This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the African Diaspora via the writing, performance, both musical and theatrical (film and stage), as well as the visual arts of Africans in the Diaspora and those influenced by these aesthetic forms of expression. I am interested in the political and social ramifications of art on society, specifically movements supported by these artists and their forebearers. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work honest and filled with raw unedited passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay!
Today we feature 20 poets who share words of inspiration and hope.
We also commemorate Dr. King, on the anniversary weekend of his death, April 4, 1968, a day he was taken from us before we were ready to let him go. I have a few poems from the canon to share. I'd like to start with one by Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000), Poet Laureate of Chicago, author of the Maud Martha chronicles and the classic work, "We Real Cool."
She said to photographer, Brian Lanker, author, I Dream a World (1989), "'I don't like the idea of the black race being diluted out of existence. I like the idea of all of us being here.'"
We open with a poem by Sonia Sanchez, recited at Hood College
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmX310623qo
The ideas for these poets come from Nadia Alexis's "Five Poets Honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
https://medium.com/@blackstewnews/5-black-poets-honor-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-3a4a3b36511
We close with another Sanchez selection, this poem, "A Letter to Dr. King," (1988) sung by Sweet Honey. We might also share a poem from Bringing the Noise for Dr. King, Youth Speaks in San Francisco. This program was 2019 and featured poet: Aurielle Lucier's "What Dream America?"
8:06 am Lucinda Clark and Kim McMillon
Lucinda J. Clark is the founder of P.R.A. Publishing and the Poetry Matters Project. She has worked with visual artists and authors on the protection, promotion and marketing of their creative works for over 25 years. She is a contributing poet of the View from The Middle of The Road Series of which there are now five editions. She has also worked with poets ranging from middle schoolers to seniors on a series of anthologies, from these efforts she has published four anthologies with another set for end of this year.
Clark is a member of the Augusta Authors Club, The American Academy of Poets, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Poet's House and the Woman’s National Book Association (WNBA-D.C. Chapter). She resides in Martinez, Georgia with her husband,
Robert a family physician in Martinez, Georgia.
Kim McMillon received a Ph.D. in World Cultures at the University of California, Merced, with an emphasis on African American Literature. Ms. McMillon is a contributor to the anthology Some Other Blues: New Perspectives on Amiri Baraka which will be published by Ohio University Press in 2021. Ms. McMillon’s radio show Arts in the Valley aired every Saturday on 1480 KYOS AM in Merced, California from 2010 to 2014.
8:11 am
Shaquana Shuggs
Shaquana is a Professional Tutor at Guilford College. She has English and Reading at several colleges and universities including GTCC, NCAT, NCSU, DTECH, and Shaw. She graduated with her Master’s degree in English with a focus on Media Writing in order to help improve the 21st Century skills of speakers, writers, and designers. Beyond academia, she enjoys writing and illustrating fiction and non-fiction graphic novels and short stories while sipping warm beverages. She also loves being outdoors.
8:16 am
Toni Quest
Toni Quest, MAED/AET, BFA As a self-taught artist, Toni Quest engages in art to express her feelings genuinely and with impact. The canvas has been a vehicle for her to discover feelings that linger deep within. Toni Quest was named one of Westchester County’s ‘Leading New Artists’ in 2006. Her art was featured in the Westchester Arts Council’s Young Emerging Artists exhibition. Toni Quest is one of the artists selected to participate in the ‘James Brown, Visual Soul’ exhibition in Augusta, GA. Her vibrant portraits of the legendary James Brown were exhibited in the May 2006 exhibition and celebration. Her award winning piece, ‘U.S. in Us’ is featured on the cover of the anthology, View from the Middle of the Road, Volume II, U.S. in Us ‘ (PRA Publishing). A selection of her poetry is featured in the anthology as well.
Although most of her work has been portraiture, Toni Quest is also a jewelry designer. She recently launched the Energy Stoners TM Jewelry Design Salon. Attendees gather, in the spirit of comradery, and enjoy food and wine tasting, while engaging in jewelry design instruction which features genuine quartz and other quality energy stones. On occasion Toni will bring her easel and paint at public and private events. She believes interacting with people generates energy and synergy. She taps into this force and blends it into her work. Through her paintings, TQ bears her soul as well as her affinity to the collective consciousness of humankind. Her intent is to provoke emotion and thought, thus inspiring constructive communication about ones relationships to others and the world around us. Ms. Quest teaches an art course called ‘Self-Actualizing Portraiture ©, which is founded on how she taught herself self-portraiture after a debilitating accident in 1994. She later formally wrote the instruction design for this course while in graduate school in 2008. Instructional design focuses on the needs of combat veterans who suffer from the symptoms of PTSD.
