Akua Lezli Hope
A third generation New Yorker, firstborn, Akua Lezli
Hope has won two Artists Fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts
(1987, 2003), a Ragdale U.S.-Africa Fellowship (1993), and a Creative Writing
Fellowship from The National Endowment for The Arts (1990). She received an
Artists Crossroads Grant (2003) from The Arts of the Southern FingerLakes for
her project ³Words on Motion,² which placed poetry on the buses of New Yorkıs
Chemung and Steuben counties. She was the guest poet
at the Steele Memorial Library's 2003 Festival. UNPACKING, her collaboration
with dancer choreographer, Lois Welk, was presented in 2003 at 171 Cedar Arts
Center. In 1997, she was poet-in-residence at the Chautauqua Institute
where she read her poetry, lectured on jazz poetry, and conducted a workshop
entitled ³Writing Poetry as Mythmaking.²
Her
first collection, EMBOUCHURE, Poems on Jazz and Other Musics, won
the Writerıs Digest book
award for poetry in 1996.
She
is published in numerous literary magazines and national anthologies including:
The Yearıs Best Writing, Writerıs Digest Guides,
2003; DARK MATTER, (the first!) anthology of African American Science
Fiction, Time Warner Books, 2000; THE BLUELIGHT CORNER, black women writing on
passion, sex, and romantic love, edited by Rosemarie Robotham, Three Rivers
Press, 1999; Will Work For Peace: New Political Poems, ed. by Brett Axel, Middletown,
NY, 1999; MASKS, Earth's Daughters
52, 1998; CHAIN, 1995; SISTERFIRE, an anthology of Black Womanist Fiction and
Poetry, ed. by Charlotte Watson-Sherman, HarperPerennial, 1994; WHAT IS FOUND
THERE, NOTEBOOKS ON POETRY AND POLITICS by Adrienne Rich, W.W. Norton, 1993;
WRITING FROM THE NEW COAST: TECHNIQUE, Buffalo University, 1993; EROTIQUE
NOIRE, (the first!) AN ANTHOLOGY OF BLACK EROTICA, Doubleday/Anchor, 1992;
POETS MARKET, 1992, ed. by Judson Jerome, Writers Digest Books; CONFIRMATION,
an anthology of Afrikan American Women Writers, 1983; EXTENDED OUTLOOKS, the
Iowa Review Collection of Contemporary Women Writers, 1983; and Eyeball, 1995;
Obsidian II, 1996, 1994, 1992, 1991; Blue Cage, 1993 (England); Hambone, 1992;
African American Review, 1992; Catalyst 1992; and Contact II, 1989; among
others.
She
holds a B.A. in psychology from Williams College, a M.B.A. in marketing from
Columbia University Graduate School of Business, and a M.S.J. in broadcast
journalism from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She is a founding section leader in the
Poetry Forum on Compuserve. She
served as a founding section leader of African American Resource Forum and in
the Books and Writers section of the African American Culture Forum (American
Visions) on Compuserve. She also
served as the area coordinator and group founder for Amnesty International,
U.S.A., in the southern tier of New York.
She co-authored a biweekly column on social, political, and cultural
issues for the Star Gazette in 1995.
She
was a finalist in the 1991 Open Voice competition, in the 1990 Barnard New
Women Poets Series with her manuscript Fuel for Beginners, and in the
MacDonald's Black literary competition for 1989. Her manuscript, The Prize is the Journey, was a finalist in
the 1983 Walt Whitman contest. She is a founding member of the Black Writers
Union and the New Renaissance Writers Guild whose alumni include Baron James
Ashanti and Terri McMillan.
She led the
Voices of Fire Reading Choir from 1987 to 1999, performing her work and that of
other African American poets. Akua
has given more than 100 readings
to audiences in colleges, prisons, parks, museums, and bars. Akua bears an exile's desire for work
close to home, and a writer's yearning for a galvanizing mythos.
