Contributors’ Notes

Emma Anderson is an avid writer, reader, and global citizen hailing from a small farm in Southern Oregon. Her work investigates the complexities of globalization from a humanist perspective with an emphasis on breaking down the barriers and borders between what unites us all. She will receive her bachelor’s degree in global studies from Eugene Lang The New School for Liberal Arts in May 2016.

Diana Angelo (Blog Deputy Editor) closed her eyes and dove into the Blog Deputy Editor position for 12th Street last fall, prior to which, she was barely able to even turn a computer on. But taking chances and diving into new projects and ventures is her first love. Her second love is the City of New York, who at times is downright abusive and cruel, but always shows up a little while later with flowers. Diana began her writing venture as an essayist, but has since enjoyed crossing genres and forms. She believes there oughtn’t be borders—that goes for people and land too. In addition to earning her BA in Liberal Arts at The New School, she is also earning the certificate to Teach English to Speakers of Other Languages. She currently volunteers teaching English to new immigrants and refugees at the New International Center in Manhattan, where she learns more from her students than she feels they could ever learn from her.

Erin Cullinane is a writer who divides her time between Brooklyn and the Hudson Valley. 

Ken Goshen, a Fine Arts BFA candidate at Parsons School of Design, is an Israeli-born artist working in a variety of disciplines, specializing in painting, drawing, and printmaking. He aims to apply his traditionalist lens to modes of the contemporary art discourse, and to explore the role of the figurative art object in an era of digital image ecstasy. His recent work touches on the dissonance between the fragility of memory and the severity of documentation, highlighting the role of the subjective in our perception of the “real.”

Lori Green (Reader) is a student of writing at The New School, and at times a visual artist. As she nears the end of a long novel writing process, she appreciates the immediacy with which poems are written, shared, and read. She is excited and honored to see her poem published in 12th Street’s first online issue.

Laura Heckel is twenty five years old and goes on living in Queens, NY. Her poetry has appeared in Oblong Magazine, 491 Magazine, and in collaboration with the Parsons Letterpress.

Kadin Herring, (Art Editor and Assistant Social Media Editor) applied to the Riggio Honors Writing Program on a whim; never having written anything before. At an early age, he was an avid reader, but it wasn’t until he moved to France at twenty that he began to develop an interest in writing. Because of his inability to speak the language well enough to return home, he started carrying around a notebook in order to ‘show’ people what he was trying to say.  As Art Editor he continually tries to showcase the versatility of writing by incorporating audio and visual mediums to bring “writing in the shape of art” to the journal.
Recently, he was accepted in the Home School Writing Program, which hosts its annual workshop in Hudson, New York. He now works in the Ping Chong+Co theater production, “Beyond Sacred: Voices of Muslim Identity.”

Sean Everington King (Reader)is a young fiction writer from Atlanta, writes in the mornings, reads or follows European soccer in the afternoons, sports/exercise in the evenings, and drinks to wash the day down. He enjoys skiing, tennis, and golf when he can, and finds literature is life and life makes literature.

Adam Knowles edits reality television in order to pay the rent and ignores reality in order to survive.

Hannah Lamb-Vines (Fiction Editor) grew up with country air, puny traffic jams, and always dogs. NPR was her main source of entertainment. She would have given pretty much anything for cable. Now she’s a “cool” “kid” in New York City (jk it’s Brooklyn), where she reads, writes, and edits—when she isn’t doing a number of things her family wouldn’t approve of. She will graduate in December and will attend her ten-year high school reunion in 2020. Whatever she’s doing then better be impressive.

Grace Lee, a self-taught artist from California, studies fashion and paints. Her preferred medium is acrylic, but recently she’s been inspired by Vigee la Brun, so when she gets back home she’s going to try oils once again. The piece in this issue was painted to cover up another painting.

LaTroya Lovell is the founder and Chief Editor of Wolves and Mermaids Literary Journal. She is a poet and essayist raised in Harlem. She currently studies writing and gender studies at The New School. Most of her work consists of poetry, personal narrative, and critical essay; they hold a predominance for women’s experiences. She believes that writing is an innate ability that only a few get the privilege to call “their talent.” This talent fosters voices that break through barriers in a perpetual way that no other art form can.

Quoc Q. Ly is a Fine Arts major at Parsons School of Design. His photography work is mostly part of a side project and tends to surround the notion of privacy within a public space. He also strives to capture the life and culture of a place, searching for what Henri Cartier-Bresson had termed the “Decisive Moment.”

