Creative Writing

Visual Studies

• Jazz Music and History
• Blues Music and History
• Experimental Poetics
• West African History and Culture
• Contemporary Poetry
• Visual Studies

hellfightin

Willow Books/Aquarius Press, 2011
ISBN 978-0-9846212-4-8

Derived from the nickname the French Army gave the all-Black 369th Infantry Regiment in World War I, the Harlem Hellfighters, this collection is a tour de force of lyricism, mysticism, jive philosophy, and discursive narrative as blues lick. The title of the book, hellfightin‘, as a term is best understood in the context of the critical framework of the Blues, is a poetic education in the African American musical, cultural and historical traditions. The poems in this work poems are bold and innovative with form and are troves of allusion.

under the aegis of a winged mind

Autumn House Press, 2020
ISBN 978-1-9387695-8-0

A collection of poems inspired by the life and times of virtuoso Jazz composer and pianist Earl “Bud” Powell.  Powell was troubled by police brutality and harassment, drug abuse, alcoholism, and mental illness throughout his life, and these subjects are central themes I explore in the work. These poems have been a vehicle for me to investigate how Black genius has encountered, been profoundly affected by, struggled against, and whether consciously or unconsciously, developed mechanisms to cope with White Supremacy in the US.