Alexis Pauline Gumbs

Alexis Pauline Gumbs is a queer black troublemaker. A doctoral candidate and instructor in English, Africana Studies and Women's Studies at Duke University, Alexis understands hip-hop as a sonic and textual archive, and she uses hip hop texts, sounds and approaches in all of her classrooms, from the Univerisity to the self-expression she facilitates for young people who have been suspended from Durham public schools, to young people in the rural Blue Mountains in Jamaica. Alexis is the founder of BrokenBeautiful Press, a free and freedom-producing online creationspace and is on the editorial boards of In the People's Hands, a literary zine produced by SpiritHouse and SisterPages, the publication of Sisters of Color Ending Sexual Assault. Alexis is also on the advisory board of The Coup Magazine and Painting Our Courage, an upcoming film about HIV/AIDS and violence against women all over the world. You can see Alexis's writing and editorial skills in a number of national magazines including Left Turn, Make/Shift, American Book Review, Curve and Treazure.