Circular black and white logo. Invisible Poets. An outline of an N95 facemask with earloops appears in the center.

Invisible Poets Collective

We are a multiracial group of queer, nonbinary, covid cautious, disabled poets who create and perform work together. We formed in response to the isolation each of us has experienced as a result of the loss of access to creative communities spurred by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We refuse the idea that disabled people should not exist in public space. We reject ableism, eugenics, and all structures of supremacy. Our work seeks to forge a connection across difference while maintaining an ethic of disability and racial justice. We are poets who find ourselves stronger when in community with one another.

Who We Are

The Invisible Poets Collective was formed in October 2025 and consists of the following poets.

Photo. Ariana, a light skinned Black person wearing a white duckbill N95 mask, sits on a stool and speaks into a microphone on a mic stand. She is on a stage with black curtains wearing a mustard yellow shirt, blue shorts, and navy sneakers.

Ariana Brown (she/they) is a queer Black Mexican American writer from San Antonio, TX, now based in Houston. She is the author of the poetry collections We Are Owed. (Grieveland, 2021) and Sana Sana (Game Over Books, 2020). Her academic and poetic works explore queerness, Black personhood in Mexican American spaces, girlhood, loneliness, and care. Ariana is a national collegiate poetry slam champion, winner of two Academy of American Poets Prizes, and a recipient of a National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures Grant.Ariana has been competing in poetry slams since 2010. She is the slam champion of the 2012 Austin They Speak youth slam team and has competed twice at the Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam, four times at the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational, twice at the Women of the World Poetry Slam, and once at the Rustbelt Poetry Slam. She has coached four slam teams, including the Invisible Poets Collective, of which she is also a member.She holds a BA in African Diaspora Studies and Mexican American Studies from UT Austin, an MFA in Poetry from the University of Pittsburgh, and an MS in Library and Information Science from the University of North Texas. She currently develops ethnic studies and ELA curriculum for high schools and colleges and teaches creative writing to teens in Houston. Ariana has been writing, performing, and teaching for fifteen years. More information about her work is available at arianabrown.com.

Photo. Maya, a light skinned Black person with long curly hair, is speaking into a handheld microphone they grip with both hands. They are wearing a black N95 face mask and a long sleeve light pink shirt.

Maya Williams (ey/they/she) is a religious Black multiracial nonbinary suicide survivor who served as Portland, Maine's seventh poet laureate for a 2021-2024 term. Maya contributed poetry to venues such as FreezeRay, The Cortland Review, Honey Literary, and more. Eir debut full length poetry collection Judas & Suicide (Game Over Books, 2023) was a finalist for a New England Book Award. Their second full length poetry collection, Refused a Second Date, was a finalist for a Maine Literary Award. They won two chapbook prizes: What's So Wrong with a Pity Party Anyway? in 2024 through Garden Party Collective and Feminine Morbidity in 2025 through The Headlight Review. Maya contributed prose to venues Sacred & Subversive, The Rumpus, Black Girl Nerds, LGBTQ Nation, The Daily Beast, Honey Literary, Talk Death, and more. You can follow more of Maya's work at mayawilliamspoet.com.

Photo. Jazz, a very light skinned person, is wearing a bright red N95 face mask, black eyeglasses, and red eyeshadow. They are looking up. Their forehead is covered in images of eyes drawn in makeup.

Jazz Bell (they/ them) is a poet and artist based in Texas. Jazz has been published in venues such as Muzzle Magazine, beestung, The Dialogist, Nat. Brut, Kweli, and elsewhere. They have competed in and coached a number of slam poetry teams at the collegiate level from 2015-2020. They were a 2019 Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net Nominee, a Pink Door Fellow, and a Write Bloody Chapbook Contest Finalist.Jazz’s work typically deals with their experiences as a person who is multiply disabled, [nonbinary/ queer/ intersex], and a survivor. Jazz’s work and experience spans multiple areas including poetry, visual art, graphic design, access labor, care work, and social work. They have a masters degree in social work. Jazz has been writing, performing, leading workshops, and engaging in poetry spaces for over 10 years. You can learn more about Jazz's work on their website.

Photo from far away. Loma, a light skinned Afro-Indigenous person, is onstage in an all black outfit holding a microphone in one hand and its wire in another. They are wearing a light green N95 face mask. Sound equipment appears around them onstage.

