Jesse Bliss is an international playwright, director, producer, actress, poet, journalist, songwriter and veteran arts educator. She is a graduate of California Institute for Integral Studies and credentialed in Arts, Media and Entertainment. Her work has been showcased globally at prestigious venues such as the United Nations, Off-Broadway, the Edinburgh Festival, Traxx at Union Station, Lincoln Heights Jail, S.P.A.R.C at the Old Jail in Venice, The Last Bookstore, King Eddy Saloon, The Rosenthal Theater at Inner-City Arts, Casa 0101 Theater, Theatre of Note, Hollywood Fringe Festival, Occidental College, UCSC, UCLA,  California Institute of Integral Studies, 7th West, Graf Angeles, and the California Arts Council among many others.

Bliss is the playwright behind influential works such as "Roots and Wings", "Diamonds", "Tree of Fire", "A Record of Light", "Night Flower", and "The Joy Ride", which have left a significant impact on both artists and audiences. She is also the author of the beloved graphic chapbook I LOVE MYSELF GOLDEN, illustrated by Alfie Numeric, created for incarcerated women and loved on both sides of the walls. 

She is a featured artist in Kate Crash’s LA Women, Look What She Did, Yahoo News' Shine, and an Emmy-nominated segment on Spotlight Arts: Standup for the Arts.

Bliss has developed curriculum and consulted for organizations including Center Theatre Group, The Geffen Playhouse, the California Arts Council, and the Institute for the Future. She also spent a decade as a journalist, producing and hosting Pacifica Radio's KPFK 90.7 FM show, Think Outside the Cage.

Currently, she just completed her newest work, Realm of the River with an upcoming World Premiere in the works. 

Her groundbreaking trilogy, written by powerful leading voices in the American Theatre —"Matriarch", "Women at Work", and "Luminous Streets" (both a Downtown LA and Highland Park theatrical tour)—explores women’s survival and the pursuit of justice and has received widespread acclaim. Jesse is also a proud mother to her 12-year-old daughter. 

Bliss has a book, "A Record of Light", a collection of plays and poetry, coming this year 2026. She has deep love and respect for Riot of Roses and is absolutely honored to work with the press on her upcoming publication.

Gabriela López de Dennis is an award-winning storyteller—writer, producer, director, actor, visual artist. She has been producing film and theater for over 20 years. She is the founder of the design studio, Soap Studio Inc., and a co-founder and CEO of Lone Stars Entertainment, an independent production company that produces films, videos and web content. Her work with The Roots and Wings Project includes co-producing the Women at Work virtual performance, The Joy Ride mobile, outdoor, multi-disciplinary show, and the Matriarch live and virtual performance. Gabriela was included in Remezcla’s list of “10 Latino Filmmakers You Should Know.” For more information, visit gabrielalopezdedennis.com

Nastassia is a social media and marketing strategist specializing in telling brand stories through digital media. She is most known for her work as founder of Out of Stok where she has amassed a wide-reaching digital presence as a go-to e-commerce vintage furniture retailer and design logistics firm. Nastassia has provided social media and marketing for filmmakers, non-profits, performers and writers including Roger Q.Mason, The Roots and Wings Project, Tree People, Yoga for Youth, among others. 

Luis J. Rodriguez is an acclaimed poet, novelist, journalist, and activist. Rodriguez has penned 17 books spanning poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and children’s literature, notably the best-selling memoirs Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. (Simon & Schuster, 1994) and It Calls You Back: An Odyssey Through Love, Addiction, Revolutions, and Healing (Simon & Schuster, 2011).

His literary accolades include the Carl Sandburg Literary Award, a New York Times Notable Book recognition, a Lannan Foundation Fellowship, a Poetry Center Book Award, the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award, and the Paterson Poetry Prize. His children’s books, América Is Her Name (Curbstone Books, 1996) and It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way: A Barrio Story (Children’s Book Press, 1999), were awarded The Paterson Prize for Books on Young People, two Skipping Stones Honor Awards, and a Parent’s Choice Book Award.

Rodriguez was born in El Paso, Texas, and raised in East Los Angeles. From an early age, he was immersed in gang activities and substance abuse but simultaneously played a significant role in the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and ’70s. In 1989, Rodriguez founded Tia Chucha Press, and by 2001, in collaboration with his wife Maria Trinidad Cardenas, he initiated Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural Bookstore.

He has also been recognized for co-establishing community initiatives such as Chicago’s Guild Complex and Rock A Mole Productions. His substantial urban peace and gang intervention endeavors helped lead to the creation of the community-based Gang Intervention Model, approved by the Los Angeles City Council in 2008, and disseminated nationally and internationally.

Rodriguez has showcased his work at prominent festivals, delivered TEDx talks, released a poetry-music CD titled My Name’s Not Rodriguez, and he co-hosts the Hummingbird Cricket Hour podcast with Maria Trinidad Cardenas. He has also penned plays and scripts, and consulted on TV series including FX’s Snowfall.

His contributions to literature and community have earned him the Los Angeles Times Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement, a California Arts Council Legacy Fellowship, and the distinction of Los Angeles Poet Laureate from 2014 to 2016. Rodriguez oversees operations at Tía Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore in Sylmar, California.

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Evelyn Velador is a 33-year-old teaching artist who brings healing and empowerment into prisons and juvenile halls through the power of writing. Once sentenced to 15 years in , Evelyn now uses her story as living proof of what transformation and second chances can create. Through her workshops, she inspires women and young people to reclaim their voices, embrace resilience, and believe in new beginnings. Evelyn’s mission is to plant seeds of hope wherever she goes and remind others that healing and growth are always possible. Evelyn was a part of The Roots and Wings Project I LOVE MYSELF GOLDEN Writing Program at CIW and is now a writing teaching with our program.