Notes On Contributors

Adrian Castro is a Cuban/Dominican poet/Santero/cultural scientist. One of the most vibrant and original poets of today, Castro's work scintillates with tonality, bilingualism, clarity of image..and spirit. Says a local critic " Castro has long been layering spanish, English, and Yoruba dialects, musical sound, and drum rhythms, Cuba, Miami, and the Santeria religion...He seems well on the way of inventing a brand new Miami patois." Says poet Victor Hernandez Cruz..."Reading ...[Castro]...is like ritual itself, like ceremony. Castro's criollo bipolarity and polyrhythmic versing approximate chant. The poems are clear maps of migrations, from the indigenous Orinoco and island hopping, to the Spanish sailors who vanished into Siboney maracas. The sounds of the Yorubas upon wooden vessels crossing the Atlantic, singing the first salsa into the stars. History is organized burglary. Adrian Castro has realized his geophysical position in the spider web of Caribbean history as an individual and as a larger portion of blue space. "

Marc Awodey is an Arab-American writer living in Burlington, Vermont. He has an M.F.A. from Cranbrook Academy of Art. His poetry has been selected by more than one hundred print and electronic journals. Marc is Asili's northeast contributing editor and a conduit for some the very fine creative work coming from Vermont and other esoteric places. See his websites at http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/4525/Awodey.html http://minimalpress.com and email him at marcawodey@mac.com .

Preston L. Allen a recipient of a State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship in Literature, holds an MFA in creative writing from FIU. His works have been published in the Seattle Review, Crab Orchard Review, Drum Voices, Gulfstream, Asili, and Brown Sugar: A Collection of Erotic Black Fiction. He is the author of the short-story collection, Churchboys and Other Sinners, winner of the Sonja H. Stone Prize in Literature, Bounce, Come With Me Sheba, and the mystery/thriller Hoochie Mama. He is a contributing editor for Asili .Email him at pallen@mdc.edu

Sharon M. Draper is an accomplished educator, author, poet, consultant, and motivational speaker. As the 1997 National Teacher of the Year, she traveled extensively, discussing issues of literacy and education. She is the author of the award-winning Tears of a Tiger and Forged by Fire, as well as six other books for young people, and two books of poetry, Let the Circle Be Unbroken and Buttered Bones. She has always encouraged in her students a love of learning anda desire for excellence. "I learned to dream though reading, learned to create dreams through writing, and learned to develop dreamers through teaching I shall always be a dreamer," she says. She can be contacted at www.sharondraper.com .

Felix Morriseau-Leroy was born in Grand-Gosier , Haiti. He earned degrees from the University of Haiti, New York City college and the New School of Social Research in New York. He was exiled from Haiti in 1959. he went to Ghana were he served as a national organizer of drama and literature in and Arts Council and in Senegal as technical advisor to the Senegalese National Theater. He has written fifteen (15) books of poetry and plays. He died in Miami in the summer of 1998.

Kim Salander, was born in Sweden in 1958. He studied visual art in Florence, Italy and moved to US 1984 where where he attended Cranbrook Academy of Art. Salander received his MFA in 1985, married, and started a custom ceramic tiles business shortly thereafter. Salander is a prolific writer and playwright. He lives in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Alice Eckles is an artist, writer, and teacher living in Burlington, Vt. She is author of several chapbooks including "My Life as a flower", and "Family road trip from Vermont to New Orleans" - both are published by The Minimal Press. Her writing has been appeared in Planet Vermont Quarterly, Silo: Bennington College Journal of Arts and Literature* and *Nomad's Choir*. Her artist made fortune cookie business, "Alice's Arts" has been written about in Vermont Life, and Vermont Sunday Magazine. M.Ed. Antioch New England Graduate School, B.A. Bennington College.

Marc Estrin is a writer, cellist and activist living in burlington, vermont. his novel, Insect Dreams, The Half Life Of Gregor Samsa won a New York Public Library Award as "one of the 25 extraordinary books of 2002", and was called "a pivotal literary landmark" by the library journal. His current book, Rehearsing With Gods: Photographs And Essays On The Bread And Puppet Theater (With Ron Simon, Photographer) has just been published by Chelsea Green. His next novel, The Education Of Arnold Hitler, is forthcoming from Unbridled Books in spring 2005.

