Mary Shen Barnidge was born at California?s March Field (now March Air Force Base) hospital in 1948, and is herself a veteran of the United States Army, serving from 1974-75 with the Headquarters Company at Fort Buckner, Okinawa.

A 1970 graduate of the University of Wisconsin (formerly Wisconsin State University) at Whitewater, she is the author of two volumes of poetry an has been anthologized extensively. Sometimes called ?a pioneer of performance poetry,? she was the first to receive the title of ?Grand Slam Champion? at the Green Mill?s acclaimed Uptown Poetry Slam in 1986. Presently earning her living as a freelance drama critic for Chicago?s Reader and Windy City Times, New York City?s This Month On Stage and various other publications, she is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, Poets & Writers, Inc. and the Friends of the Society of American Fight Directors.

Cranston Knight, a Poet/Historian, is currently a graduate student at Loyola University Chicago working on a Ph.D. in History. He earned his M.A. from Northeastern Illinois University in History (East Asian/American) and his B.A. from Southern Illinois University in History. His books include: I (The Human Press), In the Garden of the Beast: Vietnam Sings a Love Song (Third World Press), GuildWorks (Ed, Boone, Mark, Collection of writings by four African-American Writers), and Freedom Song (Samisdat). His poetry and essays have appeared in Pearl Magazine, American Poetry Association Anthology: Best Poets of 1988, Black American Literature Forum, the Million Man March Day Of Absence,(Ed. Madhubuti, Haki, and Maulana Darenga, Third World Press) and Peace: A journal of social thought, (Golden Apple Press). He is the editor of Tour of Duty, (Samisdat Press), an anthology of Vietnam Veterans. Mr. Knight writes regularly for The Defender. His current work-in-progress is the People?s Army Confronts the West: Crossing the Yulu River, Nov 1950.