Loma J. Taveras (they/elle/naya), also published as juliany taveras, is a storyteller from Ayití Bohio (Dominican Republic) by way of Lenapehoking (New York City). Their work, which centers the lives & liberation of the Afro/Indigenous & queer/trans diasporas, takes many forms, including playwriting, screenwriting, poetry, photography, graphic design, teaching artistry, & (perhaps most importantly) kinship.Loma holds a BA in Media Studies & an MFA in Creative Writing, but mostly owes their writing journey to the safe haven known as the public library. Their playwriting has been nationally recognized (The Kilroys List, 50 Playwrights Project) & has been developed and/or staged with Children's Theatre Company, Two River Theater, The Lark, Page 73, Corkscrew Theater Festival, The Bechdel Group, & others. Loma’s poetry/visual art appears in La Galería Magazine & in The Great Good News of Your Own Voice (Raptor Editing), & as a screenwriter they have worked with Cartoon Saloon, Wychwood Media, Field Trip Productions, & Amazon Studios. Institutional affiliations aside, Loma ultimately tells stories to dream, envision, & embody, in pursuit of expanding our collective imagination(s) beyond colonial restriction. More information about Loma's work is available on their website.

Photo. A white person with long straight dark hair with a middle part looks directly at the camera. They are wearing a white N95 face mask.

Jordan Wilson-Dalzell (she/they) is a queer disabled poet, visual artist and ECE teacher in unceded Ohlone Lisjan lands (SF Bay). A sensitivity reader, community organizer and teaching artist, they majored in Creative Writing at Pitzer college, and now co-parent a sassy staffy.Her work on chronic illness and neurodivergence has been published in Kaleidescope, Flare Lit Mag, Art of Autism, Rooted in Rights, Jewish Currents and the Out of the Box zine. She wrote a chapter on intergenerational trauma, community healing, survivorhood and tikkun olam for the book Reclaiming Judaism from Zionism (2019). They competed with the Santa Cruz slam poetry team in 2018 & 2019. Their self-published chapbook Resuscitate (2018), navigates survivorhood, intergenerational trauma, and taking her bodymind back from CPTSD and inherited mental illnesses. Their debut full length poetry book (in progress) navigates the contradictions of chronic illness and trauma healing while surviving both an ongoing pandemic and one of California’s worst wildfire seasons. Immunocompromised with significant memory loss, the book challenges the chosen collective amnesia around covid and being disabled and left behind.

What We Do

The Invisible Poets Collective is a multiracial group of queer, nonbinary, covid cautious, disabled poets who create and perform work together.We are interested in being part of the post-2020 iteration of poetry slam and want to help create covid-safer slam spaces. We are interested in building relationships with poetry slam organizers and participants, sharing resources and information regarding the long-term effects of COVID-19 as well as ways to prevent its spread. Through compassionate dialogue, research, and providing recommendations, The Invisible Poets Collective seeks to ensure the health and safety of all participants in poetry slams for years to come. We are deeply invested in the future of this art form and want people to be as well as possible while engaging in it.We are currently preparing to compete at the Midwest Poetry Mash-up, a masks-required, covid cautious regional poetry slam which takes place in Minneapolis from April 30-May 2, 2026.We meet weekly over Zoom to discuss, read, and write poems. Our process is collaborative and often involves the creation of "group pieces," spoken word poems involving multiple members that will be memorized, choreographed, and performed at poetry slams.We write about our experiences with disability, chronic illness, and the isolation we face as covid cautious individuals seeking to keep our communities safe. We write about our experiences as millennials, as racialized people, and as poets.We are currently fundraising and applying to grants to assist with costs of travel, lodging, covid precautions (such as N95 masks, rapid antigen tests, at-home PCR tests, and Far UVC lights), and other expenses involved in our travel to Midwest Poetry Mash-up next April.

What We've Already Done

We are in constant dialogue with slam poetry and arts event organizers. Below are some of the wins we've already achieved as a collective.

Improve Covid Safety at Midwest Poetry Mash-up Slam

  • We assessed the existing covid precautions at the slam through emails and Zoom meetings with primary organizer, Ollie Schminkey.

  • We provided information to Ollie about ways to encourage masking (by updating the MC spiel and event descriptions), especially to attendees not as familiar with Covid risk.

  • We provided information about how to assess efficacy of air purifiers and made recommendations for specific air purifier purchases based on venue square footage.

  • We helped Ollie locate grant opportunities to apply for funding towards increased Covid precautions, including higher quality air purifiers and FAR UV lights.

Work Samples

Examples of Ariana's poetry + disability justice advocacy

Video

Video performance of Ariana performing her poem, "Covid Cautious Means" at a masks-required reading she organized in Portland, OR in July 2025 (flyer also included). Ariana brought air purifiers, a FAR UV device, and N95 masks for all attendees.

Video

Free virtual writing workshop Ariana taught in partnership with the community-based Dominican Writers Association in January 2025, focusing on disability justice and writing about the body.

