Michelle Perdue is a dynamic and transformative educator, performer and change agent. As a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a master’s degree in education, a graduate of the Ruskin School of Acting, former VocalEssence Teaching Artist, and military veteran, Michelle has had the privilege of working with some of the most culturally and [...]
Susan Armington
From tiny Japanese slippers to a gigantic map of the Twin Cities (made of words and languages of people who live there), my art reflects the world I see and feel. My works are maps of imaginative geography, paintings, and 3-D collage objects, which I exhibit locally and nationwide. My art and community work deal [...]
Raki Kopernik
Raki is a first generation American, queer, Jewish writer. She is the author of The Things You Left and The Memory House, both Minnesota Book Award finalists. Her longform poetry chapbook, The Other Body, was published in 2017, and her stories and poems have appeared in numerous publications and have been shortlisted and nominated for [...]
Morgan Grayce Willow
Morgan Grayce Willow has expressed her passion for poetry and writing as a Teaching Artist at The Loft Literary Center, SASE The Write Place, and other community venues, as well as at Minneapolis College. She has taught many classes in poetry, essay, memoir, and – a favorite – the use of journals and notebooks in [...]
May Lee-Yang
May is an award-winning playwright, poet, prose writer, and performance artist. She has been hailed by Twin Cities Metro Magazine as “on the way to becoming one of the most powerful and colorful voices in local theater.” Her theater-based works have been presented locally at Mu Performing Arts, the Center for Hmong Arts and Talent [...]
Lucy Rose Fischer
Currently, taking limited opportunities. Lucy Rose is an award-winning author, artist, and gerontologist. She had a twenty-five-year career as researcher and teacher—with a PhD in sociology and a specialty in the study of aging. When she was turning sixty, she asked herself, “How old do I have to be to follow my dream?” and she [...]
Jon Lurie
Jon Lurie joined the COMPAS artists roster in 2008 following a two-decade stint as a print and radio journalist in Native American communities from Texas to Alaska. He also served as editor of The Anchorage Press and Rake Magazine. Lurie has received two Gold Awards for his long form journalism by the Minnesota Newspapers Association [...]
Jen Scott
As a teaching artist, Jen Scott loves creating a safe space where students can open up as much or as little as they like, and take the risk that is the right size for them in that moment. Most of the class is spent with the students engaged: working as a group, moving from one [...]



