Celebrate Black History Month with SSTCi!

Glimpses of Heaven:

In the Studio with Artist Mame N'Diaye

Wednesday, February 4th 7PM

Join us for Tuesday, February 4th at 7PM for Glimpse of Heaven: In the Studio with Mame NDiaye, an award-winning visionary multimedia artist and an advocate for neurodivergent people. She is currently exhibiting at Brentwood Art Exchange in her first solo show. In this talk, she and her family trace her development as an artist navigating life as a uniquely talented and self-declared “weird” individual.

The program will begin with a 17 minute excerpt from the film Black Women on the Spectrum by filmmaker Debra J. Robinson.

Mame N'Diaye is an award winning visionary artist and composer of electronic music. Working primarily in pen and ink, converted to digital prints, Mame creates complex visual landscapes, fantasy portraits and intricately detailed abstract drawings incorporating original scripts and symbols that evoke ancient and mystical texts and stories. Mame draws her inspiration from her Senegalese Sufi and Caribbean heritage as well from her travels to West Africa, Morocco and from her exploration of world shamanistic healing traditions. In January 2013, a documentary on her life as an African American woman artist with autism entitled, “I am Mame” by filmmaker Debra Robinson was screened to a standing room only audience at Silver Spring Civic Center.

See Mame's Current Show!

Mame N'Diaye: Glimpses of Heaven

Now Through - Saturday, March 14

Artist Talk & Reception: Saturday, February 21st at 2PM

Brentwood Arts Exchange

3901 Rhode Island Avenue

Brentwood, MD

The mission of the M-NCPPC, Department of Parks and Recreation, in partnership with County residents, is to provide comprehensive park and recreation programs, facilities, and services that support healthy lifestyles and respond to changing needs within County communities. The Department strives to preserve, enhance, and protect open spaces to enrich the quality of life for the present and future generations in a safe and secure environment.

African American Culinary Traditions

A Delicious Panel Discussion Hosted by Photographer Ray Fudge

featuring a diverse array of panelists

Tuesday, February 10th at 7pm on Zoom

Join us Tuesday, February 10th at 7pm on Zoom for African American Culinary Traditions. This year's panel is hosted by SSTCi Board Member & Photographer Ray Fudge.

Panelists will share their family food memories and traditions passed down through the generations.

We are still looking for a few more panelists. If you grew up with African American heritage and want to share your family food memories, contact lisa@silverspringtowncenter.com.

About Our Host: Ray Fudge

SSTCi Board Member and longtime photographer Ray Fudge arrived in the D.C. area in 1976 when he enrolled in graduate school at The University of Maryland and accepted a position at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. During his years at Walter Reed he served in several positions from staff technologist, supervisor and ultimately, department administrator. His duties and responsibilities included overseeing daily clinical operations, supervising 100+ military and civilian personnel and developing policies and procedures. His final duties included in the planning and coordination of the hospital merging with the Naval facility in Bethesda, MD.

Ray holds a BA in Radiologic Science (1971) from the University of Hartford, and an MA in Health Care Systems Management (1980) from the University of Maryland. 

His community service work includes being a volunteer with Silver Spring Village providing rides and in-home assistance to seniors in Silver Spring. He is also a longtime Volunteer at the War Memorials in Washington providing support at ceremonies. Ray has also served on SSTCi's Board of Directors since 2024.

SPARKLE: The Journey of Harriet Tubman Through Story & Song with David Cole & Linda Harris

Wednesday, February 11th 2PM

Silver Spring Civic Building

RSVP: operations@silverspringvillage.org

Join us for a special SPARKLE in celebration of Black History Month as we present The Journey of Harriet Tubman Through Story & Song with David Cole & Linda Harris. The duo will share the inspiring story of Harriet Tubman the legendary conductor of the Underground Railroad who led 300+ people to freedom.

David Cole's skill as an ace guitarist with soulful vocals and personality completes this duo with Linda Harris whose expressive style and grace delivers the pulse and cadence in the style of the ancestors. 

David is a music educator and performer, and Linda is a vocalist and musician, as well as director of event programs and events at the Harriet Tubman Museum and Education Center. Both perform locally as well as internationally. 

This amazing duo brings the story of Harriet Tubman to life. Not to be missed!

Registration is encouraged. Members of the Silver Spring Village may register by logging into their member account and signing up through the members-only events calendar.

Non-members may register by contacting operations@silverspringvillage.org or by calling 240-833-5580, extension 6.



