Dralandra Larkins is a multi-genre writer, three-time award-winning spoken word poet, and the author of Before I Lie. She is a teaching artist at COMPAS and has performed for the NAACP, Button Poetry, Mill City Museum, Minnesota State Capitol, Minnesota Black Business Ball, and the Minnesota Black Authors Expo. Larkins co-edits Cracked Walnut’s Rewilding Hope and The Nations Underground: Writing with Our Ancestors. She is a recipient of the Loft Literary Center Teaching Artist Fellowship, the Minnesota State Arts Board Creative Individuals Grant, and the EPIC Grant. She coordinates various programs for The Friends of the St. Paul Public Library.