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Jacqueline Johnson

Education

City University of New York, M.A., Creative Writing: Poetry, 2000.  

New York University, B.S.W., Social Work/Communications, 1979.

Awards

White Pine Press Award, Third Annual Poetry Prize, Buffalo, N.Y., 1997.

New York Foundation for the Arts, Gregory Millard Fellow-Poetry, 1989.

Mid-Atlantic Writers Association, Creative Writing Award in Poetry, Morgan State 

University, Baltimore Maryland, 1987.

Finalist Awards

Main Street Rag Poetry Finalist for "A Woman's Season," North Carolina, 2014.

Willow Books Poetry Finalist for "A Woman's Season," Detroit, MI, 2013

Word Works Poetry Finalist for "A Woman's Season," Albany, New York 2012.

 

Fellowships / Awards / Residencies

- Black Earth Institute, 2018-2022

- VONA / Voice of Our Nations, Fiction, 2018

- Brooklyn Public Library Artist Residency, 2018

- Govenor's Island Writing Residency 2018

- MacDowell Colony for the Arts 

- Cave Canem Foundation

- Hurston Wright Foundation

- Blue Mountain Arts Colony 

- New York Foundation of the Arts 

Publications/Books

A Woman's Season, Main Street Rag, North Carolina, 2015.

A Gathering of Mother Tongues, White Pine Press, Buffalo, N.Y., 1998.

Stokely Carmichael: Leaders in Civil Rights Movement, biography for children ages 

10 and up, Simon and Schuster, 1990.

 

Selected Publications:  Anthologies, Journals, Websites

Show Us Your Papers, "The Missing, Children of Tenochtitlan, Main Street Rag, editors Cherise Pollard and Wendy Pfaff, Fall 2020. 

Revisiting the Elegy in the Black Lives Matter Era, Routledge, Emily Ruth Rutter, Tiffany Austin, Sequoia Maner, editors, March 2020.

The Slow Down, "On the D Train", curated by Tracy K. Smith, American Public Media, October 16, 2019.

Pank: Health and Healing Folio,"Love Like a Summer Rain," Maya Marshell, editor, October 2019.

 HYPERLINK "https://www.aboutplacejournal.org/" About Place Journal -  HYPERLINK "https://aboutplacejournal.submittable.com/submit/140688/infinite-country-deepening-our-connection-to-place-culture-and-one-another" Infinite Country: Deepening Our Connection to Place, Culture and One Another, "The Prairie Speaks," Fall 2019, edited by Austin Smith.

About Place Journal, Volume V, Issue III “Dignity as an Endangered Species,” "Alaketu Mother Tongue," Spring 2018, edited by Pam Ushuck.

Brilliant Flames, Third World Press, editors: Sonia Sanchez, Woodie King, Michael Simanga, Haki Madhubuti, 2018.

Revise the Psalm: Work Celebrating the Writing of Gwendolyn Brooks, edited by Quraysh Ali Lansana and Sandra Jackson Opoku, Curbside Splendor Publishing, Chicago, Illinois, 2017.

The Brooklyn Poets Anthology, ed. by Jason Koo & Joe Pan, Brooklyn, New York, 2017

Obsidian: Literature and Arts in the African Diaspora, Speculative Fiction Issue, Ed. Sheree Renee Thomas, Illinois State University, Normal Illinois, Winter 2017. 

The Word Peace Journal, University of Missouri, 2015.

The Wide Shore: Journal of Global Women's Poetry, published online May 2014.

Renaissance Noir, Summer Issue 2013, New York University, NY.

Pluck!, The Journal of Affrilachian Arts & Culture, University of Kentucky, Spring 2013.

African Voices, Summer Issue 2013, New York, NY.

35th Anniversary Issue, Blind Beggar Press, New York, NY. 2013.

Caribbean Erotic, Peepal Tree Press, UK, eds. Opal Palmer Adisha, Donna Weir-Soley 2010.

Callaloo: Cutting Down the Wrath Bearing Tree: The Politics Issue, Vol. 3.  Texas A&M University, Winter 2008.

Tempu Tupu, African American Women’s Poetry, editor Nagueyalti Warren, 

Africa World Press, June 2008.

Proud Flesh, on-line poetry journal, July/August 2008.

Renaissance Noir, Winter Issue 2008, “An Oriki for Sekou Sundiata.”

Renaissance Noir, Spring Issue 2007, seven poems published.

Saints of Hysteria:  A Half Century of Collaborative American Poetry, editors: 

Denise Duhamel, M. Seaton, David Trinidad, Softskull Press.

Blues for Bill, A Tribute to William Matthews, editors Kurt Brown, Meg 

Kearney, Estha Winer, University of Akron Press, 2005.

A Conversation with Tony Medina, Mosaic Magazine, 2005.

Role Call: An Intergenerational Anthology, Third World Press, 2003.

Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam, editors: Tony Medina, Louis Reyes, Rivera, 

Crown Publishing, New York, 2002.

Streetlights: Illuminating Tales of the Black Community, Viking Penguin, short story,

West Wind, 1996.

Upscale Magazine, Bookmark Columnist/Reviewer, 1994-1996.

Upsouth:African American Migrations-1743-Present, editor Malaika Adero, New Press, Inc., New York, 1994.

 

Teaching Experience

Bookmaking for Poets, Molloy College and Artists Studios, New York.  Facilitated six week workshop that focused on teaching techniques to compile and edit a poetry manscript. 

