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Executive Director: Diane Richards
A multifaceted, dynamic talent, Diane Richards’ show business career began as an award winning recording artist discovered by the legendary Jazz producer John Hammond and signed to CBS Records where she recorded Chazz Palminteri’s famous ballad “I Forgot About Love.”
In the 1990’s Richards was Senior Vice President at Dick Scott Entertainment and Donnie Wahlberg’s Donnie D. Productions managing the careers of Platinum selling artists NKOTB, Big L, Mark Wahlberg and Cool Change, the A cappella group, that appears in Robert Deniro’s directorial debut A Bronx Tale. Richards was the Associate Producer on NKOBT’s Face the Music studio album released on Sony records in 1994. Diane’s first passion, dramatic writing, resurfaced and she was invited into the Harlem Writer’s Guild in 2000. In 2015, she was appointed Director of the Harlem Writers Guild and is committed to carrying on the legacy of the Guild. Being both creative and business oriented, co-producing Amiri Baraka’s Most Dangerous Man in America was a natural progression of Richards’ Show Business talent after Woodie King Jr.’s directorial production of her play, Sowa’ Red Gravy, starring Tony Award nominated Lonette Mckee, which earned Richards’ rave reviews from the New York Times in 2012. In May 2024, Diane released her debut novel, Ella, a magnificent work of “biographical fiction” that reimagines the turbulent and triumphant early years of Ella Fitzgerald, arguably the greatest singer of the twentieth century. Richards’ Ella Fitzgerald is inspiring and intriguing—an emotionally rich, psychologically complex character, a flawed mother and wife who struggles with deep emotional scars and trauma and battles racism, sexism, and colorism as she learns to find her voice on the stage. Ella takes us from the brothels, speakeasys, and streets of Depression-era New York City to the grand hotel suites where Ella, now older and wiser, looks back on her life and finally confronts the demons from childhood that torment her. Order your copy of Ella today. |
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Minnette ColemanMinnette Coleman was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. She graduated from Guilford College in Greensboro, NC, with a degree in Drama and Speech. Minnette has performed in theatres in the south and off Broadway in New York, including the historic Ridiculous Theatrical Company in the village. She authored and toured a one woman show, 'Hand-Me-Downs", about the civil rights movement.
Minnette began her writing career reporting on er high school’s activities for the city’s first integrated youth magazine. She also wrote jazz reviews for the Atlanta Daily World. Her first writing awards were for poetry on social justice and women’s rights. Since then the Harlem resident has authored three novels: The Blacksmith's Daughter, No Death by Unknown Hands, and The Tree, A Journey to Freedom. As a member of the Harlem Writers Guild she continues to write black historical fiction because she doesn’t “want our stories to be forgotten”. Her work had appeared in several publications including the Quaker Higher Education Journal, The Killens Review of Arts and Letter and two anthologies of Read650.com Minnette’s novels are available at Sisters Uptown Bookstore and Cultural Center, on amazon.com, and from her at minnettecolemandiva@yahoo.com. |
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Aquilah JourdainAquilah Jourdain received Masters and Bachelor degrees in English Literature from The City College of New York and Montclair State University respectively. Focusing on race and gender, specifically issues pertaining to Black female identity, she has presented her work on novels by James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and Zora Neale Hurston at conferences in Little Rock, Atlanta, and New York. Creatively speaking, she enjoys writing short stories about crimes and awkward moments and is currently working on her first novel.
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Marc W. PoliteMarc W. Polite is an award winning writer from New York City. He writes on issues concerning history, labor, and technology. He holds a Bachelor’s in Political Science and a Master’s in History from The City College of New York. Marc is a proud member of the Harlem Writers Guild.
Mr. Polite is the founder and Editor in Chief of Polite On Society, an award winning blog of social commentary, political analysis and literary reviews. His commentary has been featured on The Grio, Race Talk Magazine, Time Magazine, Black Star News, Amsterdam News, BMORENEWS, The New England Informer, and The Atlanta Post. Mr. Polite has also published three books: Poetic Ruminations of Mr. Born Nice – a collection of original poems Everything to Learn, Nothing to Teach – a collection of essays, commentary, and personal recollections. Poetic Ruminations Volume 2– a collection of original poems, and follow up to the first Poetic Ruminations. All three books are available in print, and on Kindle. Two Amsterdam News article links: Coronavirus crisis: NYC impact will be lasting National protests present an opportunity to reshape policy Polite on Society |
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Janell PearsonJanell Pearson, first time Author, was born and raised in Harlem, New York City. She became an entrepreneur at the early age of 25. In 1981, she opened her first business, named T.M.A. Enterprises, Inc. on 125th. Street, which provided secretarial services, messenger, and office business support. She appeared in articles from the Amsterdam News and other significant media newspapers, to be acknowledged for being so young as a successful businesswoman. She wears her positive thinking as her “Superpower.”