Photo of Ariana wearing a duckbill N95 while performing poetry at the Dougherty Arts Center Pride Night in June 2024. The masks-required event also featured Far UV devices and air purifiers brought by Ariana. Click the photo for the event recap with additional photos.

Examples of Maya's poetry + disability justice advocacy

Maya organizes a masks-required poetry open mic in Portland, ME called Port Veritas. View their Facebook events here.

Video

Maya’s virtual performance of eir poem, “What’s So Wrong with a Pity Party Anyway?” for Garden Party Collective.

Video

Maya’s masked reading at the University of New England’s Creative Writing Club event.

Maya has a series of workshop offerings; view full descriptions of each one by clicking on the graphics above.

Examples of Jazz's poetry + disability justice advocacy

Video

Jazz’s virtual performance for Staceyfest, an event in honor of the late Stacey Milbern (a disability justice activist). Jazz shared three poems titled “How to Heal” after Suzi Q. Smith, “What KB did for me During the Pandemic” after KB Brookins, and “Access Dreaming” after Danez Smith.

Video

Jazz organized and facilitated a virtual event called “Intersex and Disability Justice” as part of the Crip Conversations Speaker Series with the Disability Studies Program at UT Austin. The panelists were Sean Saifa Wall and Emi Koyama.

Above is a photograph of Jazz’s visual art displayed inside the Butterfly Bar in Austin, Texas. The work displayed there consisted of self-portraits that illustrate various aspects of their disability/ queer experience. Due to the barriers disabled and queer people experience to accessing public space, Jazz considers showcasing art of this nature in a public space to be a vital extension of their advocacy work.

Jazz has worked as a consultant primarily in areas of Disability Justice, Disability Accessibility, and LGBTQIA+ Accessibility. Due to privacy concerns Jazz is not able to provide a full list of clients, but Jazz has worked with over a dozen organizations and individuals to increase accessibility in their programs, services, and offerings. Jazz has worked with non-profits, collegiate organizations, educators, artists, community events organizers, mental health providers, and literary organizations, among others. Above is a screenshot from Jazz’s website detailing some of the types of consulting services they offer. This information can be found at: www.jazzbell.me/consulting

Examples of Loma's poetry + disability justice advocacy

Here is an Instagram reel Loma created for Disability Pride Month 2025, described below: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMljD3ghIpN/A video that Loma co-created (with collaborator ayuzin) on behalf of Spirit Root Medicine People for Disability Pride Month 2025. The video shares a call to action to all to mask up for COVID safety, and uplifts disabled perspectives on the ongoing pandemic using personal footage of masking in community as well as anecdotes and testimonials from a related talking circle Loma co-hosted in March 2025.

Event photo of Loma on stage at “Artists, Makers, & Bakers,” a mask/test required art fundraiser they helped organize in December 2024 for moonpence farm, a Black/Indigenous queer/trans medical herb farm in New Mexico. Loma also spearheaded graphic design for the event’s promotional materials and co-created its guidelines/values (including rigorous COVID/airborne illness precautions).

Digital flyers for a virtual gathering/talking circle that Loma co-hosted (with collaborator ayuzin) for Spirit Root Medicine People called, “5 Years of COVID-19 & Beyond: Centering Indigenous & Disability Justice Perspectives.” Loma also helped co-create a public resource document to accompany the private Zoom gathering.

Lavender Magazine article, “Children’s Art is for Everyone,” in which Loma (under their published name juliany taveras) discusses their children’s play Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress. (2024)

Examples of Jordan's poetry + disability justice advocacy

In 2018, Jordan self-published her poetry book titled Resuscitate. Her poetry collection explores trauma, CPTSD healing, survivorhood and mental illness.

Jordan's poem, "An Oriphory on Healing," published by Flare Lit Mag, a chronic illness and disability centered publication.

Jordan co-manages the social media for the arts education organization she works for and she designed and planned the above post. She wrote the alt text, image IDs and ensured the content featuring their teaching artists are as accessible as possible. The event the performer performed at is one where Jordan advocated for covid precautions including masking and testing. She continues to work on advocating and pushing for covid safer events with higher rates of masking, testing, clean air and ventilation.

In the planning for a large showcase in spring 2025, Jordan was the lead for social media, and worked extensively with the event coordinator and leadership around making the event accessible. The above includes one of the emails between herself and her colleagues regarding arranging to have ASL interpreters at the upcoming showcase. She researched and reached out to a community org to learn about the possibilities. She works with our grant team on researching and applying for future grants to have consistent ASL interpreting at future showcases and open mics.

Contact

For inquiries about the team, please contact the coach of the Invisible Poets Collective, Ariana Brown. She can be reached via email at abrownpoetry at gmail dot com or via the links below.