OUR POETS

Chip Williford - Director and Host

Chip Williford is a writer of prose, poetry, and short stories. He is a photographer, videographer, filmmaker, documentarian, family historian, researcher, a good listener, and a relatable storyteller.

He was first published in Volume Four Issue One January 1995 of SBC Magazine, Stanley Bennett Clay Publisher and Editor-In-Chief, a romantic fiction" From That Moment On ", also in the May/ June 1996 issue "I Got Your Mail", the latest take on lovers lust and little black lives. Chip was so honored to be a contributing writer in "Oh! What a Ride" 50 Years in the Airline Travel Industry" by author Rev. ElTyna McCree in 2016. His poem "Thoughts of a Mongoose" was selected for publication in the Nassau County Poet Laureate Society Review, Vol. VIII, 2020, an anthology of poems. Most recently, his poem titled "America, I See" was published in the Performance Poets Association 25th Annual Literary Review.

Chip Produced a Public Access Television show called "Let's Talk" hosted by Rev. ElTyna Dixon-McCree, then for 2.5 years he produced a LIVE weekly show called "30 Marvelous Minutes" hosted by Lucinda Taylor for United Cable Channell 3 in Alameda, CA. In 2017 He co-produced and filmed the YouTube Series “Poetry Street on The Road” and is featured on YouTube “America, Please Learn from The Scars of History”. His educational historical documentary, “Bohemia, Then and Now” was internationally recognized, and viewed by Bohemian American Citizens along with the Bohemian Ambassador at the National Hall Bohemian Embassy.

Maggie Bloomfield - Assistant Director and Co-Host

Maggie Bloomfield is a published, award-winning poet and essayist, Emmy-winning lyricist for Sesame Street, and graduate/MFA Program at SBSH. Her chapbook, Trains of Thought, was published by Local Gems Press, and a collection, Sleepless Nights, was published by Finishing Line Press. Maggie and Susan Dingle performed their one-act play, BREAK OUT! AS PART OF THE 2017 LI FRINGE FESTIVAL and Maggie’s one-act, The Dispatchment Society was part of NYC’s New Works Emerging Artists Festival in 2019.

Russ Green

Over the years, Russ Green has been co-editor at Great Weather for Media, put on poetry and arts events around Long Island and NYC, and has raised funds through some of these events for humanitarian and social justice organizations such as Tahirih Justice Center, The Trevor Project, and an the earthquake victims of Nepal. Additionally, Russ hosted and curated poetry stages at various festivals and has read his work from New York to New Orleans, Cleveland, Santa Fe, and cities in between. His book, Gimme Back My Radio, is out with Night Ballet Press. Currently, he runs a monthly workshop with poet Christina M. Rau called South Bay Sundays and also hosts and curates poetry and music events in Port Jeff called Saturdays on the Sound. You can usually find him communing with the mountains in Vermont with interesting artist friends or roaming the docks of Port Jefferson Harbor at night looking for signs of life in the starry night sky.

Anastasia Tomkin

Anastasia Tomkin is a writer with a passion for racial equity. She is an Administrative Coordinator at Common Justice, the first alternative to incarceration program in the country that accepts people faced with felony charges. She holds a degree in French and Spanish from the University of the West Indies, and is a certified mediator. She produces monthly articles for her blog on Medium and recently released her first book, a poetry collection entitled "Delusions of Grandeur."

Pramila Venkateswaran

Pramila Venkateteswaran, poet laureate of Suffolk County, Long Island (2013-15) and co-director of Matwaala: South Asian Diaspora Poetry Festival, is the author of Thirtha (Yuganta Press, 2002) Behind Dark Waters (Plain View Press, 2008), Draw Me Inmost (Stockport Flats, 2009), Trace (Finishing Line Press, 2011), Thirteen Days to Let Go (Aldrich Press, 2015), Slow Ripening (Local Gems, 2016), and her latest book: The Singer of Alleppey https://www.shantiarts.co/uploads/files/vwxyz/VENKATESWARAN_SINGER.html

She has performed the poetry internationally, including at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival and the Festival Internacional De Poesia De Granada. An award winning poet, she teaches English and Women’s Studies at Nassau Community College, New York. Author of numerous essays on poetics as well as creative non-fiction, she is also the 2011 Walt Whitman Birthplace Association Long Island Poet of the Year. She is a founding member of Women Included, a transnational feminist association.

