MEET THE TEAM

Diane Luby Lane is the Founder/CEO of the global nonprofit GetLit - Words Ignite, whose mission is to amplify student engagement and literacy through the power of Spoken Word. In 2025 she Created and Co-produced the sold out multimedia show "If I Awaken In Los Angeles," which premiered at the FORD Theater in partnership with the LA Phil. In 2024 Get Lit was one of 300 organizations that received $1M+ from Mackenzie Scott's Yield Foundation (of more than 6,500 applicants.) In 2023 Get Lit was voted Nonprofit Organization of The Year. It is a 2020 and 2023 Library of Congress international best practice nominee for “doing exemplary, innovative and replicable work that promotes literacy.” (1 of 15 in the world.) Since 2006 the Get Lit in-school curricula has been taught in over 150 schools, with over 100,000 graduates. The Get Lit Players teen poetry troupe have performed at the White House 3 times, Kennedy Center, and opened for John Legend. Their online videos have over 300 million views and 29 Get Lit Players co-wrote and starred in the feature film SUMMERTIME, which opened Sundance in 2020. Diane co-produced SUMMERTIME as well as OUR WORDS COLLIDE, a documentary featuring 5 Get Lit Poets, which premiered at the Santa Barbara Film Festival and won the Anti-defamation League Award. Diane’s book, Get Lit Rising (Simon & Schuster), is the winner of the 2016 Nautilus Award. She has led workshops at Yale, USC, UCLA, and the Library of Congress. She has appeared on CNN, NPR, Kelly Clarkson Show, and ABC.

Born on Leap Day because his Taiwanese immigrant mom couldn't hold in his big head, Jeremy Hsing views the ancient myth of Sisyphus perpetually pushing a boulder up a hill not as a curse, but as a blessing. He uses his big head and B.A. in Psychology from UCLA to write genre-bending thrillers where haunted truth-seekers fight against seemingly insurmountable odds to reclaim their stolen agency and wrench catharsis from chaos. His stories crackle with psychic tension and mythic fury guided by one unshakable belief: there is no such thing as a villain, only a broken human being desperate to feel seen. Jeremy’s AAPI sci-fi thriller feature script LITTLE CARP AT DRAGON’S GATE won the 2025 Asian American International Film Festival Screenplay Contest and 2025 Signpost Fellowship. Jeremy’s basketball short BIG BALLER BOY won both the 2025 TDE Short Films Fund and the 2025 Tyler Perry Studios Dream Collective. Jeremy's sci-fi cosmic horror pilot THE INSTITUTE OF FELLOW FEELING won the 2025 Roadmap Writers Diversity Fellowship and was selected for the 2025 Justice 4 My Sister BIPOC Sci-Fi Screenwriting Lab. In his free time, you can catch Jeremy cheering on the Lakers or dissecting Kendrick Lamar’s legendary discography. And if you’re wondering, yes Jeremy does celebrate his birthday every year and yes technically he is only 6 years old. Jeremy is repped by Nicholas Bogner from Affirmative Entertainment and is based in Los Angeles.

Ollie Miccio is an award-winning writer, performer, and multidisciplinary artist that hails from Los Angeles, whose work lives at the intersection of poetry, film, and social impact. Some of their accomplishments include performing at the United Nations National Day of Peace, as well as opening up for Emma Gonzales at The March for Our Lives in DC and collaborating to make original art for the march, of which 50,000 posters were distributed. Their collaborative list is extensive: from Teen Vogue, Goldie Hawn and TOMS, Ollie turns vulnerability into power and language into movement, through honest storytelling, that uplifts and inspires all, especially the trans community which they are proudly a part of. Ollie co-wrote and acted in Summertime, directed by Carlos López Estrada, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019. They also co-starred and performed original poetry in Better Things alongside creator and star Pamela Adlon. They are a proud alum of The Get Lit Players, the most-watched poetry troupe on the internet, a former LA Youth Poet Laureate Ambassador, and a published poet with Button Poetry. When they’re not clocked in, they enjoy spending time with their Cat, Beige, and proving that in terms of book-buying, more is more.

