Quick & Dirty

Ten Writers. Five Minutes. Hosted by Rayceen Pendarvis. Writers include Audrey Cefaly, Anthony Moll, La Toya Hankins, Tavion Scott, Danielle Badra, Holly Mason, Jarrod King, Simon Graves. Full bios below. Playwright Audrey Cefaly reading from THE GULF, winner of the 40th Annual Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival. On a quiet summer evening, somewhere down in the Alabama Delta, Kendra and Betty troll the flats looking for red fish. After Betty begins diagnosing Kendra’s dead-end life with career picks from What Color is Your Parachute, their routine fishing excursion takes a violent turn. Audrey is joined by actor Thembi Duncan to perform an excerpt from the play! Anthony Moll is a Baltimore-based poet, essayist and educator. He occasionally reviews books and writes about Queer life for Baltimore City Paper. His creative work has appeared in Gertrude Journal, Assaracus, Cobalt and more. Anthony holds an MFA in Creative Writing and Publishing Arts and has taught writing at University of Baltimore, Morgan State University and University of California, Santa Cruz. His conceptual chapbook, Go to the Ant, O Sluggard is available from Akinoga Press in May of 2016. La Toya Hankins is the author of SBF Seeking, and K-Rho: The Sweet Taste of Sisterhood. She is a native of North Carolina and currently resides in Raleigh, NC. She is an East Carolina University graduate who earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism with a minor in political science. During her college career, she became a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. Lambda Mu chapter. She currently serves as the publicity chair of the Eta Phi Zeta chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. in Chapel Hill, N.C. Hankins currently works for the State of North Carolina in a division of the state’s Health and Human Services department. Prior to her current employment, she worked seven and half years in the field of journalism. Hankins enjoys reading and writing fiction. She is a co-founder and currently serves as the chair of Shades of Pride, a LGBT organization that hosts a yearly event in the Triangle area. SOP’s mission is to create opportunities to acknowledge and celebrate the diversity of North Carolina’s LGBTQ communities. She is the proud pet parent of a 10-year-old dog named Neo. Hankins considers writer and fellow Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. member Zora Neale Hurston as her role model for her ability to capture the essence of the African American Southern experience and living the motto, “I don’t weep at the world, I’m am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.” In 2014 while trying to figure some things out about life, Tavion Scott discovered he had a passion for writing. Although the Northern Virginia native previously never felt compelled to become an author, he couldn’t shake the attraction between him and the craft. Eventually that nagging feeling led him to begin writing down some ideas. Following the traditional path of many legendary writers that came before him, Tavion allowed the words to flow from his pen to the paper. Literally. Inspired by the genius of James Baldwin, the authenticity of Maya Angelou, and the freshness of Rashid Darden, Tavion focused on composing stories that needed to be told and that would impact readers that ventured to ride along on his journey of creativity. Out of his passion and inspiration came along his first novel Majoring in Me (Acceptance), the tale of a young black man in college that struggles to accept his own sexuality. While fiction, this first book of the Majoring in Me series draws from some personal experiences of Tavion. As a collegiate student at a predominately white institution, he wrestled with his own sexuality and trying to merge it with his strong Christian faith. The series also draws from some stories of others as well as an active imagination. With the first installment, Tavion hopes readers will be able to identify with the main character’s complicated journey of self-acceptance in trying to marry his identity with his religion; all while, navigating through some hatred of his heterosexual counterparts via a black fraternal organization. While creating the story that unfolds in his first novel, Tavion developed the site According to T. A blog where people can go and ask advice about whatever is troubling them. Whether it’s a question about dating, or an annoying best friend, or an aggravating boyfriend, or just about issues that affect the LGBT community, he’s available to offer a distinct opinion. His idea was to have an anonymous space where members of the LGBT community, especially black gay men, could go to get unbiased answers to questions they may have. The site is reminiscent of Steve Harvey’s “Strawberry Letter” or the renowned “Dear Abby” column. Check out the blog for yourself at www.accordingtot.com. Danielle Badra is working on her MFA in Poetry at George Mason University. She is the poetry editor of So To Speak literary and arts journal. Dialogue with the Dead (Finishing Line Press, 2015) is her first chapbook, a collection of contrapuntal poems in dialogue with her deceased sister. Her poems have appeared in Outlook Springs, and 45th Parallel. Holly Mason graduated from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a BA in English and a minor in Dance. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Poetry at George Mason University, where she teaches English Composition, Literature, and Intro to Creative Writing courses. She is the Blog Editor at So to Speak, a Feminist Journal of Literature and Art. Holly is ever interested in connecting with the greater DC/NOVA literary and art communities. Her poems are forthcoming in Outlook Springs. Jarrod King works in search engine optimization and is a graduate of Temple University. When not writing stories or website copy, he writes, sings, and produces his own music. He often takes time to enjoy the fantasy worlds of video games or TV shows as well. Pangaea: Unsettled Land is Jarrod’s first novel. He currently lives in Philadelphia, PA. Simon Graves is an emerging author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy from Norfolk, Virginia. He released his first collection of horror short stories in September 2014, and he’s currently working on a novella.