Shantia Estes

Shantia Elise (they/she) is a 4th generation Black Queer Arizonan, a chef, writer and musician, and certified teaching artist. Shantia has taught workshops for a range of age groups, mainly focused on creative writing with some visual art woven into it, and is finishing up a curriculum for a 6-week Cooking 101 course. Their first chapbook, The Privilege of Softness, was published in 2021 through fiikbooks as an offering to her first students at Durango Juvenile Center. Shantia’s work centers healing relationships with Self and loved ones, and building community through honest conversations around how antiblackness impacts our daily lives, and how we are deserving of joy anyway.