New York, New York
Poetry with Cyrus Cassells
I live in Upper Manhattan in the village of Harlem, New York. I am the sixth poem in a set of seven. I am a midwife’s child. In 2020, I led a group of poets, translators and artists in creating a poem as a cure to heal communities for whom sheltering in place safely to stop the spread of coronavirus proved impossible. I led the translation of this twenty-eight part poem into english, asante-twi, amharic, spanish, kreyól, wolof, griotlite and french. As an organizer, media maker and poet, I have directed pretty black, a documentary short on New Orleans Black Indians and belfon: photography as a healing art – lolis elie interviews jim belfon. Their poems can be found in collective fallout and digging through the fat press. Currently, I support the operations of an education organization in NYC and I also coordinate an online cafe for TWINS | parents, educators, activists and writers at www.twins.cafe.org.