Gabriel Cortez is a poet, educator, and organizer based in the Bay Area, California. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Rumpus, The Breakbeat Poets Anthology Volume 4, and elsewhere. A VONA and Poetry Incubator fellow, he has received awards from the University of California, Palette Poetry, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Gabriel is the inaugural poet in residence at The Ecology Center and Shelterwood Collective, where he uses poetry and arts education to uplift local legacies of resistance rooted in environmental justice and food and land sovereignty. He is a member of the artist collective, Ghostlines, and co-founder of The Root Slam, an award-winning poetry venue dedicated to inclusivity, justice, and artistic growth, as well as Write Home, a project working to challenge public perceptions of houselessness and shift critical resources to houseless Bay Area youth through poetry and arts programming. Gabriel serves as secretary on the board of directors of Performing Arts Workshop, a BIPOC-led Bay Area nonprofit organization established in 1965 dedicated to anti-racist practices, equalizing access to arts and arts education, and helping young people develop critical thinking, creative expression, Socio-Emotional Learning, and essential life skills. From 2014 to 2023, he served as Lead Poet Mentor and Director of Programs at Youth Speaks, one of the world’s leading presenters of spoken word performance, education, and youth development programs. Gabriel is of Black, white, and Panamanian descent. His work explores power, identity, belonging, and gold teeth.