Toni Quest has taught psychology, sociology, geriatrics, writing and American history. She genuinely enjoys facilitating the active exchange of ideas between learner within the classroom setting. Toni Quest can be seen interviewing interesting people on her talk show, Talk with TQ, on Youtube.
Toni Quest currently resides in Westchester County, NY, and is a certified Law of Attraction Life Coach, specializing in artists.
8:21 am
Sam Louie is a psychotherapist with a private practice near Seattle, Washington specializing in multicultural issues, shame and addictions. He holds a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from Azusa Pacific University in Southern California. Sam comes from an extensive journalism background having worked as an Emmy-Award Winning television reporter. He currently writes a blog for Psychology Today, Minority Report: Candid Conversations on Race, Culture and Psychology. In addition, he has published two poetry books, Spoken not Broken: Healing through Poetry and Slanted Eyes: The Asian-American Poetic Experience. www.SamLouiespeaks.com
Gwendolyn Brooks & Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib
8:30 am
Sonia Gutierrez is a professor at Palomar College and the author of Spider Woman/La Mjuer/Arana.
8:35 am
Kim Shuck is the seventh and current poet laureate of San Francisco. Her latest book Deer Trails won the 2019 Golden Poppy for poetry. Her next chapbook Whose Water? from Mammoth Publications (https://mammothpublications.net), should be out on April 1.
8:40 am
Paul Corman-Roberts full length collection of poems "Bone Moon Palace" is forthcoming from Nomadic Press in the Fall of 2020. He is an original co-founder of Oakland's Beast Crawl Literary Festival which is slated to make it's return in 2020.
8:45 am
Michael Young works at PEN Oakland (Poets, Essayists and Novelists), and City Lights Booksellers; Publishers. Michael will read the poems of his father Al Young, who was named Poet Laureate of California by Governor Arnold Swartznegger in 2005.
8:55 am
John Curl is the author of The Outlaws of Maroon, an adult novel about the world of children in McCarthy-Era New York published in May 2019. He represented the USA at the World Poetry Festival in 2010 in Caracas, Venezuela. OTHER WORKS BY JOHN CURL Memoir: Memories of Drop City (2008). History: For All The People (2009, 2012) Translation: Ancient American Poets (2005); and Poetry: Scorched Birth (2004). He was a founding member of the committee organizing the annual Berkeley Indigenous Peoples Day Pow Wow.
9:00 am Dr. Maryam Robinson
Maryam grew up in Atlanta, Georgia where she enjoyed volunteering in her community, writing poetry, and hanging out with friends from around the world. She attended Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA where she completed pre-med requirements, engaged in student leadership and athletics, and majored in Spanish. After college, she completed the Master of Public Health program at Morehouse School of Medicine and focused on facilitating the end of health disparities, sexual health and preventing sexually transmitted diseases, and empowering stakeholders to make changes in their community and health. She worked in community-based biomedical research at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University before moving to Augusta, Georgia to begin Medical School at the Medical College of Georgia (MCG) at Augusta University. Maryam enjoys wrestling, cooking, dancing, and playing sports with her son who is very excited to “play in the snow in Boston!” She remains a prolific writer, performs spoken word at various venues around the Southeast including performing as the featured artist, and is very excited to engage with the artists in Boston and the surrounding areas.
9:10 am
Avotcja has been published in English & Spanish in the USA, Mexico & Europe, and in more Anthologies than she remembers. She is an award winning Poet & multi-instrumentalist who has opened for Betty Carter in New York City, Peru's Susana Baca at San Francisco’s Encuentro Popular & Cuba’s Gema y Pável, played with Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Bobi & Luis Cespedes, John Handy, Sonido Afro Latina, Dimensions Dance Theater, Black Poets With Attitudes, Bombarengue, Nikki Giovanni, Los Angeles' Build An Ark, Dwight Trible, Diamano Coura West African Dance Co., Terry Garthwaite, Big Black, The Bay Area Blues Society & Caribeana Etc. Shared stages with Sonia Sanchez, Piri Thomas, Janice Mirikitani, Diane DiPrima, Michael Franti, Jayne Cortez, & with Jose Montoya's Royal Chicano Air Force & is a Bay Area icon with her group Avotcja & Modúpue.
