June 24 2016:Poetry Updates Motown Mic Spoken Word Contest, Broadside Lotus Press News, Aurora Harris' Poem for Grace Lee Boggs

This evening, I will be a judge for the grand finale of the third annual Motown Mic Spoken Word Contest at the Garden Theater in Detroit, at 8 p.m. I am looking forward to hearing from some of the best new poets that made it through the qualifying rounds. The winner will take home a $1000.00 prize. Qualifying rounds are held in either April or May at the Motown Museum on West Grand Blvd in Detroit. As a board member of Broadside Lotus Press, Broadside Lotus Press has colloborated with the Motown Museum in an effort to celebrate and bring wider recognition to the histories of both Broadside Lotus Press and Motown's spoken word recordings by their Black Forum Label, that was created by Barry Gordy in the 1970's as a form of education. In 2014, Broadside Lotus Press published the first Motown Mic broadside for spoken word artist Rosemarie Wilson, a.k.a. One Single Rose. Broadside Lotus Press News: Broadside Lotus Press celebrated its 50th year as a Detroit, MI based poetry publishing house last year. We are excited to announce we received a grant from the Knight Foundation to digitize our collection. In addition to our Facebook page, we now have a new website: http://www.broadsidelotuspress.org/ and a new Twitter account: https://twitter.com/broadsidelotus My Publication News: The poem I wrote in memory of Detroit's own Chinese American philosopher,activist, author and feminist Grace Lee Boggs,titled "Now. Then. Tomorrow" was published March 30, 2016 in Educational Studies: a journal of the Educational Studies Association. The poem was written the day before her memorial service and highlights her life from Chicago to Detroit as an activist. You may access the poem online here: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00131946.2016.1121698?journalCode=heds20 On the website for the journal, the abstract I wrote for the poem states: " Abstract A poem that highlights the life of Grace Lee Boggs, a Chinese American philosopher, activist, author, and feminist that passed away in Detroit, Michigan at the age of 100 years old on October 5, 2015. Now. Then. Tomorrow was written 2 days before Ms. Boggs’ memorial service. The poem contains the poet's memories of Ms. Boggs and community struggles related to race and class in Detroit, Michigan." Other: Since the Broadside Lotus Press Poetry Series at the University of Detroit-Mercy's Grounds Coffee Haus, I have been meeting with local and budding poets and writers on Saturday afternoons around the city. It's been great to just be able to discuss new work in progress and write! I'm working on a new book called "From A Detroit War Primer." It is a compilation of my work as an activist, poems that came out of the activism, and poems I've written on busses to work, and some history of my former poetry series "The World Voice Literary Series" that I started at the Billiard Gallery in the mid 1990's in Downtown Detroit, that I later moved to the Graystone Jazz Museum on Washington Blvd, also in Downtown Detroit. Last week, I found a quite a few photos of poets, playrights, actors,and musicians that read on the series at the Graystone Jazz Museum, along with some of my old flyer announcements. I hope to include some of them in the book. Recording with In The Tradition Jazz News: A new poem I wrote called "War Is Here" will be recorded in a few weeks for the new In The Tradition Jazz CD. We have been rehearsing and I am looking forward to another dynamic CD! Congratulations to all the 2016 Kresge Art Awards Winners! I was glad to read that quite a few wonderful people I know that greatly deserved the awards received them! That's all for now, Have a great weekend! This entry: c.2016 by Aurora Harris. If you would like to use anything here or other writings and info contained in this blog for educatioal purposes, please request permission by sending an email to aurora917@gmail.com Thank You!