Who is Treasure Shields Redmond? Well, I am first and foremost a poet. I come from a family of storytellers. In my hometown of Meridian Mississippi, I was raised at the feet of master storytellers. These were the old ones with old ways who spoke in deep southern dialect. In the summers and on holidays I would travel to my dad’s hometown of East St. Louis, Illinois, and receive the midwestern version of the story. These were the hip ones, with more urbane sensibilities who spoke in citified slang. And when I began to write, all of the wisdom I had received from the elders and characters in my southern sphere and the midwestern sphere came out in poetic verse. I eventually went to college to study theatre, but then left to pursue a career in the music industry as a hip-hop music performer (rapper) and writer. I was signed to the label owned by multimillion-dollar artist MC Hammer. After producing an album, becoming a staff writer and touring extensively, I returned to college as an English education major, with a mission to teach writing to underserved communities. I went on to teach for two decades.
Along the way I was conferred a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing by the University of Memphis. As you can tell, I’ve always been on two tracks — the artist track and the educator track. As I transitioned to college professor, and published author, my focus began to crystallize in the area of the populations I served most often. These were populations in jeopardy. Educational communities in poverty, mostly of color, often headed by women who were un-partnered, and with co-existing bias factors like mental illness and physical disability. I realized that I had all the preparation to show these communities how to secure a top tier education without massive debt.
I’m very close to completing doctoral studies where my research focus is the recorded performances of foundational Black Women poets, and the ways they deployed sound to impact the canon and justice movements.
I center collaboration in my personal arts practice and as an organizing principle. As such, I have co-founded a funding collective for Black artists called The Black Skillet, and a podcast that centers voices of color called Who Raised You? I am also the founder of Get The Acceptance Letter Academy where I help college bound families. To read, hear, support, or hire me, go to any of the following: