Gina Duran

GIna is an artist, poet, trauma informed educator of 25 years, and yoga instructor with a focus on marginalized youth. Gina Duran is the founder and a teaching artist for the IE Hope Collective; an outreach that helps people living on the streets and in shelters, and provides poetry, art, and yoga workshops for low-income, homeless, foster, refugee, and LGBTQ2S+ youth.  She was the Guest Editor of Boundless 2022, of The Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival and is currently the Host for The Collective on KQBH. Duran teaches yoga, mindfulness, poetry and art workshops for EOPS, NextUp, CalWorks, the CARE Program, and Foster Youth at Chaffey College, and has taught workshops at the University of Redlands, Pitzer College, Ontario TAY Center, Joshua Home, and the Pomona School District. Works from her debut collection of poetry “…and so, the Wind was Born,” published by FlowerSong Press (2021) can be found wherever books are sold online and in the Her Story Mixed Tape Collection at the Autry Museum of the American West, in LA and Life in Quarantine Project, at Stanford University. Her research published by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2018) informs her art, poetry, and efforts for marginalized youth. When she's not making art and building community, Duran works as a credentialed Substitute teacher, certified Yoga Instructor, certified Massage Therapist, and youth program director. She feels art and community can and will lead to positive change.