Readings from Alexis De Veaux, Victor Yates & Marcos Martinez!
Alexis De Veaux was born and raised in Harlem, the product of two merging streams of black history in New York City–immigrants from the Caribbean on her mother’s side and migrants from North Carolina on her father’s side–who settled in Harlem in the early decades of the Twentieth Century. The social movements of the 1960s, and the black writers associated with them, had a determining impact. Alexis began to envision the poss...
Readings from Alexis De Veaux, Victor Yates & Marcos Martinez!
Alexis De Veaux was born and raised in Harlem, the product of two merging streams of black history in New York City–immigrants from the Caribbean on her mother’s side and migrants from North Carolina on her father’s side–who settled in Harlem in the early decades of the Twentieth Century. The social movements of the 1960s, and the black writers associated with them, had a determining impact. Alexis began to envision the possibilities of living as a writer. In the early 1970s she joined the writer’s workshop of the Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center in Harlem. In the ensuing decades, the tensions between the Black Arts Movement, an emerging black feminist movement, and, later, the Third World Gay and Lesbian Liberation Movement, were the backdrop for Alexis’s writing. Her work began to be defined by two critical concerns: making the racial and sexual experiences of black female characters central to her work, and disrupting boundaries between forms. Today, Alexis is a celebrated writer and activist recognized for her lifelong contributions to a number of women’s and literary organizations. She has collaborated with the visual artist Valerie Maynard and poet Kathy Engel on the digital project, “Are You Now or Have You Ever Been Terrorized?”(available on YouTube); and co-founded with Kathy Engel, Lyrical Democracies (www.lyricaldemocracies.com), a cultural partnership aimed at communities interested in working with poets to enhance existing social projects. With her new work, Yabo, Alexis has returned to her first love: writing fiction.
Victor Yates was raised in Jacksonville, Florida and now lives in Los Angeles. His work has appeared in Windy City Times, Edge, and The Voice. As a graduate of the Creative Writing program at Otis College, he is the recipient of an Ahmanson Foundation grant. He is the winner of the Elma Stuckey Writing Award (1st place in poetry) at Morehouse College. He received an Oprah Winfrey Scholarship and appeared on Oprah’s Surprise Spectacular show. Two of his poems were included in the anthology, For Colored Boys, which was edited by Keith Boykin. The book won the American Library Association’s Stonewall Book Award. Also, he has taught writing workshops at the University of Southern California, Job Corps, Whaley Middle School (Compton), Gindling Hilltop Camp (Malibu), and Bright Star Secondary Charter Academy (Inglewood). His novel, A Love Like Blood is a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award aka The Lammys for LGBT Debut Fiction. He has read at the prestigious ALOUD Reading Series produced by Central Library in Downtown Los Angeles. He has read at West Hollywood Book Fair, the West Hollywood Library, West Hollywood’s City Council Chambers, One City, One Pride Arts Festival, and The Last Bookstore. Also, Yates has worked with Borders, the Hollywood Black Film Festival, Martha Stewart Fresh Finds, EraseDoubt (L.A.-county campaign), Top Chef, and Winter Party Festival.