9:20 am
devorah major served as San Francisco’s Third Poet Laureate. She has five poetry books, two novels, four chapbooks, and a host of short stories, essays, and poems in anthologies and periodicals. devorah major performs her work nationally and internationally with and without musicians.
9:30 am
Geza Tatrallyay was Born in Budapest, Hungary, Geza escaped with his family in 1956 during the Hungarian Revolution, immigrating to Canada the same year. He grew up in Toronto, attending the University of Toronto Schools, where he was School Captain. He graduated from Harvard University with a BA in Human Ecology in 1972 after taking a break in his studies to work as a host in the Ontario Pavilion at Expo’70 in Osaka, Japan. Geza was selected as a Rhodes Scholar from Ontario, attending Oxford University and graduating with a BA / MA in Human Sciences in 1974; he completed his studies with a MSc in Economics from London School of Economics and Politics in 1975. Geza represented Canada as an epée fencer in the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal.
With now twelve published books, Geza is a prolific author of thrillers, memoirs, poetry and children's books. You can buy and learn more about these books on the "Books" page. With now twelve published books, Geza is a prolific author of thrillers, memoirs, poetry and children's books. You can buy and learn more about these books on the "Books" page.
9:35 am
Alison Chokwadi Fletcher is a dancer, Poet, Backup Singer, Actor, Writer, Lyricist, Event Planner, and Publicist.
9:40 am
Michelle Allison currently serves as Board Chair for the Boys & Girls Club of Merced County, Community Advisor Chair for Valley PBS, Dignity Health Quality Committee Chair, and Director with Winton Water District. Allison is a singer/songwriter, director and producer of Truly Unforgettable, the Untold Story of Natalie Cole.
9:45 am
Necola Adams is a realtor with Coldwell Banker Gonella Realty in Merced, CA and the owner of Mrs Adams Gourmet cookies, the cookies with an attitude.
9:50 am Mimi Mutesa, Associate Producer, The Daily DC Podcast, CNN
9:55 am -- Announcements. To Celebrate National Poetry Month April 2020 we will have a poetry every Friday this month from 9:30-10 AM
Close: Sweet Honey's Letter to Dr. King by Sonia Sanchez and Ella -- We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest . . .
Music: Sweet Honey & the Rock -- many selections announced on the air
Today we feature 20 poets who share words of inspiration and hope.
We also commemorate Dr. King, on the anniversary weekend of his death, April 4, 1968, a day he was taken from us before we were ready to let him go. I have a few poems from the canon to share. I'd like to start with one by Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000), Poet Laureate of Chicago, author of the Maud Martha chronicles and the classic work, "We Real Cool."
She said to photographer, Brian Lanker, author, I Dream a World (1989), "'I don't like the idea of the black race being diluted out of existence. I like the idea of all of us being here.'"
We open with a poem by Sonia Sanchez, recited at Hood College
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmX310623qo
The ideas for these poets come from Nadia Alexis's "Five Poets Honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
https://medium.com/@blackstewnews/5-black-poets-honor-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-3a4a3b36511
We close with another Sanchez selection, this poem, "A Letter to Dr. King," (1988) sung by Sweet Honey. We might also share a poem from Bringing the Noise for Dr. King, Youth Speaks in San Francisco. This program was 2019 and featured poet: Aurielle Lucier's "What Dream America?"
8:06 am Lucinda Clark and Kim McMillon
Lucinda J. Clark is the founder of P.R.A. Publishing and the Poetry Matters Project. She has worked with visual artists and authors on the protection, promotion and marketing of their creative works for over 25 years. She is a contributing poet of the View from The Middle of The Road Series of which there are now five editions. She has also worked with poets ranging from middle schoolers to seniors on a series of anthologies, from these efforts she has published four anthologies with another set for end of this year.
Clark is a member of the Augusta Authors Club, The American Academy of Poets, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Poet's House and the Woman’s National Book Association (WNBA-D.C. Chapter). She resides in Martinez, Georgia with her husband,
Robert a family physician in Martinez, Georgia.
Kim McMillon received a Ph.D. in World Cultures at the University of California, Merced, with an emphasis on African American Literature. Ms. McMillon is a contributor to the anthology Some Other Blues: New Perspectives on Amiri Baraka which will be published by Ohio University Press in 2021. Ms. McMillon’s radio show Arts in the Valley aired every Saturday on 1480 KYOS AM in Merced, California from 2010 to 2014.