She
also creates sculpture, objects, and jewelry in glass and paper, plays with her
cats and the saxophone, sings, regards her half-dressed looms with longing, and
makes good manifest.
Cave Canem Fellow, 2002, 2004
New York Foundation for the Arts Poetry Fellowship,
2003
Artists Crossroads Grant for Words in Motion, 2003
Awardee in the Nonrhyming Poetry Writer's Digest
annual competition, 2002
Honorable Mention, The Year's Best Fantasy and
Horror (2000) edited by Ellen Datlow
and Terri Windling: for "The Becoming" (DARK MATTER)
Artist-in-Residence, Womenıs Studio Workshop, 2001
Fellowship, Hurston-Wright Writersı Week, 2001
Poet-in-Residence, Chautauqua Institution, 1997
Writer's Digest Book Awards, 1996
Ragdale U.S.Africa Fellowship, 1993
The International Who's Who in Poetry
Finalist, 1991 Open Voice competition
National Endowment of the Arts Creative Writing
Fellowship, 1990
Finalist, Barnard New Women Poets Series -1990
Finalist, MacDonald's Black Literary Achievement
Award, 1989
The International Authors and Writers Who's Who
New York Foundation for the Arts Poetry Fellowship,
1987 - 1988
Two Thousand Notable American Women
Who's Who in U.S. Writers, Editors, and Poets
Finalist, Walt Whitman Award, Spring 1983
Sterling Brown Award, Williams College, Spring 1975
Academy of American Poets, Honorable Mention, 1975,
1974, 1973,
Williams College
Columbia University Graduate School of Business
M.B.A.,
May 1978
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
M.S.J.,
May 1977
Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts
B.A.
psychology, June 1975
Cave Canem, 2002 to date
Poetry Forum, founding section leader, African
American Verse,
CompuServe Information Service, 1996-1997
African American Resources Forum, founding Staff
Member, CompuServe Information Service,
1996
African American Culture Forum, founding Books and
Writers Section
Leader, CompuServe Information Service, 1994-1996
Board of Directors, Chemung Valley Arts Council
1989-1994
Poetry Society of America
Poets and Writers
Teachers and Writers
Science Fiction Poetry Association
New Renaissance Writers Guild, founding member
Black Alumni Network (Columbia Graduate School of
Journalism)
Black Writers Union, founding member 1980-1981
National Association of Third World Writers,
founding member 1979-1980
Cave Canem 2002, 2004
Urban Word teacher training, 2004
Hurston-Wright Writers Workshop, 2001
Visual and Dramatic Writing - Spring 1984 (Young
Filmmakers Foundation)
Writers Community - Spring 1982, Poetry with Jorie
Graham
Calabash Poets - 1978- 1980
2005
January Short
Story Writing Workshop corning Painted Post School District
February Black
History Month Reading at YWCA Elmira and the Twin Tiers
March
Myth
and Transcendence Women's History Month Poetry Workshop YWCA Elmira
and
the Twin Tiers
Women's History Month Reading with
Mary Alice Little, harpist, Mansfield University
April Ways
of Knowing, Ways of showing Poetry writing Workshop at Southeast Steuben Public
Library
Reading
at Southeast Steuben Public Library
Genesee
Reading at Writers and Readers, National Poetry Month
Rochester, NY
May Women's
Poetry Workshop at YWCA Elmira and the Twin Tiers
June Juneteenth
Poetry Workshop
2004
September A
Celebration of Books, Corning, NY September 25
January Short
Story Writing Workshops Corning-Painted Post School District
2003
December Short Story Writing Workshops Corning-Painted Post School
District
November Poetry
Workshop Steele Memorial Library, NY
Memories
and Dreams: Poetry Workshop for Seniors
Southeast
