The 2013 National Student Poets Are Featured in the March/April 2014 issue of Poets and Writers

The 2013 National Student Poets are featured in the March/April 2014 issue of Poets and Writers. In addition to what is mentioned in the article, Sojourner has already started a series of poetry workshops in a senior home, in Michigan, for people who primarily have Alzheimer’s. Inspired by the very fabulous Gary Glazner and his Alzheimer’s Poetry Project, Sojourner and several of her generous classmates are working with these seniors to recall their favorite poems and create new ones. 
  
I’ll keep you updated on her other service projects as well. Thanks for all of the love and support. It takes a village!

Here is a link to the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project: http://www.alzpoetry.com/


Here is a link to the Poets and Writers article. 

http://www.pw.org/content/students_serve_as_poet_ambassadors

Poet Sojourner Ahebee engaging with an Alzheimer's patient and poetry lover  to share her favorites lines from a poem.

Sojourner and other Interlochen students work with seniors to create a new poem together. 

Artist Kehinde Wiley Appears in Toronto at the Reel Artists Film Festival

Toronto’s  Reel Artists Film Festival returns this year with an exciting selection of 19 international feature-length and short documentary films, screening February 19 to 23 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. Presented by the Canadian Art Foundation, RAFF is North America’s only festival of documentaries on visual art and artists.

This year’s festival lineup features films about some of the world’s most compelling visual artists, including the world premieres of the films Kehinde Wiley: An Economy of Grace and Richard Deacon – In Between—both with the artist subjects present and taking part in post-screening discussions.

 

Friday, 21 February, 7:00pm

New York–based artist Kehinde Wiley rose to fame creating portraits of men, starting exclusively with African Americans and following with men from China, Dakar, Lagos, Brazil, India, Sri Lanka and Israel. Now, Wiley turns to African American women in his new body of work, An Economy of Grace, while continuing his explorations of patronage and art history. In this world-premiere screening, director Jeff Dupre documents the process as Wiley finds models in passersby in New York City, contextualizing them in poses based on those typical of 18th- and 19th-century paintings, and partnering with fashion house Givenchy to create haute-couture gowns for the portraits. Kehinde Wiley: An Economy of Grace is a captivating exploration of fashion and culture.

Here is a link to the trailer: http://vimeo.com/85952706

For more info: http://www.canadianart.ca/cafevents/toronto-reel-artists-film-festival/

Source: Canadian Art

Happy Birthday, Leontyne Price !

Listen here: She delivers the magic and the chills:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deOTNggaUBY

Photographed by Brian Lanker

By Don Howard 

Forbidden Fruit: Love Stories from the Underground Railroad

Artwork by Penny Sisto

Join The Gist of Freedom, Thursday February 13th @ 8pm ET, to hear author Betty DeRamus talk about her special book in honor of Black History Month and Valentine’s Day! Betty will talk about her first book, Forbidden Fruit: Love Stories from the Underground Railroad, a collection of true stories about enslaved couples—and a few interracial ones—who took extraordinary steps to avoid being separated during the slavery era.

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Click here to listen to The Gist of Freedom
http://bit.ly/1bCIllB
www.blackhistoryBLog.com

The Book ~ http://amzn.to/Nqu32h

The 49th Anniversary of Malcolm X's Assassination- Poet Louis Reyes Rivera

February 21^st will mark the 49^th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X.  Last week I attended an event hosted at the Belmont Mansion in Philly where Malcolm’s daughter, Ilyasah Shabazz, shared her experience of growing up as one of Malcolm X’s daughters. It was kind of eerie to be that close to a piece of that history.

You must listen to the late poet Louis Reyes Rivera as he delivers his poem Bullet Cry  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElAqJK44rJs

Photo- The Audubon Ballroom stage after the murder of Malcolm X. Circles on backdrop mark bullet holes.

Maxine Kumin, Award-Winning Poet, Dies at 88

Maxine Kumin

Morning Swim
by Maxine Kumin

Into my empty head there come
a cotton beach, a dock wherefrom

I set out, oily and nude
through mist, in chilly solitude.

There was no line, no roof or floor
to tell the water from the air.

Night fog thick as terry cloth
closed me in its fuzzy growth.

I hung my bathrobe on two pegs.
I took the lake between my legs.

Invaded and invader, I

*Painting by Scout Cuomo

went overhand on that flat sky.

Fish twitched beneath me, quick and tame.
In their green zone they sang my name

and in the rhythm of the swim
I hummed a two-four-time slow hymn.

I hummed “Abide With Me.” The beat
rose in the fine thrash of my feet,

rose in the bubbles I put out
slantwise, trailing through my mouth.

My bones drank water; water fell
through all my doors. I was the well

that fed the lake that met my sea
in which I sang “Abide With Me.”

To read more about Ms. Kumin, click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/08/books/maxine-kumin-pulitzer-winning-poet-dies-at-88.html