Meet the Hosts and Workshop Presenters of GR Lit Fest’s GR Poetry... is LIT!

On Friday, June 20, 2025, the Grand River Poetry Collective will take center stage at the GR Lit Fest’s “GR Poetry… is LIT!” — an all-day celebration at the Wealthy Theatre Annex (1110 Wealthy St  SE, Grand Rapids). Kicking off the day at 10 AM, this free, family-friendly festival—hosted in partnership with GR‑MiFi—will spotlight storytelling, community, and creative expression through a rich lineup of poetry workshops, pop-up readings, interactive zine-making booths, panel discussions, and open-mic sessions. Led by Grand Rapids Poet Laureate Christine Stephens‑Krieger, the Grand River Poetry Collective invites poets of all levels to engage in narrative justice, share their voices, and connect deeply with the region’s literary community. 

GR Poetry... is LIT!

June 20th, 2025, 10am-10pm

Wealthy Theatre Annex
1110 Wealthy St SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49506

Hosts

Christine Stephens-Krieger

Christine is Grand Rapids’ 8th Poet Laureate (2024-2027) and it's her mission to recognize, celebrate, and uplift Grand Rapids poets. To this end, she completed An Oral History of Poetry in Grand Rapids, which was donated to the Grand Rapids Public Library's Archives in 2024.

This project was made possible through her many poetry connections forged from years of community service, including coordinating the time-honored, prestigious Dyer-Ives Poetry Competition for 14 years. She’s a longtime poetry event coordinator and has been mixing with local poets since the 1990s.

As co-founder and co-president of The Grand River Poetry Collective, this current public endeavor is meant to publish Grand Rapids poets and foster a poetry culture where we all uplift each other.

Shayna "Akanke" Marie

Shayna "Akanke" Marie is a thought-provoking writer, passionate poet, and community organizer based in Grand Rapids, Michigan whose voice is a raw, and powerful call for narrative justice and community unity. Recognizing that those who possess the power to define also have the power to determine, she holds that diverse narratives are pivotal in enhancing community outcomes in justice, equity, and inclusion. Through poetry, Shayna bridges racial and generational differences, and she has a passion for youth advocacy and enhancing student outcomes and opportunities by empowering students to share their stories with the world. Shayna is currently serving as the Lead Teaching Artist for The Diatribe, an organization that uses restorative art to disrupt historical systems of oppression.

Through her work with Grand Rapids Media Initiative & Film Incubator, Shayna organizes narrative justice work including a documentary film based on Todd E. Robinson’s book, A City Within A City: the Black Freedom Struggle in Grand Rapids. Shayna believes that the path toward our collective future lies in understanding the issues that have shaped our past.

Through this understanding, Shayna has developed several multimedia projects that uplift narrative justice and unpack historical discrimination including “The Oral History of South High” and “West Michigan (Not So) Nice. In 2022, Shayna was honored to be the recipient of Grand Rapids Area Black Businesses’ “Young Black & Gifted Award.”

Neil Kaufman

Neil Kaufman is an award-winning poet passionate about poetry and mental health and how the 2 interweave. He’s been creatively writing since age 5 when he wrote a Santa Claus story in a construction paper booklet, awakening a desire to write and make books from a young age. In school, he was nominated for his first writing award at age 7 and has been writing poetry since age 8. Since these auspicious beginnings, Neil has become a prominent literary voice in Grand Rapids, publishing extensively through GRCC and serving on the board of directors for the Creative Youth Center, among many other things. Neil has a vision and is working toward further uniting mental health and poetry programming available in the community.

Workshop Presenters

Rosie Accola

Rosie Accola is a queer guido, writer, and reporter who lives in Michigan with two very large cats. They graduated with their MFA from Naropa University in 2022. They released their first poetry collection Referential Body with Ghost City Press in 2019. Their first novel, Supernormal Stimuli, which follows a wily group of queer guidos, is out now with Bullshit Lit. You can follow them on Instagram @rosieaccola and on substack.

Shandra Martinez

Founder of Legacina Family Storytelling

How do you capture your family’s stories before they fade? That question drives Shandra Martinez, a veteran West Michigan journalist with more than 30 years of experience interviewing people and sharing their stories. Today, she’s turned that passion inward—helping families preserve their own histories through her business, Legacina Family Storytelling.

At Legacina, Shandra shares what she’s learning on her journey to become a better family storyteller, offering practical, low-cost tools and expert tips to make legacy storytelling accessible to everyone. From using your phone camera to scanning old photos with Google Scan, she equips families with simple ways to turn everyday moments into treasured memories.

With warmth, curiosity, and journalistic insight, Shandra helps people start meaningful conversations, ask the right questions, and document the stories that matter most—so they can be passed down for generations to come.

Linda Nemec-Foster

Linda Nemec Foster is the author of 14 collections of poetry including The Lake Huron Mermaid (a collaboration with co-author Anne-Marie Oomen and artist Meridith Ridl), Bone Country, Amber Necklace from Gdansk, Talking Diamonds, The Blue Divide and The Lake Michigan Mermaid, a 2019 Michigan Notable Book (and another collaboration with Oomen and Ridl). Her books, The Blue Divide and Bone Country were both nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. She has published over 350 poems and prose pieces in such journals as The Georgia Review, Nimrod, North American Review, New American Writing, Witness, and Best Small Fictions. In 2023, she won first prize in the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Contest sponsored by the Paterson Literary Review. Her book, Bone Country, was honored as a Distinguished Favorite in the NYC’s Big Book Award in Poetry for 2024. Foster was the first Poet Laureate of Grand Rapids and founded the Contemporary Writers Series at Aquinas College. Visit her website at www.lindanemecfoster.com

Camille Newsom

Camille Newsom is the author of the chapbook This Suffering and Scrumptious World (Galileo Press, 2023) and Purgatory Junkie (Main Street Rag, forthcoming 2025). Based in West Michigan, Camille is an educator and land steward who weaves creative practice and curiosity into her work. Her poems have appeared in ONE ART, Terrain.org, and Southword, among others, and was nominated for Best New Poets 2025. Preorder Purgatory Junkie by Camille Newsom (Main Street Rag Bookstore).

Join us!

GR Poetry... is LIT!
June 20th, 2025, 10am-10pm

Wealthy Theatre Annex
1110 Wealthy St SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49506