SPARKLE is a monthly series presented by Silver Spring Town Center Inc. in collaboration with Silver Spring Village.

SPARKLE is a monthly program presented by SSTCi in collaboration with Silver Spring Village.

The Simmer Pot: Memories, Medicine & the Lineage of Healing with author Anisha "Mama Moon" Newbill

Wednesday, February 11th at 7PM

Silver Spring Civic Building.

Join us for The Simmer Pot: Memories, Medicine, and the Lineage of Healing with author Anisha "Mama Moon" Newbill Wednesday, February 11th at 7pm in the Silver Spring Civic Building.

This is not only a book about medicine; it is a book about memory, about the wisdom that runs in the blood. It is the quiet knowledge that tells you how to cool a fever, how to clear a congested chest, and what to brew when the body feels weak. It is an inheritance passed down not in textbooks, but in the rhythm of daily life—in kitchens, in whispered reassurances, and in the steadfast certainty of a grandmother’s hands. It's about family and the tapestry that is known as healing.

About Our Presenter

Anisha “Mama Moon” Newbill—a multidisciplinary artist rooted in the DMV—presents her debut literary work, a poignant synthesis of her talents as a poet, musician, and herbalist. This inaugural collection is more than a book; it is a carefully prepared offering that invites readers into her unique, rhythm-infused worldview, where the lyrical and the botanical gracefully intertwine.

Black Arts In the Wake of Change: African American Women at the Helm of Community Arts Organizations

Hosted by Curator & Doll Artist Camila Bryce LaPorte

Thursday, February 19th 7PM

Artwork by Julee Dickerson-Thompson

“Whether working as individuals or as groups, on a local or national scale, Black women activists sought and found ways to expand the ‘sphere’ not only of Black women, but also that of Blacks generally, in music, until it was indeed ‘just as large as [they could] make it.’”

— Doris McGinty, “As Large as She Can Make It”: The Role of Black Women Activists in Music, 1880-1945 Cultivating Music in America: Women Patrons and Activists since 1860 (University of California Press, 1997) edited by Ralph P. Locke and Cyrilla Barr

Since the late 19th century, Black women have played a central role in art, education, and social activism, leading parallel movements across the United States. Legions of Black women artists served as faculty at historically Black colleges and universities and public schools; as directors of Black choirs; as founders of conservatories and performing arts companies; as contributors to local galleries; and members of literary and cultural societies. Collectively, they formed what Doris McGinty described as an “anonymous infrastructure”—a network that created pathways for professional development and cultural uplift through education, artistic training, mentorship, exhibition, and performance.

Nowhere is this legacy more evident than in the Black Arts Movement along the Baltimore–Washington corridor. In the early 20th century, this landscape was shaped by visionary leaders including Harriet Gibbs Marshall, founder of the Washington Conservatory of Music; Augusta Theodocia Lewis Chissell, founder of the DuBois Circle; Mary Cardwell Dawson, founder of the National Negro Opera Company (NNOC); and Henrietta Vinton Davis, a Baltimore-born actress and the second President-General of UNIA, Inc. These women created institutions that not only fostered artistic excellence but also asserted cultural agency in the face of exclusion from mainstream arts spaces.

Subsequent generations expanded this foundation through visual art, dance, and arts education. Influential figures included visual artists and educators Loïs Mailou Jones, Alma Thomas, and Lillian Burwell, as well as dancers Bernice Hammond, founder of the Northeast Dance Academy, and Doris W. Jones and Claire H. Haywood, co-founders of the Jones-Haywood Dance School. Despite persistent financial barriers and systemic racism, these women established and sustained organizations dedicated to affirming Black creativity and transforming both the lived conditions and internal perceptions of their communities.

By the late 20th century, a proliferation of Black arts organizations and cultural enterprises emerged, presenting the contributions and aesthetic sensibilities of African American women through a distinctly diasporic lens. Among the leading voices of this era were Peggy Cooper Cafritz (Workshop for Careers in the Arts); Rosemarie Reed (Toast and Strawberries); Bernice Johnson Reagon (Sweet Honey in the Rock); and folklorist Gladys-Marie Fry. Their work connected artistic expression to cultural history, social justice, collective memory, and civic responsibility.

The women featured on this panel are directors and founders of arts organizations that continue the century's long tradition of art education and social activism. Born in the mid-20th century, they are among the first beneficiaries of the Civil Rights and Black Arts Movements. Emerging as artists during AfriCOBRA and the Golden Age of Black Arts (GABA), they, like their predecessors, continue to expand Black arts and arts education to encompass social advocacy, community engagement, civic responsibility, global lineage, and cross-cultural bridging.

