Kenley Ellis
About
Kenley Ellis is an incoming English major at Brown University. In high school, she was the editor-in-chief of both Kent Denver School's student newspaper and its literary magazine, as well as a lead vocalist in the contemporary R&B band.
Kenley's short stories have been published in the Plentitudes International Literary Magazine and the Wellspringwords Literary Anthology. Links to these pieces can be found in the "Writing" section. Additionally, selected recordings from her band (including the ones that won the 2024 Downbeat Magazine Award) are linked in the "Music" section.
(303) 887-3443
@kenleyaspen
WRITING
Research
Editor for Dr. Kevin Janes, University of Virginia John Marshall Money Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics and co-founder of the SASCO (Systems Analysis of Stress-Adapted Cancer Organelles) center. Revised grants, articles, and reports.
Creative Work (Distinguished)
Professionally Published Pieces:
Wellspringwords Literary Anthology, November 2024: “Movements,” “Clip On.”
The Plentitudes International Literary Magazine, December 2024: “Silent Summer.”
Kent Denver Literary Magazine Published Pieces:
“Gray Owl” (2022), “First Love in Waves & Dimensions” (2023), “Couples and Things I
Saw in New York” (2024), “On October” (2024), “My First Honest Love Poem” (2024),
"Love in the Aftermath" (2025), "Poem Written After Attending My First Non-School
Sponsored Open Mic" (2025), "The Meandering Meaning of 'I Love You'" (2025),
"Under the Scar" (2025), "Unworn" (2025), "Passenger Princess" (2025), "Thoughts for
a Cup of Tea" (2025), "Made" (2025), "Another Circular Becoming" (2025).
Reedsy Competition Award:
“The Shadows of the Flowers” shortlist (2021).
Regional Scholastic Awards Silver Key:
Selection titled “Streetlight Poesy” with poems “The Child Ascending,” “Roses of Rain,” “Streetlight Poesy,” “Teenage Symphony” (2022).
Literary Performance
Original Recitation:
Kent Denver Open Mic, November 2023.
Kent Denver Open Mic, October 2024.
Slam Nuba Open Mic, November 2024.
Kent Denver Open Mic, February 2025.
Competitive Recitation:
Colorado Poetry Out Loud Competition, March 2025, 3rd place winner.
Journalism
Awards:
NHSJC (National High School Journalism Convention) Boston 2023:
Individual: Honorable Mention in Newswriting
Staff: #1 Middle School Newsmagazine (paper that she helps mentor, design, and copyedit).
NHSJC Kansas City 2024:
Individual: Excellent award in Newswriting
CSMA (Colorado Student Media Association) Best of Colorado Awards 2024:
First Place (staff): Column, Sports Feature
Second Place (staff): Facing Pages Design, Single Page Design
Third Place (staff): In-Depth Sports Coverage
Honorable Mention (staff): Lifestyle News Feature, Commentary, Personality Profile
Positions:
Staff writer 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024.
Section editor (news) 2022.
Junior editor-in-chief 2023.
Editor-in-chief 2024.
Articles Written:
September 2021: “Why Is Grey’s Anatomy So Popular?”
November 2021: “It’s Infrastructure Week.”
December 2021: “Students Discuss Travis Scott Controversy.”
January 2022: “What’s Cool in the Upper School?” (series).
February 2022: “What’s Cool in the Upper School?” (series).
March 2022: “Subway Platform Barriers Spark Safety Discussion,” “What’s Cool in the Upper School?” (series).
April 2022: “What’s Cool in the Upper School?” (series).
May 2022: “What’s Cool in the Upper School?” (series).
September 2022: “Opening Up the Abortion Conversation,” “What’s Cool in the Upper School?” (series).
October 2022: “What’s Cool in the Upper School?” (series).
November 2022: “Magic Mushrooms Revolutionize Psychiatry Field,” “What’s Cool in the Upper School?” (series).
December 2022: “Tragedy Strikes Denver LGBTQ+ Club,” “What’s Cool in the Upper School?” (series).
February 2023: “Lunar New Year Recipes,” “What’s Cool in the Upper School?” (series).
March 2023: “What’s Cool in the Upper School?” (series).