8:11 am
Shaquana Shuggs
Shaquana is a Professional Tutor at Guilford College. She has English and Reading at several colleges and universities including GTCC, NCAT, NCSU, DTECH, and Shaw. She graduated with her Master’s degree in English with a focus on Media Writing in order to help improve the 21st Century skills of speakers, writers, and designers. Beyond academia, she enjoys writing and illustrating fiction and non-fiction graphic novels and short stories while sipping warm beverages. She also loves being outdoors.
8:16 am
Toni Quest
Toni Quest, MAED/AET, BFA As a self-taught artist, Toni Quest engages in art to express her feelings genuinely and with impact. The canvas has been a vehicle for her to discover feelings that linger deep within. Toni Quest was named one of Westchester County’s ‘Leading New Artists’ in 2006. Her art was featured in the Westchester Arts Council’s Young Emerging Artists exhibition. Toni Quest is one of the artists selected to participate in the ‘James Brown, Visual Soul’ exhibition in Augusta, GA. Her vibrant portraits of the legendary James Brown were exhibited in the May 2006 exhibition and celebration. Her award winning piece, ‘U.S. in Us’ is featured on the cover of the anthology, View from the Middle of the Road, Volume II, U.S. in Us ‘ (PRA Publishing). A selection of her poetry is featured in the anthology as well.
Although most of her work has been portraiture, Toni Quest is also a jewelry designer. She recently launched the Energy Stoners TM Jewelry Design Salon. Attendees gather, in the spirit of comradery, and enjoy food and wine tasting, while engaging in jewelry design instruction which features genuine quartz and other quality energy stones. On occasion Toni will bring her easel and paint at public and private events. She believes interacting with people generates energy and synergy. She taps into this force and blends it into her work. Through her paintings, TQ bears her soul as well as her affinity to the collective consciousness of humankind. Her intent is to provoke emotion and thought, thus inspiring constructive communication about ones relationships to others and the world around us. Ms. Quest teaches an art course called ‘Self-Actualizing Portraiture ©, which is founded on how she taught herself self-portraiture after a debilitating accident in 1994. She later formally wrote the instruction design for this course while in graduate school in 2008. Instructional design focuses on the needs of combat veterans who suffer from the symptoms of PTSD.
Toni Quest has taught psychology, sociology, geriatrics, writing and American history. She genuinely enjoys facilitating the active exchange of ideas between learner within the classroom setting. Toni Quest can be seen interviewing interesting people on her talk show, Talk with TQ, on Youtube.
Toni Quest currently resides in Westchester County, NY, and is a certified Law of Attraction Life Coach, specializing in artists.
8:21 am
Sam Louie is a psychotherapist with a private practice near Seattle, Washington specializing in multicultural issues, shame and addictions. He holds a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from Azusa Pacific University in Southern California. Sam comes from an extensive journalism background having worked as an Emmy-Award Winning television reporter. He currently writes a blog for Psychology Today, Minority Report: Candid Conversations on Race, Culture and Psychology. In addition, he has published two poetry books, Spoken not Broken: Healing through Poetry and Slanted Eyes: The Asian-American Poetic Experience. www.SamLouiespeaks.com
Gwendolyn Brooks & Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib
8:30 am
Sonia Gutierrez is a professor at Palomar College and the author of Spider Woman/La Mjuer/Arana.
8:35 am
Kim Shuck is the seventh and current poet laureate of San Francisco. Her latest book Deer Trails won the 2019 Golden Poppy for poetry. Her next chapbook Whose Water? from Mammoth Publications (https://mammothpublications.net), should be out on April 1.
8:40 am
Paul Corman-Roberts full length collection of poems "Bone Moon Palace" is forthcoming from Nomadic Press in the Fall of 2020. He is an original co-founder of Oakland's Beast Crawl Literary Festival which is slated to make it's return in 2020.
8:45 am
Michael Young works at PEN Oakland (Poets, Essayists and Novelists), and City Lights Booksellers; Publishers. Michael will read the poems of his father Al Young, who was named Poet Laureate of California by Governor Arnold Swartznegger in 2005.
