Directors

President
Steve Cruz (2012) is a Filipino/Latino artist, community activist, educator and owner of Mighty Fine Arts Gallery, with deep ties in multi-cultural, inter-disciplinary programming and exhibitions. 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 and non profit organizations. He is a former City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs panelist. Steve hosts ArtSpeak @ Mighty Fine Arts, a performance art series in conjunction with exhibition openings. 

Secretary
Scott Farrin (2019) is a professor of English at Collin College and a writer. His stories have been published in Puerto del Sol, The South Carolina Review, Prairie Schooner, and other journals. Before moving to Dallas, he lived in New Orleans for 18 years where he taught at The University of New Orleans.

Treasurer
Manuel Pecina (2017) is a photographer, collector, gallery owner of Ant Colony and former professor of art at Tarrant County Community College.

Social Media Chair
Clancy Manuel (2017) is a musician, songwriter, and Happenings collaborator. She works in services and technical support for Fort Worth Modern Museum.

Immediate Past President
Monika Bowman Bell is a writer, musician, visual artist and graduate student of Environmental Science at Kent State. She is the executive curator and organizer of 2018 and 2019 Dallas Lit Hop, African Diaspora reading series at South Dallas Cultural Center and TransNational Impressions at the Latino Cultural Center. As executor director, she wrote successful grants and represented WordSpace in numerous panel presentations in creative outreach to Dallas civic, neighborhood, artist and business leaders. Bell continues to serve WordSpace in an advisory and promotional capacity.

ADVISORS:

Karen Minzer  (ret. Executive Director 2009-2018)
Karen  Minzer is a writer/poet/wanderer, published by the Austin Sun in the 70s, Paris Records in the 80s and Wowapi, 90s to present. Her most recent work is published in Beatest State of the Union. In 1977 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 co-recipient, with Dee Mitchell, of the 2015 Dallas Observer MasterMind Awards and has served WordSpace as program curator, coordinator, board member, programs chair, program director, and executive director. She earned her PhD in Humanities from The University of Texas at Dallas and an MFA from Naropa University Jack Kerouac School, where she aonce studied with Allen Ginsberg and other lit luminaries. She has curated thousands of writers for over 30 years in DFW, Boulder and Santa Fe. Karen is a veteran punk band shouter, but pretty quiet and retired these days; a Dharma Broad, 500 hour E-RYT yoga instructor and has participated in Thomas Riccio’s  Zombies. Jennifer Smart: Dallas Observer. 100 Dallas Creatives: Underground Culture Mainstay Karen X. Minzer.

Charles Dee Mitchell  (Past President, 2010-18)
Dee 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. Winner: 2015 Dallas Observer MasterMinds Award. Dee is curator and host of First Hearings @ The Wild Detectives.  How Dee Mitchell Helped Put WordSpace at the Heart of the Dallas Literary Renaissance by Lee Escobedo (D Magazine)

Jerry Kelley (1994-2018, Founding Board Member) : Jerry Kelley is the 501(c)3 creator and 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 and visual artist Patty Turner. His work has appeared in a number of literary journals, including Southwest Review.

Adrienne Cox Trammell Clay (1994-2013) is a co-founder of WordSpace.She has worked in nonprofit administration for over 20 years in fund development, program coordination, management consulting services, database administration and office management. She has served as board president, immediate past president, programming committee and chair of governance.

Vicki Meek is an internationally celebrated artist and retired Manager of South Dallas Cultural Center, 1996-2016. She is co-founder with Karen Minzer and Charles Dee Mitchell of the African Diaspora: New Dialogues series at SDCC.During her tenure as manager of the SDCC,  she initiated ground breaking education and artistic programs that created the internationally recognized cultural center that it is today. Ms. Meeks is a leader, a voice for the voiceless, an activist, a teacher and above all, an artist.

Past Board Members: Thank you for your service! 
WordSpace would not be here without each and every one of you!

Richard Bailey
Sharon Bailey
J.P. Barrentine
Susan Briante
Nikhil Burman
Sara Cardona
Adrienne Cox Trammell, Co-founder
Tim Cloward
Jeffrey Davis
Catherine Dean
Young Eui Choi
Ben E. Fountain
John Fullinwider
Tammy Gomez, Auxiliary Member
Roderick Goudy (Rock Baby)
Michael Guinn
Martha Heimberg
Jerry Kelley, Founding member
Blake Kimsey, Auxiliary Member
Jean Lamberty
Debra Leveranz
Farid Matuk
Joe Milazzo
Karen Minzer
Catherine Mitchell
Charles Dee Mitchell
Johnny Olson
Shin Yu Pai
Sebastian Paramo
David Parry
Steve Paul
Jennifer Polavieja
Brenda Randall
Sarah Rhiem
Venus Opal Reese
Priscilla Rice, Auxiliary Member
Sarah Riehm
Simone Roberts
Rod Russell-Ides
Carlos Salas
Opalina Salas
David Searcy
Willie Sims
Sanderia Faye Smith
Christopher Soden
Michael Stanford
Bill Swart
Stanley W. Thomas
Andrea Tosten
Robert Trammell, Co-founder
Alexandra Marie Thurston
Alison Wisk
Laney Yarber
Ben Yip

QuickStaff:
Website created by: Steve Paul
Webmasters: Michael Stanford, David Parry
Logo: Art Garcia, GraphicContent

Intern Program:
(2016) Suza Kanon, University of Texas at Dallas
(2015) Paloma Salas, Booker T. Washington School for the Visual and Performing Arts
(2014) Libby Hayhurst, Washington Lee University
(2013) Darius Safavi, New York University
(2012) Jessical Tolbert, Oberlin College
(2011) John Fountain, University of Texas at Dallas
(2010) Anna Avery, Naropa University