{"product_id":"our-spirits-carry-our-voices-9780999303979","title":"Our Spirits Carry Our Voices","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 2016, a group of poets from Oakland embarked on a poetic exchange with poets from Accra, Ghana and Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. The goal of the exchange was to create healing and reconnection between Africans and African Americans who have long been separated due to the calamity of slavery and many current socio-economic factors. Using the form of Renshi poetry, a Japanese form, also known as linked or chained poems, a door was opened. Renshi poetry includes the use of the last line of your partner's poem to start your own. Like in pen pals we assigned partners to exchange with for over a year. What happened was beyond anyone's expectations. Real friendships began to blossom and in 2018, the year before President declared the Year of the Return, we decided to take a journey to Ghana to meet our exchange partners. This book is a reflection of both the process and the journey.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe anthology is arranged into 12 sections and a story unfolds as to how complete strangers meet over writing poems. The first assignment was to write \"where I am from\" poems, next we wrote about \"an ancestor\" or a \"dream\" or \"something in the news\" or \"death.\" The poem partners worked together for over a year exchanging poems that started with the last line of their partner's poem. In the book, these are highlighted in bold.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMost of the African poets are writing in their third language, and many had been only \"oral\" or \"slam\" poets before this project, thus the writing was part of the practice for them. Within the exchange one can feel the force of the Oral tradition in the spoken word poetry of our Ghanaian partners who sometimes wrote in their second or even third language. On our side, most of the American poets had never participated in a slam before. So it was even that way. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMany of the trip highlights include forging authentic friendships through art, as well as making the great return to the Motherland of Africa. The themes of the poems vary: self-love, African vs African American experience, religion, oppression, identity, slavery, food and culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWith new works by: Emmanuel Akambo, Jr., Nora (Xorlarlie) Anyidoho, Dodzi Korsi Aveh, aka WhoIsDeydzi, Radhiyah Ayobami, Sara Biel, Wild-Flower Brashear, Tyrice Deane Brown, Karla Brundage, Zakiyyah G. E. Capehart, Azi Edoua, Noemi Rose Gonzalez-Barillas, Xiomara, Jewell King-Speaks, Joseph Chief Korgan, aka Wordrite, Makeda, aka Sandra Hooper Mayfield, Nathaniel Ogli, Etchian Jean Fr d ric Orbeli, Wo dem Afua Parku, aka Wo , aka Z. Afua, Marcus Lorenzo Penn, aka Adeshima, Wanda Sabir, Mariska Araba Taylor-Darko, Crystal Tettey, Kathryn Waddell Takara, PhD., Imani Todd, Tamaris Usher, Sir Black aka Yibor Kojo Yibor.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBrundage, Karla F.:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - Karla Brundage is a Bay Area poet, activist, and educator with a passion for social justice and holds an MA in Education from San Francisco State University and an MFA from Mills College. Born in Berkeley, California, Karla spent most of her childhood in Hawaii where she developed a deep love of nature. Her parents, both activists, are also in inspiration. After receiving a BA in English from Vassar College, she moved back to Oakland California where she was a teacher at the Athenian School. Her work as an educator has taken her to Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Zimbabwe, where she lived and taught for four years. Currently, she is Mission Bay Programs Manager at 826 Valencia in San Francisco. She is the founder of the West Oakland to West Africa Poetry Exchange (WO2WA), which has facilitated cross-cultural exchange between Oakland and West African poets, predominately from Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. Brundage is a board member of the Before Columbus Foundation, a literary foundation. For the past fifteen years she has been the editor or co-editor of various books, articles and poetry collections.\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBrown, Tyrice:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - Tyrice Deane Brown is an MFA graduate with a degree in Creative Writing and Poetry. She writes from an identity-focused lens, one that draws from her existence navigating in America as a Black woman. As a dedicated educator she now works as an English Adjunct Professor at Northern Virginia Community College, and she is working on her first book about the history of her hometown, Lynchburg, Virginia. She hopes to create spaces of learning and light that uplift the very topics she writes on ... {black}identity.\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCapehart, Zakiyyah G. E.:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - Zakiyyah G. E. Capehart is a poet\/storyteller, performing artist, visual artist, and radio producer and host. She is from New York where she studied at Henry Street Settlement, Frank Silver's Workshop, and HB Studio. She has performed her poetry at the Brooklyn Moon Cafe, and other venues in the New York Tri-State area. In 2002 she relocated to the Bay Area with her husband Bryant. While living in Oakland she studied at the Stagebridge Theatre Company. As a member of the Writer's Workshop at the Downtown Oakland Senior Center, recites her poetry at their Book Launches and Poetry Salons. Her poetry is published in several anthologies. She is also a member of the Cousin Zica Writer's Group. Zakiyyah is a two-time grantee of funds from the Akonadi Foundation. Currently she is working on the publication of her first book of poems and short stories.","brand":"Pacific Raven Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50859619647762,"sku":"9780999303979","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_92cc39e2-bc00-4f5a-9c37-6256c86b8d0c.jpg?v=1737560377","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/our-spirits-carry-our-voices-9780999303979","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}