Silas Howard began his career as a founding member of the legendary queer punk band Tribe8. His first feature film, By Hook or By Crook, was a Sundance Film Festival premiere and five-time Best Feature winner. His documentary, What I Love About Dying, premiered at Sundance and played festivals internationally. His short films, music videos and web series have aired on MTV, Logo, Showtime and the Sundance Channel. His second feature, Sunset Stories, premiered at SXSW in 2012 and was picked up for distribution by Film Buff.

Arthur Aviles, an award-winning New York-Rican dancer/choreographer, was born in Queens and raised in Long Island and the South Bronx. He studied theatre with Peter Vercillo and Edward M. Fourrey. His physical training included swimming, diving, wrestling and gymnastics. He received his B.A. from Bard College where he studied dance with Lenore Latimer, Jean Churchill, Albert Reid and Aileen Passloff.

Angela Dufresne was born in Hartford CT to Polish, Irish, French and Italian Catholics in 1969. She was raised in Olathe, Kansas, the town where Dick and Perry stopped in before they went on the kill the Clutters. She was the first of her family linage to get a college degree.

Stacie Passon is an American film director and screenwriter, whose debut film Concussion premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, and subsequently won a Teddy Award Jury Prize at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival.

Finkelstein is a founding member of the Silence=Death collective and the art collective, Gran Fury, with whom he collaborated on public art projects for The Whitney Museum, The Venice Biennale, Artforum, LAMOCA, The New Museum, Creative Time, and The Public Art Fund. The collective has work in the permanent collections of The Whitney, MoMA, and The New Museum.

Jaime Manrique was born in Colombia, South America. His first three books—a novella and short stories, a volume of film criticism, and a book of poems (which won his country’s National Poetry Award)—were written in Spanish. Starting with the novel, Colombian Gold, he’s been writing his fiction, and most of his non-fiction, exclusively in English, though he still writes poetry in his native tongue.

Thomas Allen Harris is the founder and President Chimpanzee Productions, a company dedicated to producing unique audio-visual experiences that illuminate the Human Condition and the search for identity, family, and spirituality.

Talvin Wilks is a playwright, director and dramaturg. His plays include Tod, the boy, Tod, The Trial of Uncle S&M, Bread of Heaven, and An American Triptych.

Shannon Michael Cane is a writer, curator, collector and publisher from Melbourne, Australia. After publishing and editing the seminal queer art journal THEY SHOOT HOMO’S DON’T THEY? for five years, he moved to NYC in 2008 to work at the world’s largest non-profit specializing in artists’ books; Printed Matter, Inc. Currently working as the curator of fairs and editions he is responsible for staging the NY and LA Art Book Fairs.