Salem is a double English and Economics Major with a Math minor from Burke, Virginia and she loves nothing more than a good story. She’s always had an interest in both writing and theatre, but the two first combined in her sophomore year, when she competed in her first poetry slam. Despite having been woefully unprepared for the slam, she still emerged enraptured by the caring new community she’d discovered. During her high school’s collaborative art show, she and a friend created a joint spoken word piece and video essay grappling with fragmented culture, which was then later featured during the 2017 FCPS Leadership Conference. Since then, she’s been focused on collaborative creation within poetry and learning how to better foster spaces to discuss and explore facets of identity. During her time at UVa, she’s continued to be involved in theatre and was a cast member of The Black Monologues 2017. Through the poetry CIO Flux, she has also had the opportunity to grow into a more confident host and facilitator of workshops. She is a proud two-time member of the UVA College Union Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI) team, and you can find her snapping enthusiastically every Thursday at Flux’s weekly open mics. She's extraordinarily grateful and ecstatic to further explore the UVa arts community as a Miller Arts Scholar!