I’m Karen Zurita, and I’m a proud first generation Mixtec Xicanx. I grew up in Sylmar, where I attended Los Angeles Mission College and transferred to Humboldt State to complete my Bachelor’s. During that time, I discovered my love for spoken-word poetry and being an essayist. My passion grew, and when I graduated in 2016, it influenced me to enroll in Humboldt State’s english graduate program, focusing on Literature and Cultural Studies. Over the course of my graduate studies, my professors introduced me to many Queer Xicanx writers, which helped me articulate my ideas and decolonize my writing. Living in Humboldt for several years, I had the honor to get to know the Yurok and Hupa community, and they helped me understand how to start healing my writing and how to put my identity into words. In all, I found the language to empower myself and my community, and became a poet who knows how to wield it.