Steuben Library, NY
June
15 The
Spiritual in My Art
Talk
at the Unitarian Universalist Church Owego, NY
June 5,6,7 UnPacking,
dance poetry collaboration with choreographer Lois Welk, part of American Dance Asylumıs New
Works and Remembrances
171
Cedar Arts Center, Corning, NY
March
1 Reading with 171 Women's Chorale 171 Cedar Arts Center Corning,
NY
March
2 Reading
with 171 Women's Chorale 171 Cedar
Arts Center
March 13 Ordinary Women
Anniversary Poetry Reading at the Sol Goldman Y
344 East 14th Street. NY, NY
March
22 Poetry
Workshop at Steele Memorial Library 1-4 p.m. Elmira, NY
March
23 Poetry
Reading at Steele Memorial Library 2-4 p.m. Elmira, NY
April
5 Honoring
an Escaped Slave Through Poetry and Song
Benefit
for the John W. Jones Museum, an evening
in poetry and song 171 Cedar Arts
Center Corning, NY
2002
Short Story Writing Workshops Corning- Painted
Post School District
Peaceful
Gathering Coffeehouse, as a part
of the annual DIALOGUE THROUGH
POETRY WEEK and UNESCO's WORLD POETRY DAY. Over 200 poetry readings in 150
cities were held worldwide to discuss "can poetry help create a culture of
peace and non-violence in the world?" Corning, NY, March
22
Tombstone Café, for Black History
Month with Jasper and Sharon McGruder presenting an evening of theater and
song, Waverly, NY, February 2
2001
Short Story Writing Workshop
Lindley Presho Elementary School, 5th grade (2 classes), Presho, NY, December
Poetry Reading with Jesse Bennett
on saxophone, Diversity! series at the Waverly Opera House, July 5, Waverly, NY
Poetry Reading with Charlie James
at Bookmarks Corning, NY, April 5
Panel on Writing, Barnes and Noble,
Big Flats, NY, April 25
Poetry Reading with Charlie James, Ellen Tifft, Robert Darling, Barnes and
Noble, Big Flats, NY, April 28
2000
Reading and signing for Dark
Matter, Barnes and Noble, Big Flats, NY, August 20
Poetry Workshop- The Worldıs Largest Writing Workshop,
Barnes and Noble, Big Flats, NY, October 14
1999
10 West, Mansfield, PA, June 4
April is National Poetry Month
Reading Series at Bookmarks, April 16, Corning, NY
Something Loving, Poetry Reading,
Rockwell Museum, February 14
1998
Sojourner Truth Celebration
performance with Voices of Fire Reading Choir
March 6 &7
April is National Poetry Month
Reading Series at Bookmarks, April 9, April
10, Corning NY
Gathering of Poets Reading ,
Mansfield University, April 17
Barnes and Noble Bookstore,
Consumer Square, May 21, Horseheads, NY
10 West, Mansfield, PA, Oct. 2
Each One Teach One, classroom
workshop, Northside Blodgett, Corning, NY December 9
1997 Reading Series, 10 West Wellesborough Mansfield,
PA, Oct. 31
Sterling
Brown Symposium, Howard University Chapel, Washington, DC, October 26
Chautauqua
Institution, presentation, Jazz Poetry: function at the Junction, August 15
Chautauqua
Institution, Writer's Center, August 10
The
Festival of the Lakes, Saranac Lake, NY, June 28
Southport
Correctional Facility, South port, NY, June 18
1996 Southport Correctional Facility, Southport, NY,
September 6,
The
Professor's Place, Watkins Glen, NY, July 17
JUNETEETH
with Voices of Fire Reading Choir, Centerway Square, Corning, NY June 22
HORNELL
Poet's Theatre, June 13, Hornell, NY
Cosmopolitan Women's Club, Dinner,
Fashion Show, Reading, May 17, Radisson Hotel, Corning
American Association of University
Women, reading, Corning ,NY, March 20 with Rhonda Morton, Susan Gale and Karen
Kirby
Valentine's
Day Wedding Reading, Feb 14, Corning, NY
Black
History Month Reading, Corning Community College, Feb. 13
Schweinfurth
