Karlyn Coleman is an award-winning writer, teacher, and teaching artist based in Minneapolis. She is the author of nine YA novels under the pen name K.R. Coleman and two picture books, Where Are All the Minnesotans? and The Great Get-Together. Her short fiction has appeared in journals including Sycamore Review, Water~Stone Review, and McSweeney’s Internet [...]
Home • Youth • Middle School (6–8) •
MarimbaMatt
Video game enthusiast Matt Silverberg (AKA MarimbaMatt) has carved a niche in the music world thanks to his love of video game music and the marimba. He has arranged a plethora of video game and film music that have garnered thousands of views on YouTube and has performed as a marimba soloist at numerous conventions [...]
Renee Vaughan
Renee Vaughan is a Minnesota-based musician and educator who brings Sweden’s folk traditions to life through the resonant sound of the nyckelharpa, the national folk instrument of Sweden. The nyckelharpa has roots as far back as the 1350s, with depictions in Norway, Denmark, and Finland during the 1400s–1500s, and some of the earliest Swedish immigrants [...]
Karen Caldwell
Karen Caldwell is a British-born Barbadian artist whose abstract works explore transformation, identity, and connection through layered textures and shifting light. Working primarily with acrylics, palette knives, and metallics, she creates pieces that evolve throughout the day, inviting new perspectives with every glance. Her work has been exhibited in Europe, the Caribbean, and North America, [...]
Constanza Carballo
Constanza Carballo is a bilingual, bicultural Latina artist and nurse based in Minnesota. Her art practice began in 1991 and is deeply rooted in community engagement, storytelling, and the traditions of printmaking, mosaic, mural, and public art. She works to create spaces where art is not only seen but also experienced and shared collectively; sparking [...]
Joe Davis
Joe Davis is an award-winning spoken word artist and bestselling author who uses poetry to power possibility. He is the founder and director of Finding Your Freedom Practice, an artist collective teaching holistic health and wellness practices through spoken word, writing, music, theater, film, and dance. Joe holds a Master of Arts degree in Theology [...]
Erinn Liebhard
Erinn Liebhard is a dance artist making opportunities for people to experience the reflective and connective power of groove through performance and education. Having grown up dancing socially at her dad’s rock band’s gigs, she discovered young the exhilaration of playfully experiencing groove alongside others. Guided by this inspiration and a fondness for jazz and [...]
Michelle Perdue
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 [...]
