LAURA PEGRAM,
Executive director
Laura Pegram, Kweli’s founder, is a multidisciplinary artist who is influencing a new generation of aspiring writers. Author, educator, and a jazz vocalist whose cabaret performance teamed her with jazz pianist, Donald Smith, Ms. Pegram is also a painter. Her richly hued vibrant murals are part of several private collections. She has worked as a Development Associate at Scholastic Productions, Inc., as an Instructor at the Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center and as an Acting Director / Instructor at the John Oliver Killens Young Writers Program. In 2020, she received the 2020 CBC Diversity Outstanding Achievement Award.
abhi alwar,
graphic designer
She draws things, designs things, but mostly just makes hopelessly terrible jokes (and she laughs at them too). An Indian American with roots in Chicago, Abhi is currently based in NYC, and stays interested in telling absurd and deceptively dark stories through comics and picture books.
Currently working as an in-house designer at Lee & Low Books, where children's books are created that reflect our beautiful, diverse world.
Antoinette Gardner, Development Manager
Antoinette Gardner is a Jamaican-American who comes to Kweli after previously working at the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute where she was instrumental in securing funding for CCCADI's capacity building efforts in addition to the institution's multi-million dollar annual budget. She began her journey in arts and cultural nonprofit advancement at Weeksville Heritage Center where she served as the Assistant to the Director of Development and at The Studio Museum in Harlem where she served as the Campaign Assistant, playing an integral part in fundraising for the Museum's multi-million dollar new building project.
Hailing from the Bronx, Antoinette is a burgeoning writer who graduated from the University of New Haven where she received her B.A. in English. She recently graduated from Iona College where she received her M.A. in English.
Iwalani Kim, contributing staff
Iwalani joined Kweli as an editorial intern in the fall of 2016, working alongside founder Laura Pegram on the journal’s submissions, events, and newsletters. In the years since, she has moderated festival and conference panels, led fundraising and sponsorship activities, and participated in the Color of Children’s Literature Conference Planning Committee. In 2020, she and Laura organized and hosted the 10-week Kweli International Literary Festival, a virtual festival consisting of reading and conversation events and master classes for BIPOC writers in celebration of Kweli’s 10 year anniversary. Iwalani feels fortunate for the mentorship, colleagues, and friendship she has found in this community, especially in Kweli’s beloved Laura Pegram. Her work with Kweli has shaped her philosophy as an advocate for writers at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates, where she is an associate literary agent as well as the senior assistant and foreign rights liaison to the agency’s president.
Emeline lee, contributing staff
Emeline Lee is the author of the forthcoming children's picture book, Bonnie's Rocket, illustrated by Alina Chau and published by Lee & Low Books. She holds a degree from Columbia University, where she studied English Literature and Sustainable Development, and she remained in New York City to work in the renewable energy sector. She is passionate about nurturing and empowering diverse and historically-marginalized voices in literature. Connect with her on social media at EmelineLeeBooks.
DI JAYAWICKREMA, Communications Consultant
Di Jayawickrema is a writer and communications strategist specializing in literary, arts, and immigrant justice communications. She is the former Director of Marketing & Communications at Educational Alliance’s Manny Cantor Center, and holds an M.B.A. in Marketing/Informations Systems and a B.A. in English Literature/Creative Writing. Her cross-genre writing has appeared in literary journals that include New Delta Review, The Pinch, wildness, and Entropy. She is a Kundiman fellow, VONA alumnus, and an Assistant Editor for fiction at The Offing and for features at The Rumpus.
Chantel Kelly, Assistant to the Director
Chantel Kelly is a fiction writer who graduated with her MFA in Fiction from the University of Kentucky in 2021. She has previously worked as a fiction editor and freelance writer. Currently, she serves as the assistant to Kweli’s Executive Director, Laura Pegram. You can find her work in Kweli.
Chantel currently resides in Georgia where she continues to write about issues revolving around mental health, black girlhood, family systems, and queer identity. You can find her on twitter at ChantelMKelly.
