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Books, Video's, Poetry & more!

Benjamin Franklin Short Story Winner

2006 Short Story Bio Is A Winner!

THE BENJAMIN FRANKLIN "AUTOBIOGRAPHY PROJECT" WAS A CHALLENGING 300 WORD CONTEST. 

ONI'S STORY ABOUT GROWING UP GOING TO THE UPTOWN THEATER WAS ONE OF THE 20 WINNERS. 

HER STORY POSTER WAS POSTED AT THE BUS STOP SHELTER AT 20TH & WALNUT ST. 

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA

Read story here

Hear Oni in this Award Winning Book!

LISTEN TO ONI SOLO RAP DUNBAR'S "WE WEAR THE MASK" ON PAGE 56,

ALSO FEATURED WITH NIKKI & VAL GRAY WARD ON PAGE. 54, GWENDOLYN BROOKS, "WE REAL COOL"  & MARTIN LUTHER KINGS SPEECH ON PAGE 64. 

Invite Oni to present a hip hop storytelling session with your students!

Nikki Giovanni introduces Oni to rap Dunbar!

PANTENE TOTAL YOU TOUR

ONI RAPS DUNBAR'S "WE WEAR THE MASK" FOR MC LYTE & AUDIENCE AT CONVENTION CENTER IN PHILADELPHIA, PA

Professor Nikki Giovanni on the making of "Hip Hop Speaks To Children" & giving Oni  props in this award winning book she created & edited.

The Best Short Stories of Philadelphia

$20.00
Pay with PayPal or a debit/credit card

Philly Scam or Paying It Forward? Is a biographical short story on the joys and dreads of a visit back to Oni's hometown, the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly affection, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

Hindsight 2020

$20.00
Pay with PayPal or a debit/credit card

Baptized By The Blues, a short story on how Oni's dream to play her bass guitar and present "Love Must Fall"  at Morgan Freeman's Juke Joint in Clarksdale, Mississippi....came true!

Story Play Shop & Poetry Workshop

Debut! with Kevin Cordi

PERMISSION 2 PLAY 

Presents DEBUT!

With Professor Storyteller Kevin Cordi

A place where stories and more, are performed for the first time! 

January 30, 2022 - Sunday - 2:00 PM EST


Watch here

You Can Do Dunbar!

Add  to your repertoire!

STORY CROSSROADS & ARTISTS STANDING STRONG TOGETHER, Inc.

A WORK/PLAY SHOP FOR ONE & ALL

Teaching Artists! Storytellers! Dunbar Fans! 

February 12, 2022 - Saturday - 9:00 MT / 11:00 EST 


Learn MOre

 "I listened to Peace & War this morning on your podcast Your telling of that moral message was incredible. What a blessing that the world is able to access and enjoy these stories for free. Thank you."   Diane Williams.co, Author, Storyteller

Oni's Podcast!

Why I Write VIDEO

Spoken word from Sister Wings, CD. A experimental collaboration video. Please excuse the low pixels in the photos...many were taken before HD. Oni wrote and delivers this mix over the groove of Samori Coles of lil drummaboy LLC, Philadelphia

I Dreamt, MLK Jr. Inside Story & Poem

Listen on "Story Story Podcast"

 Clik on CD Cover to listen to the back story on how and why this story poem was created. 

Hit the back arrow in your browser and you can return to browse website while you listen. 

Thank you & enjoy

I Dreamt, MLK Jr. The Video

 An excerpt from the spoken word tribute poem, from the independently produced CD "Sister Wings, Spoken Word Songs Bass & Beats"  

ASCAP (SR) (c) 2005  Words by Oni Lasana  - Music by Samori Coles of lil drummaboy, LLC Philadelphia. 

Please contact Oni for permission to use in classroom. 

Order CD or download track here

full lyrics are enclosed with purchase of CD. If digitally downloaded, contact Oni for the poem.  

Please excuse the photos as the pixels are not clear and were published before HD.

An acrostic poem

Create your poem with the first initials of your name!

Ladies Lunch & Soiree

SISTER WINGS & 'LIAS' MOTHER PERFORMANCE

Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Featured Poet

BIG TRIGGER'S SOUND OF JAZZ & POETRY SHOW, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Believe

A tale on teamwork.

The Party by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Mercer Museum, Pennsylvania

Keep A Pluggin' Away

A poem of encouragement by Paul L Dunbar @ Tobago Library Services 

Fred & Mabel

An adult story on perspective.

HAIKU /MYKOU / FOR YOU

Contributions to Sonia Sanchez Mural Arts Haiku project
Haiku's is a  form of Japanese verse, written in 17 syllables divided into 3 lines of 5, 7, & 5  

The following are my submissions for the project.

