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Ginalda Tavares Manuel, raised in Leeds to Cape Verdean and Angolan parents is a poet, artist, writer, and language graduate. She graduated with a BA HONS in Spanish and Japanese at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2020. Her work often exhibits aspects of her heritage and the various languages she speaks, these include English, Portuguese, and crioulo. Ginalda joined Leeds young authors aged 14 and represented a winning Leeds slam team at the Southbank Centre in London with an impacting piece about FGM. The event was Shot from the Lip curated by Apples and Snakes. She has also hosted award shows in her community and been part of artistic projects around the city including dancing at RJC Dance from a young age. Ginalda has also been featured in various bodies of work such as Bedtime stories, and short stories with values where she translated a children’s story from Spanish into English facilitated by Manchester Metropolitan University. Her work also appears in Trans-languaging as Transformation, a book published by the University of Barcelona and Leeds Metropolitan. She has performed in Mexico, Spain and the UK. She is currently an artistic mentor and associate artist for the Geraldine Connor Foundation, and of recent, did an assistant trainee producer role at Leeds Playhouse. Ginalda also enjoys acting and theatre as well as writing and was recently involved in Speak Woman Speaks Play ‘It’s Carnival’ a play that features three women exploring the themes of carnival culture and womanhood. As of recent, she is a coordinator for Heritage Crew, an up-and-coming organisation that supports youth development within arts and personal development of skills. She has also been worked with the Geraldine Connor Foundation and Apples and Snakes as an Assistant Poet coach for this year’s Word Cup 2023, a national youth poetry event.