FOUNDERS

  • TODD SILVERSTEIN

    regrets being carbon-based given the existence of elements like Yttrium and Flerovium on the periodic table. In addition to writing poetry, he’s been a consulting producer on Silicon Valley, a ditch-digger, book editor with HarperCollins, dishwasher, and has twice been mistaken for Rivers Cuomo (He doesn’t see it). Todd currently resides in Tokyo.

  • JORDAN A. Y. SMITH

    is a poet, literary translator, and literary researcher based in Tokyo and Los Angeles. Editor-in-Chief of Tokyo Poetry Journal. Books include Syzygy (2020), Sea of Trees (with Arai Takako, Osaki Sayaka, Yotsumoto Yasuhiro; 2019), √IC: Redux (with Kanie Naha and Nagae Yūki; 2018). Along with Miki Yuuri, co-founder of KOTOBA Slam Japan.

  • YUKI NAGAE

    2019年歴程新鋭賞、2012年詩と思想新人賞を受賞。テキストベースの詩作の他、詩を立体的に立ち上げる独自の立体詩を国内外で展開。社会やアートとリンクし、JR西日本「きのくにトレイナート」や「MIND TRAIL」等にも参加。

DIRECTORS

  • SEAN NICHOLS

    has a 20 year career in digital marketing, he has extensive experience through his work with Dentsu, Hakuhodo DY Partners USA, YouTube, and Amazon Prime Video (Head of Business Development). Most recently, he ran the Japan office of Tastemade, through its purchase by Mitsui Trading, Inc. He oversaw a strong year-over-year growth in audience and revenue along with nearly $30mil in investment from the Cool Japan Fund and Mitsui.

  • PATRICK STEIN

  • J. SCUDERI

    is a hybrid Visual and Commercial Artist living and working in Japan. As an award-winning Art and Creative Director, he has been an integral contributor for advertising and design agencies, architectural and development firms, and major lifestyle consumer brands.

POETS

  • FORREST GANDER

    is a writer and translator with degrees in geology and literature, born in the Mojave Desert and livs in northern California. His books, often concerned with ecology, include Be With, winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize, the novel The Trace, and Core Samples from the World. Gander’s translations and co-translations include Alice Iris Red Horse by Gozo Yoshimasu, Spectacle & Pigsty by Kiwao Nomura, and Names & Rivers by Shuri Kido. He has received grants from the Library of Congress, the Guggenheim, Howard, Whiting and United States Artists Foundations.

  • KEIJIRO SUGA

    was born in 1958. Tokyo-based poet and professor of critical theory at Meiji University. He has published seven collections of poems in Japanese and a chapbook in English, and has translated more than thirty books of literature and in the humanities from French, English, and Spanish to Japanese. Has been invited to read at poetry festivals and universities in more than fifteen countries.

  • MIKI YUURI

    was born on December 31, 1984 in Gunma Prefecture. She released her first album Hentai (Pervert) in 2013, and has twice won people’s choice style livehouse idol competitions. She was an organizer from 2017–2019 for the legendary Ueno Poetrican Jam, Japan’s biggest poetry event attended by around 2000 poetry fans. She is also a two-time national champion of Poetry Slam Japan (2017, 2018), and winner of the World Haiku Championship in Paris (2018). Her work in English has appeared in Tokyo Poetry Journal and Sink Review. Co-founder of KOTOBA Slam Japan (with CŌEM’s Jordan A. Y. Smith).

  • JUDY HALEBSKY

    is the author most recently of Spring and a Thousand Years (Unabridged) which was a finalist for the National Poetry Series. At Hosei University, she studied Japanese literature on a MEXT fellowship. She directs the low-res MFA in Creative Writing at Dominican University of California and lives in Oakland.

  • XIAO YUE SHAN

    is a poet and editor. The poetry chapbook How Often I Have Chosen Love won the Frontier Poetry Chapbook Prize and was published in 2019. The full-length collection Then Telling Be the Antidote won the Tupelo Press Berkeshire Prize and is forthcoming in 2023. shellyshan.com

  • RYAN DZELZKALNS

    has poems appearing with Assaracus, DIAGRAM, The Offing, The Shanghai Literary Review, Tin House, and others. He received an MFA from New York University and a BA from Macalester College where he was awarded the Wendy Parrish Poetry Prize. He has worked for the Academy of American Poets and was recently a Fulbright scholar in Tokyo, where he still lives. Read more at RyanDz.com

ARTISTS

  • MAD DOG JONES

    is a Canadian born multidisciplinary artist whose work blends eclectic influences from Japanese animation, SF film, philosophical poetics, and cyberpunk with the natural world. His first in-reality exhibition was at DIESEL Art Gallery in Shibuya, curated by CŌEM co-founder Jordan A. Y. Smith. Recent work for Phillips (REPLICATOR), Christie's, and Sotheby's have been some of the most innovative approaches to bridging physical/digital and creatively augmenting interactivity factors in NFT art. His dual affinities with music and art have led him to create cover art and other works for Maroon 5, Trippie Redd, Chromeo, Vanoss and more, and he has a strong background in music with multiple gold/platinum hits.

    www.maddogjones.com www.instagram.com/mad.dog.jones

  • JAE BORDLEY

    is an experimental composer and sound designer focused on creating works for commercial, visual, and personal endeavors. His diverse style can be described as a culmination of ambient soundscapes and rhythmic composition. He has composed for companies such as McGraw-Hill, TBWA/NYC, Sweets, and Lasergun Factory.

  • DARIN DAHLINGER

    brings nearly thirty years of experience in audio engineering, music production as well as professional experience in live event technical support. He's configured and hand-built custom audio hardware solutions for international music tours (including for the legendary Thomas Dolby) and has past experience working in audio/music for several digital media companies, such as the American division of game developer Hudson Soft, and in documentary audio production for BBC Radio 4. Personal creative endeavours include releases on record label Cold Busted, and more recently for Jordan A.Y. Smith, released in tandem with his book of poetry Syzygy (Awai Books 2020).

  • OFER RUBIN

    has assembled and led creative teams across multiple high growth companies, with solutions ranging from Augmented Reality (AR) products for leading global online retailers, developing real time motion capture solutions, sensor-based arcade games, online 3D games, and more. As VP Content, Head of 3D & Animation, Senior Art Director, and Creative Manager in a number of technology startups, delivered solutions ranging from developing real time motion capture, sensor-based arcade games, online 3D games, and more. Also the founder of RealeyeZ3D, A pioneer in 3D user experience for the online Jewelry retail market, and HandsUp Animation, which completed a broad range of 3D animation projects in Israel and abroad. For the past decade, he has been creating unique steel wire mesh sculptures which have been exhibited and sold at art shows and galleries globally. BA from the Department of Industrial Design at the Bezalel Academy for Art & Design.

  • ADAM VARGA

    is a Tokyo-based Interaction Designer & Creative Technologist with strong interest in next-generation interfaces, art, and computing.