Author: treasureshieldsredmond

The FEMININE PRONOUN Series #14: #blackpoetsspeakout

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The #blackpoetsspeakout movement was started by Jericho Brown, Mahogany Brown, and Amanda Johnston in the wake of Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Missouri. This episode finds me traveling to participate in a #blackpoetsspeakout reading in Columbia, Missouri. The reading featured poets from the...

Top 5 Reasons Why I Prefer an Anti-racist ACCOMPLICE to an “Ally.”

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In this podcast I breakdown why anti-racist ACCOMPLICE is preferable to “ally.”  I would love to hear your feedback!   _________________________________________________________________________ Paulo Friere wrote, “Washing one’s hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless mea...

The FEMININE PRONOUN Series #13: The Kids Are Alright!

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In this episode I prove that poetry works with seasoned adults, college aged readers and writers, and high school “novices.” I travel from Illinois’s capitol, where I read for the state legislators, and the Illinois Humanities administration, to McKendree University,  and I end with the brillian...

Is there Such a Thing as a Poor White Progressive?

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“We po’.” Almost everyday, my grandmother would say this simple sentence. The missing verb served to make it more immediate, like a simple equation. “We po’.” We equaled poor. Sometimes she said it in response to the evening news when groups of white men argued in Washington, DC about...

Representation Matters

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I threw the bodiless blonde in the trunk of the car, hoping I’d disposed of it in such a way as to not draw attention to her abrupt disappearance. This was late night espionage. I drove around for days like this. I imagined her painted smile, and her pastel blue eyes with their fixed stare. […]...

The FEMININE PRONOUN Series #11: Black Books, Black Children, & Black Love

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This episode of The Feminine Pronoun youtube blog series finds me sharing the power and resonance of Fannie Lou Hamer with a population she loved — children. The EYESEEME bookstore (the only black children’s bookstore in St. Louis) provided a welcoming space for the inquisitive crew and their men...

The FEMININE PRONOUN Youtube Vlog #10: Black Poetry & Black Church

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In this week’s episode of the Feminine Pronoun series, your intrepid poet (me:) signs books at New Life in Christ Interdenominational Church. I sold and signed copies of my book, *chop: a collection of kwansabas for fannie lou hammer*. It’s being carried in their book store, the LIFE CHANGER book...

Intimate Partner Violence as an Issue of Workplace Diversity

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It wasn’t this picture that fell out of the dead man’s pocket, but it was one very much like it. When I was in the first grade, a friend of my mother’s boyfriend, a man who had sat at our table and had eaten in our home, murdered his girlfriend and then committed suicide. My […]

What Do Black Childhood, Charter Schools, and Tamir Rice Have in Common?

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Hint: Harriet Ball was her name, and she passed away in 2011. A veteran teacher from Texas, Ball was observed in the early 90s by two novice teachers, two young white men who were impressed by the way she infused the curriculum with rhythm and mnemonics that engaged the children thoroughly; much...