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TruArtSpeaks Artist Spotlight

Featuring:
Fatima Camara
Donte Collins
Chava Gabrielle
Guante
Desdamona

Fatima Camara is a 21 year-old spoken word artist from Minneapolis, MN. She currently serves as the apprentice for TruArtSpeaks, an arts-based nonprofit that works to cultivate literacy, leadership, and social justice through the study and application of spoken word and Hip Hop culture.

Donte Collins is a poet. Named the first Youth Poet Laureate of Saint Paul, Minnesota, they are the author of Autopsy and Softer, as well as the winner of the 2016 Most Promising Young Poet Award from the Academy of American Poets. Collins is the recipient of the 2016 Mitchell Prize in Poetry and is currently a junior at Augsburg College. He is a former member of the TruArtSpeaks Youth Advisory Board.

Chavah Gabrielle is a literary and performance artist living in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. She indulges in the idea of equity and justice, especially for women of color, and does this by actively focusing her work around healthy sexuality, racial justice, and education reform. With a life emphasis on caffeinated beverages, community, and other peoples winter sweaters, she hopes to bring all injustice to light one cup of coffee, one poem, and one conversation at a time.

Kyle Guante Tran Myhre is an MC, two-time National Poetry Slam champion, activist and educator based in Minneapolis. His work explores the relationships between identity, power, and
resistance, and has been featured on Upworthy, Welcome to Night Vale, Everyday Feminism, the Huffington Post, and beyond. Guante has also performed live at the United Nations, given a Tedx
Talk, and presented at countless colleges, universities, and conferences. He currently serves as TruArtSpeaks Director of Communication.

Desdamona is an International, award-winning Poet & Emcee. She is a recipient of 3 MN State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grants, and has traveled the US & abroad delivering her lyrics and spoken word, also spending her time in traditional and non-traditional classrooms spaces, working in over 300 schools, prisons & community centers. She co-founded B-Girl Be, a first of its kind celebration of womens contributions to hip hop culture (2005-2011). Des was chosen to star in a K-Mart Back to School ad as a rapping lunch lady (2015), has opened for classic Hip Hop acts Wyclef Jean, Bahamadia, KRS-ONE and Guru, and has toured with Legendary Reggae Grammy winners Sly & Robbie on a US/Canadian tour (2008), performing at the Hollywood Bowl & Reggae Rising festival.