The entrepreneur & author is an esteemed multi-award winner, in 1986, she received an award from the Honorable Dorothy Heights of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) along with Whitney Houston, Rev. Calvin O. Butts III, and other honorable leaders. In 1988, Janell received an award from Dorothy Pittman Hughes, another Honorable Black historical leader. After ten years, Janell returned to work in the corporate sector, where she thrived in mostly fortune 500 companies for 30 years. Currently, Janell is a member of the Harlem Writers Guild. In addition, to establishing her own publishing company- Strength Point Publishing, Inc. Amazon: For the Strength of Harlem-Pleas Tusant Pearson Website: https://forthestrengthofharlem.com/ Instagram & Facebook: For the Strength of Harlem -Plĕas Tusant Pearson Email: Info@forthestrengthofharlem.com |
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Betty Anne JacksonBetty Anne Jackson's newly published memoir Girl Don't you Jump Rope is a wonderful, historic accounting of Ms. Jackson's life as a young woman growing up in the midwest. A long awaited book from one of the Harlem Writers Guild's long term members.
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Eartha Watts HicksEartha Watts Hicks is the former director of publications for Cultivating Our Sisterhood International Association, a 501(c)(3). She is a writing fellow of the Hurston-Wright Foundation, the Center for Black Literature and the North Country Institute. In June of 2013, with the assistance of Project Enterprise, Eartha Watts Hicks launched Earthatone Books, an imprint of Earthatone Enterprises, LLC, and independently published LOVE CHANGES, a novel that received the Just R.E.A.D. Award in fiction from the NYCHA branch of the NAACP. Eartha was featured as part of the Write It Down panel discussion at the 2014 Congressional Black Caucus and has been a member of the acclaimed Harlem Writers Guild since 2010. A mother of two, she currently volunteers with FutureExecutives.org.
For more information, visit www.earthatone.com |
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Hasna MuhammadHasna Muhammad is a visual artist, writer, and educator whose work focuses on family, social justice, education, and the human condition. Her photography has been exhibited in various cities in the United States, and her writing has been published in Medium, Essence Magazine, at Sankofa.org, and in Crisis Magazine. Hasna recently published her first book, Breathe In the Sky: Poems Prayers & Photographs.
Throughout her career as an education activist, Hasna has served as an English and writing teacher, a high school principal, and an assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction, and human resources. Hasna also taught executive leadership, diversity management, and community engagement at the graduate level. Hasna currently provides professional preparation for individuals and organizations that focus on diversifying executive, educational, and civic leadership forces. Hasna grew up in New Rochelle, New York and now lives in Brewster, New York where she and her husband raised three children. Hasna received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and completed her M.A. and Ed.D. at Teachers College, Columbia University. Hasna is a 2018-2019 Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Fellow and a 2022-2023 Moth Storyteller. @birthmarkmedia • info@birthmarkmedia.com |
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Kay BellKay Bell is the author of the poetry chapbook, Cry Sweat Bleed Write (Lily Poetry Review Books, 2020). She earned a BA in English and an MFA in Creative Writing at The City College of New York (CUNY) where she also served as a poetry mentor in the Poetry Outreach program. Kay’s work appears in the book, Brown Molasses Sunday: An Anthology of Black Women Writers, and online in Moko: Caribbean Arts and Letters, The Write Launch, Pithead Chapel and various other venues. Kay is passionate about bringing the arts back into public schools and issues that affect marginalized communities. She lives in the Bronx and considers herself a bibliophile. Visit her here: www.iamkaybell.com
*Cry Sweat Bleed Write can be purchased at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and from Lily Poetry Review Books |
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Judy C. AndrewsJudy C. Andrews received a master of arts degree in English/Creative Writing, and a bachelor of Liberal Arts and Sciences degree from The City College of New York. She has worked as an educator, freelance writer, editor, and a presidentially appointed children's advocate.
