Erika Dickerson-Despenza is a Blk feminist poet-playwright, educator and grassroots organizer from Chicago, Illinois. She’s a 2018-2019 Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow, The Lark’s 2018 Van Lier New Voices Fellow and a 2018 Relentless Award Semifinalist. Erika is a 2019-2020 member of Ars Nova Play Group and a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre's Obie-winning Youngblood collective. Select stage plays include: ocean’s lip/ heaven’s shore, took/tied; hung/split, shadow/land and cullud wattah (Public Theater). In addition to this water tetralogy, Erika is currently developing a 10-play Katrina Cycle, including [hieroglyph], focused on the effects of Hurricane Katrina and its state-sanctioned man-made disaster.