providence Public Library Creative Fellow. She is currently in residency with the Brown Arts Initiative developing a multi-media performance version of her book of poems Club Desire, forthcoming spring 2022 on Binch Press. Alongside her work with plants and poems, Laura serves as a birth doula and is in training as an ancestral medicine practitioner.

Emilia has been writing songs and poetry most of her life. She graduated from BHS in 2021 and has since spent much time helping those with mental illness. Emilia has volunteered for Amazing Grace, a non-profit that supports children who have incarcerated family members. She loves her sister, her friends, her tattoos, and is the master of Spotify playlists of all genres. She lives at home with her family and beloved schnauzer Princess Vespa. This is Emilia's very first feature, hopefully not her last.