Publications

The Splooge Factory

Frayed Edge Press​ released a collection of my poetry The Splooge Factory in November of 2018. So exciting! This work is almost archival in nature. The manuscript was originally written between 2001 - 2003. It was an entirely different world. We were still living in a "post-racial" America. The internet was still emerging. We were barely out of the devastation of the HIV/AIDS crisis and having lost thousands of brilliant bright souls.

​The world wasn't ready for this work then. But, it sure is now. And I'm grateful that it still holds up to scrutiny. Here's a nifty podcast interview with me! So grateful to Jesse & PJ Sage. We had so much fun! Give a listen.

Here is a wonderful review of The Splooge Factory over at The Poetry Question

Another wonderful review here at Voodoo Universe by author Lilith Dorsey.

New & Favorites

  • Praisesong For Tulsa a poem commissioned by 21V Choir's inaugural concert Beyond Binary.

  • Social Justice Disco by musicians Phat Mandee & Liz Berlin asked me to write and perform a poem on their on their Social Justice Disco Album. Watch a live performance of "I Can't Breathe" here.​ It's really powerful album. Check it out! It's a shining example of White-assigned women leveraging their privilege to support the liberation of marginalized people.

  • The Poetry Question asked me about The Power Of Poetry, this was my reply.

  • JP Howard edited a great folio of my work and thoughts at The Mom Egg. New poems and an interview. The work is going in so many fun directions! Read about it here.

  • New Poetry Editor at Raising Mothers, Raina D. Leon published three really sweet poems, When You Beget, Everywhere Is School In My Village, Answering The Race Box (Early Training)

  • Feminessay was truly bold and published one of my more experimental three voice poems.

  • #WomanCentered Christina Springer I am very honored to be part of this incredible collection of women's voices. ‪#‎WomanCentered‬ is an independent project by conceptual artist and community organizer, Natasha Marin. Inspired by Women at the Center, a project created with support from the United Nations Foundation Universal Access Project. This series of interviews seeks to tell the inspiring, interconnected stories of women’s reproductive health, rights, and empowerment.

  • Eyedrum Periodically published a piece which has been folded into a new video "A Particular Order. "

  • ​Rhino Poetry's new issue has given a home to my poem, "Some Ghosts." The link will take you to a Youtube reading.

Electronic Corpse,

publisher & contributing poet

Ultimately, the world is saturated by the perfected poem. Rarely, do we allow audiences to slip inside our sacred inner sanctum. If they did, they might witness us hard at play, luxuriating in the joy of language. They might catch us being perfectly present in the craft. This book is your invitation to our games.

"What a deliciously stimulating and instructive book! I will be teaching it this Fall 2014 in my Pitt graduate poetry workshop. What a perfect fit for the times." - poet, Yona Harvey

This groundbreaking anthology features collaboratively created poems by 84 contributors of all experiences and geographies – from state poets laureates to casual journalers; from Pennsylvania to Georgia to South Korea, India and South Africa. In 2012, inspired by the early 20th century French surrealist parlor game, Exquisite Corpse, M Ayodele Heath began hosting collaborative poetry-making sessions, or digital salons, on his Facebook page. To date, more than 150 poets participated in these virtual events. Heath chose the very best 50 poems, out of 200, to carefully catalogue, assemble and preserve.

In the same way the visual surface of an electronic device is straight forward and intuitive, the back end of that device contains layer upon layer of parts and programming. What sounds like a very straight-forward book of poetry is a terrifically complex, unique and layered book.



—Scott Woods “[A]s of this writing, Heath’s Facebook page is linked to over 1,100 people. At any point any one of them could have contributed to a poem in utero…some not even poets in their own minds, let alone anyone else’s. That an anthology of this quality even exists with those odds says a lot about the leadership that made this book possible... [T]he real payoff of the book is that all throughout is an element of mystery and the excitement that comes with such exercises. When the next line could, literally, be anything from any one of a thousand people, what might it possibly say? What direction will the poem spiral into? Will it actually arrive – accidentally or intentionally – at a theme or some genuine meaning? Will it make sense at all? [This] is a collection of poetry that seems to have been captured, not created, which brings up all sorts of questions about how poetry intersects the questions of inspiration and technology and how people use them to express themselves. And while the exercises were clearly inspiring to their respective authors, it is the reader that will be inspired in turn, to consider even the very nature of art.”

