Moving on the Wires: Happy New Year + Submissions Call for Poetry Anthology

Happy New Year everyone! With a new year comes new possibilities! I am moving forward with an idea I had last year for a poetry collection called Baby Suggs and a Purple Butterfly. Originally it was supposed to be a smaller, online poetry collection, but I have decided to expand it into a full-length anthology. […]

Moving on the Wires: Lucy’s Bone Scrolls Has Landed!!!!

Lucy’s Bone Scrolls is officially here!!! Thank you to everyone came to the reading on the 17th and for those who were unable to make it, below you can watch a video of the reading from the night and view pictures! The book is available here for purchase and please write a review. View pictures […]

The M(N)STRY: Phillis Wheatley and Fugitive Imagination

What happens when an enslaved person is given the tools to express her desire for freedom after being captured? When a young child taken from Senegal to Boston and renamed after the slave ship on which she was brought is then taught to read and write in not her own language and history, but in […]

Modern Griots Recap: Poetic Fragments from “Black Magic: Afro Pasts/Futures”

Yesterday was the anniversary of Nat Turner’s rebellion, and with the growing controversy surrounding the film due to Nate Parker’s rape trial from 17 years ago, my desire to watch the film has been mostly vaporized. But last weekend as I went through my photos, I came across Delphine Fawundu’s “Mende Woman on Nat Turner Plantation” […]

Moving on the Wires: Lucy’s Bone Scrolls Chapbook!

Hey everyone! I’m sorry I was quiet on here last month. Due to illness, work and some technical difficulties, I wasn’t able to do much posting. But I wanted to share for National Poetry Month the chapbook I made for the DIY chapbook challenge. For my, chapbook, Lucy’s Bone Scrolls: The AF Mystery School, I wrote […]

Modern Griots Interviews: Boshia Rae-Jean

I recently met Boshia at the Little Miss Creative event in New York City where she recited her poem, “I Have a Galaxy in Me:” “These organs are not only my make up but they make up my galaxy/I am a goddess of the galaxy that reproduces life/This is why I believe in me because/I […]

Modern Griots Reviews: Aja Monet’s “Inner City Chants and Cyborg Ciphers”

Last weekend, spoken word poet Aja Monet debuted her works from her upcoming collection, Inner City Chants and Cyborg Ciphers, at Kraine Theater, and it was an intimate exploration of Monet’s own personal stories and those stories extending out beyond herself to the cities of new York and Chicago, Paris, the Caribbean and the rest […]

Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth: Langston and Lucille’s Magic of Simple

This month, I attended two poetry events, David Mills’ dramatic performance of Langston Hughes’ works and Elizabeth Alexander’s conversation on Lucille Clifton’s mystical, shaman-like poetry, reminded me that so much magic can condensed into few and sometimes simple words; they made magic out of the ordinary. Below are some poems from Hughes and Clifton as […]

Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth: Poets Verb + Reggie Eldridge

While watching the past two episodes of the spoken word series, Verses and Flow, on TV One, two poets stood out to me, Verb and Reggie Eldridge. Verb spoke a critique of our current dependency on hi-tech technology and it reminded me of Louis C.K. rant on smartphones. It does make you think about how […]

Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth: Sekou Sundiata

Starting this month until October, there will be several events celebrating poet, playwright, educator and activist Sekou Sundiata, all part of Blink Your Eyes: Sekou Sundiata Revisited, a New York City-wide retrospective. There have been a few events this month already, including one with Tracie Morris, and during next two weeks will be events at […]