She is presently working on her fourth book, another novel of suspense. Her historical fictional, thrilling novels, An Ocean of Jewels, and A Gift to Treasure are reflections of her Gullah/Geechee heritage. Her most recent work, The Gathering of Gemstones: A Poetry Collection, explores the themes love, hope, and peace in an ever-changing world. The characters in her literary works seek ways to rectify dangerous situations or experiences in the predominantly African American communities of fictional towns in Georgia and New York. Website: www.BlessedBrown.com | Book links: A Gift To Treasure, An Ocean Of Jewels |
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Robert WoodbineDr. Woodbine grew up in Harlem and the South Bronx amidst the social and economic upheaval of the 1960s. The glaring inequities he experienced between the devastation of heroin’s affects in the black community and the relatively opulent lifestyles he witnessed while attending the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut created an intense inner need to creatively express the resultant anger, frustration and pain he wrestled with. Reading Amiri Baraka’s (LeRoi Jones) The Dead Lecturer, Jean Toomer’s Cane, and E.E Cummings’ work freed him from the traditional writing strictures he learned in high school so that he could give full expression to his voice. Later, as a member of Sonia Sanchez’s year-long Writers Workshop at the Countee Cullen Library in Harlem in 1971, he was exposed to and even performed with some of the prolific writers and musicians of the Black Arts Movement: Lee Morgan, Nikki Giovanni, Askia Muhammad Toure’, Sonia Sanchez, Haki Madhubuti, Gylan Kain and the Last Poets, Gary Bartz, Sun Ra, Robert Ruff, Archie Shepp, and others. These experiences reshaped and continue to influence how he writes and expresses his thoughts.
While poetry is his primary form of writing, Dr. Woodbine has written numerous essays in his blogs: www.yinsidenotes.blogspot.com and www.griotwrites.com. During a recent 3-year intensive residential training program in Tai Chi and Qigong (2016-2019) in Northern California, he was invited to be a co-author with his teacher, Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming for the book Sun Chasers. Additionally, he was invited to write a foreword for the book, The Dao De Jing, A Qigong Interpretation. Currently, Dr. Woodbine is completing his book of poems, Canela con Miel y Clavos (Cinnamon with Honey and Cloves). He is also writing his memoirs, Of Ghosts and Other Ways of Being, and a wellness book for Black men, A Black Man’s Guide to Vim and Vigor: Strategies to Enhance Male Vitality and Virility Naturally. This guide will include his clinical experience and insights as a licensed naturopathic doctor, licensed acupuncturist, and certified instructor of Taijiquan and Qigong. In addition to his creative writing, Dr. Woodbine has explored how sound vibrations affect consciousness and well-being. He plays the Aboriginal Yidaki (commonly called a Didgeridoo by Europeans), Quartz Crystal Singing Bowls, and does Tuvan Throat Singing. It is not uncommon for his poetry to be infused with other notes and tones. |
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Angela DewsAngela Dews used to be busy in public service, politics, and government and was a newspaper reporter at Newsday and the black weekly The New York Voice. She’s now fictionalizing those experiences in a series of novels set in Harlem, which is a complex character in each story.
In 2018, she edited Still, in the City, a collection of two dozen stories about the fierce practice of urban Buddhism. Angela now practices and teaches at the New York Insight Meditation Center and with Harlem Insight, a group that started in her living room. She also is a mentor in the Buddhist Prison Correspondence Course. |
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Dennis Michael WeedenDennis Michael Weeden aka Menace was born in Detroit Michigan from a well-established family of musicians. His father Paul Weeden and mother Terry Pollard are better known as the musician's musician in the field of jazz music. The both of them are written about in the history books and encyclopedias of jazz music. Menace's professional history dates back to his co-writing, guitar playing and arrangement for the song 'Heartbeat' by Tanna Gardner. This song was one of the biggest smash hit international disco club records described by Billboard Magazine. Impressed by his musicianship, he was hired by Madonna to play guitar in her band and record a guitar solo on the re mix version of 'Burning up' produced by Mark Kamins. Menace has worked with Billy Joel and appeared in his video 'Keeping the Faith' and played bass guitar with Whitney Houston and appeared in her award-winning video 'The Greatest Love of All'.
