Hidden Melody

Naila Mattison has been writing, since the tender age of 6. She is the author of four books; Aluta Continua, a collection of essays and poems, about raising a black boy, through the private, prep school system, and all the challenges that entails, from a cultural perspective, Altared Spaces - a tribute to Nichelle Nichols, the first black woman in ＂Space, Lyrically Gifted, - a collection of poetry inspired by Hip Hop, and Hidden Melody, her first work of science fiction, which presents a near future, dystopian society, where all live music is banned, and the masses are only allowed to listen to digitally created music, transmitted over government controlled airwaves. Hidden Melody was a featured selection, at the Art Sanctuary’s 2015 Celebration of Black Writers. Naila is an instructor with the Philadelphia based nonprofit program, Mighty Writers, and New York based Hip Hop Loves Foundation, where she teaches Hip Hop 101, a class focused on the contextual analysis of current music. Rorie Still was born in West Philadelphia and began writing stories in the second grade. She holds a bachelor’s in Psychology from North Carolina A&T State University and a master’s in Elementary Education from Lincoln University. Rorie worked as an elementary school teacher within the Philadelphia School District from 2010 to 2013. Rorie Still was first introduced to the public as a winner of the science and speculative fiction writing contest, ＂Octavia City＂, organized by The Black Tribbles, a G-Town Radio program. Rorie read the story live on the air there. Recently, Rorie was chosen to be one of the featured artists in Art Sanctuary’s 2015 Celebration of Black Literature and share her first book, ＂Flashbang: Sci-Fi Stories That Will Blow Your Mind!＂ She is currently sharing the workshop ＂Writing Genre Fiction: An Adventure in Creativity＂ with different bookstores, programs, and businesses, throughout the greater Philadelphia area, and soon will be sharing the workshop ＂Seeing the Crisis Cycle Through Fiction＂ at Art Sanctuary’s Celebration of Black Literature. She has taken the ＂Virtual Screenwriting Course with Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes＂＂ course and is in the process of producing her first film. Rorie is concurrently working on several ＂Flashbang＂ projects, as well as an upcoming vampire series, ＂Drac Diaries: The Legacy＂.