Water Those Women

16/10/2024

https://youtu.be/WAThVI9N6Yk

15/10/2024

I am so thrilled to be part of this international poetry event!
Premier Saturday 19th October 11 am EDT, 4 pm UK, 5 pm CEST

Thanks to Dr Michael Anthony Ingram for the interview and event organization! I am honoured to be in this episode alongside the Nigerian poet Alatishe Kolawole.

The QPORYTZ Podcast Presents: An International Poetry Listening Experience!

See links below!
Join us for these pre-recorded sessions premiering on YouTube. Experience diverse poetic voices from the comfort of your home and connect with poetry enthusiasts worldwide!
Laura Grevel (Austria): The Universal Power of Poetry
On Saturday, October 19, 2024, at 11:00 AM (EDT)/5:00 PM (CEST), join Dr. Michael Anthony Ingram for an interview exploring the captivating poetry of Laura Grevel. Experience her reflections on life across five countries and engage with the profound themes of migration, identity, politics, and nature that her poetry vividly presents. Watch at: https://youtu.be/WAThVl9N6Yk.

A Poetry Reading featuring Kolawole Alatishe (Nigeria) hosted by the Quintessential Poetry Book Club
On Saturday, October 19, 2024, at 1:00 PM (EDT)/ 6:00 PM (WAT) join Dr. Michael Anthony Ingram for a profound exploration of Kolawole Alatishe's poetry collection, 'Human Togetherness: Evolving Towards A New Frontier.' This book delves into themes of global unity, social justice, and community. The event was sponsored by the Quintessential Poetry book club. Watch at: https://youtu.be/74JUy06Cqtk.
QPORYTZ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/ More information: http://www.qporytz.com.

In order to find a poet (or poets), type Quintessential Listening and the poet's name in the search box. Quintessential Poetry: YouTube is a vital part of the broader Quintessential Poetry: BlogTalkRadio, YouTube and Zoom podcasting network, offering a captivating fusion of poetic expression through...

25/09/2024

Hi Friends, Here's a book review for Amy Hoskins' The Semblance of Equal Grace. Highly recommended! Congrats again, Amy!!!

In The Semblance of Equal Grace, a debut poetry collection, Amy Hoskins speaks her truths and tells us that everything matters. Her intimate voice taps like a heartbeat on our “upside down world” intertwining personal history with world history and current happenings. Hoskins’ poems touch on both failures and hopes for progress. Her free verse pieces are strong with metaphor and imagery, concisely described, and impressionistic. They pull us irresistibly forward.

Amy Hoskins’ words flows like a creek through her life and this world’s, describing the kaleidoscope that is our existence in a gentle, insistent, clear-seeing voice that names hurts and finds beauty—the beauty of nature and of the soul. This voice invokes the hurting Earth and its hurting people, and carries our troubles—the wars, the injustice, the urban dissonance. This voice wraps the wreckage in light and growth, in flowers and green, and flows on, healing, and hoping we find a way forward. Hoskins’ poems show us this world’s potential in the details.

These poems show that, indeed, everything does matter. The poems riff through the half-light of this modern world, seeking connection, urging mercy, to humans and the Earth. The poems urge kindness. Thank you, Amy Hoskins, for your gentle voice of hope, for this gentle prayer.
Amy Hoskins
Gestalt Poetry Open Mic

24/09/2024

Our Voice Is Our Advocate is a poetry collection that sings and soars with the human spirit. Most of these poems come from refugees living at a refugee camp based in Dzaleka, Malawi. The refugees have founded Africa Youth Artistic Poetry to encourage, advocate for, and create a safe space for all its youth. The AYAP leader Charles Lipanda Mahigwe and Editor Salvador Cap Bic write, “as poets, we will always speak the truth even in days that our body is dying, we will rise in times of war and peace.” These works were written by youth between 15 and 23 years of age and aspire to inspire. This book succeeds. These poets’ words paint the troubles, the griefs, the hopes of these young people, of the human soul itself. Using words that shine light on the humanity of all, that resonate, that remind us we are all One, this book succeeds mightily in bringing us together, in inspiring.

I congratulate this amazing and courageous group of young people on the publication of Our Voice Is Our Advocate. I urge all to read their truths, and to support the work of Africa Youth Artistic Poetry.

Charles Lipanda Mahigwe Salvador Cap Bic Rawle Iam James Anjie Williams-Brown Richard Spisak

Here is the link to order this book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D9YV4KNG?ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_9EP7DM0JYG37T7H64VQR&ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_9EP7DM0JYG37T7H64VQR&social_share=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_9EP7DM0JYG37T7H64VQR&fbclid=IwY2xjawFfYoZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHQLNGEGjyzb8bJtLWiKuFSEPCvkHmr5RFhvMNLTM_d5Uka3lUqfQ5m772w_aem_-h1_Q03ZbrwErwvBgKGDOQ

01/09/2024

Please consider ordering these books by young people at the Malawi refugee camp.

There, kids are studying poetry to give them hope and inspiration. Ordering their books will help them out. Reading their work will inspire you!

Our Voice is Our Advocate Anthology by Charles Lipanda & Salvator Kasase can be purchased on Amazon:

Our voice is our advocat is an anthology of different poets from different countries it’s showing how poets have been a source of courage and hope to less privilege people and to any other human being It’s showing how poets are the freedom fighters the voice of the voiceless lite also show the l...

20/06/2024

HAPPY JUNETEENTH!

1980 JUNETEENTH RISING

I’m walking down this hot street.
I’m holding a baby walking down this hot street.
I don’t know why I’m doing this yet,
I’m thinking I’m just doing my job,
I’m a park leader, a skinny white girl,
on this second ever Juneteenth Parade in Austin, Texas,
celebrating the day the slaves heard they were free.

I mean I know why we’re doing it—
I work at a park, two parks,
one all the kids are black,
one is mixed race.

But it hasn’t really dawned that the heat of this march
is not just the sweat of my arms, the sweat of this child,
who is black,
not just our sweat sliding over each other,
intermingling and dropping, sizzling on the brutal street,
as the drums come solemn behind us.

It hasn’t even dawned that the need of this child
is not just that this child’s mother is at work,
not just that this child is a defenceless infant,
as the drums come solemn,
as the drums come solemn, come solemn.

We’re marching down this hot street,
a gaggle of kids between three park leaders
all squinting into the sun,
almost nobody watching from the side-lines
‘cause this ain’t Congress Avenue.

This street is a backside to ugliness
between the Villa Capri Motel parking lot
and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library parking lot.
A street radiating heat, cooking us like stew.
But we march on, this baby and I.

We made it, sister, and you never complained.
At nine months you knew,
it’s taken me 59 years.
Today, I’m marching down this hot street,
I’m marching down this hot street with you.

27/05/2024

03/05/2024

Wonderful op ed by journalist and professor Karen Attiah!

Use of force to break up peaceful protests makes the university into a school for oppression.

17/04/2024

I'm thrilled to be reading on Saturday 20th April 2 - 4 pm EST with this international group of poets for a Zoom/Hybrid poetry event out of Connecticut, USA! Please register to listen if you are able to attend.

Zomkhonto Gabadela Charles Perry (CPMaze) Dr Michael Anthony Ingram Pankhuri Sinha Alexandra Psaropoulou Antje Stehn Lkn Yrteop Poul Lynggaard Damgaard And many more!