A WOMAN YOU SHOULD KNOW: POET CAMILLE RANKINE

Poet Camille Rankine as seen in the latest issue of O Magazine

I like finding interesting and intriguing people when everyone seems to be caught up in the shenanigans of  celebrities and such. While reading my latest issue of O Magazine, I came across this talented lady, who goes by the name of Camile Rankine and I just had to share a little bit about her with all of you.

Facts: Last fall, Camille was named an emerging talent by American Poet magazine, and is the program coordinator for the Cave Canem Foundation, a national nonprofit devoted to developing African-American poets. Camille Rankine is the author of Slow Dance with Trip Wire, selected by Cornelius Eady for the Poetry Society of America's 2010 New York Chapbook Fellowship.



The recipient of a 2010 "Discovery"/Boston Review Poetry Prize, she is featured as an emerging poet in the fall 2010 issue of American Poet. Her poetry has appeared in American Poet, Boston Review, Denver Quarterly, DIAGRAM and POOL: A Journal of Poetry.



Camille received her BA from Harvard University, and her MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University. She is Program and Communications Coordinator at Cave Canem Foundation and lives in New York City.

To learn more about this talented woman and read more of her poetry click here.




















Photo: Ruven Afandor

A Moment In Afro Herstory: Author Ntozake Shange

Critically acclaimed poet Ntozake Shange, author of the 1975 award-winning play for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf: a choreopoem.

Ntozake means "she who comes with her own things, and Shange means "who walks like a lion." For colored girls who have considered suicide/When the rainbow is enuf (Scribner Classics)Ntozake Shange, born Paulette Williams in 1948, attended Barnard College (B.A., 1970) and the University of Southern California (M.A., 1973). She taught humanities, women's studies, and Afro-American studies at California colleges from 1972 to 1975. Shange's most recent work written along with her sister, Ifa Bayeza is titled, Some Sing, Some Cry: A Novel.

Those of you located in the Brooklyn and NYC area are in for a treat because Miss Shange and Michaela Angela Davis will present an event at the Brooklyn Museum Thursday, February 10, 2011. More information here

"A Moment In Afro Herstory: Nikki Giovanni"

"Activist, educator and poet Nikki Giovanni"

Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni  is a Grammy-nominated American poet, activist and author, intellectual and shero. Nikki Giovanni is currently a Distinguished Professor of English at Virginia Tech. The civil rights and black power movements inspired her early poetry that was collected in Black Feeling, Black Talk (1967), Black Judgment (1968), and Re: Creation (1970).

She has since written more than two dozen books including volumes of poetry, illustrated children's books, and three collections of essays. What great books of poems to read to your young children and grandchildren. I admire Nikki because she speaks her mind. Shouldn't we all have the courage to do that?