
Sarita “Sincere” Goods
Sarita Goods (Sincere) is a dedicated and hardworking wife and mother of two. She currently resides near Charleston, SC, which is where is originally from. Sarita has been involved in poetry for 20 years, starting with local open mics in Greenville, SC, before getting into slam. She has participated with and coached different Southern Fried teams over the years and discovered her love for nurturing the person while helping develop their craft. Additionally, she is a part of the New Danger Arts collective and has facilitated workshops and performed at schools across South Carolina.

Matthew “Cuban” Hernandez
Matthew ‘Cuban’ Hernandez is a poet, emcee, speaker, and performance coach from Jacksonville, Florida. He has toured as far as Abu Dhabi and nearly every major city in the United States and Europe, performing, teaching and coaching poetry. A teaching artist for nearly ten years, Matthew has spent the last six years working in youth detention centers across Los Angeles County, currently serving as the Director of Camp Programming for Street Poets, Inc.

Zachary Kluckman
Zachary Kluckman, the National Poetry Awards 2014 Slam Artist of the Year, is a Pushcart Prize nominee, Scholastic Art & Writing Awards Gold Medal Poetry Teacher and a founding organizer of the 100 Thousand Poets for Change program. Kluckman, who tours the nation as a spoken word artist, was recently one of three American poets invited to the Kistrech International Poetry Festival in Kenya. A 2021 Thomas Lux scholar, Kluckman is the Founder and Slam Manager of MindWell Poetry and has authored three poetry collections, The Animals in Our Flesh, (Red Mountain Press) and Some of It is Muscle, (Swimming with Elephants Publications) as well as the forthcoming Rearview Funhouse.

Sarah Timmons
Bio coming soon!

Dorian “Paul D” Rogers
Dr. Dorian Paul Rogers is an accomplished performance poet, educator, and events curator. In 2005, he beat out over 100 poets to win the Southern Fried Poetry Slam, the nation’s largest regional poetry slam competition. In 2007, he won The National Poetry Slam, formerly the world’s largest poetry slam competition, with Slam Charlotte. He has been featured at over forty universities and performed in Ghana, Seychelles, Germany, South Africa, and Singapore.

Eddie Vega
Eddie Vega is a poet, spoken word artist, and educator originally from the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, currently residing in San Antonio. His poetry has been displayed on VIA Buses and downtown San Antonio buildings. In 2017, he was the runner-up in the Haiku Death Match at the National Poetry Slam. His first full-length collection of poetry, Chicharra Chorus, was published in 2019 by FlowerSong Press. Vega writes about food, Tejano culture, social justice, and the intersections thereof. Known as the Taco-Poet of Texas, he can be found at an open-mic, slam, or taqueria on any given non-quarantine evening anywhere throughout South Texas.

Shanya “Lady S” Speller
Shanya “Lady S” Speller-Perkins is Philadelphia native who started writing poetry as a child to deal with the realities of city life. She moved to Fayetteville NC getting a BA and MA degrees as well as meeting a group of poets who named her “Lady S” She joined the Fayetteville Fire slam team and was introduced to Southern Fried Poetry Slam and has been a dedicated member since coming as part of a team, indi poet, Slam-master or volunteer. Southren Fried has become an essential part of this poets life. She now happily serves as a board member of this organization.
Photo credit Yolanda “Yogii” Barnes