Colossus:Home
Colossus: Home is a collection of Bay Area over 40 writers and artists speaking out on the atrocities of the housing crisis in Oakland and in support of Moms4Housing. Editors: Sara Biel and Karla Brundage.
All proceeds go to Moms4Housing.
Testimony
Just as art should reflect the times, so should our collective resistance…I believe in the power of the people. We are what we need. Let's continue to create, capturing this history. Let it show resistance.
-Dominique Walker, Moms4Housing
HIWA: Hawaii to West Africa Poetry Exchange
An exchange of healing & realizations for strong women connecting and celebrating as Sisters Across Oceans. Some featured videos:
Testimony
The tapestry that is Sisters Across Oceans, invites the reader into a quilted history which when unraveled, reveals color-filled memories, ancestral stories, personal sheroes, and a reconfiguration of the dominant paradigm of white supremacy. Instead of relying on this tired paradigm, these Black female poets reveal that despite oceans of displacement, thin strands of history can be recovered, while resonant voices and transformational stories are reclaimed. Their words foster love, create reality, break chains of oppression, unearth taboos, and reveal the pain of invisibility. Words, their words, also can lead to liberation, freedom, and celebration.
– Kathryn Takara
Black Rootedness:54 Poets from Africa to America
The Black Rootedness anthology, edited by Karla, serves as an outgrowth of the workshop exchanges in Africa and America that she facilitated and features the poets included. Purchase the book via the link above.
Testimony
West Oakland to West Africa (WO2WA) provides a sustained exchange to connect members of the African Diaspora and Africa through creative writing. Our core values are to create a safe place for the transparent healing and growth of Black people; to deliver innovative and authentic forms of writing and to engage the medium of spoken word to shape and define the narratives of the Diaspora; to allow a visceral and uncensored critique of social systems through artistic expression. Our goal is to facilitate Sankofa, a return to retrieve what has been forgotten or lost. By doing so, we hope to continue to promote Afrocentric approaches to international and cross-cultural relationships that support holistic partnerships between Americans and the world around us.
— Karla Brundage