Barnett Cohen (b. Cape Town, South Africa) is a queer poet, painter, performance maker, and political activist who lives and works in Los Angeles and New York City. He has exhibited, staged performances, and held readings at REDCAT, JOAN, LAXART, Pieter Space, 356 Mission, Human Resources, The Box (Los Angeles), The International Center For Photography, Beverly's, JDJ (New York), Vox Populi (Philadelphia), City Limits (Oakland), and The Onassis Foundation (Athens, Greece). He received a BA in English from Vassar College, an MFA from The California Institute of The Arts, and has been in-residence at SVA, Skowhegan, MacDowell, and is currently an artist-in-residence at the NARS Foundation, New York. In 2020, he was nominated for the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Emerging Artist Grant. Cohen is also the founder of the Mutual Aid Immigration Network (MAIN). Established in 2017, MAIN is a trilingual free assistance hotline for people detained in immigration detention centers across the US. MAIN connects people in detention with bond funds and legal services that can accelerate their freedom from incarceration.