I am interested in the ways in which language mimics and comments on the human condition. As a writer I rely on Langston Hughes’ quote, which says, “I see everything that you don’t see.” If language offers a system of paradoxes, then the “unseen” offers a certain truth. Truth is where I begin as a poet in constant search for a language and set of syntactical patterns that will allow me to discourse on, as well as deconstruct, barriers regarding race, gender and all of the other “social constructs” that prevent (US) from being totally human. I am currently working on critical essays that explore the impact of cultural memory and trauma with regards to poetry and poetics.

Ph.D., English/Creative Writing, SUNY Albany 
M.F.A., Poetry, Chicago State University 
B.A., English, University of the District of Columbia

The Lingua Franca of Ninth Street  (Main Street Rag, 2009)
  
The Definition of Place  (Main Street Rag, 2006)

Fingernails Across the Chalkboard: Poetry and Prose on HIV/AIDS from the Black Diaspora , Co-edited with Becky Thompson and Michael Hunter

“Father, forgive me,”  Black Renaissance Noire , Volume 8 Issue 2 (Fall 2009)

"I Sing Blue to You,”  Motif: Writing By Ear , MotesBooks, Spring, 2009

“The Inverted Other and Self in the Works of Gwendolyn Brooks.”  Black Magnolias Literary Journal , Volume 3 No. 1 (Spring, 2009)