Memorial Art Center, Auburn, NY, Feb .23, reading and poetry workshops
1995 The Corning Museum of Glass Community Open House,
Sept. 15, with Dick Riddick
Harriet
Tubman Home Gathering , July 22, Auburn, NY
JUNETEENTH,
June 17, Centerway Square, Corning, NY with Dick Riddick
Harambee at Mt. Neboe Lodge,
Elmira, NY, Feb. 18 with Dick Riddick on
conga and percussion
Three Rivers Reading Series at
Medley's Restaurant, with Dick
Riddick on percussion, April 27 Southport
Correctional Facility, Feb. 4
1993 Juneteenth Celebration, Centerway Square, Corning,
NY, June 19
171
Cedar Arts Center 25th Anniversary Celebration Reading May 23 accompanied by Felicia Kessel on
keyboards with Michael Czarnecki
Something
Loving, Poetry Reading, Rockwell Museum, February 14
Chicago
Cultural Center, Ragdale Writers Reading March 4
1992 St. Marks Poetry Project with Vit Bakitis, NY, NY,
November 11
Summer
Reading Series, Claverack, NY August 16,
Hornell
Poets Theater, Hornell, NY, March 12
Something
Loving, Poetry Reading, Rockwell Museum, February 14
1991 Something Loving, Poetry Reading, Rockwell Museum,
February 14,
Writing
Workshop for Elmira Girls Scouts, February 16, Elmira, NY
Visions and Voices, celebration for National Women's History
Month, March 1, 171 Cedar Arts Center,
Corning, NY
The
Gas Station March 5, with Baron James Ashanti, New York City, New York
AIUSA
Northeast Region Conference March 9, Boston University, Boston, MA
Poets Performance, Amnesty Annual
General Meeting, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.,
June
15
Radio
Interview on WUDC (aired June 19) with E. Ethelbert Miller, Washington, D.C.
Young
Author's Day, Corning Community College, November 25,
Kwanzaa
presentation, Chemung Valley Unitarian Church, December 15
1990
Chemung Valley Unitarian
Fellowship, Martin Luther King Remembrance Poetry Reading, Feb. 4
Visions and Voices celebration for
National Women's' History Month, 171 Cedar Arts Center, March 2
Young Author's Day poetry workshop,
Corning Community College, March 6, Corning, NY
Women
Poets at Barnard with Marilyn Hacker, March 8, NY, NY
Corning
Community College poetry workshop, April 9, Corning, NY
Corning
Community College, April 11, Brown Bag Series
Northside
Blodgett Elementary School visitor reader, Corning, NY
Mark
Twain Quarry Farm, H.S. writing intensive, March 17, Elmira, NY
Steele
Memorial Library, poetry writing workshop, March 24
Steele
Memorial Library, annual poetry contest, guest poet, March 25
Conversations
with Southern Tier Women interview/reading, May 14
Readings
Series at Stars with Walt Franklin, Corning, NY, June 19
Gathering
of the Minds coffeehouse, Corning, NY, June 21
Young
Author's Day poetry workshop, Corning Community College, November 19
1989
First
Ladies of Poetry, Lecture, Wednesday Morning Club, Park Church, Nov. 15,
Elmira, NY
Poetry
Writing Workshop, Mansfield University, Nov. 2, Mansfield Pa.
Poetry
Reading, Mansfield University, Nov. 1, 1989, Mansfield, Pa.
Black
Poets Day, Workshop 6th Grade, Parley Coburn School, October 7, 1989, Elmira,
NY
171
Cedar Arts Center, Summer Reading Series, writing workshop, July 26, Corning,
NY
171
Cedar Arts Center, Summer Reading Series, poetry reading, July 25, Corning, NY
Career
Discussion and Poetry Writing Workshop, 8th grade, May 26, Prattsburg, NY
Career
Discussion and Poetry Writing Workshop, Corning Free Academy, March 23, 6th
grade, Corning,
NY
Reading
for Thomas Hart Benton Exhibit at The Rockwell Museum, Literature from the
Thirties, producer and reader, April 10,
Corning, NY.