8:55 am
John Curl is the author of The Outlaws of Maroon, an adult novel about the world of children in McCarthy-Era New York published in May 2019. He represented the USA at the World Poetry Festival in 2010 in Caracas, Venezuela. OTHER WORKS BY JOHN CURL Memoir: Memories of Drop City (2008). History: For All The People (2009, 2012) Translation: Ancient American Poets (2005); and Poetry: Scorched Birth (2004). He was a founding member of the committee organizing the annual Berkeley Indigenous Peoples Day Pow Wow.
9:00 am Dr. Maryam Robinson
Maryam grew up in Atlanta, Georgia where she enjoyed volunteering in her community, writing poetry, and hanging out with friends from around the world. She attended Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA where she completed pre-med requirements, engaged in student leadership and athletics, and majored in Spanish. After college, she completed the Master of Public Health program at Morehouse School of Medicine and focused on facilitating the end of health disparities, sexual health and preventing sexually transmitted diseases, and empowering stakeholders to make changes in their community and health. She worked in community-based biomedical research at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University before moving to Augusta, Georgia to begin Medical School at the Medical College of Georgia (MCG) at Augusta University. Maryam enjoys wrestling, cooking, dancing, and playing sports with her son who is very excited to “play in the snow in Boston!” She remains a prolific writer, performs spoken word at various venues around the Southeast including performing as the featured artist, and is very excited to engage with the artists in Boston and the surrounding areas.
9:10 am
Avotcja has been published in English & Spanish in the USA, Mexico & Europe, and in more Anthologies than she remembers. She is an award winning Poet & multi-instrumentalist who has opened for Betty Carter in New York City, Peru's Susana Baca at San Francisco’s Encuentro Popular & Cuba’s Gema y Pável, played with Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Bobi & Luis Cespedes, John Handy, Sonido Afro Latina, Dimensions Dance Theater, Black Poets With Attitudes, Bombarengue, Nikki Giovanni, Los Angeles' Build An Ark, Dwight Trible, Diamano Coura West African Dance Co., Terry Garthwaite, Big Black, The Bay Area Blues Society & Caribeana Etc. Shared stages with Sonia Sanchez, Piri Thomas, Janice Mirikitani, Diane DiPrima, Michael Franti, Jayne Cortez, & with Jose Montoya's Royal Chicano Air Force & is a Bay Area icon with her group Avotcja & Modúpue.
9:20 am
devorah major served as San Francisco’s Third Poet Laureate. She has five poetry books, two novels, four chapbooks, and a host of short stories, essays, and poems in anthologies and periodicals. devorah major performs her work nationally and internationally with and without musicians.
9:30 am
Geza Tatrallyay was Born in Budapest, Hungary, Geza escaped with his family in 1956 during the Hungarian Revolution, immigrating to Canada the same year. He grew up in Toronto, attending the University of Toronto Schools, where he was School Captain. He graduated from Harvard University with a BA in Human Ecology in 1972 after taking a break in his studies to work as a host in the Ontario Pavilion at Expo’70 in Osaka, Japan. Geza was selected as a Rhodes Scholar from Ontario, attending Oxford University and graduating with a BA / MA in Human Sciences in 1974; he completed his studies with a MSc in Economics from London School of Economics and Politics in 1975. Geza represented Canada as an epée fencer in the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal.
With now twelve published books, Geza is a prolific author of thrillers, memoirs, poetry and children's books. You can buy and learn more about these books on the "Books" page. With now twelve published books, Geza is a prolific author of thrillers, memoirs, poetry and children's books. You can buy and learn more about these books on the "Books" page.
9:35 am
Alison Chokwadi Fletcher is a dancer, Poet, Backup Singer, Actor, Writer, Lyricist, Event Planner, and Publicist.
9:40 am
Michelle Allison currently serves as Board Chair for the Boys & Girls Club of Merced County, Community Advisor Chair for Valley PBS, Dignity Health Quality Committee Chair, and Director with Winton Water District. Allison is a singer/songwriter, director and producer of Truly Unforgettable, the Untold Story of Natalie Cole.
9:45 am
Necola Adams is a realtor with Coldwell Banker Gonella Realty in Merced, CA and the owner of Mrs Adams Gourmet cookies, the cookies with an attitude.
9:50 am Mimi Mutesa, Associate Producer, The Daily DC Podcast, CNN
9:55 am -- Announcements. To Celebrate National Poetry Month April 2020 we will have a poetry every Friday this month from 9:30-10 AM
Close: Sweet Honey's Letter to Dr. King by Sonia Sanchez and Ella -- We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest . . .
Music: Sweet Honey & the Rock -- many selections announced on the air
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