Liz Parker is based in Alton, Illinois. When we were children, Liz visited Evergreen Heights, our place atop the bluffs. Her father, Bill Parker, worked with my father at Union Electric. Now I continue to know Liz as the guiding light of the Alton Writers Guild which meets monthly at the Jacoby Art Center in…
I first met Dr. Eugene Redmond at one of Freida Wheaton’s salons at Studio 51, her at-home art gallery. Eugene is one of the major figures of the Black Renaissance. His papers will be featured in a collection at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. Since that first meeting I’ve come to admire Eugene each time…
Robert Lee Brewer of Poetic Asides on Facebook writes: We’ve begun another poetic journey of a poem-a-day through the month of April over at the Poetic Asides blog. Read the poem-a-day guidelines here. The basics: I provide a prompt and sample poem each morning (Georgia, USA, time). Then, poets write their poems in response to…
Nana Amoako Agyeman is a good friend with a keen mind and adventurous, staunch heart. He knows the art of conversation and the art of bringing people together to put ideals into action. Nana has a whirl of projects going. The Sankofa Fund is a grassroots development project. Village Rainbows: Words from Africa – the…
My friend Victoria Bentley is back in Bukavu, Congo (DRC) and has been blogging up a storm. Empower Congo Women is rebuilding the fabric of society in Eastern Congo from the ground up by empowering community-based agencies and disadvantaged women and children through microfinance, education and charitable donations. Empower Congo Women is a 501(c)3 non-profit…
Learn more about Laurie Wagner Buyer’s work at her two websites including Working Words Guide. See her essay “Finding Poetry in Everyday Life” in the Artists & Writers category below. And the anthology “Come Back Wolves” in the announcement section. –JGR _________________ Copper Bracelet by Laurie Wagner Buyer Who bent these links one by one,…
I know the talented poet Laurie Wagner Buyer both from Women Writing the West and Story Circle Network. Laurie Wagner Buyer can be found at the website named after her, or Working Words Guide.–JGR ____________________ Finding Poetry in Everyday Life by Laurie Wagner Buyer We usually find what we look for. We always see things…
Laurie Wagner Buyer is one of the Western writers who contributed essays to the anthology “Come Back Wolves: Western Writers Welcome the Wolf Home.” One of the reviewers of Comeback Wolves worded it this way: “If you believe that literature has the power to change the world, then you will love Comeback Wolves. It’s beautiful,…
I had the pleasure of sitting next to Emil Wilbekin, manager digital editor for the online extension of Essence. The occasion? The National Bar Association’s 30th Annual Gertrude E. Rush Award Dinner at the Renaissance St. Louis Grand Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri. One of these award recipients was Emil’s mother, Cleota Proctor Wilbekin, Esquire…
“The Apple Factory,” is the third poem in this series of reprising Arletta Dawdy’s poems which appeared on Riehlife in its early days. Read “The Apple Factory,” a poem by Arletta Dawdy–1914 Sharp turns in Russia and China…apples, war, and rivers. “The Apple Factory” grew out of a conversation in the 1970s with an elderly…