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The Little Apple Seed
Spotlight on Jazz & Poetry
The Little Apple Seed
Renaissance man, storyteller and radio host, Sam Payne featured the poetic storytelling of Paul Laurence Dunbar, brought to life by storytellers Mitch Capel & Oni Lasana. His radio show "The Little Apple Seed" grows and showcases storytellers of all genre's. Listen to this segment to hear how Paul Laurence Dunbar's works has touched the lives of so many storytellers...especially Mitch & Oni!
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Healthy Haiku
Spotlight on Jazz & Poetry
The Little Apple Seed
Dr. Imani Ma'at is a Harvard Educated Acclaimed Author, Award-Winning Health Educator, and International Health and Wellness Keynote Speaker with 22 years of experience at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as Health Scientist & Program Director. Armed with the truth and an understanding of the urgent need for accurate information and skills to reduce health risks, Dr. Ma'at launched Healthy Haiku Productions (HHP), LLC.
Spotlight on Jazz & Poetry
Spotlight on Jazz & Poetry
Spotlight on Jazz & Poetry
Spotlight on Jazz & Poetry premiered in April of 2006 and is hosted by Clayton "Big Trigger" Corley Sr. of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The concept of the online radio show is based on parings of jazz musicians and their poetic contemporaries.
The early shows highlighted the music of John Coltrane and the poetry of Amiri Baraka. Dinah Washington and George Benson. SOJP features both legends and the newer artists in both genres. SOJP is also known for its in-depth interviews with poets such as Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, Sandra Turner-Barnes, Toni Love, and musicians, Mulgrew Miller, Odean Pope, Roy Ayers, Pat Martino, and more!
These interviews provide artists a international online forum to talk about their work and the creative process.
For SOJP's conversation with Oni Lasana and other fabulous artists.
Oni's Diary : Muse : Considering something carefully
If Not He, Then Who?
From the creator's well of talent
Dunbar over drew
Poetic pictures of old times
Colorfully made anew
Voices he gave to a people no one knew
Home tales of slavery
Some happy...many blue
Hidden from the world he grew
Fed by his parents voice
Slavery's addendum...racist realities
Born free...he had no choice
Love professed in witty ways
His labor beyond them grew
If not he...to share our story
I ask myself...then who?
Others revealed their peoples ways
City life country days
What mattered most...was all he knew
Inside hearts with a birds eye view
Stories, folktales, poetry and songs
He wrote and spoke in public view
Reading in prose...drew a rose
If not he...above the few, then who?
Harris, Lanier, Chestnutt, Davis and Hay
Wrote plantation stories back in the day
Make believe stories in broken words
English, Irish and German, Dunbar was heard.
Over his grave they made remarks
Saying his words were not so smart
Others cursed the rhymes he spew
Common verses rang too true
He set his pen to move with God
A blessing his lyrics are to me
So to critics who only criticize
Tell me...who else could reveal us...but he?
(c) 1999 Oni Lasana, Real Tales of Rhymes & Reasons
2.28.99 - Heidelberg, Germany. Oni Lasana wrote this poem after reading "Crossing The Color Line" A biography of Paul Laurence Dunbar by Felton O. Best
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