 

Interactive Poetry Class, City University of New York, School of Professional Studies. Taught Poetry of Witness sessions, 9/2016-5/2017.

 

Dismantling Rage, Cultivating Peace, Women Writers in Bloom Salon, New York, 2015.

 

Bookmaking for Poets, African Voices, New York, April 17-May 29, 2012.  Through exercises, readings and discussions workshop participants explored the process of writing a poetry manuscript.  This was a hands-on workshop with special attention paid to editing and revision, manuscript review and compiling the poetry manuscript. 

 

What's Love Got To With It: The Japanese Somonka. Workshop for Women Writers In Bloom Poetry Salon, Brooklyn, NY, December 2012.  In this collaborative workshop participants learned both the Japanese Tanka and Somonka forms.

 

Poetic Narratives and Voice, Imani House, Brooklyn, 2010.  Through the use of guided prompts, feedback and weekly exercises students gain writing experience using various aspects of narrative voice.  Students were exposed to both classic and contemporary poetic narrative voices and strategies.

 

Poetry and Revision, Pine Manor College, MA, 2007.  This was a five day intensive workshop.  Students explored various methods of revision using readings and prompts.  Students also looked at various ways to revise and compile the poetry manuscript.  Individual poems were critiqued by workshop participants and instructor.

 

Persona Poems Made Easy, Adelphi University, NY, Creative Writing Program, 2007.  Conducted several writing workshops for high school students. Through readings and prompts students learned how to create persona poems and generated new poems.

 

Poetic Narratives, Cave Canem Regional Workshop, Riverside Church, winter 2006.

 

Portable Fiction Workshop, Yari Yari Pamberi, New York University, 2004.

 

Out of the Kumbla: Voice and Vision in Poetry, Poet’s House, 2003.

 

What’s Love Got to Do With It, Cave Canem, Cranbrook Institute, Detroit Michigan, 2001.

 

Poetry in the Branches, Poets House.  Short term workshop for teens at NYPL, 2001.

Crafting the Poem Workshop, Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center, New York, N.Y., 1998-2009. Poetry Instructor.  Participants explored and experimented with voice and revision in poetry.  Emphasis was on generating new work.  Weekly readings were in two categories: technical and creative and comprised poetry from diverse poetic styles; students explored traditional and unconventional sources for poetry.  Weekly critique was provided in a constructive and nurturing environment by peers and the instructor.  

Voice and Vision workshop, Langston Hughes Library, Queens, NY, 1999.

Voice and Vision workshop, Brooklyn, New York, 1997-1999.  Multi-genre workshop for 

women.

Very Special Arts, Harlem Hospital, NY, 1996. Conducted poetry workshop for adults with disabilities.

Poetry Judge

NAACP – ActSo Project – Clara Barton High School, April 2008.

Brooklyn Arts Council – Regrant Program.  Chair of Literature Panel 2005-2007.

Adelphi University, Don Axinn Award for Creative Writing-Poetry, May 2007.

Associated Writing Programs, reader for Poetry Award, 2004.

Poetry Teacher Award, Poets House, New York, 2000.

Brio Awards, Bronx Council on the Arts, Poetry and Fiction, Bronx, NY, 1999.

Arts Administration Experience

Executive Director, New Renaissance Writers Guild, New York, N. Y. 1988-1990. Conducted a bi-monthly writing workshop in all genres at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.  Worked with guild lawyer to incorporate the guild as a non-profit organization.  Did fundraising, event planning and proposal writing.  

Panelist/Presentations

Split This Rock 2020, Revisiting the Elegy in the Black Lives Matter, George Washington University.  Panel: Almas Khan, Sequoia Maner, darlene anita scott, Lisa Norris.

 

The Artivist Rises, African Voices, New York, May 1-31, 2015.  Panel with exhibition artists.

 

For My People:  A Tribute to Elizabeth Catlett and Margaret Walker at The Schomburg Center for Research and Black Culture, New York, N.Y.  February 2013.

 

Pan African Literary Forum, NYU Campus, Accra, Ghana, 2008.  Presented poetry.

Cave Canem Tenth Anniversary Celebration, Writing Practice: Inner Workings, moderated by Phebus Etienne.  Participants: Gloria Burgess, Ronaldo Wilson, Dante Micheaux and Ross Gay.  St. Marks Poetry Project, New York, N.Y. October 2007.

 

Writers Conference on Mystery Writing, African Voices Magazine, New York, N.Y.  Interviewed Grace Edwards and Valerie Wilson Wesley. December 2007.

 

National Black Writers Conference, Medgar Evers College, Brooklyn, N.Y.  Tribute to John O. Killens, March 2006.

 

Yari, Yari: Pamberi:  Black Women Dissecting Globalization, New York University, New York, 2004.  Ran the Portable "Fiction Workshop" and read poetry on Policy Panel.

 

Selected Performances

St. Marks Poetry Project, Pratt Institute, Metropolitan Museum, Brooklyn Public Library, AWP-Vancouver, B.C., New York University, Schomburg Center for Research and Black Culture, Studio Museum in Harlem, Mad River Poetry Festival, Teachers and Writers Collaborative, Brooklyn Bridge Anchorage-Creative Time, Black Roots Festival, Manhattanville College, Barnes & Noble, Nuyorican Poets Café.

 

Works-in- Progress

"How to Stop a Hurricane", collection of short stories.

  “This America”, poetry manuscript.

“The Privilege of Memory”, novel manuscript. 

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