Editorial Guests:
Dr. Alain Lawo-Sukam is a Professor and Coordinator of Africana Studies program in the Department of Global Languages and Cultures at Texas A&M University in College Station. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in Hispanic culture as well as courses in Africana studies. His research focuses on Afro-Hispanic Studies. He is a scholar and a writer.
Regina Marie Mills is an assistant professor of Latinx and US Multiethnic Literature at Texas A&M University. Her first book, Invisibility and Influence: A Literary History of AfroLatinidades, was published by University of Texas Press in June 2024.
AJ Baginski is Assistant Professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Programs and Community Engagement at the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley. He was formerly a Postdoc at the Glasscock Center for Humanities Research at Texas A&M University. He reads and writes about literature from Northern Mexico and the Southwestern U.S. As someone who has moved a lot, poetry helps him connect to place and community, so he organizes poetry readings and workshops wherever and whenever he can.
Ivylove Cudjoe, born and raised in Ghana, moved to the US in 2019 to further her education on the Spanish language and culture. Ivylove is pursuing a doctoral degree in Texas A&M University with the Department of Global Languages and Cultures. Currently in her third year, she has research interests in Africana Studies, Latin American Literature, Language Pedagogy and Film Studies. She holds a master’s degree in Hispanic Studies from Western Michigan University. She holds a great love for poetry and has a collection of poems published with the 12th volume of the WMU graduate student research journal, The Hilltop Review, under the title, “As I go along.”
Alexa Hurtado-Montaño was born in Cali, Colombia. She is a poet and a PhD student in Hispanic Studies at Texas A&M University (College Station, Texas), holding a degree in literature from Universidad del Valle (Cali, Colombia). She was a Martin Luther King MLK-Fellowship Program Scholar and a recipient of the Diploma in Leadership for Political Advocacy at the Catholic University, through which she strengthened her cultural initiatives and community processes. Her interests lie in Afro-Colombian, Afro-Latin American, and Afro-Caribbean literature by women. She is an organizer and coordinator of the annual event “Black Women Poetry” at Texas A&M University and has participated in events such as several conferences and poetry recitals.
George Villanueva is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism at Texas A&M University. He is interested in how marginalized communities of color survive the material realities of structural oppression that have been reproduced along the intersectional social identities of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class. To this end, he researches the role that communication, organizing, media, activism, and expressive culture play in place-based advocacy and social change goals of marginalized communities of color in cities.
