Board of Directors

WordSpace’s Board is comprised of working writers, critics, musicians, artists and educators.

Stanley W. Thomas, President and co-Treasurer
Charles Dee Mitchell, Immediate Past President and Co-Chair, Programs
Roderick Goudy, (Rock Baby), Vice President and Chair, Governance
Jean Lamberty, Secretary, Chair, Resources
Alexandra Marie, Secretary
Jerry Kelley, Co-Treasurer and Chair, New Media
Sanderia Smith, Board Member
Young Eui Choi, Board Member
Steve Cruz, Board Member
Michael Guinn, Board Member

Karen X Minzer, Executive Director, Co-Chair, Programs

Staff:
Austin Terrell, Communications Coordinator
Cliff Martinez: Technical Coordinator

Program Committee and Advisors: Charles Dee Mitchell and Karen X Minzer (Co-Chairs), Adrienne Trammell, Farid Matuk, Susan Briante, Brandon Castillo, Opalina Salas, Tim Cloward, Judy Gordon, Jeffrey Liles, Phillip Washington, Suzie Riddle, John Tilton, Marquetta Herring,  Noe Alaniz, David Haynes, Celia Munoz, Kyle Vaughn, Tammy Gomez, Laney Yarber, Scott Davison, Martha Heimberg, and board members Young Eui Choi, Steve Cruz, RockBaby, Alexandra Marie Thurston, Sanderia Smith, and Michael Guinn.

Intern Program:

Darius Safavi, New York University (2013)
Jessical Tolbert, Oberlin College (2012)
John Fountain, University of Texas at Dallas (2011)
Anna Avery, Naropa University (2010)

Past Board Members

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President and Co-Treasurer
Stanley W. Thomas graduated from the University of North Texas with a BBA in accounting after spending two years as a music major in the jazz program at UNT. Currently an Accounting Supervisor for a subsidiary of JPMorgan / Chase in Lewisville, TX . He has worked in accounting in the financial services industry for the last 30 years. For several years he also taught as an Adjunct Instructor in business at the Community College level.

Immediate Past President and Co-Chair, Programs
Charles Dee Mitchell is a freelance writer based in Dallas. Locally he has been a contributor to The Dallas Observer and The Dallas Morning News, and he is a frequent contributor to Art in America. He has written essays for exhibitions at The Dallas Museum of Art, The Columbus (Ohio) Museum of Art, The UCLA Armand Hammer Museum, and many other commercial and non-profit exhibition spaces. In 2008 he retired from Half Price Books, Records, and Magazines, where he was Executive Vice President of New Media Purchases and Proprietary Publishing. He is also active on the Dallas Video Festival board. Read Dee’s Blog at www.potatoweather.blogspot.com

Vice-President, Chair, Governance
Roderick Goudy, aka Rock Baby, is a graduate of University of North Texas with a Bachelor’s of Applied Arts and Science with an emphasis in education. He began his career as an educator with P.A.C.E. Head Start in Mississippi. In 1999, Roderick began his career as a poet where he has become a nationally known performance poet performing across North America including television appearances. From 1999-2002, he held the position of PTA President of DISD. Roderick began organizing poetry competitions as the City of Dallas Slam Master for Dallas Poetry Slam in 2003. As a Slam Master, he has combined his love for art and education to organize and implement area writing and performance workshops, mentor young artists, guest lecture for community colleges and universities throughout the DFW Metroplex and nationally. Roderick has served as an art instructor with Junior Players Guild for over 3 years providing instruction in dance, writing, and theatre while addressing issues of bullying, self-esteem, and healthy conflict resolution. He is a frequent guest speaker for area schools addressing life skills critical to student success. Since 1988, he has held positions in the U.S. Army as a communications specialist, a pre-school, after-school and substitute teacher, committee member with WordSpace, a literary non-profit, board member with Family Care Connections, a social service non-profit with emphasis on healthy families and fatherhood initiatives, and Slam Master of Dallas Poetry Slam.

Chair, Resources
Jean Lamberty has been an educator in a variety of roles for the past 17 years.  Her publications include An Extreme Risk, Illya’s Honey, Sentence,and the Houston Poetry Festival. She currently also works with the nonprofit Room to Read.

