February 21, 2010
Mahogney Ink Publications is a new publishing house established in 2009. Here is a list of our current 2010 releases.
Re-release A Diamond For A Diva coming 03/10/10!
Is a tale of four high maintenance DIVAS who have everything an average woman could want in life except for true love. These women are all one year away from turning the big 30 without a man in sight for miles so they rekindle an old college bet to see who will get married first.
Revenge Of The Cheating Mistress coming April 2010!
Putting your heart and soul into a relationship then finding out your man is cheating will cut you deep. The emotions will take your mind to a place that no woman should go. You immediately want to pull out a blade, stalk him, fight him, bust his windshield, cut his tires, scratch his paint job, bust a cap in his butt and beat up the mistress if she knows about you. Basically, the only thing that can give you peace is Sweet Revenge.
Through My Spectacles coming 06/15/2010!
I can be your left-handed intellect but my right hand is stronger
My ambidextrous talents should overwhelm your senses knowing that my mental is stronger than my hand’s caress.
Which hand do you want?
We are too young for my left, so grab the right for reassurance
Grab the left when you realize i’m the F*** Best
and when you need me to lead you to a place full of deafening harmonious sounds
grab both my hands
close your eyes, feel gravity’s release while we travel to cloud nine
as long as you hands are intertwined with mine….
Mahogney Ink Publications
“Bringing A New Twist To Urban Publishing”
www.mahogneyinkpublication.com
Author Mahogneyinkpublications
February 20, 2010
Clifton, honored poet from Buffalo, dies
By Jay Rey
Updated: February 14, 2010, 12:14 pm
Published: February 13, 2010, 5:11 pm
Lucille Clifton, born and raised in the Buffalo area before going on to achieve some of the literary world’s highest honors as a major American poet, died Saturday morning at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore at age 73, her sister told The Buffalo News.
Clifton, who lived in Columbia, Md., and was the former poet laureate of the state, was a two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee.
She won the National Book Award in 2001 for “Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems, 1988-2000,” and in 2007, she became the first African-American woman to be awarded one of the literary world’s highest honors — the Ruth Lilly Prize for lifetime achievement by the Poetry Foundation.
Clifton had published 11 poetry collections, autobiographical prose and 20 children’s books. Her poems have appeared in more than 100 anthologies. In 1987, she became the only author to have had two books nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in the same year and was a finalist for the prestigious award.
For more, see The Buffalo News.
September 6, 2009
Available 12/05/08
The Great Invitation is a collection of poetry that will inspire your soul. Each poetic selection is filled and inspired by the Holy Scriptures. God has sent out the greatest invitation of them all through his son Jesus Christ. The question is will you accept this invitation to heaven. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”-John 3:16 Salvation is waiting, and God has shown us patience, accept his invitation.
June 11, 2009
My People by Langston Hughes and Charles R. Smith Jr.
Ginee Seo Books
Available 01/06/09
Langston Hughes’s spare yet eloquent tribue to his people has been cherished for generations. Now, acclaimed photographer Charles R. Smith Jr. interprets this beloved poem in vivid sepia photographs that capture the glory, the beauty, and the soul of being a black American today.
April 29, 2009
Cooling Board: A Long Playing Poem
by Mitchell L.H. Douglas
Red Hen Press
Available 02/15/09
In the tradition of the Langton Hughes classic Montage of a Dream Deferred, Mitchell L. H. Douglas uses persona poetry to explore the personal and professional struggles of soul legend Donny Hathaway in his debut collection Cooling Board: a Long-Playing Poem. Evoking the sense of listening to a concept album, Douglas presents a narrative in two sides: side one focusing on Hathaway’s development as a young musician and subsequent rise to fame and side two bearing witness to the adversity that plagued his later years. Readers will see Hathaway as true to his family, true to his faith, and uncompromising in his quest for musical innovation.
In a nod to Hathaway’s legacy as a musical trailblazer, Douglas implements a significant poetic innovation in the format of the book. By including alternate versions or “takes” of poems throughout Cooling Board, the reader hears an echo of ideas that can be likened to an album with previously unreleased versions of popular songs. When the poems are revisited in alternate takes, new information emerges, and the reader is forced to consider new interpretations. Along the way, poems resembling liner notes and pop charts enhance the experience, never letting the reader forget that the heart of this ride is the music.
Above all, Douglas’ depiction of Hathaway gives readers the human side of a man who has remained a mystery in the 30 years since his death. Not only does the poet speak in the voices of Hathaway and his long-time collaborator Roberta Flack, the reader also hears the voices of those closest to Hathaway whom we are less familiar with: his mother, Drusella Huntley, his grandmother, Martha Crumwell—Hathaway’s earliest music teacher—and his wife, Eulaulah.
As the book’s first “Liner Notes” poem recognizes, “Cooling Board is about life lessons, the difficult things you don’t always get on the first take.” With Douglas as a guide versed in the power of possessing many tongues, Cooling Board captures its reader like the best Hathaway song: passionately, honestly, and with an undeniable sense of purpose.
April 11, 2009
Title: The Spoken Word/Celebrating African American Poetry
Location: A C Bilbrew Library, Los Angeles
Click here
Description: In celebration of National Poetry Month, an eclectic and dynamic group of Los Angeles poets will read and perform some of their most treasured poems. Free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.
Start Time: 1:00 pm
Date: 2009-04-18
March 31, 2009
Father and Son
by Denize Lauture (Author), Jonathan Green (Illustrator)
Available 03/19/09
Father and son
Hand in hand
Up on the road
In the sun
This profound poem, chronicling the special bond between a father and son, is perfectly complimented by the lush, exquisite illustrations of world-renowned Gullah painter Jonathan Green. With beautiful simplicity, Father and Son is just right for its new board book format — a perfect gift for any father or son.
