DONTE COLLINS (they/them; b. Chicago Heights. 1996) is a neurodivergent afro-surrealist blues poet, playwright, and movement artist named the Inaugural Youth Poet Laureate of Saint Paul, Minnesota. They have received fellowships, scholarships, and awards from the Academy of American Poets, the Adroit Journal, the Mcknight Foundation, The National Urban League, The Dramatist Guild Foundation, Frontier Poetry, Indiana Review, BOMB Magazine, and Augsburg University. They believe poems allow us to wander back to ourselves, to meet ourselves anew. They believe poems are deeply human gestures here to gather us, to propose new, critical & compassionate floor plans for the future, for the self. They believe poems are the beginning. Collins is the author of the poetry collection “Autopsy” (Button Poetry, 2017), a finalist for a Minnesota Book Award. They are an alum of TruArtSpeaks, an arts & culture organization cultivating literacy, leadership, and social justice through the study & application of Spoken Word and Hip Hop culture. Collins is the recipient of a 2023 Jerome Hill Artist fellowship for theatre, spoken word and performance. Their choreopoem “Mercy” is forthcoming.