Kresge Arts in Detroit and WDET have partnered to present a virtual artist salon series featuring the 2021 Kresge Artist Fellows and Gilda Awardees. This nine part series includes never before seen video presentations by awarded metro Detroit artists and writers followed by a public Q+A and conversation moderated by WDET’s Ryan Patrick Hooper.

Tariq Luthun is a Detroit-born community organizer, data consultant, and Emmy Award-winning poet. The son of Palestinian Muslim immigrants from Gaza, he earned his MFA in poetry from the program for writers at Warren Wilson College and currently serves as board member and development coordinator of the Offing Literary Magazine following a two-year stint as editor of the micro department. His work has appeared in venues like Lit Hub, Vinyl Poetry, Mizna, and Button Poetry, and has earned him distinctions such as Best of the Net and fellowships with the Watering Hole and Kundiman. His first collection of poems, HOW THE WATER HOLDS ME, was awarded editors’ choice by Bull City Press and is available now.

Jassmine Parks is a spoken word poet and slam champion from Detroit. Her work examines the resiliency of the Black feminine experience and intergenerational trauma, and attempts to explore, heal, and disrupt unhealthy cycles such as abuse, mass incarceration, and court ordered parent-child separation. Parks, also a dedicated educator, serves as the lead teaching artist of InsideOut Literary Arts. She believes in the power of language to reflect on past experiences, build agency, and activate healing. Her work has been published with SlamFind and All Def Poetry.