His solo career began in 1990 with his first album produced by Bill Laswell entitled 'Doghouse' on the Jump Street record label in the USA and Europe. His next two albums where released on the P-vine / Polygram record label in Japan. In 1994 'The Life and Times of One Chocolate Baby' and in 1998 'La Mancha Negra'. In 2004 his fourth solo album, 'The Funkillium Trilogy' was released on the French record label New Power Soul Records and distributed in France and Europe. Throughout the years in between solo album projects, Menace has worked for or with and produced many well-established artists as Bill Laswell - Maceo Parker - George Clinton - Doug Winbush - Amp Fiddler - Jerome Bailey - Don Blackman - Addie Brik - Vernon Reid - Natalia Kills - Corinne Bailey Rae - Bootsy Collins - Bernie Worwell - April Weeden - Africa Bambaataa - Muzz Skillings - Baby Paul - Diane Richardson - Moni Love - Doug E Fresh - La Toya Jackson - Kym Mazelle - Noel Reading - Billy Cox - Keith La Blanc - Juliet Roberts - JC001 - Keziah Jones - S - Alexander O'Neil - Rebecka Dremelj - Eternal - Liberty X - Jill Jones - Nea - Prince - Kid Creo & the Coconuts - Lenny Kravitz -George Clinton and the P-funk all - Stars - Nona Hendrix - Phyllis Hyman - Wyclef Jean and many others. Menace is currently producing international dance group Last Dance Diva. The debut album titled ROUTE 66 released in the spring of 2020. DMW currently living in New York City. Stay tuned! Nu Music links: https://queenofthevibes.wixsite.com/lddroute66 https://tjpmfoundation.wixsite.com/menace2019 |
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John RobinsonJohn Robinson is a spoken word poet. Born and raised in the Bronx, he began his early writing after being influenced by the pioneers of New York’s Hip Hop Music scene. Soon after being introduced to the Last Poets, he ventured into other forms of poetic verse. He has performed freestyle poetry and spoken word regularly at popular venues—Bowery Poetry Café, Brooklyn Moon, South of France Spoken Word Events, Nuyorican Poets Café , and Black on Black Rhyme among countless others. Founder of A DEEPER SHADE OF SOUL, ENTERPRISES, LLC, John is the author of the soon to be released A Spoken Word Soliloquy and co-author of the book Sygnifyn Harlem in collaboration with the poet Jade Banks. John has become a featured favorite performer, booked to perform spoken word at conferences and gala events hosted by various national/international fraternal orders, Greek-letter organizations along the East and West coasts. In 2019, he was selected the Most Valuable Poet [MVP] during Epiphany Radio Battle of the sexes and now co-hosts his own show titled THE GET DOWN, a weekly internet talk radio show dedicated to poetry. John Robinson was slated to appear as featured poet for POETRY FEST 2020 before COVID19 in SC and the ATL Poetry Conference. You may connect with him on Instagram at JRob_the_Wiseson.
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Miriam Kelly- FergusonMiriam Kelly- Ferguson, a long time resident of New York, is a member of the Harlem Writers’ Guild, a Hurston/ Wright Fellow, 2011 Fellow of North Country Writers of Color Institute. Her novel Weaver available now @ Amazon.com , Also @ B&N.com and B&N stores. Available on kindle. Her new novel is In Search of Perfection.
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K.C. Washington
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K.C. Washington has been writing since the age of 9 when she turned her grandparents into brother and sister and featured them in her Nancy Drew inspired novel The Mystery of the Floating Skull. Since then she has written music, book, and film reviews, as well as the novella Mourning Becomes Her—a love note to Broadway. Things have come full circle as they do, and she is currently working on her first mystery series. Set during the wild and roaring twenties, Speaking Is Easy is the first book in the Harlow Ophelia Jackson mystery series. K.C. has been a member of the Guild since 2004.
http://speakingiseasy.wordpress.com |
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Jade Soares do NascimentoJade Soares is a Brazilian poet and lawyer. She received her Bachelor's cum laude degree from the National Law School of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). Currently, she is a Master's student in the Postgraduate Program in Literature Science at UFRJ's Language Institute (PPGCL/UFRJ). Jade studies how Angelou's legacy resonates as a strong referential against the silencing of women worldwide, and in the movements of resistance, and defense of liberties towards the social marks left by the enslavement of Africans and their descendants on the American continent. Jade had her poems published in 4 books in Portuguese and has released her first bilingual book (Portuguese-English) "Sublime Ideal" in 2021.Her new book of poetry, Sublime Ideal, is now available on Amazon.
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