THE DREAM: A People’s Salon

Faylita Hicks (she/they) is a queer interdisciplinary Afro-Latinx artist working at the crossroads of social justice and spirituality, where creative endeavors become a catalyst for significant change and profound connection within the community.

A prolific creative force, Hicks is the accomplished author of HoodWitch (Acre Books, 2019), a finalist for the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Poetry, the 2019 Julie Suk Award, and the 2019 Balcones Poetry Prize. The horizon holds the promise of their upcoming poetry collection, A Map of My Want (Haymarket Books, 2024), and a debut memoir, A Body of Wild Light (Haymarket Books, 2025), offering a profound exploration of their carceral experience. 

Willy Palomo (he/they/she) is a founding member of Plumas Colectiva, a powerhouse of Latinx visual artists, writers, and creatives based in the 801. 

A veteran of the Salt Lake City poetry slam scene, his fiction, essays, poetry, and translations can be found across print and web pages, including the Best New Poets 2018, Latino Rebels, The Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the United States, and more. He has performed at or keynoted the SUU Pride Film Festival, the Indiana Latino Leadership Conference, el Festival Internacional de Poesia Amada Libertad, and more. 

Palomo has taught classes and courses on literature, rap, and creative writing in universities, juvenile detention centers, high schools, and community centers. Born in Brooklyn, NY and raised in Utah, he is the queer son of two refugees from El Salvador. 

In April 2023, he independently released his debut rap album Enter Da Boombow. His debut collection of poetry Wake the Others (Editorial Kalina/Glass Spider Publishing, 2023) was a winner of the 2023 Foreword Poetry Prize.

Organizer, artist, and consultant Bindu Poroori (they/she) is originally from sweet sweltering Chennai, but has called Chicago home for more than a decade. 

Poroori is an organizer with Chicago Desi Youth Rising, a poet, producer+curator of performance, director, community researcher, administrator, dramaturg, union worker, and consultant. Some of her recent work has been with Links Hall, Arts Alliance Illinois, the Illinois Federation of Teachers, Chicago Dancemakers Forum, Remy Bumppo, Chicago Park District, Apna Ghar, the Illinois Federation of Teachers, City Bureau, and the 47th Ward Alderman's Office. 

Poroori's personal artistic and organizing practice is rooted in questions of trust, diaspora histories, and the abolition of prisons, police, and punishment both within and without. She makes a very very good green mango dal, so please ask her about it.

Iván Resendiz is a classical guitarist and the organizer of the Latin American Guitar Festival in Chicago. 

Iván has participated in numerous national and international guitar competitions, ranking among the first places in more than thirteen competitions in Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Austria, Spain, Germany, Italy, Serbia and more. He also collaborates actively with organizations committed to cultural diffusion such as Progressing Latinos, Erie Community Center, Pilsen Artist Community and more. 

Iván Resendiz currently lives in Chicago and identifies as part of the migrant artistic community, he works every day to motivate minority populations to defend their civil rights through art.