April 2023: “Marjorie Taylor Greene on 60 Minutes,” “What’s Cool in the Upper School?” (series).
May 2023: “Paper Wings Sample: First Love in Waves & Dimensions,” “Stassy Speaks: Prehistoric Pandemonium at Denver Airport,” “What’s Cool in the Upper School?” (series).
September 2023: “Effect of Class of 2027 on Facilities,” “What’s Cool in the Upper School?” (series).
October 2023: “Advocate Staff Takes on Boston,” “What’s Cool in the Upper School?” (series).
November 2023: “Encouraging Student Discourse on Difficult Topics,” “Kenley Critiques a Popular NYT Bestseller,” “A Good Story” (poem), “What’s Cool in the Upper School?” (series).
December 2023: “KDS Dancers Dazzle,” “What’s Cool in the Upper School?” (series).
February 2024: “What’s Cool in the Upper School?” (series).
March 2024: “A Rockstar Needs Revising: Patti Smith Review,” “What’s Cool in the Upper School?” (series).
April 2024: “What’s Cool in the Upper School?” (series).
May 2024: “What’s Cool in the Upper School?” (series).
October 2024: “What’s Cool in the Upper School?” (series).
November 2024: “Erasing Erasure: A Review of American Fiction.”
February 2025: "Book Nook Presents: The Sound and the Fury" (series).
March 2025: "Book Nook Presents: The Joy Luck Club" (series).
April 2025: "Book Nook Presents: I Who Have Never Known Men" (series).
May 2025: "Book Nook Presents: Crying in H Mart" (series).
Creative Work (other)
Original Projects/Anthologies Presented at Kent Denver Innovation Scholar Showcases and Independent Study Presentations
The Short Story Project:
“The Shadows of the Flowers,” “Talking’s Not a Sin but We Avoid it Anyway,” “Finding You,” “Little Red Raincoat,” “Stuck in Technicolor,” “When I Was Young,” “Words of the Silence,” “The Truth of Flight,” “Timelines.”
Momentary Lapses:
“The Shadows of the Flowers,” “Little Red Raincoat,” “Waves,” “The Twinkle-Eyed People,” “Taste Buds,” “Revive,” “Awakening,” “fairy tale,” “Muse,” “None of This is About You,” “I Want to Write a Story,” “butterfly dream,” “Permanent Fixture,” “梦话,” “Preparatory Sorrow,” “Soliloquy,” “Momentary Lapses,” “Wing Mirror,” “questions of sanity,” “acquiescence,” “The World from Above,” “love as a concept,” “celestial bodies,” “crystal cold,” “Song of Myself,” “wonderings,” “The Girl of the Make-Believe,” “color me blue,” “Love in the Aftermath,” “the parachuting soul,” “Orange,” “Fishing,” “A Flower,” “Silent Summer,” “Jazz Boyfriend,” “The Voice in my Mind,” “Buffalo MN: A Mythography, Vol. 1,” “teenage symphony,” “Springtime Snow,” “Aristotle,” “The Cliffs of Salt-Spray and Regret,” “All the Questions You Ask,” “Common Love, Cloud Love,” “Things to Consider,” “The Child Ascending,” “Earthly Attachment,” “summertime solitude.”
Serialized Journals:
128,953 words of diaries → 9,538-word alphabetical prose piece.
Rhapsody in Sixteen:
“A Good Story,” “Cicada Wisdom,” “The Greater Love Affair,” “some sort of love story,” “Reminders for April,” “Observations,” “On the Contact Lens Under my Bed,” “Adrift,” “Gorgeous,” “Lonely Road,” “I Write From the Perspective of Myself in Fourteen Years,” “Couples and Things I Saw in New York,” “it’s avant-garde,” “I Have a Boy,” “Essay,” “Streetlight Poesy,” “On Our Hundredth Date, He Learns Something New About My Dress,” “First Love in Waves & Dimensions,” “Early Morning Elegy,” “restart ,” “Silence,” “April Fool’s Day is Also the Start of National Poetry Month,” “Unforsaken Art,” “October Nights,” “Haunted House,” “Ghost Town,” “Windowsill Flowers,” “The Old Guitarist,” “A Study of Reality in Puddles,” “The Blue Ink and the Rain,” “Roses of Rain,” “Sonnet for the Dusk,” “Typical Beauty,” “Troubled Youth,” “Afternoon Birds,” “Gray Owl,” “love as engraved on the largest organ,” “Heartsick,” “Loneliness: A How-To,” “Dumpling Skin,” “abandon (ascension)” “Priorities,” “Devotion,” “Song for Autumn” “Thoughts for a Cup of Tea,” “Lady Penelope,” “Peach,” “Yellow September,” “watermark,” “Becoming.”