Michael Hettich is a talented European American poet/author and a faculty member of the Miami Dade College, Wolfson Campus His book "A Small Boat" was published by the University Press of Florida (1990). His most recent chapbooks are from March Street Press: "Many Simple Things" (1997) and " Immaculate Bright Rooms" (1994). Hettich edits small environmental magazine called Earth Literacy Link. He teaches Creative writing and English at Miami Dade Community College and holds and endowed teaching chair there. He can be reached at mhettich@mdc.edu

John Taylor is an ubiquitous poetic spirit of no fixed address--at least not that he is giving up of late. A gifted Black poet, he is often hard to catch up to with all of his interests and causes. If he ever e-mails you, hold on to it tightly.

Master poet Dennis Brutus is the author of several books including "A Simple Lust", "Airs and Tributes", "A Stubborn Hope" and "Still the Sirens." He is an internationally known master poet and activist from South Africa and is currently chairman of Black Community Education at the University of Pittsburgh. The full story of his important contribution to the liberation of South Africa from Apartheid is yet to be told.

Siva Prasanna Krishnan is an ethnic Indian teaching high school in Malaysia. She is an adventuresome spirit, given to exploring the remote areas of Borneo. She is also passionately patriotic and wishes the western world to know that culture was thriving in her area of the world long before westerners knew what "culture" was.

Eunice Heath Tate is a Jamaican born writer. In addition to her latest novel, Scraping My Heart, she is also the author of the poetry collection, Background Noises. Tate's stories, poems and essays have appeared in newspapers, magazines, anthologies and journals, including The Caribbean Writer, MaComére, Calabash and Meridians. She resides with her family in Palm Bay,Florida and can be reached at etate15@bellsouth.net .

A member of The Norwood Poets,New Yorker Kenneth McManus hosts of a weekly spoken word program held at the Norwood Pub, Bronx, NY. He has previously published in Lungfull! Magazine (NYC) and Sepia Poetry Magazine (Cornwall, UK). In his words..."Have participated in readings and poetry slams throughout the NY metropolitan area. Have also served as a featured poet at readings at Springfield (MASS) College, Morgan State University and Hostos Community College (Bronx, NY). I'm a regular contributor to the e-zine Urban Dialogue, also based in NYC."

Joyce McNair is an African-American writer who has been a research coordinator for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University; convention director for the California Democratic Party as well as editor of the party's official newsletter. Currently she works for the national nonprofit organization, Women in Community Service (WICS). She is the west coast contributing editor /consultant for Asili.

Geoffrey Philp , author of Florida Bound and Exodus and Other Poems, is the recipient of many awards for his work, including an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Florida Arts Council, James Michener fellowships at the University of Miami, and he has been an artist-in-residence at the Seaside Institute. The River, which appears in his debut collection of short stories, Uncle Obadiah and the Alien, won the Canute Brodhurst Prize from The Caribbean Writer. He lives in Miami, Florida, with his wife, Nadia, and their three children, Anna, Christina, and Andrew. He is chair of the College Prep program at Miami Dade College and a contributing editor for Asili.

Nancy Watson Dodrill is a New York poet who doesn't reveal much about herself . In her own words..."I have been writing since age nine. I have been published in numerous magazines, have won many contests and awards. I had a small press zine in the 80's."

Schar "CBear" Freeman resides as an activist-poet-visual artist in Portland, Oregon. Of Native Wintun/Northern California and Spanish heritage, she is devoted to the quest of uncovering and sharing truth, with poetry. As a community activist, she commits to educating and waking sleeping societies, and continues the fight for honoring Treaty responsibilities, and the reinstating of all of the hundreds of First Nations people who have been "terminated" and then diluted, in the United States.

Anita Joyce Davis is an African American writer, mother and worker, living in Miami, Florida. She has been and is very instrumental in her support of this magazine, giving freely of her time to help bring our various issues to publication. She gives glory to God and always tries to do the next right thing.

Evelio Grillo, author of the memoir, "Black Cuban/Black American," serialized his book in Asili before publishing it nationally. In his own words " I give a greater emphasis to my Black American Identity, purchased dearly in the Black Cuban/Black American ghetto in Tampa Florida. " His experiences run the gamut of segregated African American schooling from elementary school to the University to those of the Black soldier functioning in segregated units in India, Burma and China during World War II. He cut his teeth as a civil rights activist in the army where he was effectively a leader of black protest initiatives. About his school experiences he says"...when the school bell rang I was in the stream of children headed toward the colored schools where I learned that differences in color, religion and language were insignificant. I was a black boy and in that society, that was what was significant. I was superbly educated every step of the way by caring teachers, most of the them black and most of them extraordinarily good people who showered love and attention and opportunity upon me, opening every door that was in their power to open..." Evelio Grillo has been a political advisor to both of the black mayors who have served Oakland California, where he lives...