Mark Yoslow

Mark Yoslow, PhD (“Dr. Mark”) writes narrative poetry in a book format, a pursuit that has held his attention for 56 years. His most recent work, The Town (96 pages), is the source of his readings for the October 2020 meeting of Poetry Street. In addition to his creative writing, Dr. Mark writes about spiritual transformation, and just completed a nine-year project that tells the story of how he and his good friend walk a mountain together and the experience leads them on a seven-year spiritual journey in which they make the same climb 800 times and record their impressions in words and photography. The resulting book, Walking the Hill: The Art of Accidental Transformation, is a collection of essays, poems, memoir, and 50 dramatic color photographs. Dr. Mark is currently at work on a collection of long narrative poems, Blunt’s Gift and Other Stories, that combine heroic and romantic themes. Dr. Mark holds a PhD in clinical psychology from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (ITP), an MA in the history and philosophy of education from New York University, and an MA in transpersonal and spiritual psychology from ITP.

The Pasca-Muuss Family

The PASCA-MUUSS family loves to visit other countries, talk to strangers, eat new foods and make art. *TERRI* is a social worker, director, performer, speaker & author whose poetry has received three Pushcart and two Best of the Net nominations. Her first book, Over Exposed, was released in 2013 and, in 2016, Terri co-edited an anthology of NY women poets entitled Grabbing the Apple. Terri has performed her one-woman show, Anatomy of a Doll, around the US and Canada since 1998. Her second book, godspine, was released by 3: A Taos Press this February. *MATT* has also authored two poetry collections—A Thousand Doors (2011 Pushcart nominee) and Raven Wire (2017 Eric Hoffer Book Award Finalist)—and serves as Assistant Poetry Editor of 2 Bridges Review. Matt has taught Poetry, Mythology and Literature at Bay Shore High School for 23 years and been named a New York State Teacher of Excellence. Terri & Matt have performed and taught workshops together dozens of times and have curated Second Saturdays @Cyrus, a vibrant poetry reading series in Bay Shore, since 2015. As a rapper, 14-year-old *RAINER’s* work bursts with theatricality and lyricism, a result of his background as a published poet and accomplished stage performer. Rainer has been writing since he was 4 and had poems published in several literary journals. On stage, he has appeared in school productions as Sonny in In the Heights, Edna in Hairspray and Tim Allgood in Noises Off, Old Deuteronomy in Cats, and was a member of the Public Theatre's 2018 production of Twelfth Night at the Central Park Dellacorte Theatre. Rainer just released his first rap album, Same Difference, this August. *ATTICUS* has studied Spanish in a Dual Language program since he was 4, has played the djembe, congas and drum kit since age 2 and gigs with much older musicians when he can. Now in 7th grade, he loves following politics and soccer leagues around the world. Atticus appeared numerous times with his brother on The Ellen Show as a "Presidential Expert.”

Matt Pasca
mattpasca@verizon.net
mpasca@bayshoreschools.org
www.mattpasca.com

Raven Wire (Shanti Arts, 2016)
A Thousand Doors (JB Stillwater, 2011)

Mary Seymour

Mary Seymour is a passionate and dedicated advocate for the creative artists' community. Seymour, artistic director, dramatist, and educator. She is president of the Grammy Award-winning music publishing company A Dish-A-Tunes LLC. Mary is proud of her theatrical history; she has an extensive directing and acting resume: Broadway credits include: Hair original Broadway production. Co-starring role in Raisin "The Musical." Seymour is on The Board of Directors of The Audelco Awards Audience Development Committee and Hands Across Long Island.

Education: Stony Brook University 18' BA degree Africana Studies/Playwriting 18" [summa cum laude] SCCC '15 AS degree Directing/Playwriting [highest distinction] Yale University 12' [Theatre Directing Project]

Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world- Harriett Tubman

Bill Batcher

Bill Batcher, a retired teacher who now lives in Greenport NY, has three books of poetry, all available on Amazon.

Alexa Bello

Alexa Bello shares her faith with others through poetic form. As an educator and founder of Modern Day Psalmists, she uses her gift to inspire and encourage others to do the same.

Gladys Henderson

Gladys Henderson poems are widely published and have been featured on PBS Channel 21 in their production, Shoreline Sonata. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. She was co-editor of the anthology Leaves of me…published by Early Lilacs Press, 2019. Nationally she was a finalist for the Paumanok Poetry Prize 2006, has received recognition in the Writer’s Digest Poetry Competitions 2008, 2009, 2012. Finishing Line Press published her chapbook, Eclipse of Heaven in 2009. She was named the Walt Whitman Birthplace Poet of the Year in 2010, and was chosen Poet Laureate of Suffolk County 2017-2019.