Another Circular Becoming:
“Another Circular Becoming,” “Destined for a Supermarket Shelf,” “Metrophobia,” “Here is a Boy of Redolent Beauty,” “My Blanket,” “Movements,” “A Volume of Rude Poetry Sits Atop my Notebook,” “My First Honest Love Poem,” “Correctional Behavior,” “September,” “On October,” “Spring Storm,” “A cold mid-April rain,” “Under the Scar.”
MUSIC
Band:
2024 Downbeat Award for Outstanding Performance in the
Blues/Pop/Rock category, high school.
Song submissions:
Link to “Smooth Operator” (lead vocals)
Link to “Best of My Love” (background vocals)
Kent Denver Roots Ensemble/Vocal Arts Ensemble (lead vocals)
October 9th, 2021 at Kent Denver Homecoming
December 1st, 2021 at Kent Denver
December 2nd, 2021 at Kent Denver
December recording of submission for Downbeat Awards
January 26th, 2022 at Dazzle Denver
April 20th, 2022 at Kent Denver
May 12th, 2022 at Kent Denver
Kent Denver World Ensemble Honors (lead vocals)
October 4th, 2022 at Kent Denver Homecoming
October 7th, 2022 (with the Colorado Conservatory of the Jazz Arts) downtown Denver
October 8th, 2022 at Kent Denver
October 27th, 2022 at Kent Denver
January 20th, 2023 at Hard Rock Café
February 23rd, 2023 at Kent Denver charity gala
March 16th, 2023 at Kent Denver
March 23rd, 2023 (in collaboration with Que Mondo)
April 13th, 2023 at Kent Denver
April 27th, 2023 at Kent Denver
Kent Denver Contemporary Ensemble Honors (lead vocals)
October 7th, 2023 CNS Cares Performance for Rocky Flats Survivors, Westminster
October 24th, 2023 at Kent Denver
October 26th, 2023 at Kent Denver
November 6th, 2023 at Kent Denver
December 6th, 2023 at Kent Denver
December recording of submission for Downbeat Awards
February 22nd, 2024 at Kent Denver charity gala
May 1st, 2024 at Kent Denver
May 7th, 2024 at 89.3 KUVO (Colorado’s jazz radio station)
September 27th, 2024 at Rusty Bucket
December 5th, 2024 at National Person of Color Conference (8,000-person audience)
March 16th, 2025 at Rockstar Music Hall
April 5th, 2025 at Kent Denver charity gala
May 1st, 2025 at Kent Denver
Individual:
April 20th, 2022: Kent Denver Art Music Showcase (“Georgia” by Vance Joy)
May 12th, 2022: Kent Denver Arts Fest (“Georgia” by Vance Joy)
December 1st, 2022: Kent Denver Art Music Showcase (“You Are the Reason” by Calum Scott)
March 16th, 2020: Kent Denver Acoustic Music Concert (“Something Good” by alt-j)
April 12th, 2023: Kent Denver Art Music Showcase (“Jar of Hearts” by Christina Perri)
May 1st, 2023: Kent Denver Arts Fest (“Perfect” by Ed Sheeran”)
March 20th, 2024: Kent Denver Acoustic Music Concert (“Kick It To Me” by Sammy Rae and the Friends and “Funeral” by Phoebe Bridgers)
April 30th, 2024: Kent Denver Art Music Showcase (“The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” by Roberta Flack)
May 30th, 2024: Denver Children’s Choir end-of-year concert (“Falling Slowly” by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova).
November 12th, 2024: Kent Denver Acoustic Music Concert (“Against All Odds” by Phil Collins).
