[Poetry]
Woodie King Jr: “The Black Arts Movement focused on promoting Black pride through arts, activism and creating Black cultural institutions. Black poets continue this legacy by using their art and voice to speak out.”
Photo: Sonia Sanchez
Generations of acclaimed Black poets spanning the Black Arts Movement to today’s Black Lives Matter will take the stage from iconic Sonia Sanchez to emerging Mahogany L. Browne and Shadenia Sivad and appear in Woodie King, Jr’s New Federal Theatre’s She Speaks, He Speaks, Generations Speak: Black Words Matter, a two part virtual poetry jam on September 21 and September 28 at 7:00pm.
The program is free.
“The Black Arts Movement focused on promoting Black pride through arts, activism and creating Black cultural institutions,” explained Woodie King, Jr., founder of New Federal Theatre, who had a leading role in the Black Arts Movement. “Black poets continue this legacy by using their art and voice to speak out.”
She Speaks, He Speaks, Generations Speak: Black Words Matter will feature legendary poets who were pivotal in the cultural activism of Black Arts Movement and have a literary impact. Sonia Sanchez is a poet, activist, author, and professor, whose prolific work includes over a dozen books of poetry, short stories, critical essays, plays and children’s books.
Abiodun Oyewole, a poet and teacher, is a founding member of the landmark spoken word group The Last Poets, considered to be the first hip hop group.
Quincy Troupe, poet, professor and author 20 books, is the first official Poet Laureate of the State of California, editor of Black Renaissance Noire at New York University and winner of three American Book Awards.
Haki R. Madhubuti, writer, poet, and educator (formerly known as Don L. Lee), is the author of 24 books and the founder, publisher, and chairman of the award-winning Third World Press, the oldest independent Black publisher in the U.S. His books have sold over three million copies.
There will be established poets like Yusef Komunyakaa, a 1994 Pulitzer Prize winning poet and professor at New York University, whose many awards include Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize and Louisiana Writer Award.
Jessica Care Moore is an internationally renowned poet, playwright, performance artist and executive producer of Black WOMEN Rock, who is the recipient of the 2013 Alain Locke Award from the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Poet and activist Mahogany L. Browne is the Black Lives Matter program coordinator for Pratt Institute. A writer and educator, she has earned fellowships from Agnes Gund, Cave Canem and Poets House and also serves as Executive Director of Bowery Poetry Club, Poetry Coordinator at St. Francis College and Artistic Director of Urban Word NYC.
Shadenia Sivad is a poet and songwriter, whose spoken word performances and poems are infused with a love of hip hop combined with social justice and activism.
There will also be performances by poets Camryn Bruno, Nathaniel Isiah Swanson and Renée McRae.
She Speaks, He Speaks, Generations Speak: Black Words Matter is hosted and organized by poet Rev. Rhonda Akanke McLean-Nur and directed by Petronia Paley. There will also be music and dance performances. The program is FREE. Donations are welcome. For more information www.newfederaltheatre.com.
