Jon Sands

Jon Sands has been a full-time teaching & performing artist since 2007. His first full collection of poems, The New Clean, was released in 2011 from Write Bloody Publishing. Jon has performed and facilitated workshops extensively with university and arts organizations both nationally and internationally, and is currently the Director of Poetry Education at the Positive Health Project (a syringe exchange center located in Midtown Manhattan), an adjunct with the City College of New York, as well as a Youth Mentor with Urban Word-NYC (which involves facilitation of writing and performance workshops for New York City's teen population, in both classroom and extra-curricular on-site program settings). He currently heads three separate writing workshops at harm reduction/AIDS treatment centers in New York City (The Positive Health Project, Bailey House, and Schafer Hall), and ran a weekly writing program at Citiwide Harm Reduction Center in the Bronx in the Summer of 2010. He also delivered the 2010 commencement address at the Bronx Academy of Letters, and in December of 2010 performed and facilitated workshops throughout Germany in conjunction with the American Embassy. Jon's work has appeared in decomP, The Millions, kill author, Suss, The Literary Bohemian, Danse Macabre, and others. He is a regular editor with Phati'tude Literary Magazine, and is a featured contributor with Union Station Magazine, conducting a recurring interview column. He also starred in the 2011 web-series “Verse: A Murder Mystery” from Rattapallax Films as a bike messenger/poet who discovers a lost manuscript and unlocks a thirty year old murder. He was also a member of the nationally touring electricity-fests that were/are The SpillJoy Ensemble and The Whirlwind Company. He's a recipient of the 2009 New York City-LouderARTS fellowship grant, and has represented NYC multiple times at the National Poetry Slam. He lives in Brooklyn, where he makes better tuna salad than anyone you know.