March 13th, 2025: Kent Denver Acoustic Music Concert ("Dancing on my Own" by Calum Scott and "I Remember Everything" by Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves).
Choir:
Denver Children's Premier Ensemble Performances
December 12th, 2021 at 4pm and 7pm: Park Hill United Methodist Church
May 7th, 2022: University of Denver’s Newman Center
May 22nd, 2022: Cleo Parker Dance Theater
December 3rd, 2022: Wellshire Presbyterian Church
May 6th, 2023: University of Denver’s Newman Center
June 1st, 2023: First Mennonite Church
June 2nd-8th, 2023: Touring around Toronto and Montreal with assorted performances/venues
December 2nd, 2023: Wellshire Presbyterian Church
March 3rd, 2024: University of Denver’s Newman Center (in collaboration with The Spirituals Project)
April 28th, 2024: Central Presbyterian Church (in collaboration with the Denver Young Artists Orchestra)
May 4th, 2024: University of Denver’s Newman Center
December 7th, 2024: Montview Presbyterian Church
December 13th, 2024: Bethany Lutheran Church (in collaboration with the Cherry Creek Chorale)
December 14th, 2024: Bethany Lutheran Church (in collaboration with the Cherry Creek Chorale)
Denver Children’s Choir Altitude Performances
December 12th, 2021 at 4pm and 7pm: Park Hill United Methodist Church
May 7th, 2022: University of Denver’s Newman Center
May 22nd, 2022: Cleo Parker Dance Theater
December 3rd, 2022: Wellshire Presbyterian Church
December 4th, 2022: Temple Emanuel
December 13th, 2022: Park Hill Congregational Church
December 15th, 2022: Elite Brands
April 28th, 2023: Denver School of the Arts
May 6th, 2023: University of Denver’s Newman Center
May 30th, 2023: Park Hill Congregational Church
June 2nd-8th, 2023: touring around Toronto and Montreal with assorted performances/venues
December 2nd, 2023: Wellshire Presbyterian Church
December 3rd, 2023: Temple Emanuel
December 15th, 2023: The Mercury Cafe (in collaboration with the Dollhouse Thieves)
December 2nd, 2023: Wellshire Presbyterian Church
December 3rd, 2023: Temple Emanuel
March 3rd, 2024: University of Denver’s Newman Center (in collaboration with The Spirituals Project)
April 6th, 2024: University of Denver’s Iliff School of Theology
May 4th, 2024: University of Denver’s Newman Center
May 30th, 2024: Kent Denver School
December 7th, 2024: Montview Presbyterian Church
December 8th, 2024: Temple Emanuel
December 13th, 2024: Bethany Lutheran Church (in collaboration with the Cherry Creek Chorale)
December 14th, 2024: Bethany Lutheran Church (in collaboration with the Cherry Creek Chorale)
April 25th, 2025: Denver7 (Denver local news station)
National Anthem for Varsity Boys' Basketball and Ice Hockey:
November 14th, 2021, December 3rd, 2021, December 4th, 2021, December 14th, 2021, January 5th, 2022, January 20th, 2022, January 29th, 2022, February 4th, 2022, February 9th, 2022, February 17th, 2022, November 21st, 2022, December 2nd, 2022, December 3rd, 2022, December 10th, 2022, January 10th, 2023, January 27th, 2023, January 28th, February 3rd, 2023, December 21st, 2023, January 26th, 2023, January 28th, 2023, February 3rd, 2023, February 14th, 2023, February 23rd, 2023, February 25, 2023, December 1st, 2023, December 2nd, 2023, December 21st, 2023, January 15th, 2024, January 18th, 2024, January 23rd, 2024, February 21st, 2024, December 5th, 2024.
Musical Theater:
February 10th-12th, 2022. Hag, kite ballerina, ensemble, hair & makeup for Little Women.
February 9th-11th, 2023. Fiddler, dream beast, ensemble, hair & makeup for Fiddler on the Roof.
February 8th-10th, 2024. Tin Man, Hickory, hair & makeup for The Wizard of Oz.
February 7th-9th, 2025. Minstrel, hair & makeup for Once Upon a Mattress.
April 24th-25th, 2025: Lead and background vocals for Kent Denver Musical Revue.
