Melanie Henderson, 4^th generation native of Washington, DC, is a graduate of Howard University and earned an MFA from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA. A visual and literary artist and an alum of Voices Summer Writing Workshops (VONA), her poems, paintings, and photos have appeared in several publications. She is a winner of the 2009 Larry Neal Writers’ Award (DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities) and the Managing Editor of Tidal Basin Review.