Vanessa Aricco is a writer, multimedia poet, and performance artist living in Kansas City. She is the recipient of the 2025 Charlotte Street Foundation Generative Performing Artist Award. She has released three poetry albums—The Midnight Rush, Human Animal, and Teenage Poetry. Her work has also appeared in Maudlin House, Expat Press, Hobart, Rejection Letters, and The New Territory. Her ongoing hula-hooping series, Hip Meditations, can be found on Instagram (@hoopinblack).