Poets Talk: 5 Questions with Patrick A. Howell

I’m a spirit. Captured in a bloody body. I can fly too. Celestial. And crash into this earth dusty. I cry, captured in this fleshy mess. Like again… I’m born. Yeah, sometimes I fly daytime skies and see how close I can get to the sun.

Patrick A. Howell is an award-winning banker, entrepreneur and writer. His first work was published with the UC Berkeley African American Literary Review and Quarterly Black Book Review. Mr. Howell is a frequent contributing writer to the Huffington Post, Los Angeles Review of Books and has been cited in national platforms as Poetry Foundation, Poetry Society, NBC BLK and The Grio. In 2018, he attended the Leopardi Writer’s Conference in Recanati Italy to complete work on ‘Quarter ’till Judgement Day’, a coming of age experimental fiction work.

Richard Ali

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Richard Ali is a Nigerian writer whose poems were first published in 2008. He has served in the National EXCO of the Association of Nigerian Authors and sits on the board of Uganda’s Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation. A member of the Jalada Writers Cooperative based in Nairobi, his work has been published in African Writing, Jalada, Saraba Magazine and elsewhere. The Anguish and Vigilance of Things is his debut collection, was published in 2020. He practices Law in Abuja, Nigeria.

Black Poets: Warsan Shire.

In her poetry, the depth of human feeling is evoked through imagery that is as gripping as it is urgent.

Poets Talk: 5 Questions with Jakky Bankong-Obi

I like forests because they are full of mystery and are mystical. I love that they are full of life and yet quite secretive. If you’ve ever lived near a forest, you get that sense of latency, something just coiled and waiting, a sense of fullness even when you don’t see anything but the trees. It’s like a hum, a pulsation underneath everything.

Poets Talk: 5 Questions with Odu Ode

Curiosity is a part of my being. I always want to know ‘the whys’ of every colour, every song, every kindness and every decision. I am that bag of turmoil, I trap the swiftness in emotional readjustment so fast I cannot let go of the outcomes in a hurry.

Black Poets: Dennis Brutus.

Dennis Brutus (1924–2009) was a South African poet, educator, and anti-apartheid activist, renowned for his passionate resistance to racial injustice and his captivating poetry. Born in Harare, Zimbabwe, and raised in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, Brutus was fueled by the circumstances surrounding his nativity and became a leading voice in the fight against apartheid during his time. His activism led to his arrest and imprisonment on Robben Island, where he was held alongside Nelson Mandela.

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I’m a spirit. Captured in a bloody body. I can fly too. Celestial. And crash into this earth dusty. I cry, captured in this fleshy mess. Like again… I’m born. Yeah, sometimes I fly daytime skies and see how close I can get to the sun.

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