Panelists include:

Kibibi Ajanku – Founder, Sankofa Project

Diana Baird N’Diaye– Artistic Director, African American Craft Alliance

Julee Dickerson-Thompson– Director, Young Masters, Inc.

Althea Grey-McKenzie– Artistic Director, The White House Studios

Francine Haskins – Founding Member, The Belmont Group

Aziza Gibson Hunter– Co-founder, Black Artists of DC

Vera Oye Yaa Anna – Founder, Oye Palaver Hut

Pam Rogers– Musical Director, IN PROCESS…

REGISTER FOR ZOOM LINK

About Our host

Camila Bryce-Laporte is an independent folklorist and community scholar who works with people to help them rediscover the value of their history, their cultural traditions, their community, and themselves through the art of cultural documentation. Bryce-Laporte has worked on folklife-related projects for the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (where she is currently a research associate), the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, and several local and regional organizations including the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance, Sandy Spring Museum Digital Lab, and the Smithsonian’s’ African American Craft Initiative. She is curating “The Calling: The Transformative Power of African American Doll and Puppet Making” for the Sandy Spring Museum. She was educated in fine arts, performing arts, and the humanities with a specialization in folklore studies at Sarah Lawrence College and George Washington University. She works primarily in developing programs for underrepresented communities.

Artist, Curator, Educator Kibibi Ajanku is a fiber artist who believes that when presented properly, art is the perfect vehicle to promote intercultural understanding. Ajanku is a self-taught artist with a deep interest in West African Dye traditions and indigenous folkways. She currently expands her artistry through the lens of indigo. 

Additionally, Kibibi Ajanku is an independent curator based in Baltimore, Maryland. Her curatorial work explores the impact of African world history and legacy through African American contemporary art. She travels the African Diaspora to study, teach, create artwork, and exhibit with many masters. Ajanku believes that when presented properly, art is the perfect vehicle to inspire authentic dialogue and foster greater awareness for the global community. As a result, her curatorial projects encompass an ever-growing body of exploratory research, image-making, and exhibition-making. She often uses the exhibition space to emphasize relationships between historical occurrences and lived history. As an Educator of the Arts, it is her goal to guide higher education learners in the creation work that stands up to critical evaluation. More importantly, Ajanku wants her students to understand, intellectually and emotionally, that their past, present, and future lives are inextricably connected to the aesthetics that surround and engulf all of our lives at all times. Our present is affected by the art that surrounds us. 

Kibibi Ajanku, Artist/Educator/Curator

www.KibibiAjanku.com

www.facebook.com/KibibiAjanku

www.Instagram.com/KibibiAjanku

An award-winning artist, Julee Dickerson-Thompson integrates influences drawn from her experiences in West Africa, the Caribbean, and France. Working across mixed media, soft sculpture, quilting, and doll-making, her practice moves fluidly between fine art, illustration, and literature. Her best-known book, The Dance of Rain Gods, published by Africa World Press, reflects this interdisciplinary approach. Her artwork has been exhibited and collected by galleries, museums, and alternative spaces both nationally and internationally.

Dickerson-Thompson is one of the “founding mothers” of  The Young Masters, Inc., a community-based nonprofit organization dedicated to nurturing and empowering 21st-century artists. Hatched in the creative Brookland neighborhood of Washington, D.C., the organization operates without borders and has been a powerful force for artistic growth and mentorship for more than three decades  since 1985.

Born in Washington, D.C. (1955), Dickerson-Thompson grew up with the Smithsonian museums as her playground. The Workshop for Careers in the Arts (now the Duke Ellington School of the Arts) laid the foundation for her artistic development. She continued her studies at Simmons University, Massachusetts College of Art, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Corcoran College of Art. Fellowships and residencies with the AACA and the Village of African-American Doll and Puppet Makers have expanded her work and outreach greatly. BADC and the Dandelion Black Women's Collective (Dandi9) have helped empower her work and deepen the research and expand the outreach.