Dr. Nina Yavel is a poet, writer and clinical psychologist who treats children and adolescents. She is a member of The Poets of Well Being, woman writers, therapists and educators who share their experiences of recovery by facilitating writing workshops for recovering addicts and alcoholics. She was a contributing author along with Maya Angelou and many other woman to a text for Women’s Studies Risk Courage and Woman, which won an award for one of the best college texts in 2007. She won first place prizes for her poetry at Barnes and Nobles and The Owl Newspaper, and had had poems published in several literary magazines. An eclectic lyrical poet, she writes poems about her many interests, nature, mental illness, god, prayer, quantum mechanics and anything else she feels connected to and she feels connected to just about

Lois Moses

Lois Moses, Esq. is an Actress, Poet, Clinician, Filmmaker, Director, Legal Scholar, and Playwright. She earned her Master’s in Fine arts in Acting at UCLA. She is an award-winning filmmaker for her short film titled, “And They Jumped into the Water…Some” which premiered at Optik Illusion, Films to the People Festival and Scribe Video’s Street Movies. Lois’ acclaimed play, “Say That He Had More Than a Dream” debuted at First World Theatre in Philadelphia, PA on September 30, 2016, and toured at the Match Theatre in Houston August 2017, and was nominated by Broadway World.com for Best New Work in 2016. (This piece, in pertinent part, chronicles the last years of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life after his controversial “Beyond Vietnam” Speech at Riverside Church, in April 1967) Mrs. Moses has toured and performed extensively throughout the United States, in addition to directing and performing in three Off-Broadway shows in New York. She has published three collections of poetry entitled, Not Just Another… Black/Woman, Missing Pages… (Women Behind the Glass Door), A Timely Trinity, and a Self-titled spoken word CD.

Mrs. Moses is a founding and executive member of SIFTMedia 215 Collective Inc. (Sisters in Film & Television), a support system of several independent media artists who work in the Philadelphia metropolitan area and provide a community of support for socially conscious women identified filmmakers, with a goal to amplify the work and create opportunities for Black and Latinx Women content creators. She is also the President of Extended Play, a Non-Profit for film and media artists of Pennsylvania with a focus on Women of Color and she is a Board Member of Big Picture Alliance, a Non-Profit whose mission is to engage, educate and empower Philadelphia youth through filmmaking & digital media arts.

Lois’ current work-in-progress titled, “Epistles of Love: The Gospels According to Edgar & Clara” is based on a series of letters exchanged between Edgar Wilson and Clara Moses-Wilson from 1936 to 1939. Through their exchange, we bear witness to the complex intersections of race, health, economics, and the impact that WWI, the Spanish Flu Pandemic, the Great Depression, and the Great Migration had on the lives, love, and marriage of African Americans. Lois was awarded grants in 2020 from Independence Public Media Foundation, Abierto Media Fund and Scribe Video Center to continue to develop and produce “Epistles of Love”.

Suzanne Cade

Suzanne M. Cade is a native of Tuskegee, Alabama. She completed a bachelor’s degree in English at Tuskegee University and master’s degree in international education policy at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. Suzanne lived on a ship for a semester and circumnavigated the globe in a college study abroad program. While on the ship she served as an auctioneer for a charity event. She reflected on her identity as an African American woman traveling by ship and being in an auction but not being auctioned. She penned the poem “Auctioneer” during her trip to four continents as she traveled around the world and reflected on experiences and past/present generations.

In 2019—the quadricentennial anniversary of the first slave ship coming to the present-day United States, Suzanne recited “Auctioneer” at the Comparative International Education Society Conference (San Francisco, California) as the opening presentation for the African Diaspora Special Interest Group Henry M. Levin Lecture. She also presented a session entitled, “‘Auctioneer:’ The Education of a Black Woman Auctioneer Whose Ancestors Were Auctioned” at the 2017 Harvard University Graduate School of Education Alumni of Color Conference. “Auctioneer” is available on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube, and Google Play.

Currently, Suzanne is a Ph.D. candidate in comparative and international development education at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

Coyote Lee

T-C Lee aka Coyote Lee is an established singer, entertainer, & writer. She is well known throughout New York as the lead role of Dorothy from the off-broadway Musical known as "The Wiz" from 2013 to 2017.

Coyote was born July 29th Leo.
Being a strong and sultry solo vocalist has had humble beginnings from the church choir as a child to doing backing vocals for touring artists such as Stevie Wonder, Josh Groban, Kanye West, daft punk, The East Coast Inspirational Gospel Singers, the David letterman Saturday night gospel choir, and two mainstream bands that perform at all Northeast Casinos and celebrity weddings. Coyote has co-written songs with mainstream celebrities as a ghostwriter.
Even though this radical woman coming from A background in DC & NY, as a well-known teenage and college student organized protester for equal rights. stoping stop n frisk, racist arrest, murder by arrest, and for school budgets in the arts on the east coast.

Coyote captivates her audience not just by her voice, but especially by her words, and her stage presence.
Hoping to change the world one show, one song, one word, one emotion at a time...
She is in a nutshell a force to be reckoned with. Coyote WILL capture you by performance 🎭. Even when she's not performing... Ladies and gentlemen, children and kindred spirits...
Get ready, get set...
Here comes the Lion named Coyote.

