Spirit Writers Reading
The Kentucky Black Writers Collaborative and I Was Here invite you to join us at the Carnegie Center for an evening of readings. Spirit Writers is a subproject of I Was Here that seeks to engage Black writers with the iconic Ancestor Spirit Portraits through the medium of Spirit Writing. While some may know spirit writing by the term "automatic writing", these writers live out the embodied meaning in Lucille Clifton's writing first introduced in her 1980 publication, "Two Headed Woman." Samar Johnson, director of this project, invited local writers to write the narratives of ancestors of the African Diaspora that were left buried and unheard. In the performances, these writers will read narrative prose. The Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning and Spirit Writers are both funded by LexArts. To learn more about the I Was Here Project, visit: www.i-was-here.org.
MEET THE SPIRIT READERS
Claudia Love Mair
Claudia Love Mair is the author of 12 books. She holds an MFA in Writing from Spalding University. Claudia Love currently works as the Coordinator for the Carnegie Center's Kentucky Black Writers Collaborative, as the co-facilitator of the Abbey of the Arts Lift Every Voice Book Club and as the Creative Director of The Love Way Arts and Aid, an expressive arts education and mutual aid mashup LLC. She lives and works in Lexington, KY.
Deidra White
Deidra White a Lexington native is a University of Kentucky MFA Candidate and an aspiring Affrilachian Poet. She is winner of the 2022 Farquhar Award for Poetry, The 2022 William Hugh Jansen Undergraduate Award for distinguished writing in the Art of Storytelling/Folklore, the Patricia and William Stacy Endowed Fellowship in Undergraduate English Education and the 2023 UK nonfiction Award winner for her contemporary thesis “DUCK”. She considers herself a true writer of any genre but a Poet by blood. Her work explores the dynamics of Black womanhood, community and culture.
Ericka Prentice
Ericka Prentice has been a poet since the age of 15. She fell in love with words at an early age and her affection has only grown stronger over the years. She is currently writing her first complete book of poems which will feature around 30 of her newest works. She wrote a book on dating and relationships in 2009 entitled, "The Book of Man, an Instructional Guide to Handling Your Man”. Her most recent endeavor has led her to be a certified life coach and intuitive energetic healer. This work allows her to facilitate the healing growth and mindfulness of those who seek her services. She lives her life by one simple rule above all, "Seek first to understand and then to be understood.”
LeTonia Jones
LeTonia Jones accessed the power of arts and activism nearly 30 years ago. Since then, she has shaped and used her own voice for love, justice, and liberation. Jones’s purpose is to utilize the arts, self-reflection, spirituality, and activism as vehicles to stir emotions that move people toward greater acts of care and love for one another. As author of her inaugural collection of poetry, “Black Girl at the Intersection” published by Accents Publishing, LeTonia has emerged as a poet who believes that acts of witnessing and being witnessed, more fully, are sacred and revolutionary. first to understand and then to be understood.”
Terri Ley
Terri Ley is a fiction writer with a penchant for erotica and erotic romance. She has also published a few blogs and articles for a few smaller publications such as Black Girl Nerd and Yoga Changemaker Magazine. She is also a spoken word artist. Some of her favorite characters to write are multi-dimensional Black women that know what and who they want and are not afraid to make their desires known. They are women that take risks while still owning up to their vulnerabilities. As a part of the “I Was Here” Project, Terri is excited to represent a small portion of the rich history of the African Diaspora.
Cynthia Dickerson
Cynthia Dickerson is a mother and proud member of the community of “Writing What Is”, a writing group formed by Bloodroot Ink that engages BIPOC women and femmes. This writing group is through the KBWC at the Carnegie Center.
Mya Sophia
Mya Sophia is a writer and content creator with a mission to give representation as a Black biracial young adult woman who is a highly sensitive person. She loves talking about books and the power that writing can give as a tool for freedom. A storyteller from birth, Mya has written poetry for LexPoMo, was a Young Women Writer at the Carnegie Center and has poetry in Shelter in This Place (2021) and BLUU Notes (2022) from Skinner House. When not writing she dreams of a just world with her family and friends.
Lisa A. Brown
Lisa A. Brown, native of Lexington, Kentucky, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and a Master of Science degree in Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation from the University of Kentucky. She is a freelance writer and has written for several publications including "Business Lexington," "The Lextropolis," and the "Lexington Herald-Leader." She is also a playwright and her play, "Positively Unbreakable," debuted at the historic Lyric Theatre & Cultural Arts Center. Her manuscript, "Living Life Full Throttle," will be published December 2023. Brown is an award winning photographer, and several of her photographs have appeared in exhibits across the state.
Eugenia Johnson-Smith
Eugenia Johnson-Smith is an author, coach, inspirational and motivational speaker, and the CEO of Positive Power LLC Training and Development. She empowers her clients to be a positive influence in the home, the community, and the world. She is a freelance writer who writes for Lextropolis Magazine where she received the 110% Award for stories. She hosts a monthly writing workshop, Writing from Stress to Peace, with the Woodford Co. Public Library. She enjoys encouraging writers and helping them to reach their goals as writers. Her book Positive Power 31 Devotions to help Unleash Your Positive Power is soon to be released.
Samar Johnson
Samar Johnson is a classically trained singer turned scholar re-birthed as a writer who loves to nurture those around them to live the most authentically. They love to celebrate Blackness, queerness, and divine Femininity. They are in their last year of coursework for a PhD in Ethnomusicology and are compiling a book of poetry that explores their personal journey to reclamation of self and identity. Samar runs the day-to-day operations of the Lexington Writers Room.