The
Pew Rally Gospel Talent Show, All Saints Home Church of God in Christ, Sunday, April 2, Elmira, NY
Martin
Luther King Reading, Church of God in Christ, January 15, Big Flats, NY,
1988 171 Cedar Arts Center, Summer Reading Series, writing
workshop, July 25, Corning, NY
171
Cedar Arts Center, Summer Reading Series, poetry reading, July 18, Corning, NY
North
Country Community College, reading series organized by Maurice Kenny, March 21,
Saranac
Lake, NY
Federal
Correction Institute at Raybrook, poetry reading, March 21, Raybrook, NY
Young
Author's Day, poetry writing workshop, Corning Community College, March 1
Books
Sandwiched In, book review series at Corning Public Library, lecture/review on
Beloved by Toni Morrison, January
11
1987 Poetry Society of America, 15 Gramercy Park , with
NYFA Poetry Fellows, October 29, NY, NY
171
CEDAR ARTS CENTER, ³Making Real the Dream,² Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King,
jr. birthday celebration,
childrenıs workshop and evening performance, with Arthur Flowers and other
performers, Corning, NY, January 19
1985 ST. MARKS POETRY PROJECT, 10th Street and 2nd
Avenue, with Patricia Jones and
Marie Ponsot, May 22, NY, NY
BASEMENT
WORKSHOP, 22 Catherine Street, with Marilyn Hacker, April 30, NY, NY
DOUBLE
TALK SHOW, Sideshows by the Seashore, Coney Island boardwalk, with Roland Legiardi-Laura, produced by Bob Holman, April 14, Brooklyn, NY.
1984 Art Against Apartheid, The Poetry Project at St.
Markıs, Oct. 21, NY, NY
Tompkins
Square Festival Poetry Reading, June 17, Tompkins Square Park, NY, NY
First
anniversary celebration of Black and in Brooklyn, Medgar Evers
College,
March 24, Brooklyn, NY
Artistsı
Call Against U.S. Intervention in Central America, St. Markıs Poetry Project,
Jan.
18, NY, NY
1984 Confirmation Anthology Reading and Book Party,
Brooklyn Arts and
Culture
Association (BACA) Jan. 13, Brooklyn, NY
1983 Washington Heights Community Art Gallery, Sept.
18, NY, NY
National
Black United Front, International Women's Day, August 9,
Brooklyn,
NY
1982 IKON MAGAZINE Benefit reading, NYU Law Auditorium,
Nov., NY, NY
1981 BLACK WRITERS UNION READING SERIES, December 16,
NY, NY
Politics
of Writing, Calabash Workshop Event, Reading at CAT Video,
Oct.
25, Harlem, NY
American
Writers Congress, Poetry Reading, Oct. 10, NY, NY
Galeria
Morivivi, Reading Series, September 13, NY, NY
Cafe
Figaro, Sunday Poetry Reading Series, June 7, NY, NY
Bedford
Stuyvesant Restoration Plaza, Arts & Culture Center, Poetry Reading, June
6,
Brooklyn,
NY
Afrikan
Poetry Theater, May 17, Jamaica, NY
Memorial
to Larry Neal, Countee Cullen Library, April 25, Harlem, NY
Black
Writers Union Fund-raiser, Creative Arts Center, April 11, Brooklyn, NY
Sunbury
9 Reading, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Live Broadcast WBAI, January, NY, NY
1980 Interviewed by Larry Neal, WWRL-Radio, Fall 1980,
NY, NY
1979 The Coalition, Club 57, St. Marks Place, New York,
April 5, 1979
1978 The New York State Book Fair, Martin Luther King
Jr. High School, NY, NY, October 8
Corner
Post Cafe Series, Brooklyn, NY, June 25
Pearl's
Place, Sunday Poetry Series, May 7, NY, NY
Women's
Center, Brooklyn College, April 17, Brooklyn, NY
New
Rican Village, March 24, NY, NY
