Niki Billingslea has been an adjunct assistant professor of English at Los Angeles Southwest College since 1997. She has an M.F.A. in creative writing from Brooklyn College, where she studied with Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. Her journalistic contributions include hip hop magazines and community news sources. Her poetry and fiction have been published in anthologies, academic journals and poetry publications, including Testimonies of a Reluctant B-Girl, Supple Verse & Mind Candy for the Sunken Place, and The Soul of This House: Framework for Modern Families.