spoken word artist/performer/MC/author solidad decosta is a mixed race herm/queer woman of black latina maternal ancestry. equal parts street journalist, storyteller and 40 year old crone-ta-be with leo moon credentials, her work encompasses the why and where of life outside the boxes in a label obsessed world, and the what, when, who and how of everything else. She has performed at El Rio, Brava!, SomARTS, Black Box Theatre, Humanist Hall, The SF LGBT Center, Arise, Justice League, Starry Plough, Cell Space, SomARTS, El Rio, Poetry @ Dalva, The Living Wage Festival, 40th Street Warehouse, Anarchist Book Fair and Just Cause Headquarters (Yes on EE/No on FF campaign) and featured at the The Green Mill (Chicago), Vancouver, BC Poetry Slam, Crazy Wisdom Books (Ann Arbor, MI) and Kraftbrau (Kalamazoo, MI). Ms. decosta has also written extensively for the San Francisco Bay Guardian and Fireweed on topics such as gentrification in a not-so-big Big City and life outside the boxes in the so-called Big City. Relentlessly optimistic, she hasn't tired of reminding folks that the Madeiran Islands are 400 miles off the coast of North Africa (yet). Her fourth chapbook (and first CD) "manifesto" is available at bookstores across the country. She is in the process of working on her first novel.