Helen Higginbotham, Esq., MBA

Miss Higginbotham is an attorney and MBA whose professional energies are focused on advocating for human and civil rights. She is a community activist whose work largely addresses matters of race, politics, children, and women. She enjoys opinion writing, public speaking, community organizing, and teaching.

She has served on several community boards, volunteered as a human rights commissioner and president of a local NAACP chapter. She is the founder of When Black Women Gather, LLC, an initiative charged with promoting relationship building and intergenerational conversations between women. She is committed to uplifting the community through volunteerism, mentoring, educating, advocating, and promoting community self-empowerment development via political and self empowerment.

Miss Higginbotham works for a major nonprofit legal agency and teaches Ethics and Humanity courses as an Adjunct Professor at an NJ State College. She is a graduate of Rowan University, Howard University, and Rutgers University, School of Law, respectively. Please follow her on Facebook, Twitter (@Miss_Higgi) and enjoy her blog at www.misshiggisays.blogspot.com.

Barbara Southard is a visual artist and writer living in Miller Place, New York. Her work appears in numerous anthologies and journals. The titles of her two books are: Remember, published in 2008, and Time & Space, published in 2020. She’s an active member of Long Island Poetry Collective, which has been in existence since 1973. As Suffolk County Poet Laureate, she and the Long Island Poetry Collective have been adding Zoom workshops to their original workshop, which met in the Huntington Library. They now have two Zoom poetry workshops available to poets, with one more coming in May, as well as an every other Wednesday group they’ve named Poetry Flash, where they discuss favorite poems and why. She continues to judge the young people’s poetry contest each year sponsored by Walt Whitman Birthplace.

Frankie A. Soto is a 2X winner of the Multicultural Poet of the Year award form the National Spoken Word Poetry Awards, Chicago. Called an “absolute force” by the New York Times, he has performed and led workshops at over 200 universities and colleges.

Carolyn June-Jackson is a native of Arlington, Virginia. She is the middle child of five siblings: three boys, two girls who remember the oppressed systemic racism during the 1950s and the volatile civil rights movement during the 1960s. These early memories influenced her to share her thoughts and feelings of racism and segregation through a black prism in her poetry.

The title, My Poetic Threads Create a Tapestry, is divided into six chapters that express how she envisions her poetry: a hand-woven embroidered tapestry stitched together with strands of imagery, realism, humorous, and inspirational parables in rhyme. They feature the celebration, memorialization, and recognition of her ancestors, history, relationships, emotional issues, racism, and social and political issues that impact everyday lives. She hopes “some will relate but that all will enjoy!”

My Poetic Threads Create a Tapestry is her first book of poetry, which launched on January 19, 2021. On the day Carolyn’s book launched on Amazon, it placed in three categories:

#1 Hottest New Best Seller

#1 Black and African-American Poetry

#2 United States Literary Criticism

Carolyn has received many accolades and is working on her second book of poems.

She currently resides in Saint Louis, Missouri, with her husband, Jerry.

Book link: https://www.amazon.com/Carolyn-June-Jackson/e/B08SR115SS

Mindy Kronenberg is a widely published poet, writer, and professor of writing and the arts at SUNY Empire State College. Her work has appeared in print and online publications around the world and featured in various art exhibits. Her books include Dismantling the Playground, a poetry chapbook, Images of America: Miller Place, a pictorial history, and an illustrated book of poems, Open. She was part of the Poetry Society of New York’s Pandemic Poem project and an international initiative online and in print, The Convergence: Painted Poetry & Painterly Poetics – an ekphrastic notion, volumes II and III. (http://www.paintedpoetry.org/water-on-water/) Ms. Kronenberg is active in sustainability causes and programs, serving on the board of Inspiration Plus, Inc., a teaching initiative using the arts and sciences, (inspirationplus.org/aboutus.html) and is editor of the international poetry journal, Oberon.

Adrienne Unger received her BA in English/Creative Writing and Literature from Long Island University-Southampton Campus, and her MFA in Creative Writing from George Mason University. She is the Program Coordinator at the Humanities Institute at Stony Brook. Previously, she was the Administrative Coordinator at the Creative Writing and Literature program at Stony Brook Southampton. Her work for other organizations includes stints at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, the Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre Foundation of Maryland, the Johns Hopkins Children's Center, the Kennedy-Krieger Institute and the Baltimore Museum of Art. She was a Washington, DC staff reporter for Crain Communications Inc.’s Business Insurance and was a freelance writer for various publications including Jubilee, Black Engineers and NSBE Magazine. Adrienne’s poetry, essays and fiction have been published in The Southampton Review, Chautauqua, Harvard Review Online, Mystery Tribune, FLARE: The Flagler Review, Oberon, Passager and Alehouse, among other publications.