Publication

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Two poems in Vita Poetica Journal

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I am working on a series of poems I am calling midrash qatan, or “a little story/exposition.” They are expositions, retellings, and reimagings of stories from the Hebrew Bible and Christian New Testament. The name pays homage to Rabbinic genre of Midrash Rabbah  (“a great midrash”).

Two of these poems have just been published in Vita Poetica Journal:

“found” (a midrash qatan on Luke 15)

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“subtlety: an assay” (a midrash qatan on Genesis 3)

Both pages include an audio recording of me reading these poems.

Three poems in The Decolonial Passage

My first publications of the new year are from the Decolonial Passage. Each is an ekphrastic work, which will likely be a part of the collection I am slowly putting together. Read them here.

  • “Black Men and Women in a Tavern,” is after the painting by the same name from workshop of David Teniers the Younger (1650)

  • “casually and casualty share a Latin root” draws from Jackie Sibblies-Drury’s Pulitzer Prize winning play, Fairview.

New poem in Pensive Journal

My poem “dispatches from the desk of Danel: the self-designated disciple and messianic anger-management translator” was published in the latest issue of Pensive Journal out of Northeastern University. Click on the link below and turn to page #77.


Have you watched the Key & Peele sketches involving President Obama's anger translator Luther?  That’s the vibe here.


Note: Here are the passages the speaker is … “interpreting”

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Two 'Letters to America' in Terrain.org

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Demien DineYazhi’s My Ancestors Will Not Let Me Forget This, 2020. Letterpress Print

Terrain.org has published both "when asked what might finally lead me to drink or abuse schedule 1 narcotics" & "white History Month" as a part of their Letter to America series.

Both are accompanied by a “dramatic reading.” Click below to read/listen.

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"Invisible Man (Two Views)” - Alan Squire Publishing Annual Poetry Contest

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My poem "Invisible Man (Two Views)” was shortlisted in Alan Squire Publishing Annual Poetry Contest and is now in ASP Bulliten’s latest issue.

Invisible Man, Glenn Ligon

This is a doubly ekphrastic poem, inspired by Glenn Ligon’s canvases (by the same name), who in turn took his inspiration from Ralph Ellison’s novel of the same name. Both Ligon and my work represents the opening paragraphs of Ellison’s work to great effect.

So I’m standing on the shoulders of giants. Black excellence.

"American Civics: 2056" published in River Heron Review

My poem “American Civics: 2056” was published in River Heron Review’s Poems, For Now issue.

This is an erasure poem from American Civics: A Text Book for High Schools, Normal Schools, and Academies (1906), employing the only mentions of Blacks (“Negroes” or “slaves”) in the whole textbook.

It’s pretty much what you would think and has implications for our collective future.

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Fevers of the Mind Poetry Showcase

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As a few people are aware, one of the projects I'm currently working (yes, I said “one of…"“) is a collection of ekphrastic poems: I’m expanding Dust & Ashes into a full-length collection.

To that end, I've spent a good part of the summer visiting a bunch of art museums in three different states (so far) to balance the literary art responses with some visual art. Some fruits of that labor were published today in Fevers of the Mind. Here is the link to the poems:

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Solstice Literary Magazine Stephen Dunn Poetry Prize winner!

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Well I can finally announce that my poem “the Banjo Player explains” was chosen by A Van Jordan as the Solstice Literary Magazine Stephen Dunn Poetry Prize winner!

The poem is an ekphrastic narrative based on Henry Ossawa Tanner’s painting The Banjo Lesson: the painting which was the cover art for my first collection, Teaching While Black.


Poetry Editor Note

It’s a joy to present the selections for the 2023 Stephen Dunn Prize for poetry. The winning poem is “the Banjo Player Explains,” by Matthew E. Henry, selected by our poetry judge for this issue, A. Van Jordan. He writes:

In one of the most assured ekphrastic poems I’ve read in some time, ‘the Banjo Player Explains,’ grants a wish I’ve had since I first saw this Tanner painting: ‘I wish I could hear this lesson played out.’ The poem goes beyond the canvas and the framing of the two figures by “striking a balance between two worlds,” indeed. There’s also the perspective of experiential knowledge of the boy as man, an old man, looking back on a moment he will never forget, yet not initially knowing the significance of it in the moment. There’s great wisdom and a life lesson here.

"the patron saint of suicide" in Cola Literary Review

I am proud that my poem “the patron saint of suicide” has been published in Cola Literary Review. You can purcahse a copy here.

This poem is based on the vastly superior poem “Googling the Patron Saint of Suicides” by the amazing Joan Kwon Glass and has a place in my forthcoming chapbook said the Frog to the scorpion from Harbor Editions.