Jon Sands has been a full-time teaching & performing artist since 2007. His first full collection of poems, The New Clean, was released in 2011 from Write Bloody Publishing. Jon has performed and facilitated workshops extensively with university and arts organizations both nationally and internationally, and is Director of Poetry Education at the Positive Health Project (a syringe exchange center located in Midtown Manhattan), an adjunct with the City College of New York, as well as a Youth Mentor with Urban Word-NYC. He delivered the 2010 commencement address at the Bronx Academy of Letters, and in 2010 toured throughout Germany in conjunction with the American Embassy. He starred in the 2011 web-series “Verse: A Murder Mystery” from Rattapallax Films. He's represented NYC multiple times at the National Poetry Slam, and lives in Brooklyn, where he makes better tuna salad than anyone you know.