About this Event
“Shonda Buchanan crystalizes [Nina Simone] as a rare amalgam: piano prodigy, sudden soul singer, freedom fighter, half-loved-lover, complex mother and still more.”
— Remica Bingham-Risher, author of Soul Culture
"Simone’s childhood is portrayed against the backdrop of a nature-centric, magical realist narrative. The book culminates in a realistic and politically charged conclusion, all intertwinedin histories of Africa, Ireland, and North America.”
— Carolina Rivera Escamilla, author of In a Corner of Your Country
About the Author:
Award-winning poet and educator Shonda Buchanan (1968) was born in
Kalamazoo, Michigan, a daughter of Mixed Bloods, tri-racial and tri-ethnic
African American, American Indian and European-descendant families
who migrated from North Carolina and Virginia in the mid-1700 to 1800s
to Southwestern Michigan. Black Indian, her memoir, begins the saga of
these migration stories of Free People of Color communities exploring
identity, ethnicity, landscape and loss.
For the last 18 years, Shonda has taught Creative Writing, Composition
and Critical Theory at Loyola Marymount University, Hampton University
and William & Mary College. An Eloise Klein-Healy Scholarship recipient,
a Sundance Institute Writing Arts fellow, a Jentel Artist Residency fellow
and a PEN Center Emerging Voices fellow, Shonda has received grants
from the California Community Foundation, Arts Midwest/National
Endowment for the Arts Big Read Program and several grants from the
Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.
Her first book of poetry, Who's Afraid of Black Indians?, was nominated
for the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and the Library
of Virginia Book Awards. Literary Editor of Harriet Tubman Press, her
second collection of poetry, Equipoise: Poems from Goddess Country
was published by San Francisco Bay Press. Shonda's poetry and essays
have been featured in numerous anthologies. Freelance writer for the LA
Weekly since 1991, and Indian Country Today, the Los Angeles Times and
the Writer's Chronicle, Shonda is completing a novel and a collection of
poetry about the iconic singer, concert pianist and Civil Rights activist,
Nina Simone. For more information visit Wayne State University Press.
Follow Shonda @shondabuchanan.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Bookbug & this is a bookstore, 3019 Oakland Drive, Kalamazoo, United States
USD 0.00 to USD 26.19
