Karla Brundage is a Bay Area based poet, activist, and educator with a passion for social justice. Born in Berkeley, California, Karla spent most of her childhood in Hawaii where she developed a deep love of nature. She is the founder of West Oakland to West Africa Poetry Exchange (WO2WA), which has facilitated cross-cultural exchange between Oakland and West African poets. Karla is a board member of the Before Columbus Foundation, which provides recognition and a wider audience for the wealth of cultural and ethnic diversity that constitutes American writing. Her editorial experience includes a pan-Africanist WO2WA poetry collection, Our Spirits Carry Our Voices, published by Pacific Raven Press in 2020; Oakland Out Loud (2007); and Words Upon the Waters (2006) both by Jukebox Press. Her poetry book, Swallowing Watermelons, was published by Ishmael Reed Publishing Company in 2006. Her poetry, short stories and essays have been widely anthologized and can be found in Hip Mama, Literary Kitchen, Lotus Press, Bamboo Ridge Press, Vibe and Konch Literary Magazine. She holds an MA in Education from San Francisco State University and an MFA from Mills College.

For the Women-

Slave Dungeons, Cape Coast, Ghana

For the women who decided to jump

For the women whose bodies became

Collateral

For women who chose to use our bodies to survive

For women who had no choice

Whose bodies were used

Dragged over stone and splintered dry docks

For women who walked long miles

Feet cracked and caked with

Dirt of their homelands

For women who could not walk any longer

For the women who suffered in darkness

For women who chose freedom

Women who aspired to light

For women who chose love

Who bit their tongues until they bled

For women who hid seeds in our hair

For women who gave birth in the middle passage

For women who lost children, for women who

Kept the children of others who were lost

For the women who carried a hoe

For the women who carried a baby

And a hoe

For women who held on to songs

Burning in their mouth

Spitting out language and were beaten

For women whose breasts were violated

Shivering and unclean

For women whose minds broke

For women who chose to survive

Women who chose to forget and

Those who remained silent

For the salty scars we bear

For women who had never seen the sea

And women whose hands turned the

Water into healing magic

For women who brought culture in the crooks

Of their ashy elbows

Woman whose tears became healing salve.

This poem is for the women.

She Dreams of a Ten Point Plan

I wrote this poem in 2020 imagining a Black woman in the white house

Dedicated to Huey Newton, Bobby Seale authors of the 10 Point Plan

1. The brutal killing of black people must stop children

2. are not meant to be hungry give us lunch and Freedom

3. Schools that teach self-determination and community

4. Employment is a right, not jails close them and stop police

5. Wars of aggression that support unjust laws in this land

6. We need bread, education, just peace, control of new

7. Technology should make healthcare completely free to we

8. Demand prison reform to so-called crimes under unjust laws

9. To carry arms to protect ourselves and power to determine

10. Our destiny is not robbery by capitalists, but Unity!

Previously Published in Wall and Response

Brundage has experience in the classroom leading workshops with youth as well as adults. She has facilitated workshops both online and in person with Shuffle Collective, 826 Valencia, West Oakland to West Africa and several Bay Area Colleges and Universities. She has edited and designed several anthologies and books, published the work of several poets & writers, and has coached writers for over a decade.