The month of April is always an exciting one at Bright Skylark Literary Productions. It arrives with opportunities to share, at a minimum, combined celebrations of National Poetry Month and National Jazz Appreciation Month with readers and audiences worldwide. This year, it is especially thrilling because in addition to regular features and highlights, the following special events are also scheduled to take place: April 2: The Carousel of Sustainable Compassion Number 1, a more visually-oriented interpretation of Bright Skylark’s popular Conversations with the World series, makes its debut. The 25 quotation memes, digital posters, and artworks have been curated as a celebratory sampler of the many ways which writings by Aberjhani have supported the humanitarian values and visions of different organizations’ and individual’s platforms. They range from education and personal motivation to environmental sustainability, coexistence, human rights, and a great deal more. April 4: The GoFundMe page for the Ike Carter and Aberjhani Music Heritage Project will launch to raise funds in support of the extended research, composition, and publication of a major volume on radio programmer and music historian Theron "Ike" Carter’s life and musical times. The campaign is slated to run from April 4, 2023 to June 30, 2023. The project is one on which a considerable amount of work has already been accomplished since January 2022. A legendary figure in the world of jazz, Carter is the previous manager of WHCJ Ratio Station at HBCU Savannah State University, and former president of the Coastal Jazz Association (now Savannah Jazz). April 14: Publication of a special text edition of Black and Blue Letters from the Red Zone titled: These Black and Blue Red Zone Days (ISBN: 979-8-218-17561-0). Showcased in the special edition are the stories, letters, and poems included in the artbook project. This trade-size paperback makes it easy for people who like to read on the go, or who simply prefer a book they can comfortably hold while reading in bed instead of the larger gift volume designed to feature color art alongside the text. April 19: The Senior Savannah Learning Center noon program will present a celebration of Art & Words by Aberjhani. The program will feature readings from the author’s new book, These Black and Blue Red Zone Days, a displace of artworks, and PowerPoint presentation. This will be the author-artist’s first 2023 public appearance. Bright Skylark News Notes
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Books containing compelling narrative writing combined with appealing fine art by a single creative individual are rare. That makes the forthcoming nonfiction narrative collection by Aberjhani, titled "Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah" (ISBN 978-9388125956), Cyberwit.net Publishers) as well as the artwork from it featured here at Fine Art America/Pixels.com, highly collectible. In addition, the rarity makes them likely to continue increasing in value. The images in the book are black and white versions of color prints which may be viewed by clicking here: Art from and Inspired by Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah Previous announcements concerning a book including art by Aberjhani stated it would be one of art and poetry titled "Incandescent Wonder," so the news regarding "Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah" took some by surprise. "The inclusion of my art and photography in Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah surprised me as well," said the artist-author, "but I've been working on the narrative part of this title for a decade and have been posting updates about it on Facebook and my primary website for the past two years. The art and photography help complete the book in a lot of ways I never expected. I'm glad for the inspiration that prompted me to include it." The recently-posted art titled "Historic Triumph of Dr. Abigail Jordan" corresponds with the 2019 update of the story in DREAMS titled "The Bridge and the Monument: A Tale of Two Legacies." Aberjhani was in the process of completing edits for the book when he learned Dr. Jordan, who for a decade led efforts to erect the famous African-American Family Monument on River Street in Savannah, had passed in January. She is one of three people to whom the new book is dedicated.
"Learning about Abigail Jordan's passing was quite a shock because so little upon her death was done to publicly acknowledge this great woman whose devotion to eradicating racism and promoting cultural literacy in Savannah has blessed the city so much. The unveiling of the monument in 2002 made headlines around the world. How media in the city neglected to properly acknowledge Jordan's passing is somewhat mystifying but hopefully we will correct that by adding her name more prominently to the monument itself in the form of a plaque or historical marker." Pre-sales for the first limited edition of "Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah," due out May 1, 2019, are currently available for ordering here: Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah Now --Bright Skylark News Notes
East St. Louis, IL--Dr. Lena Jane Weathers (1930-2017), who was a lifelong resident of East St. Louis and an invaluable leader and patron of the community, will be honored along with four more late women trustees of the Eugene B. Redmond Writers Club on Tuesday, March 21, 2017. The free event, held in honor of Women's History Month 2017, will take place 6 PM in Room 2083 of Building “B” on the East St. Louis Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (ESL SIUE) Higher Education Campus, 601 J.R. Thompson Drive 62201. Other trustee-honorees are poet-novelist-scholar Margaret Walker Alexander (1915-1998); poet-autobiographer-actress-filmmaker Maya Angelou (1928-2014); Pulitzer Prize-winning former Illinois Poet Laureate and novelist Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000); and ESL native daughter Barbara Ann Teer (1937-2008), founder of the National Black Theatre of Harlem. June 17, 2017 will mark the centennial of the birth of Brooks. She and Walker Alexander, whose centennial was observed in 2015, are often associated with the Harlem Renaissance. EBR Writers Club HistoryFounded in 1986, the Writers Club turned 30 in 2016. Writer Henry Lee Dumas (a.k.a. Henry Dumas, 1934-1968), for whom Eugene B. Redmond has served as literary executor for the past 48 years, is the Club's patron saint. Members of its Soular Systems Ensemble—Roscoe “Ros” Crenshaw, Salim Kenyatta, Charlois Lumpkin (Mali Newman), Darlene Roy (Club prez), and Jaye Willis—will perform “kwansabas” in honor of the trustees. The program will also feature special guests and an art/photo exhibit. Current Club trustees include: Avery Brooks, Haki R. Madhubuti, Walter Mosley, Quincy Troupe, and Jerry W. Ward, Jr. Among other deceased trustees are: Amiri Baraka (1934-2014) and Raymond R. Patterson (1929-2002). In addition to having appeared here as guests of the Club, trustees also served on the editorial board of Drumvoices Revue, a literary-cultural journal formerly co-published by the Club and SIUE's English Department. Creation of the KwansabaOne of the Club's signature inventions is the “kwansaba,” a poem of “sevens”--seven lines, seven words per line, with each word having no more than seven letters. Exceptions to the seven-letter rule are foreign terms, proper nouns and quoted words or passages. Of the trustees, Dr. Weathers and Dr. Ward have written kwansabas. Others have been the subject of special issues of Drumvoices where they were honored with kwansabas. Hundreds of examples of the form appear in Drumvoices and dozens of other publications. In the past couple of years alone, three volumes of poetry--by Tara Betts, Treasure Shields Redmond, and Darlene Roy—have been devoted wholly or in part to the kwansaba. For information about the March 21 program or the Club: call 618 650-3991; write EBR Writers Club at P.O. Box 6165, ESL, IL 62201; or email: eredmon@siue.edu. AuthorPress Release courtesy of EBR Writers Group |
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