Maya Angelou, My First Public Poet
I watched a presidential inauguration for the first time in 1993. I had previously seen Bill Clinton on the Arsenio Hall Show. My older brother and I had watched him. Maybe for his inauguration, he’d...
View ArticleTreasure Shields Redmond: Lessons from My Father
By Treasure Shields Redmond, Guest Blogger My dad has taught me about selflessness as I have watched him chronicle writers incessantly and obsessively. He goes nowhere without his camera like a mobile...
View ArticleUrban Bush Women Perform in New Orleans Aug. 2nd
By Kelly Harris I was invited to sit in on one of Urban Bush Women’s Summer Leadership Institute sessions held at Ashe Culture Arts Center. I agreed to attend, but I was tired mentally and physically,...
View Article#Ferguson: If it wasn’t for the women interview with Treasure Redmond
Treasure Shields Redmond and I talk the role of women in #Ferguson, the Black Church, Iyanla Vanzant, Dr. Cornell West and more.You’ll even chuckle at times. Be sure to listen the her poem dedicated to...
View ArticleBook Launch: Stories from New Orleans Black Women on Race
I had the pleasure of co-editing Crooked Room:Stories from New Orleans with the Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies. The book is a collection of life stories from Black women in New Orleans. The...
View ArticleKwanzaa keeps us connected to our roots
Thought I would share this video poem by my friend Deidre for Kwanzaa. She recently went to Ghana. She was ever changed. Have you ever been to Africa? How did it impact you? Are you a BrassyBrown...
View ArticlePinkie Gordon Lane: The Love Jones Poet You Don’t Know
Her poem, “Lyric: I am Looking at Music,” was featured in the 1997 motion picture, Love Jones. In a 1997 phone conversation with Dr. Jerry Ward, English Professor at Dillard University, she said...
View ArticleUrsula Rucker Talks Poetry, Katrina & More with BrassyBrown.com
Poet Ursula Rucker and I recently talked motherhood, Hurricane Katrina and self-care. She’ll be performing in New Orleans on August 22nd at the Ellis Marsalis Center in the 9th Ward. Listen to my...
View ArticleUnplugged: NOLA SLAM Poet FreeQuency chats with BrassyBrown.com
BrassyBrown.com chats with NOLA Spoken Word Artist FreeQuency for National Poetry Month. FreeQuency AKA Mwende Katwiwa was born in Kenya. 1) How have you been celebrating National Poetry Month? I’ve...
View ArticleNew Orleans Maya Angelou Memorial Reading June 4
New Orleans Melanated Writers Collective will host a Memorial Celebration for the life of Maya Angelou. June 4, 2014 Cafe Instabul NOLA 2372 St. Claude Ave 8PM A celebration of the legacy left by the...
View ArticleRememebering Audre Lorde
By Marla Chirdon, Guest Blogger The self-proclaimed poet warrior, Audre Lorde, once remarked, “Poetry is not a luxury, but should [name] the nameless.” Indeed, it was precisely her uncanny gift to...
View ArticleQuote of the Day
“No. Don’t never go looking for love girl. Just wait. It’ll come. Like the rain fallin’ from the heaven, it’ll come. Just don’t never give up on love.” ― Sonia Sanchez, Shake Loose My Skin: New and...
View ArticleApril 15: Twitter Chat with Poet Tara Betts
BrassyBrown.com celebrate National Poetry Month with poet Tara Betts on Twitter on April 15th at 8PM. Join Us. Use #NOLApoetrychat. Purchase Tara Betts’ Book Arc & Hue The post April 15: Twitter...
View Article10-year-old NOLA poet writes “The Women Revolution”
I was seeking poems from African-American girls in New Orleans for National Poetry Month. Thanks to Big Class, I received this poem by Akilah Toney. I was blown away and inspired by this budding...
View ArticlePoetry Reading: December 12th in New Orleans
Finally! I have produced and released some of my poems on CD. Join me and Kalamu ya Salaam for the launch in New Orleans on Saturday, December 12th at 4PM. “She is the sound of wonderful.” –...
View ArticleInterview with Carole Boston Weatherford
Congo Square is the sacred home of enslaved Africans and their descendants in New Orleans. In Louisiana’s French and Spanish colonial era of the 18th century, slaves were often allowed Sundays off from...
View ArticleRobin Coste Lewis talks to BrassyBrown.com
This interview is extra special for me. Robin and I met about 7 years ago at Cave Canem. We shared some good laughs. Fast forward—2016. Robin Coste Lewis is the author of Voyage of the Sable Venus...
View ArticleRecap: Black Arts Movement at Dillard University
In a 1968 essay, “The Black Arts Movement,” Larry Neal proclaimed Black Arts the “aesthetic and spiritual sister of the Black Power concept.” Often the Black Arts Movements is said to have left out...
View ArticleLSU’s Sarah Webb edits poetry anthology on colorism
BrassyBrown.com talked with Sarah Webb about editing a new poetry anthology on colorism. Sarah Webb is a PhD student in English at Louisiana State University with interests in literacy, digital media,...
View ArticleNew Orleans Poet Remembers Mari Evans
Remembering Mari Evans – Speak the Truth to the People By Kysha Brown Robinson Mari Evans was the word itself, without embellishment or detraction. I learned that the absence of a smile had its own...
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