Griffin Flowers thrives in motion: drawing inspiration from skate culture, surf lifestyle, and the ever-evolving energy of LA’s street art scene. With a degree in Graphic Design and a background in coding, he has collaborated with a range of businesses, including the legacy brand Anderson Surfboards, as well as The Black Surfers Collective, blending heritage with contemporary design, inspiring and fortifying important brand identities. Griffin has also partnered with a range of smaller businesses, including Rony’s Autobody Shop, where he revitalized the company’s identity for its 50th anniversary, giving the brand a bold and modern refresh, as well as developed a distinctive brand identity and logo for Zenlife Massage Studio, proving that if there’s one thing Griffin is, it’s local. During his time at ASU he became a pro at HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and marketing and even made a few video games along the way.

Samantha Rios discovered poetry the way a lot of people do: through heartbreak, bad guitar playing, and the realization that words could do what her fingers on fretboards couldn't. Once she let poetry in, it changed everything. Her notebook became the place she could be honest in ways that felt impossible anywhere else. She thinks radical authenticity is how strangers become connected, that sharing your scariest moments with someone you've never met can actually set you both free. In 2023 and 2024, Samantha competed in the GetLit Words Ignite Classic Slam with her team from Mark Keppel High School. They won first place both years. During those competitions, she started to understand what her poetry could actually do in the world. In 2024, she and her team wrote a group poem about social media's grip on young girls and the slow work of learning to love yourself anyway. After the video was posted on TikTok it immediately took off, receiving 5 million views, and a comment section flooded with girls who had been feeling the same pressures. That's why Samantha writes. She knows someone out there is dealing with the same thing and just needs to know they're not alone. In the summer of 2024 Samantha competed in the National competition Brave New Voices, in addition to becoming Get Lit Player, a position she still holds. She's performed at the Anderson Paak House, the Ford Theatre, Guadalajara Film Festival, and high schools all over Los Angeles. Her work digs into social justice, family, and what it means to be a girl right now. In June 2025, Samantha was named Los Angeles County Youth Poet Laureate for 2025-2026, chosen from thousands of applicants. For her, the title wasn't about the recognition. It was about having a bigger microphone. In August, she starred in the Grammy-eligible production "If I Awaken in Los Angeles", part love letter to the city where she's been born and raised, part rallying cry for people trying to survive political chaos. Maybe someday Samantha will show up on your radio singing a song while playing phenomenal guitar. But for now, she hopes you'll listen to her poetry instead.

Violeta (she,her) is a Mexican American poet, performer, and artist from Long Beach, CA. After experiencing her stepfather being incarcerated by ICE (Immigration Customs Enforcement), she became an advocate for immigration reform through her poetry. Violeta has continued performing all over Los Angeles building her name as La Poeta Violeta. Violeta has been featured at venues like, A Day of Unreasonable Conversation with John Legend and in articles like CNN and most recently at the Guadalajara Film Festival and the Mexican Consulate of Los Angeles. As she embarks on her journey of college education in Political Science with a focus in Women in Politics, Chicano Film and Mexican Modern Art and Archeology you can keep up with her all over Los Angeles and social media @lapoetavioleta

Shanti Mejia is a Haitian-Salvadoran cultural curator and strategist from Los Angeles whose work lives at the intersection of community, culture, and intentional storytelling. Shaped by LA’s layered soundscape and diasporic identity, she approaches creative work as both stewardship and strategy — building platforms that feel lived in, not manufactured. Behind the scenes, Shanti has shaped digital narratives and community activations for Bricks & Wood and Brique LA, translating cultural fluency into measurable growth and deeper audience connection. At Brique LA, she led social media strategy and content production for the brand’s celebrity-inspired Rock Toast, leveraging a timely cultural moment tied to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to drive local visibility, organic engagement, and sustained brand recognition. Across both brands, she has developed influencer activations, pop-ups, and community-centered campaigns that elevated digital presence while preserving authenticity. As a recurring DJ for Ambiente Central, a Central American music collective, Shanti curates spaces rooted in rhythm and belonging. She has also contributed to Live Nation–affiliated programming, supporting large-scale audience engagement and cultural programming. Thoughtful and precise in her execution, Shanti believes culture isn’t something to capitalize on — it’s something to cultivate. Whether building campaigns or curating sound, her work is grounded in resonance, representation, and real community impact.