3rd Friday Open Mic featuring poet, Shonda Buchanan
Open Mic starts at 7:30 pm: hosted by Denise Miller & Vibe Setter, DJ Disobedience
Feature poet is Shonda Buchanan: Award-winning educator and memoirist, Shonda Buchanan, is the author of Black Indian, chosen by PBS NewsHour as a “Top 20 books to read” to learn about institutional racism. Her newest book of poems, The Lost Songs of Nina Simone, explores the life of the lauded Civil Rights icon, singer, pianist and composer. An Associate Professor in the Department of English at Western Michigan University, Shonda’s forthcoming collection of essays,Children of the Mixed Blood Trail, explores the hidden tapestry of Free People of Color migration from the Southeast to the Midwest, specifically in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where she was born and raised, and now lives. Shonda is currently writing a Black Lives Matter book of poetry, America’s Bloodflowers: Poems, as well as Artificial Earth: Poems and Essays, a book about the first mixed-race “settlers” of Los Angeles and California Indians.
For more information, visit www.shondabuchanan.com
Books: The Lost Songs of Nina Simone; Black Indian; Equipoise: Poems from Goddess Country;
Who's Afraid of Black Indians?; Children of the Mixed Blood Trail (Forthcoming)
Selected Media: PBS Books:
https://www.thirteen.org/programs/book-view-now/2025-detroit-festival-of-books-interview-at-the-eastern-market-shonda-buchanan-jftphz/
PEN America:
https://pen.org/shonda-buchanan-the-pen-ten/
WISHTV.com:
https://www.wishtv.com/news/free-juneteenth-jazz-community/
Los Angeles Public Library Collaboration, National Poetry Month:
https://www.tiktok.com/@lapubliclibrary/video/7489565146243927342
Native American Heritage Month:
https://www.tiktok.com/@lapubliclibrary/video/7306632334411959582
Second Wave Media:
https://secondwavemedia.com/a-kalamazoo-poets-journey-home-and-her-upcoming-book-on-nina-simone-the-high-priestess-of-soul/
PBS NewsHour:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/what-to-read-listen-to-and-watch-to-learn-about-institutional-racism
Also check out other Arts events in Kalamazoo, Literary Art events in Kalamazoo.