March 31, 2009
Mother Poems
by Hope Anita Smith
Available 03/31/09
A young girl thinks of her mom as a superhero, a doctor, her North Star. She feels loved in her mother’s arms and capable of conquering the world. But when her beloved role model unexpectedly dies, she cannot even cry; sadness is too overwhelming. As she struggles with grief, she must learn how to carry on while keeping the memory of her mother very much alive inside her heart. In moving poems, Hope Anita Smith explores a personal yet emotionally universal subject: the death of a parent. Through the eyes of a child and then a young woman, these poignant poems, together with stunning folk-art images, powerfully capture the complicated feelings of someone who shows great hope, strength, and will to overcome.
March 17, 2009
The New York Philanthropic Poetry Proposal
New York City is teeming with the most ironic of situations. Here you have affluent people going to posh clubs, popular poetry recitals, trend-meritorious bars and restaurants. Alongside these luminous lairs where the moth-like New York elite congregate, the indigent have almost nothing to eat. Alongside these luminous lairs, the indigent are looking for a place to rest.
Mere concern is not enough for the plight of the poor. The hungry do not need our tears. The poor can not eat our words. Verses will not keep the cold warm at night. On realizing these aforementioned points, I came up with a humble proposal. Let us take our poetic fire and fuel purposeful events, such as fundraisers for the homeless. Consider this, local recital venues in conjunction with reputable charities can raise funds for those that are impoverished. Have praiseworthy spoken word artists perform with musicians and charge a reasonable amount at the door. The proceeds will go to a charity that will help those with almost nothing in their pockets and stomachs.
My fondest desire is to organize charitable events at performance venues. Upon receiving serious inquiries from various poetry clubs and altruistic organizations, I will elaborate further on my idea. I pray that someone will consider my idea seriously.
For further inquiries about this proposed project to help the poor, call me after 3p.m. at 718-776-1672 or write me at P.O. Box 144, Hollis, NY 11423 or mcneil_bob@yahoo.com.
December 23, 2008
By John Timpane
Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted on Mon, Dec. 22, 2008
“Elizabeth Alexander may turn out to be the perfect inaugural poet,” says Al Young, California’s poet laureate from 2005 to 2008.
“To me, she arrives at the perfect hour,” says Aaron Fagan, poet and editor at Scientific American. “Also a surprising choice, not at all polite or safe.”
“Her selection really affirms our generation of American poets in ways that will resonate for a long time to come,” says Herman Beavers, an associate professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, fellow poet, and longtime friend.
They’re reacting to news that Alexander – Yale professor, Pulitzer finalist, Penn Ph.D. and member of a longtime political family – has been chosen to deliver an original poem at the inauguration of Barack Obama next month.
Alexander, speaking by phone from her office at Yale, says she “was thrilled to hear from the inaugural committee” and fervently wishes “to do a great job.”
Brent Colburn, an Obama inaugural spokesperson, calls the poet “incredibly gifted” and says her selection “demonstrates the important role that the arts and literature can play in helping to bring our country together.”
If that sounds political, it’s because it is. The choice of Alexander is more than just an invitation to a poet; it’s also an attempt to define this moment in U.S. politics and history.
This will be only the fourth time a poet has been made part of the inaugural ceremonies; in each case, the man being sworn in has been a Democrat. Robert Frost, then 86, braved the chill to recite “The Gift Outright” at John F. Kennedy’s 1961 inaugural. Maya Angelou read at Bill Clinton’s first swearing-in, Miller Williams at his second.
Al Filreis, Kelly Professor of English at Penn, says Alexander “doesn’t have the standing Frost had in 1961, but that doesn’t matter”; she’s a “better poet” than the popular Angelou.
Born in 1962 in Harlem, Alexander grew up in Washington. She did undergraduate work at Yale and completed a master’s degree at Boston University before writing her doctoral thesis at Penn on 20th-century African American poets. She has taught widely, including stints at Germantown Friends School and Haverford College.
Her selection is “a bit of a generational shift,” according to Robert Von Hallberg, a professor at the University of Chicago. Part of that is age – at 46, Alexander is the youngest inaugural poet so far – and part has to do with history. Beavers calls her “the absolute right choice, generationally speaking . . . She’s very different from an earlier generation of African American poets, who established themselves with an 1960s rhetoric of anger. Her poetry befits Obama’s outlook: measured, comfortable with being a cultural hybrid.”
Alexander’s poetry fits Obama’s politics in taking a view of race and culture that will challenge Americans of all backgrounds. Whether writing about her own life or the lives of American slaves, her great theme is multiplicity, the fact that most people combine many bloodlines and historical lines. She constantly asserts that black people, any people, any culture, are not just one thing, but a variety of places and people and voices.
That’s very American, as is her powerful directness. Young admires the way she “artfully uses everyday speech and vernacular diction to conceal a vision of the world that is far more complex than the buy-and-sell viewpoint you’ll get from the corporations and mass media they control.”
The word that comes to mind for her is cosmopolitan.
Alexander says that quality in a black poet shouldn’t surprise people. “African American poets have always been a cosmopolitan people. We think of Langston Hughes as a ‘Harlem poet’ or an ‘urban poet,’ but he had been to several continents by the time he was 19. It’s an oversight not to understand black people as citizens of the world.”
She is most excited to share the inaugural stage with violinist Itzhak Perlman, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, singer Aretha Franklin and other artists. “That art is visible and part of the conversation – it’s very meaningful.” She connects this with Obama’s expressed wish to make the White House “a people’s house” and to have concerts, poetry readings and arts events be a part of life at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
For the full article, see The Philadelphia Inquirer website.
