“I Could Tell The Poem Was Black Over The Phone” Was A Success!

Posted on May 6, 2018July 20, 2018 by treasureshieldsredmond

I just wrapped a wonderful creative writing course through FLOW STL check out the work below! The Class Description: Using recordings spanning two centuries of Black women performing poetry, as well as research on sound theory, writers will engage in a creative writing workshop that centers sound...

How To Talk About Race, Class, Gender, and Ability

Posted on March 23, 2018July 20, 2018 by treasureshieldsredmond

Have you ever had your ant-racist beliefs questioned, and were unsure how to explain why you feel the way you do? Here’s a way to organize your thinking so you never have to feel “stumped” again. JOIN MY NEXT CREATIVE WRITING CLASS!

Poetry in Spaces of Recovery

Posted on November 3, 2017November 3, 2017 by treasureshieldsredmond

I love the photo above because you can’t tell which hand is mine. Just like if I was standing together with these women in the Magdalene house, a safe place for women recovering from addiction and a life in the sex trade, (whether being trafficked or deploying their labor in instances of surv...

Why A Black Woman Named Fannie Lou Hamer Matters Now More Than Ever (BONUS: Audio!)

Posted on May 4, 2017May 4, 2017 by treasureshieldsredmond

Who was Fannie Lou Hamer? When one thinks of the millions of souls lost during the transatlantic slave trade, the missed potential immediately jumps to mind. All genocide robs us of the few geniuses that each culture produces. At the beginning of the previous century the pernicious system named...

TFW You Realize You’re In Love With Your Captor

Posted on March 16, 2017 by treasureshieldsredmond

Sometimes I feel as if black folk’s self-worth teeters on the impetuous and hateful razor’s edge of racist white institutions. Like the protagonist in Beauty and the Beast, we’ve fallen in love with our captor, and somehow it has become our responsibility to humanize him. I have now lived thr...

The Feminine Pronoun Series: “what It’s Like to be Bi-Municipal” (No. 36)

Posted on March 11, 2017 by treasureshieldsredmond

In 2009 I moved from Memphis to East St. Louis, Illinois. A year later I moved across the river to St. Louis, Missouri. Two years after that I moved BACK across the river to Illinois where I now reside. Throughout this process, I built relationships in the arts, education and activist arena on ...

The National Women’s March: Sisters, What Are You Willing To Destroy?

Posted on January 27, 2017January 27, 2017 by treasureshieldsredmond

What follows are the remarks and the poem (“Oath: 1957”) I delivered on Saturday, January 21, 2017 at the St. Louis arm of the National Women’s March. When I was first asked to participate in the national women’s March, I declined because I thought it was just another example in the long line of...

The TOP 5 Ways Faculty Can Support Student Activists

Posted on September 9, 2016September 10, 2016 by treasureshieldsredmond

You want to jump up and shout because the students on your campus or the individuals in your community are calling out structural bias and even protesting, organizing, and making real headway against it. Or you’re wondering what the hell is going on. Either way the young people need to be supp...

Here’s Why Anger is the Ultimate Glow Up. Oh, and #StrikeForBlackLives

Posted on July 31, 2016August 1, 2016 by treasureshieldsredmond

One of my favorite podcasts is Another Round, featuring a writer for Buzzfeed, Tracy Clayton and a writer for the Stephen Colbert Show, Heben Nigatu. The show features guests of color talking about a wide range of subjects, but with a keen eye on culture. One part drunken conversation and one par...

“Labor Pains” and the #StrikeForBlackLives

Posted on July 20, 2016July 20, 2016 by treasureshieldsredmond

When Africans were enslaved, one popular narrative used to justify their enslavement, was that they were “lazy.” “If we don’t enslave them they won’t work” was one of the fears expressed pre-emancipation. In fact, black men found without a job could be remanded to forced labor post-slaver...

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Category: Writing About Race, Class, Gender, & Ability