SERIES: GREATEST POETS OF COLOR!!!

Hi there, after my first post i have been on a constant soul fighting to get back with a new post, so for that i thought of my first post series, and which other topic to write on than previewing some of the greatest poets of color. Don't get this misunderstood this blog is not 'Afro or Black' affiliated, because literature is a medium of connection for all peoples notwithstanding  skin color or race, with that stated i would like you to enjoy the series as it begins with one of my favorite poet of all time, Wanda Coleman, enjoy.

WANDA COLEMAN  

Wanda Coleman (1946 - ) is an award-winning American poet. She is known as "the L.A. Blueswoman," and "the unofficial poet laureate of Los Angeles." She grew up in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles during the 1950s and 1960s. She has received fellowships from the John P. Guggenheim Foundation, The NEA, and the California Arts Council (in fiction and in poetry), and was the first C.O.L.A. literary fellow (Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, 2003). Her many honors include an Emmy in Daytime Drama writing, The 1999 Lenore Marshall Prize (for "Bathwater Wine"), and a nomination for the 2001 National Book Awards (for "Mercurochrome").

Some of Ms. Coleman books of poetry include Native in a Strange Land: Trials & Tremors (1996); Hand Dance (1993); African Sleeping Sickness (1990); A War of Eyes & Other Stories (1988); Heavy Daughter Blues: Poems & Stories 1968-1986 (1988); Imagoes (1983); and Mercurochrome: New Poems (2001). She has also written Mambo Hips & Make Believe: A Novel, published by Black Sparrow Press.

Interviews of Ms. Coleman can be found in Quercus Review #6, 2006 www.quercusreview.com, by Priscilla Ann Brown in Callaloo Vol. 26 No. 3, and in Another Chicago Magazine #35. Critical articles in which Ms. Coleman is discussed include Laurence Goldstein's essay "City of Poems: The Lyric Voice in Los Angeles since 1990" (The Misread City: New Literary Los Angeles, edited by Scott Timberg and Dana Gioia, Red Hen Press), and "Revising Western Criticism Through Wanda Coleman," essay by Krista Comer; Western American Literature Quarterly (Journal of The Western Literature Association, Vol. XXXIII No. 4, Utah State University, Department of English).

Poems - 10 in all

Wanda Coleman

the ISM
Watching
Mastectomy
Bedtime Story
The Deuce of Cups
The California Crack
American Sonnet (35)
Nobody Wants To Know My Name
They Came Knocking On My Door At 7 A.M.
Sweet Mama Wanda Tells Fortunes For A Price

Sherkur's Farm: My Pen-Page

   My names are Charles Benjamin Nwabrije but i prefer my adopted pen name and possible alter ego 'Sherkur'. i am African and an aspiring writer, composer, student and businessman, in this first post i would basically call a 'semi-biography' i would like to enlighten my proposed readers of the man behind this blog, me i.e, and explain the meaning behind the blog name and what my intended audience should expect, in exerts.

I was born in Nigeria, a place called Rivers State, i developed my love for reading at an early age, i remember as at age 10 i stole a good number of 'old books' from my fathers library, it is small compared to what i have now though. I loved literature, it was my best lecture back then in college, i never failed a literature exam( my bragging right), today i have developed into an avid reader, i read virtually everything,  Fiction, essays, novels, poems, magazines, everything, and boy how i love it. I just decided to convey that passion into writing now, i never dreamt of being a writer but at this point its all i want to be, i might be criticized for turning up late to the profession, but hey, age is just a number huh?.


The name 'sherkurs farm' is a dedication to my grandma's farm, which i lived on for over six months prior to the death of my MA' (bless her soul), i remember the clean air around that place, i read the most while there so in dedication this blog will be to that magical land of bird humming and pure earth, i hope to someday live on one of my own, it is the best place to be. As i writer my first love is poetry, i have a few works to be published on that genre in time, i also admire the typicality of fiction, an 'escape of the mind' as i like to call it, essays and short stories, blog posts  and any other freelance writing i also admire, as my journey into this world of creativity begins with you, i hope to do it all for you, luck i would need, prayers even more, as my pen page is incorporated on this day, my life of art is reborn.