Sophie dee bdsm! Power to the Poets: Black History Month

POWER TO THE POETS IN HONOR OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Hosted by ELIJAH PRINGLE III, Philadelphia poet, lyric baritone, composer, actor, and artivist. Elijah has appeared on radio, TV & stage. He has been quoted in print in Newsweek, The New York Times, The Philadelphia Daily News, and others. He credits his true education to five generations of teachers.

Featured poets, in order of appearance:

TONGO EISEN-MARTIN (1:45) is an educator and organizer whose work centers on issues of mass incarceration, extrajudicial killings of Black people, and human rights. He earned his MA at Columbia University and he is the author of “Heaven Is All Goodbyes,” which won the 2018 American Book Award, the 2018 PEN Oakland Award, the 2018 California Book Award for Poetry, and the 2018 NCIBA Poetry Book of the Year.

GLENIS REDMOND (10:10) is the recipient of the 2020 South Carolina Governor’s Award for the Arts! Her award-winning body of work includes the poetry collections “Backbone” and “Under The Sun.” A teaching artist and a poet-in-residence, she conducts a workshop for teachers on teaching poetry through the Kennedy Center Partners in Education program.

BERNARD COLLINS (20:15) is a visual artist and faculty member at Fleisher Art Memorial in Philadelphia. He earned his MFA from the University of Pennsylvania in 2003. He is also a spoken word artist whose humorous style hearkens back to the “Toasting” traditions of African American culture seen in poems like the “Signifying Monkey” or “Shine.”

JAMES CAGNEY (28:30) is a poet from Oakland. He is a Cave Canem Fellow and VONA alum, both programs that foster Black writers. His first book, “Black Steel Magnolias In The Hour of Chaos Theory,” is published by Nomadic Press.

KARLA BRUNDAGE (34:27) is a San Francisco Bay Area based poet, activist, educator, and founder of West Oakland to West Africa Poetry Exchange. Her most recent project is co-editing a collection called Colossus:Home which features poets from the Bay Area in solidarity with Moms4housing and advocating for housing justice.

MCTATE STROMAN II (41:12) is a poet, spoken-word artist, guest lecturer and motivational speaker. He has featured at The World Stage in L.A., The Comedy Store, UCLA, and more. McTate is the host and founder of the long-running monthly open mic series, First Thursdays at De Anza College.

TONY ROBLES (47:40), “The People’s Poet,” was born in San Francisco and currently resides in Hendersonville, NC, where he is the Carl Sandburg Writer-in-Residence. Tony is also currently Assistant Publisher at The Cheerful Word.

RAYMOND TYLER (52:40) is an Atlantic City-based broadcaster, artist, and producer. He hosts The Saturday Night Mix Tape on FM 91.7 WLFR and The Atlantic City Beat.com on FM 96.1 WTTH. He has worked as a columnist for The Shore Weekly and as a graphic artist/cartoonist for Essence, Vibe and The Source magazines, as well as New York Press and The Philadelphia Weekly. Ray is the founder of The Arts and Media Think Tank and co-owner of The Little Wellness Arts Center and Gallery. His most recent project is the online magazine, Deep Dope Soul.

TUREEDA MIKELL (1:02:50) is a Story Medicine Woman, award winning poet and performance artist. She was a featured poet/storyteller at the National Association of Black Storytellers, the Museum of the African Diaspora, The Black Panther’s 50th Anniversary, Octavia Butler’s 70th Birthday, and at the de Young Museum’s Soul of a Nation, among others. Her book, Synchronicity: The Oracle of Sun Medicine, was published by Nomadic Press in February 2020.

Curated by Aileen Cassinetto