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Focus: Black Oklahoma Fundraiser - Tulsa Oklahoma
Focus: Black Oklahoma Fundraiser - Tulsa Oklahoma
Focus: Black Oklahoma Fundraiser - Tulsa Oklahoma
Focus: Black Oklahoma Fundraiser - Tulsa Oklahoma
Quraysh Ali Lansana (he/him)
Quraysh Ali Lansana is author of twenty books in poetry, nonfiction and children’s literature.
Lansana is currently a Tulsa Artist Fellow and is a Lecturer in Africana Studies and English at Oklahoma State University-Tulsa, where he also served as Director of the Center for Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation.
Lansana is Executive Producer of KOSU/NPR’s Focus: Black Oklahoma monthly radio program, which is a recipient of a 2022 duPont-Columbia Award, a 2022 NAACP Image Award, a 2022 Oklahoma Society of Professional Journalists Award, and was a Peabody Award nominee.
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Lansana is also the recipient of a 2022 Emmy Award, a 2022 Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters Award, and a 2022 National Educational Telecommunications Association Public Media Award for his roles as host and consultant for the OETA (PBS) documentary film “Tulsa Race Massacre: 100 Years Later.”
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Lansana is a three-time International Regional Magazine Award-winning Contributing Editor for Oklahoma Today magazine.
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A former faculty member of both the Writing Program of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Drama Division of The Juilliard School, Lansana served as Director of the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing at Chicago State University from 2002-2012 and was Associate Professor of English/Creative Writing there until 2014.
His most recent books include
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Opal’s Greenwood Oasis,
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the skin of dreams: new and collected poems,
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1995-2018,
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The Whiskey of Our Discontent: Gwendolyn Brooks as Conscience & Change Agent) and
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The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip Hop.
Lansana’s work appears in Best American Poetry 2019.
He is a founding member of Tri-City Collective and serves on the Board of Directors of the Philbrook Museum of Art, is a Curatorial Scholar for The Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art and a Curatorial Board Co-Chair for the Ragdale Foundation.
Selected Publications
Non-fiction
Seasons: A Gwendolyn Brooks Experience Curriculum Guide
(Brooks Permissions, TBD)
Our Difficult Sunlight: A Guide to Poetry, Literacy, and Social Justice in Classroom and Community, with Georgia A. Popoff (Teachers and Writers Collaborative, March 2011)
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Poetry
the skin of dreams: new & collected poems, 1995-2018 (The Calliope Group, 2019)
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The Walmart Republic, with Christopher Stewart (Mongrel Empire Press, 2014)
reluctant minivan (Living Arts Society, 2014)
mystic turf (Willow Books/Aquarius Press, October 2012)
bloodsoil (sooner red) (Voices from The American Land, April 2009)
Greatest Hits: 1995-2005 (Pudding House Publications, 2006)
They Shall Run: Harriet Tubman Poems (Third World Press, 2004)
Southside Rain (Third World Press, 2000)
cockroach children: corner poems and street psalms (nappyhead press, 1995)
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Children’s Literature
A Gift from Greensboro (Penny Candy Books, 2016)
The Big World (Addison-Wesley, 1999)
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Editor:
We Are: Chicago Photographs and Literature (The Chicago Community Trust, 2016) African American Literature Reader (Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2001)
I Represent: An Anthology of Literary Works from Chicago's Gallery 37 (Tia Chucha Press, 1996)
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Co-Editor:
The Whiskey of Our Discontent: Gwendolyn Brooks as Conscience and Change Agent, with Georgia A. Popoff (Haymarket Books, 2017)
Revise the Psalm: Work Celebrating the Writings of Gwendolyn Brooks, with Sandra Jackson-Opoku (Curbside Splendor, 2017).
The Breakbeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop, with Kevin Coval and Nate Marshall (Haymarket Books, 2015)
Dream of a Word: A Tia Chucha Press Poetry Anthology, with Toni Asante Lightfoot (Tia Chucha Press, 2005)
Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature and Art, with Tony Medina and Samiya A. Bashir (Third World Press, 2002)
dream in yourself: An Anthology of Literary Works from Chicago's Gallery 37, with Jenn Morea (Tia Chucha Press,1997)
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Selected Publications
Panels, Contests, and Awards (Selected)
2017 Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference, Washington D.C. Panelist,
Gwendolyn Brooks Tribute
2017 National Black Writers Conference, Medgar Evers College, Brooklyn, NY Moderator,
The Life and Works of Miss Gwendolyn Brooks
2016 National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, D.C.
Panelist, US/Japan Artist Fellowship
2015 Poets & Writers, Inc., New York, NY
Literary Table Host, Annual Gala
2014 Ralph Ellison Library, Oklahoma City, OK
Community Workshop Leader
2012 Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference, Chicago, IL
Proposal Review Committee
2012 Ragdale Foundation, Lake Forest, IL
Curatorial Board Member
2011 Cream City Review, Milwaukee, WI
Judge, Poetry Contest
2011 Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference, Washington D.C.
