blog

Articles from this Category

Writing poetry for people on a typewriter

Some poets and I had the chance to set up shop at the Charleston Farmers Market, armed with a ton of blank paper and … a typewriter. We were there to celebrate the last day of National Poetry Month. We charged people $1 for a poem. It was amazing how many people loved the idea. […]

Why I love A Tribe Called Quest

The first “poem” I wrote was a verse-by-verse cover of A Tribe Called Quest’s “Butter,” from The Low End Theory. I put “poem” in quotes because I really didn’t know what I was doing – I was just really enthralled with the rhyme style of Phife Dawg. The year was 1991, and I still had […]

Poem – “surround sound (she reads me like music)”

if our love is a record player then our bodies are the speakers. my voice is wired into you and this poem will shine a light on the revolution of our union as we find the grooves within each other. side 1, track 1: the needle drops to expose the clarity that lies within the […]

I’m on the cover of the Charleston City Paper. What?

Someone on Facebook said that I’m having a good year. I can’t argue that. The mayoral inauguration poem , the branding of the Charleston Jazz Festival and now … this! I’m so grateful to be included in this Charleston City Paper story. My little portion of the story talks about naps, Moe’s Crosstown, gin and […]

The Charleston Mayoral Inauguration Poem – “Reimagining History”

It’s a beautiful time to be in Charleston. As we transition into a new year, we celebrate a new mayor, John Tecklenburg. John and his wife, Sandy, reached out to Marjory Wentworth and I last year after we performed a free benefit concert for the families of the Emanuel AME victims. At that event, the […]

Videos for the Children’s Museum of the Lowcountry

The Children’s Museum of the Lowcountry offers hands-on exhibits for kids, including parties, programs, camps & classes such as yoga & dance. I had the pleasure of doing a series of videos for them, and I’m super proud of how they turned out. See the videos below, and learn more about the Children’s Museum of […]

New album – “the drum machine”

Happy to announce my new album, “the drum machine.” It’s a 31-minute electronic music album recorded at home in Charleston. The theme? Beats. It’s also an homage to my music from the last 10 years. I did my first album as tape loop in 2005 after buying a Boss DR 202 drum machine. That album, […]

Poem: “Mahogany”

Who decided to call us “black and white”? When I look at my skin, I don’t see black, I see brown. Brown. Like the color of sand, a brilliant tan that needs no sun. Brown, like the mahogany tree bark, grounded in the summer, whose green leaves make the transition into fall, coffee-stained by the […]

New poem – “greater than (or) equal to”

I was born the year our country celebrated its 200th birthday. Less than a decade from Martin Luther King Jr.’s assasination, 113 years after the emancipation proclimation. Here’s a bicentennial baby obsessed with numbers, released from his mother’s womb into a wounded society. He opened his eyes to a binary world where 0’s and 1’s […]

A poem about Charleston

I was blessed to be able to perform this poem at Lowcountry Local First’s Good Business Summit on August 27 at the Charleston Museum. Text is below. You can also hear my version with Quentin E. Baxter on iTunes. charleston, where the sidewalks scream on saturday nights and the corners rotate budding musicians with skin-tight […]