Ever since Ernesto Moreno (Reader) realized how most societal ills can be traced to private property—which took a lot of dragging by and arguing with his friends, wife, and comrades—he has been a devoted Communist. Regarding his private life, he is a newlywed and very happy about that fact, so don’t ask him if he regrets marrying young because that question is getting old. Not a moment goes by that he doesn’t thank God that he was united with his soulmate. He works at a Museum he loves—and posts pictures up on Instagram showcasing exhibits he thinks don’t get enough love. Still, he is always looking to expand his work as a writer—something that he’s done since elementary school after a teacher praised a poem he wrote for his mom.

Mel Ortiz (Managing Editor) is a long time storyteller turned writer. She is currently writing a series of science fiction short stories that span multiple lifetimes and universes. She is slowly but surely working on her memoir Making Lemonade: Memoirs of a Teenaged Mother. She lives in the Western Slopes neighborhood of Jersey City.

Lauren Phillips is on an endless exploration of tapping into and unlocking parts of her subconscious to invigorate the ability to create art that says “fuck you”  She is studying Fine Arts and every medium is its own challenge: Sometimes it’s a dreary challenge, full of mistakes, shit art and stumbling around looking for the self—but the discovery of self within a medium? nirvana.

Alexa Seiler grew up in Newtown, Pennsylvania, the most exciting place in the world…
She is an Integrated Design student at Parsons and will graduate May 2016. She enjoys running, drawing scribbles, and making weird wearables.

Jessica Sennett (Nonfiction Editor) is a “cheesepreneur.” She is President of Cheese Grotto, a business devoted to innovative cheese storage solutions. She makes her own cheese and is also well-versed in tasting, educating, and cooking with dairy. Jessica teaches at the Natural Gourmet Institute and curates a series of House-Made Cheese Suppers in NYC. In her downtime, she often reflects on the nature of the food movement, and where she can discover her next meal.  As the Non-Fiction Editor for 12th Street, she seeks creative content that challenges the boundaries of society. She is currently a Cohort 21 Fellow at The New School.

Bukola Shonuga (Interview Editor) is a candidate of Riggio Honors Program: Writing and Democracy.
Bukola is Founder and Director of “Welcome to America,” a social service and referral agency that helps newly arrived immigrants by facilitating direct access to resources necessary to their integration in America. She is also Director of Communications for United African Coalition, an umbrella organization of the over 3 million African immigrants in the U.S.
In 2012, received a certificate of recognition from Mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg upon completion of “The Neighborhood Leadership Institute Program.” She was also presented a “Certificate of Recognition” by the NYPD Community Affairs Bureau in 2014 for her agency’s work in empowering the immigrant community in New York City.
Bukola, a graduate of State University of New York, is an independent journalist registered with the U.S. Foreign Press Center. She received a certificate in Business Journalism from Wharton University.

Charlotte Slivka (Editor-in-chief) lives in Brooklyn near the English Kills Creek with her daughter, boyfriend, two cats, several guitars, and one Amaryllis. She is interested in hybrid forms, mixed genres, and the varied ways in which literature and technology can meet, invent, and reinvent. She has been published in 12th Street and The Brooklyn Rail. After four years on staff with 12th Street she is honored to have served, struggled, learned, and rejoiced along with her New School community. She thanks you all—students, administration and teachers—for this opportunity.

Joel Tschong, a Communication Design BFA student at Parsons School of Design, first started to make art with graffiti techniques and acrylic painting and has more recently entered illustration, photography. and design. His recent work is in masked and layered photographs.

Jhon Valdes (Art Editor/Multimedia Editor) has worked in education for over ten years at Teach For America and UrbanwordNYC. He is passionate about education and is pursuing a more creative venue at The New School for Public Engagement as a Film Production Major, with a Photography minor and a concentration in fiction writing through the Riggio Honors Writing and Democracy Program.

Anna Witiuk (Poetry Editor)
Poet. Songstress. Editor. Activist. Writes because
she must, sings
because the wolves
do it. Dances
with moons. It’s all
just fodder,
baby.

Hannah Witner is originally from Charlotte, NC, and currently lives in New York City, where she is earning her BFA in integrated design from Parsons School of Design. She is an artist and designer who loves exploring the power of words and uses her writing as fuel for her ever-evolving creative process. She has written for a number of on and offline publications, and enjoys writing personal essays, poetry, opinion, and art writing.