Moderator, “The Youth Voice Amplified: Poetry and Social Justice in the Classroom and Community”
2009-2010 American Library Association
National Project Scholar, Let’s Talk About It Reading and Discussion Series
2009-2011 The Writers’ Chronicle of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Contributing Editor
2009 Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference, Chicago, IL
Moderator, “Tribute to Gwendolyn Brooks”
Moderator, “Builder of Positive Reality: A Conversation with Haki Madhubuti”
2008-2009 Ragdale Foundation, Lake Forest, IL
Judge: Poetry
2007 Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference, Atlanta, GA Panelist, “In the Tongue of Our Elders: The Ancestral Voice in the Poetry of the African Diaspora”
2006 ETA Creative Arts Foundation, Chicago, IL
Securing the Future Award
2006 Poets & Writers, Inc., New York, NY
Literary Table Host, Annual Gala
2006 Midwestern Voices and Visions Award, Minneapolis, MN Judge: Poetry
2005-2006 Illinois Humanities Council, Chicago, IL
Road Scholar Lecturer
2005 Poets & Writers, Inc., New York, NY
Literary Table Host, Annual Gala
2004 National Endowment for the Arts, Washington D.C.
Panelist, Literary Presenters
2004 Illinois Arts Council, Chicago, IL
Panelist, Literary Organizations
2004 Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Chicago, IL
Panelist, City Arts Grants
2004 Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference, Vancouver, B.C. Moderator, “Brothers in Verse: The Black Male and Contemporary Poetics”
2004 Cave Canem Retreat for African American Poets, New York, NY Fellow
2004 Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference, Chicago, IL
Panelist, “Tribute to Gwendolyn Brooks”
2003 Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Chicago, IL
Panelist, City Arts Grants
2003 Poetry Center of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Judge, American Poets Juried Contest
2003 Guild Complex Literary Center, Chicago, IL
Judge, Gwendolyn Brooks Award Juried Contest
2001 Academy of American Poets Advisory Board, New York, NY Online Poetry Classroom
2000 Chicago's Black Book Fair, Chicago, IL
Poet of the Year
1999 Henry Blakely Award, presented by Gwendolyn Brooks
1999 Young Chicago Authors, Inc., Chicago, IL
Wallace W. Douglas Distinguished Service Award
1997-2000 Guild Complex Literary Center, Chicago, IL
Board of Directors
Fall 1999 Ninth Annual Black Writers Conference at Chicago
State University, Chicago, IL
Judge for the Hughes, Diop, Knight Award,
the Gwendolyn Brooks Award and the Poetry Slam
Fall 1998 Eighth Annual Black Writers Conference at Chicago
State University, Chicago, IL
Judge for the Hughes, Diop, Knight Award, the
Gwendolyn Brooks Award, and the Poetry Slam
Fall 1997 Seventh Annual Black Writers Conference at Chicago State University, Chicago, IL
Judge for the Hughes, Diop, Knight Award,
the Gwendolyn Brooks Award and the Poetry Slam
Fall 1997 Illinois Arts Council, Chicago, IL
Arts in Education Program roster selection
Winter 1997 Illinois Arts Council, Chicago, IL
Grant Panelist--Multi-Disciplinary Arts
Winter 1996 Ragdale Foundation, Lake Forest, IL
Judge: Poetry
Winter 1996 Illinois Arts Council, Chicago, IL
Grant Panelist--Multi-Disciplinary Arts
Fall 1996 Illinois Arts Council, Chicago, IL
Artstour Program roster selection
Summer 1995 WTTW-TV (PBS), Chicago, IL
"Passage," a poetry video collaboration with Kurt
Heintz, awarded inaugural Image Union/Bob Award.
Fall 1995 Houston Arts Council, Houston, TX
Literary Arts Contest Judge: Poetry
Panels, Contests, and Awards (Selected)
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