Althea Grey-McKenzie is a Wolf Trap Teaching Artist and multi-awarded artist and visiting scholar in dance, choreography and theatre arts.  She is a curator of cultural programs and certified cultural-events manager  for her creative works in the arts and humanities.  As a performer, educator, grants-committee panelist and community lead, Althea was awarded by the Arts and Humanities Council for Montgomery County, to develop a 3-year dance program at the Gilchrist Center for Cultural Diversity featured in the Washington Post.   Her research has led her to master study in African, Jamaican and Haitian folk dance, Dunham technique and Afro-Caribbean dances as well as through travel scholarship for folk and traditional dance and movement.  In 2024-2025 she was  awarded  Master Instructor for the Maryland State Arts Council’s Folklife Apprenticeship in Dance and will be featured, alongside her students and member dancers, in an upcoming documentary of her creative work and artistic journey,

Ms. Grey-McKenzie continues to teach and present cultural performances in DC, MD and VA for all ages.  In June  2023 and June 2025, she received the honor of the Mayor of the City of Rockville’s Caribbean-American Heritage Proclamation and was recognized for her cultural work in the Caribbean and African-American communities in Montgomery County.  Althea Grey-McKenzie delivers professional dance workshops and programs through her 23 year-old studio space and her creative work can be seen on major stages and festivals.

Fb: white house studios

https://www.facebook.com/thewhitehousestudios

For more info:  info@caaneculture.com

Claudia "Aziza" Gibson-Hunter is a mixed media artist, arts organizer, and educator based in Washington, DC. Known for her narrative abstractionist method, she creates layered works utilizing symbols, color, and texture to explore stories and concepts through metaphor and liberatory imagination. Originally from Philadelphia, Aziza holds a B.S. in art education from Temple University and an MFA in printmaking from Howard University. Her practice spans drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, and papermaking. Deeply involved in teaching and organizing, she draws inspiration from community, family, and her heritage as part of the African diaspora.

Committed to documenting Black visual culture, Aziza collaborates with archives, educational institutions, and artist groups to support recognition of Black artists. Her work can be found  in shelters, hospitals, senior facilities, and schools across DC, as well as in notable collections like the Library of Congress and the American Embassy in Liberia. As a co-founder of Black Artists of DC and an active member of several collectives,(Dandelion Black Women Artist Collective, Women of an Undetermined Age, Where We At, and TRUTH)  she values collaboration, especially with other female creatives. Ms.Gibson-Hunter exhibits her work nationally and internationally while continuing to create, teach, and inspire.

Artist Francine Haskins (portrait by Gloria Kirk) was born in Washington, D.C., in 1947. She is a graduate of McKinley Technical High Schooland the Corcoran School of Art, where she studied Advertising Design, and she received additional training at The Catholic University of America and through the Smithsonian Associates Program. A mixed-media fiber artist, Haskins specializes in soft-sculpture dolls and quilts.

Her artistic career began at The New Thing Art and Architecture Center, where she worked alongside Topper Carew, Percy Martin, and Michael Platt. She is a co-founder of the 1800 Belmont Arts Collective and a member of Black Artists of DC (BADC), the African American Craft Alliance, and the Village of African American Doll, Puppet, and Textile Artists.

Haskins’s work is featured in the shop of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress, and in private collections and museums across the country.

Born in Washington DC, Sehar Peerzada operates from her studios in Baltimore Maryland and Lahore Pakistan. She designs and produces a unique brand of clothing and dolls, which are often hand block printed and dyed with her own patterns. Sehar seeks to flatter the figure with inspiration from traditional international fashion sources which she blends to create a palatable, cultural hybrid.

An alumnus of Howard University and Rhode Island School of Design, Sehar studied eastern cuts and block printing in Pakistan. Sehar ‘s clothing line has been carried in stores such as Nordstrom Department Store, and boutiques such as Toast & Strawberries, Zawadi, Maja and Sankofa. Sehar’s talent as a costumer led to her work with the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery, Sweet Honey In The Rock, The In Series Opera, The New York Fringe and the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Company.

Currently, Sehar’s work has been featured in art galleries, such as City Lore in New York City, Sandy Spring Museum, The Walters Art Museum and the Quid Nunc Art Gallery in Maryland. Today her work is available Online and at Retail pop ups.

www.Seharpeerzada.com

@seharpeerzada, @urbanmasala_clothing

Dr. Diana Baird N'Diaye is a multidisciplinary scholar, visual artist and Director of the African American Craft Alliance, a project that she began in 2021 as a Senior Curator at the Smithsonian Institution. Dr. N'Diaye maintains an active studio practice telling visual stories through textiles that interrogate connections between family, social and cultural identities, history, spirituality, healing, and the natural environment.  NDiaye's soon to be published book, The Will to Adorn: African American Style and the Aesthetics of Identity,  (University of Mississippi Press, Fall 2026), grew out of ten years of collaborative community research on narratives of African American dress and identity