Secretary
Alexandra Marie hosted her own open mic venue, “Connected Through Art,” from 2006 to 2007, and assisted the 2006 Los Angeles Slam Team at the National Poetry Slam in Austin, Texas. She has published two chapbooks: Love in Bits and Pieces in June of 2007, and You Are Between the Vowels and Consonants in My Every Sentence in November of 2007.

Co-Treasurer and Chair, New Media
Jerry Kelley is a charter signing original member of WordSpace Board of Directors, published writer, Harvard in the 60s, Canadian Bush in the 70s. He lives in Dallas with his wife, poet Patty Turner.His work has appeared in a number of literary journals, including Southwest Review.

Young Eui Choi is an award winning professor at Richland College where she has taught Composition, Literature, and ESOL. She served on the Richland Literary Festival Committee and participated in various poetry workshops with Billy Collins, Naomi Shihab Nye, John Fox, and Robert McDowell. Some of her poems and articles have appeared in Write around the Corner, Korean Journal¬¬, and Dallas Literary Society of Korean Americans. She is also the invited reviewer of the Korean translation of Poetic Medicine by John Fox. In 2011, during her sabbatical in her native country, Korea, ¬¬¬she facilitated poetry therapy workshops with the Korean Institute for Poetry Therapy, led poetry classes with a renowned poet, Tae-Joo Na, and won the grand prize from the Green Kongju Essay Contest. Currently she is working on translation of Tae-Joo Na’s poetry collections as well as polishing her own poetry manuscript. Her social engagements include leadership/facilitator trainings from National Institute for Leadership Development, Summer Institute for Intercultural Communications, Leadership Richardson, and Center for Renewal and Wholeness in Higher Education. She was listed in Who’s Who in America 2010.

Steve Cruz is a Latino/Philipino artist, community activist, educator and owner of Mighty Fine Arts Gallery, with deep ties in multi-cultural, inter-disciplinary programming and exhibits. He is the founder of many city festivals and events, partnered with Latino Cultural Center, Oak Cliff Cultural Center, the Kessler Theater, universities, high schools and other civic as well as non profit organizations, and a former City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs panelist.

Michael Guinn is an energetic and interactive speaker for teens, college students and adult professionals. He has a Master of Science in Social Work and is a Licensed Social Worker.  After working with the state of Texas as a Caseworker with the Child Protective Services, he was inspired to empower youth through poetry and writing.  Trained as a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor, Michael promotes and speaks about the awareness of addiction, domestic abuse and sexual harassment. He was recently named Community Mentor of the Year and nominated for the Legacy of Men Award.  Michael competes in poetry slam competitions all over the world and has been hosting a weekly open mic poetry and spoken word event for 11 years in Downtown Fort Worth.  He is the accomplished author of more than 16 poetry books and 4 spoken word CD projects. Michael also hosts, writes and performs for weddings, anniversaries, conventions, conferences, churches, and women and children events.

Karen X Minzer, Executive Director

Karen X Minzer (Karen X) is former Program Director of WordSpace–a writer/poet/gypsy, published by the Austin Sun in the 70s, Paris Records in the 80s and Wowapi, 90s to present. In 1976 she discovered WordSpace founder, Robert Trammell, reading his poetry at Old City Park across the street from her home at the historic (grundgy) Ambassador Hotel. She is a former student and special friend to Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, studied in poetics apprenticeship with Allen Ginsberg and assisted him with transcribing his diary notebooks to manuscript. She has also studied with Robert Creeley, Quincey Troupe, Ed Sanders, Galway Kinnell, Gary Snyder, Anne Waldman, Jack Myers, Larry Fagin. With alot of help from alot of friends, she has curated thousands of writers for over 30 years–including Literary Festivals for SMU and Eastfield College, readings for Paperbacks Plus, Writers Garret, WordSpace, Dial A Poet Television in Dallas and Boulder, Starck Club, Caravan of Dreams, and Morrison Street for Paris Records. Ms. X is a veteran performer/warm up shouter for songwriter-poets such as Frank Black, John Cale, Bad Brains, et al. Dharma Broad and yoga student of Angela Farmer and Victor Van Kooten of Eftalou, Greece, Karen has taught both yoga and creative writing at Brookhaven College, Writer-in-the-Schools and in Dallas and Santa Fe  yoga studios since 2001.