Joann Brown McNair is a poet/educator who is a member of the College Prep faculty at Miami Dade College, North Campus. Among other things, she enjoys nature, family, things spiritual, teaching, books, and being present for the experiences of this life's journey. She is the on-site assistant editor of Asili .

R. Boyd Moorman is a Professor of Anthropology in the Social Sciences Department on the North Campus of Miami Dade College. He has authored or coauthored several texts and study guides for the benefit of students. He has been awarded three times by the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development at the University of Texas at Austin for excellence in classroom instruction. He is also a two-time recipient of the MiamiDade College Endowed Teaching Chair award. Professor Moorman has many interests that extend from his children to painting, sculpting, writing, Kendo and flying. He is an avid aircraft builder, private pilot, ultra light flight instructor and "teller" of tall tales.

Opal Palmer Adisa , Jamaican born, is a literary critic, writer and storyteller. Her published works are: It Begins With Tears (1997); Tamarind and Mango Women (1992) won the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award; traveling women (1989); Bake-Face and Other Guava Stories (1986) and Pina, The Many-Eyed Fruit (1985). She is a prolific and accomplished writer. Her children's poems, poetry, essays, articles and reviews havebeen published in more that fifty (50) journals. She has a Ph.d in Ethnic Studies Literature. Presently, she is an Associate Professor and Chair of Ethnic Studies Program at California College of Arts and Crafts.

Joseph D. McNair is an African American educator, poet/writer,journalist and musician. He is currently an Associate Professor, Senior in the college of Education at Miami Dade College, North Campus in Miami-Florida and editor of Asili . He is a recipient of the College's endowed teaching chair. His published works include two volumes (Earthbook in1971 and An Odyssey 1976) and one chapbook of poetry (Juba Girl in 1973).. He has written three books for adolescent readers published by The Child's World Journey to Freedom: The African American Library series. These are Leontyne Price (2001), Barbara Jordan (2002) and Ralph Bunche (2003). As a journalist, he is the author of sixty-five feature articles and commentary written under his own name and several pseudonyms between 1986 and 1989 for Hotline Newsmagazine, a popular and influential Northern Nigerian weekly. In 1996 he authored a college textbook entitled "Multicultural Awareness/Consciousness: Toward a Process of Personal Transformation." In 1998 he revised his first text under a new title: Personal Transformations: The Process of Multicultural Awareness/Consciousness.

Master poet Al Young is one of the most prolific African American creative writers of the day. He has to his credit six volumes of poetry (Dancing, The Song Turning Back into Itself, Geography of the Near Past, The Blues Don't Change: New and Selected Poems, Heaven: Collected Poems [1956-1990] and Straight No Chaser), five novels (Snakes, Who is Angelina, Sitting Pretty, Ask Me Now, and Seduction By Light, four musical memoirs (Bodies and Soul, Kinds of Blue, Mingus, Mingus: Two Memoirs [with Janet Coleman] and Drowning in the Sea of Love), one textbook (African American Literature: A Brief Introduction and Anthology) and Conjugal Visits, a book of poems. He is also a contributing editor for Asili .

Master poet Quincy Troupe is the recipient of two American Book Awards and a Peabody Award for the Miles Davis Radio Project, which he wrote and co-produced.the author of ten books, including Avalanche, his fifth volume poetry, Weather Report: New and Selected Poems, Choruses, Travelocity and a collection of essays, Artists on the Cutting Edge. He also edited James Baldwin: The Legacy. Quincy Troupe Lives with his family in New York.

Master poet Eugene B. Redmond is the poet laureate of East St. Louis,Illinois and a professor of English at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. He has had a distinguished career as a poet, critic, editor, journalist, playwright, teacher and cultural activist. Scholars of contemporary African American literature regard Redmond as one of the most significant architects of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960's. His collections of poetry include River of Bones and flesh and Blood (1971), Songs from an Afrophone 1972), In a Time of Rain and Desire: New Love Poems(1973) and The Eye in the Ceiling (1991). He is the author of Drumvoices: The Mission of African American Poetry: A Critical History (1976) and the founding editor of Drumvoices Review: A Confluence of Literary, Cultural &Vision Arts. He is also a contributing editor for Asili .