Manhattan
Theater Club, Poetry Series, February 28, NY, NY
1977 Arthur Kill Correctional Facility, August, Staten
Island, NY
Chaz
Restaurant, Montage Series, July 16, NY
1976 Bedford Hills Correctional Institution, October
30, Bedford Hills, NY,
Rejuvenation,
December 26, Brooklyn, New York
1975 Look Homeward, Choreopoem, Black Movements
Festival, January,
Williams
College, Williamstown, Mass. and neighboring colleges
1974 Coffeehouse performances and on-campus readings,
1973 Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts
1972
P U B L I C A T I O N S
Summer
(5 haiku) Knocking
on the Silence, Finger Lakes anthology. Edited by Donna Marbach,
Foothills
Publishing, 2005
Dancing on Daddy's
Feet My
Soul to His Spirit: Soulful Expressions from Black Daughters to Their Fathers,
Melda Beaty, Editor
Sunday Drive/Black in Appalachia Two
Voices, Two Pages, Geva Theatre and Writers and Books, December 13, 2004
theatre reading/performance of work
Rochester,
NY
Freedom
(164) Poems
for All , Sept .2002
Not Final,
Just Next (165)
The Them
Gone Cave
Canem Anthology 2002,
Cave
Canem, 2003
Hard Won Country The
Yearıs Best Writing, Writerıs Digest Guides, April 2003
Health Care Moon
Journal Fall/Winter 2002 Volume VII Issue 2 ed. by Mary H. Ber
³The
Becoming,² DARK
MATTER, (first!) anthology of African American
Science Fiction, ed. by Sheree R. Thomas,
Time Warner Books, 2000
³My Mommy
Gone #15,² WORDS
OF WISDOM, Poetıs Theater 20th Anniversary
Anthology, ed. by B. OıBrien, J. Damerell
and C.J. Houghtaling, H&H Press, PA,
2000
Included "Night
and Day : The Double Lives of Artists in
America" by Gloria Klaiman, Praeger Pub Text,
August 2000
Inventing the Food, for Shimmer, Bluelight
Corner, Black Women Writing on Passion, Sex and Romantic Love, ed. by
Rosemarie Robotham, Three Rivers
Press, NY, 1999
Chock full Oı Nuts Will
Work for Peace, New Political Poetry, PA,
1999
Health Care , Way From Here MASK,
Earthıs Daughters Collective, Buffalo,
NY, 1998
Leavetaking for Shimmer, A Different Drum, Moondance
My Muse Relentless August
1996, http://www.
cyberspc.
mb. ca/~fullmoon/moondance
EMBOUCHURE, poems on jazz and other musics collection
of 41 poems, ArtFarm Press, Corning, NY, Oct.
1995
"my mother is an indictment..", " who cries CompuServe
CD (CompuServe Incorporated)
with wasting dawn..."
Genny Chain,
edited by Osman
and
Spahr, Buffalo, NY, 1995
Revoltillo Bacalao, Hairdressers, "my mother Meanderings,
April 1995
is an indictment.."
http://newsavanna.com/meanderings /me204/me20403.shtml
Song Through the Wall EYEBALL,
St. Louis Missouri, 1994
Finishing, Water Bears No Scars, My Muse Relent- SISTERFIRE,
an anthology of less, Song Through
the Wall Black
Womanist Fiction and Poetry, ed. by Charlotte
Watson-Sherman, HarperCollins, 1994
950 Hoe Avenue, Water Bears No Scars, CHAZ, Obsidian
II, Black
My Muse Relentless, Scent, So Much to Show, Literature
in Review, Fall
Tell, Imprint,
Remember the Source Winter,
Volume 8 Number 2, ed. by Gerald Barrax,
NCSU, 1993
To Every Birth Its Pain What
is Found There, Notebooks on Poetry
and
Politics by Adrienne Rich, W.W. Norton, 1993
Praise Song Blue
Cage, ed. by Barry Fogden,
England,
1993
Essay Writing From the New Coast: Technique,