Welcome!

Welcome to my website, a place where you can learn a bit about me. You are warmly invited to browse around, read some sample poems, listen to some audio clips, and watch some video of me in action. If you're inclined, drop me a line ~ let me know what you think of my work, or perhaps commission a poem, or two, or three, or . . .

About Me

It was probably inevitable that I'd grow up to be a poet. My mother would recite poetry and sing "the old songs" (now called "the spirituals") while working around the house. One day when I was about 8 years old, I asked Mama about the verses and rhymes she often said to us. She pulled a book down from top of her bookshelf and handed it to me: it was an original 1913 edition of The Collected Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, which she'd won in a Paul Laurence Dunbar recitation contest when she was a girl. Mama then proceeded to recite Dunbar's Sympathy and In the Morning from memory! That's when I decided that one day I'd write a poem that someone like my mother would memorize and recite to her little girl. And I did.

Commissions & Bookings

Invite a Poet
to Your Next Event

rites of passage ~ birthdays
memorials ~ weddings
showers ~ luncheons
employee roasts
awards ceremonies

Publications & Recordings

Publications

This is where I'll list my publication credits...ummm...just as soon as I have some. Make no mistake, I'm working on it!

Recordings

They Slice The Air

Even while writing They Slice The Air, I knew this poem was a gift from the Ancestors, given to me to give away. Commissioned by The Spirituals Project, the work was first performed on May 16, 2006 at a special reception for the founders of the Arthur C. Jones Balm in Gilead Society. Later that year, Dr. Arthur Jones ~ a man who has become a mentor and a dear friend ~ asked if I would share the poem again as part of The Spirituals Project Annual Gala concert event. On November 4, 2006, I stood on the stage of the Newman Center for Performing Arts. And when I opened my mouth that night, it was NOT my voice that came out: the Ancestors were with me, and it was their collective voice that flowed through me to reach out to each person in that auditorium. To this day I am so very humbled, honored, and grateful to have had such an experience.

Help Make My Dream Come True

Having lived my childhood dream to study poetry at the University of Denver, it's obvious that I needed to dream bigger dreams! My new dream is to share the stage with two or more of this country's greatest poets, such as Maya Angelou, Lucille Clifton and/or Nikki Giovanni ~ perhaps on the Oprah Winfrey Show ~ where the three of us would perform a choral reading of my work. I encourage anyone who is touched by my work to write to Oprah and ask her to help me make this new dream come true.

UPDATE: Deeply feeling the loss of poetic mother Lucille Clifton, June 27, 1936 – February 13, 2010. Now we'll have to wait for another time to sing together.