(C) 2012 All Rights Reserved

Music

Travel

Travel

 Make me dance all day
See me reach out to the light
Know me in a song 

Travel

Travel

Travel

Travel unravels
Stereotypes fall apart
Releasing our fears

Family

Travel

Family

More than blood thru veins
Family tears joys and pains
Connect in one love

Peace

Murals

Family

Peace, silent words heard
Inside our mind space in time 
Whispers unknown ...ssssh

Money

Murals

Murals

People make money
Money makes people mo' friends
Money goes friends end

Murals

Murals

Murals

Old houses light up
Walls reflecting our history
Murals tell stories 

Oni's Diary ~ Muse : considering something thoughtfully

All Posts

What Are You Eating?

February 6, 2020|Food

I-tal is Vital
GASstronomical Delights!

 December 12, 2013

Years ago, I took a allergy test. I tested positively allergic to wheat, corn, pork and of all things string beans, along with a host of airborne pest, weeds and trees. 

Last month, because I desire to break free from allergy and asthma meds that drive me crazy….(that’s another story)…..my doctor suggested I’d jump on the latest craze and try a gluten-free diet for 3 months. Just to see how I’ll feel…how I will feel? 

How about will I STILL be alive???

Dr. Control Freak also warned me…”don’t eat rice”…she’s nut’s. My people hold stock in a rice company in Louisiana! So you tell me, what Geechee/Creole/Caribbean lady do you know who can go without eating rice?

Black eye peas & turkey sausage
Black eye peas & turkey sausage

Not even BROWN rice?…No, it’s whole grain…Maybe a little WHITE rice (the grain or gluten is removed)

Little did she know that I’ve avoided cooking white rice for over 40 years, it only brown rice for me, even before Uncle Ben got on the bandwagon!…..Little did I know the whole grain of brown rice is full of gluten! Confused? Well now you know how I feel.

Dr. Progressive Medicine’s advice is gluten free for 3 months…just TRY it. It may stop the inflammation that is causing my allergies, asthma, arthritis, skin problems, weight gain and any future ailments that are waiting around the corner at Old Age & Senior Avenue. She recommended a book called “It Starts With Food”…it was $30 more than I wanted to spend on a book. 

Never the more, I’ve always had a keen interest in nutrition, organic cooking and was a whole grain health nut for so many years…it seems like all my life. So I put the book back on the Barnes & Noble bookshelf and revisited my bookshelf at home. I have plenty of books on natural cooking. I read “Wheat Belly” online last year, (as my laptop rested on my swollen belly) …and still, I continued to eat wheat!

At first I was sad and frustrated. No rice? What was I going to eat WITH all the veggies, fruits, organic chicken, fish, turkey, that I CAN eat …AIR?

Homemade Cassava Pone
Homemade Cassava Pone

Gluten-free is gaining in popularity, but I was never one to follow the crowd. Besides the line of cinnamon rice cereal I enjoy with unsweetened rice milk for breakfast. The package products of gluten free foods taste and look terrible. And the high prices with everything costing 5$ and up…is a huge turnoff to eating gluten free.

I love to cook natural foods, nothing from a box or can (maybe tomato paste or a soup, or bake beans, now and then) and most everyone I know loves to eat my tasty non-recipe, Soul/Caribbean dishes. (30 years of marriage to a Trinidadian, makes for an eclectic style of cooking my dear)

So after digging out my copy of “Gluten Free For Dummies” I decided to focus on the foods I COULD eat and keep things basic and simple.

My husband and I are snowbirds…we fly to a little island called Tobago, for three months out of the year to get away from the cold of Pennsylvania winters. He’s the baker in the family and helping me with a few things I CAN eat by using whatever we can find here in the Caribbean that doesn’t have wheat. He hand grated the real coconut and cassava and made me a delicious pone to enjoy in place of bread pudding. 

Can I really spend my days pondering, as posh food snobs often proclaim…..”is it gluten-free?” I'll try.  I did. But I decided to lift my spirits high over this new venture by preparing and taking photos, right before we eat it, for a photo album called “food we mek." This venture is not a cookbook, I list the ingredients so you can throw it together and maybe even like it too…but feel free to make it to your taste to suits your personal plate/palate. (whatever that means;-)

If your life has space, enjoy peeping it on my Facebook page (if you are a real friend) in the "Foods We Mek" photo album. Oh how I wish computers had a “smell” button, to enjoy my simply down home, Gluten-free Caribbean/Soul cooking and enjoy…or as the saying goes, in Tobago….“lick a finger!”

PS: As of 2020, I am still sniffing and sneezing and have NOT been able to stay away from gluten. But I'm going to kindle that book, "It Starts With Food" and eat it!


(c) 2013 Oni Lasana

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