Dr. Tara Betts is the author of Refuse to Disappear, Break the Habit, and Arc & Hue. In addition to her work as a teaching artist and mentor for young poets, she has taught at Rutgers University and University of Illinois-Chicago, and at Stateville Prison via the Prison + Neighborhood Arts Project. She is the Inaugural Poet for the People Practitioner Fellow at University of Chicago. Betts currently serves as Poetry Editor at The Langston Hughes Review. She is also founder of the nonprofit organization The Whirlwind Learning Center on Chicago's South Side.