The anthology has three sections: the collaborative poems, poems from the most frequent contributors and a step by step guide for the reader to create on their own. The contributors (representing over 20 U.S. states and 4 countries) in Electronic Corpse: Poems From A Digital Salon are deeply symbolic. Crafted by poets of all colors, nationalities, genders, and classes, they are simply poems. Poems made by people who entered into a playful language exercise with no expected outcome or pre-conceived agenda. They are an example of what WE can create together.

M Ayodele Heath's digital salons featured group poetry writing exercises on his Facebook page. (Syllabic Sundays, Metaphoric Mondays, Wildcard Wednesdays, and Free Verse Fridays). Each poem begins with a line from a published poem. These poems reflect the way in which social media has transformed the ability of artists to engage with each other regardless of physical constraints or externally driven outcomes.

Click here to read samples at Extract(s) on your Daily Dose Of Lit!

Read Scott Wood's full review at Radius!

Complete Publications

PUBLICATIONS

Books: The Splooge Factory, 2018, 69 Love Poems: One Black Man, 1999, A Cacophony Of Sultry Images, 1997, Sucking The Silver Lining Out Of Clouds, 1994

CD: In The Image Of Angels, a full length collection of poems. 1995

Anthologies: Tender, ED., Deesha Philyaw, Vanessa German, Art House, 2019, A Whore’s Manifesto, Thorntree Press, 2019, Encounters, ED, Paula Cole Jones, Skinner House Press, 2011, Saints of Hysteria: A Half-Century of Collaborative American Poetry, Soft Skull Press, 2007 Gathering Ground, ED., Cornelius Eady, Toi Derricote, Camille Dungey, University of Michigan Press, 2006, The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Poetry Slam, ED, Marc Smith, Penguin Books, 2003, Cave Canem 6, Cave Canem Foundation, 2002 Her Words, ED., Felicia Mitchell, University Of Tennessee Press, 2002, Cave Canem 3, Cave Canem Foundation, 2000, In Our Own Words, ED, Marlow Peerse Weaver, 2000, Cave Canem 4, Cave Canem Foundation, 1999 Companions, ED., Joanne Fox, Foxfold Press, 1999, Will Work For Peace, ED., Brett Axel, 1999 Standing On the Ceiling, ED., Joanne Fox, Foxfold press, 1998, Sinister Wisdom 15th Anniversary Anthology, Sinister Wisdom Press, 1994, Revival: Spoken Word From Lollapalooza 1994, Manic D Press, Riding Desire, ED., Tee Corinne, Banned Books,1993, Piece of my Heart, ED., Makeda Silvera, Sister Vision Press, 1991.

Literary Journals: Raising Mothers, 2019, The Mom Egg Review, 2019, Feminessay, 2019, Eyedrum Periodically, 2018, Obsidian 42.1 & 43.2, 2018, Sally Hemings Dreams, 2017, Rhino Poetry 2016, The Comstock Review, #WomanCentered, Fledgling Rage 13, Union Station Magazine, Torch, The Drunken Boat, Callaloo 22/4, Janus Head, Kuumba, Fireweed, InContext, Survivor Magazine, Crack, This Order, Outlet Literary Journal, The Pennsylvania Review, The New Voice, Da Juice!, Amethyst, Sinister Wisdom 42 & 57, Common Lives Lesbian Live 26, Drumvoices, Presents, Mothering Magazine,

Installation “Poetry In Motion,” by Adrienne Heinlich - an installation of my poetry and the poetry of five other African-American women poets on in the Pittsburgh Public Transportation System. Work appeared in bus stations and on over 800 public buses city-wide. 1996