FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Elias Wondimu
(323) 732-6685 office
(978) 336-5679 fax
info@tsehaipublishers.com
www.tsehaipublishers.com
Voices from Leimert Park: An Anthology
Edited by Shonda Buchanan
Published by Teshai Publishers
$19.95
ISBN 1-59907-015-4
VOICES FROM LEIMERT PARK: AN ANTHOLOGY
LONG-AWAITED LEIMERT PARK POETRY ANTHOLOGY FEATURES
TOP LOS ANGELES POETS; POEMS EXPLORE THE BLACK AND LATINO/A LOS ANGELES
POETIC EXPERIENCE
Los
Angeles, CA – Voices from Leimert Park: An Anthology represents the
first official compilation of poetry from an area that for many has
represented the Mecca of the Black Artist for almost two decades. The
brainchild of the Leimert real estate mogul, Leimert Park has been the
playground for both homegrown and prominent artists. For the last eighteen
years, legendary wordsmiths such as Sonia Sanchez, and jazz greats such as
Pharaoh Sanders have graced Degnan and 43rd (at the corner of
Crenshaw Blvd. and Vernon). New poets and musicians have been born,
thrived and coveted in this community square. Community business owners
provide some of the most authentic art from the African continent as well
as work from contemporary artists, while African dance classes rage on
down the block. This book represents the hidden West Coast Los Angeles
Renaissance. Since the founding of the World Stage Performance Gallery in
1993, also host of the Anansi Writers Workshop, one of the premiere
writers workshop in Los Angeles proper, poets have honed their work in the
presence of founder Kamau Daaood. This sense of poise and community, of
adoration and revolution, the love and struggle of the poet is represented
in Voices from Leimert Park.
There needs to be a dialogue on this level about the
contributions that the West Coast poet and artist have made to the Black
Arts Movement, says editor Shonda Buchanan. I think this anthology, varied
in the range of poetic thrust, gives answer to people who believe that
true poetry, music and art happens only in New York. These fifty poets
have lived full, rich, hard, musical lives and our work reflects this
energy. For more information, please check it out: http://www.tsehaipublishers.com/
Excerpt from anthology introduction:
An anthology like this has been a long time coming. For the last
fifteen years, every place we come together, whether it was The World
Stage, or someone's party, a birthday gathering, a child's naming
ceremony, a funeral or a home-going, whether it was a cement corner or
Fifth Street Dicks (Richard Fulton's place) backed up by a jazz band, we
have always brought words. …We all knew [this anthology] needed to
happen, but wwe were busy living and loving, making babies and building
careers. And, of course, we were writing. Yet, we knew a renaissance was
happening in Los Angeles, akin to the Harlem Renaissance. But we were
caught up in it, shaking, grinding our pencils down, downing endless cups
of coffee at a table outside Fifth Street, trying to find the words to say
it precisely the way our heart was beating the sounds out.
... What people are saying about this book ...
"There are convergences - spatial, political, cultural and artistic -
that define a people's spirit and leave an indelible mark on the world's
psyche. To say that this anthology is important or a landmark moment is to
state the obvious. The work in this anthology weaves a tight rope around
power and proves that the particular is the universal, the historical is
the eternal and the ancestral soul is the dance of art. With the delicacy
of an old school album, the music here is all flame and these poets are
all fire people. Surrender to the sweet burn."
- Chris Abani, author of The Virgin of Flames and GraceLand.
"These Shaman Poets continue to renew and resurrect the power of
verse, the sacredness of truth, and the eternal dance of words on pages
and stages, as poets do everywhere, in righting and re-writing the world.
If there were ever a time for such courageous word weavers, it's
now."
- Luis J. Rodriguez, acclaimed poet and founder/editor of Tia
Chucha Press.
Poets in this Anthology:
mikael ahadou
riua akinshegun
kim benjamin
jennifer bowen
shonda buchanan
paul calderon
wanda coleman
kamau daãood
michael datcher
jawanza dumisani
ruth forman
goldie the poet
peter j. harris
levan hawkins
regina higgins
yuri hinson
jamal holmes
wendy james/tcheconsase
jason luckett
josslyn luckett
k. curtis lyle
a.c. lyons sr.
ymasumac marañón
keith antar mason
lynn manning
jose mendivil
sequoia olivia mercier
rhonda lynn mitchell
merilene m. murphy
art nixon
v. kali nurigan
nancy padron
e. j. priestley
jerry quickley
ariel robello
s. pearl sharp
renee simms
romus simpson
raaki solomon
hannibal tabu
jervey tervalon
lynne thompson
imani tolliver
a.k. toney
debra a. varnado
pam ward
conney d. williams
angelo williams
jaha zainabu
About the Editor:
Born and raised in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Shonda Buchanan, poet and
journalist, is a fellow of the Sundance Institute, PEN Center USA West
Emerging Voices and the California Community Foundation. An assistant
professor of English at Hampton University, Shonda is currently editing a
novel, a memoir, a collection of poetry and a novella.
Reading Schedule
Winter Readings:
Dec. 22 – Release Party – Location TBA, 7-9pm
Dec. 27 – The World Stage Performance Gallery, Leimert Park, 7-10pm
Dec. 29 – Esowon Book Store
|
Click
here
