Sarah Herrington is the founder of The Portal, a writer, editor, essayist, poet, yoga teacher and mindful writing guide with over 20 years of experience in all of the above. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, LATimes, Poets and Writers Magazine, Slice, Tin House, Yoga Journal, O the Oprah Magazine and she has been featured on CNN and NPR. She holds MFAs from NYU, Lesley University, and a BA from NYU. She also has over 500 hours of yoga teacher training. She teaches Mindful Writing Workshops, nonfiction and poetry via Sackett Street Writers and Catapult, at LMU and NYU. She created The Portal to have a space for women writers to explore rigorous yet kind writing workshops alongside craft classes from guest teachers alongside healing modalities. She believes stories (and poems) live in the body and by expressing them we can heal.

Sara Glass is a psychotherapist and writer in NYC. Her debut memoir, Black Skirt, Rainbow Soul will be published by Simon & Schuster in the spring of 2024 and she has written for the New York Times and Psychology Today. Sara holds a PhD in Psychology from Capella University and a Master’s in Social Work from Rutgers University and is the current clinical director of Soul Wellness NYC, a private psychotherapy practice in Midtown Manhattan. She also serves as a Clinical Supervisor for Jewish Queer Youth, a non-profit organization that supports and empowers LGBTQ youth. She has specific expertise in treating complex trauma and PTSD, providing art and play therapy to children and adolescents, as well as general experience treating a range of human struggles such as anxiety, depression, relationship challenges, and stress. Most recently, she has facilitated therapeutic writing groups for survivors of complex trauma.

Edgar Fabián Frías is a multidisciplinary artist, psychotherapist, educator, curator, and brujx based in Los Angeles. With a passion for breaking boundaries and creating new forms of knowledge, Frías blends diverse artistic disciplines to produce thought-provoking and immersive works of art that transcend conventional categories. Their oeuvre encompasses installation, photography, video art, sound, sculpture, printed textiles, GIFs, performance, social practice, and community organizing, reflecting their commitment to experimentation and innovation.

Frías' work explores themes of resistance, resiliency, and radical imagination in the face of colonization, environmental racism, and other contemporary issues. Drawing on Indigenous Futurism, spirituality, play, pedagogy, animism, witchcraft, and queer aesthetics, Frías offers a unique perspective on the complexities of modern society. Through their art, they bridge the gap between the traditional and the contemporary and create spaces for contemplation and transformation.

As a nonbinary, Wixárika, and Latinx artist whose family hails from Mexico, Frías brings a rich and diverse background to their practices. They hold dual BA degrees in Psychology and Studio Art from UC, Riverside, and an MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling with a focus on Interpersonal Neurobiology and Somatic Psychotherapy from Portland State University. In 2022, they completed an MFA in Art Practice at UC Berkeley.

Frías' work has been exhibited internationally, including at prestigious venues such as the Vincent Price Art Museum, Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Oregon Contemporary, MOCA Jacksonville, Project Space Festival Juárez, and ArtBo. Their art, tarot, and multidisciplinary practices have also been featured in numerous publications, including Cosmopolitan, Taschen, ELLE UK, Bustle, Nylon, Los Angeles Times, Slate, CVLT Nation, Terremoto, and Hyperallergic, among others

Omotara James is the author of the poetry collection, Song of My Softening, (Alice James Books, 2024), recommended by NPR, USA Today, Cosmopolitan, Shondaland, BOMB Magazine, Lambda Literary Review, Lavender Magazine, Book Riot and Ms. Magazine; and reviewed by Library Journal, Tupelo Quarterly, the Columbia Journal, The Poetry Question and the Adroit Journal.

James’ poems have been featured in NPR’s Morning Edition, the Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day series and Poetry Daily. You can find her poems in print and online at Poetry Magazine, The Nation, BOMB Magazine, the Paris Review, The American Poetry Review, the Los Angeles Review of Books Quarterly, the Believer, Literary Hub, Guernica, Gulf Coast and elsewhere. Her chapbook, Daughter Tongue, was selected by African Poetry Book Fund, (Akashic Books, 2018), for the New Generation African Poets Box Set.

She has performed on various stages including the Guggenheim Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, 92NY, the Brooklyn Book Festival, the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics, the New York City Poetry Festival and the Poetry Project. Her work has been anthologised and selected for inclusion in various publications.

James is the recipient of the 2023 J. Howard and Barbara M. J. Wood Prize from the Poetry Foundation; a New York City Department of Cultural Affairs grant; a Cafe Royal Cultural Foundation Literature Award; a New York Foundation of the Arts Poetry Fellowship; an Artist Relief grant; a 92NY Discovery Poetry Award; a Bread Loaf Katharine Bakeless Nason Award in Poetry; the inaugural Thomas Lux Scholarship from The Palm Beach Poetry Festival; and a Nancy P. Schnader Academy of American Poets Prize, from Hofstra University. Her poems were shortlisted for the 2019 Brunel International African Poetry Prize. She has received residency fellowships from Cave Canem Foundation and Lambda Literary, among other awards and recognitions.

Born in Britain, she is the daughter of Nigerian and Trinidadian immigrants. She has lived in England, Scotland and was raised primarily in America. She holds a BA in Creative Writing from Hofstra University and an MFA in Poetry from New York University. She has been invited to instruct workshops and deliver craft talks at New York University, the New School, the Pratt Institute, the 92NY Unterberg Poetry Center, Cave Canem Foundation, the Poetic Justice Institute, the Hudson Valley Writers Center, Office Hours, the Association for Size and Diversity Health, the Queens Public Library, etc.

Holly “bird” Colino of Move With Love has been in love with movement from her early days on roller skates to professional dancing with the Martha Graham Dance Company to teaching Yoga full time in NYC for 12 years. Holly teaches with just the right touch of love, levity, spirituality and Philly sass. She is inspired by the world around and the world within. Her creative, alignment-based, and themed sequences can revolve around myriad points of inspiration from a painting in the Guggenheim to an ancient yogic text. Holly empowers her students to love the body they live in one breath at a time and to always trust their own inner teacher.

Website- Movewithlove.com, Instagram- @move.with.love