Kristiana Rae Colón  Kristiana Rae Colón (April 16, 1986) is an American poet, playwright, actor, educator, Cave Canem Fellow, creator of #BlackSexMatters and co-founder of the #LetUsBreathe Collective. She was awarded 2017 Best Black Playwright by The Black Mall. Her plays have premiered in Chicago, New York, London, and other cities. Colón is the author of several plays and poems. She earned the 2013 Drinking Gourd Poetry Prize. Her play, "Octagon," won Colón the Arizona Theatre Company 2014 National Latino Playwriting Award. Kristiana’s writing, producing, and organizing work to radically reimagine power structures, our complicity in them, and visions for liberation. Colón is the daughter of Rey and April Colón, who met during their college years in a writing class. They both encouraged their children to be involved in the arts. She was born and raised in Chicago, where she attended gifted elementary schools and graduated with honors from Whitney Young High School. Colón earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Chicago, and a Master of Fine Arts in Writing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Colón is the co-director of the #LetUsBreathe Collective and co-creator of #BlackSexMatters  The "Let Us Breathe Collective" is an alliance of artists and activists who want to tell the stories of protestors and people involved in #BlackLivesMatter. Colón is the executive director of the group. The collective formed in 2014 as a way to raise funds to bring tear gas protection to protesters in Ferguson. Let Us Breath Collective protested in July 2016, marching and chaining their bodies together to block the entrance of the Chicago Police Department's Homan Square building.  "but i cd only whisper" was premiered at the Arcola Theater in London in 2012. "Florissant & Canfield" tells a vivid epic about Ferguson, in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement, a newly formed alliance of protesters are forced to put their nascent ideologies to the test in the quest for new visions of justice. This production was inspired by the Ferguson protesters along with the "Let Us Breathe Collective" and "Lost Voices," and it was featured on the 2016 Hedgebrook Women Playwrights Festival. "Good Friday (2016)" is an all-women production that tackles topics like millennial feminism, sexual violence, and gun violence. Her play, "Octagon", is full of complicated female characters who are preparing for a slam poetry contest.