Vera Oyé Yaa-Anna, affectionately known as Auntie Oyé, is a Liberian-born, acclaimed master storyteller who transports audiences to West Africa through imaginative, interactive storytelling. She is the Executive Director of Oyé Palaver Hut, a cultural arts organization that integrates storytelling performance, culinary arts, dance, and traditional djembe drumming to promote physical and emotional wellness. Touring nationally and internationally, she presents dynamic programs designed to celebrate cultural diversity and intergenerational learning. Oyé Yaa-Anna is a six-time recipient of the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities Fellowship.

A cornerstone of Oyé Palaver Hut’s mission is its year-round cultural arts education programming, including in-school, after-school, and summer camp workshops for children ages 5 to 16. These unique offerings are designed to nurture joy, spark curiosity, and support creative, physical, social-emotional, and intellectual development. 

Pam Rogers grew up in the District of Columbia during the early 1950s and currently resides in Capitol Heights, Maryland. Her passions include music and singing. She inherited her love of singing from her parents at an early age; the family always sang together. She learned to love the harmonies of Latin Masses and Gregorian chants beginning in St. Joseph’s Catholic elementary school choir. Her singing continued in high school and in various church choirs until 1984, when she joined In Process… a women’s a cappella ensemble. She is currently director of the group whose repertoire includes songs of world-wide struggle, social justice and their own original compositions. Using rhythms and harmonies born of slavery and adapted and nurtured throughout the sojourn of African people in America, In Process… has voiced song commentaries on issues affecting all people and especially our local DMV communities: love, self-respect, women, family, the environment, health, substance abuse, AIDS, statehood, freedom and justice, equality and peace. The group has recorded 2 CDs, In Process…(produced by Bernice Johnson Reagon, founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock) and Mission Love which Rogers co-produced. It contains some of her original songs.

Presented in Collaboration with Montgomery Preservation

My Name is Not Tom:’ the Life of Reverend Josiah Henson with author Susan Cooke Soderberg

Saturday, February 21st 2PM

Silver Spring B&O Railroad Station

8100 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring

RSVP: lisa@silverspringtowncenter.com

Join us Saturday, February 21st at 2pm for a book talk: My Name is Not Tom:’ the Life of Reverend Josiah Henson with author Susan Cooke Soderberg. Presented in collaboration with Montgomery Preservation, this program will take place at the B&O Railroad Station at 8100 Georgia Avenue in Downtown Silver Spring.

This recent biography of Josiah Henson reveals copious new information about the man, his life, experiences, his values and his aspirations. All previous biographies of Henson rely entirely on his four dictated autobiographies which, except for the first, were heavily embellished by his publishers. Outside research has discovered an entirely different man than that depicted in these earlier tomes that referred to him as “the real Uncle Tom.” “My Name is not Tom” are his own words spoken in a speech in Scotland before hundreds of people as he tried to separate himself from association with this fictional character.

"Soderberg's book skillfully presents Josiah Henson as a multifaceted figure, emphasizing both his extraordinary accomplishments and the complexities of his character. This balanced approach deepens the reader's understanding of Henson's humanity and lasting legacy."―Steven Cook, curator, Josiah Henson Museum of African-Canadian History

"Now, finally, we have the biography this American hero deserves."―Susanna Ashton, author of A Plausible Man: The True Story of the Escaped Slave Who Inspired Uncle Tom's Cabin

"Susan Soderberg masterfully weaves a compelling narrative of the real man whose life in slavery and freedom is far more inspiring than the fictional ‘Uncle Tom’ of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s imagination. In Soderberg’s skillful hands Henson emerges complex, deeply spiritual, and determined to acquire power and influence and reclaim his life and voice. Extraordinary, well researched, and a must read!”—Kate Clifford Larson, award-winning historian and author of Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero

"'My Name Is Not Tom' thrusts Henson into a new place of cultural significance, carefully ferreting out historical fact from fiction while burnishing his legacy for new generations. Henson's greatest triumph, we discover, was having a hand in the dissolution of American slavery―the very system whose name became synonymous with his own. Soderberg's greatest accomplishment is breathing new life into one of history's most misunderstood figures and proving, to paraphrase Henson's own autobiography, that truth is indeed stranger than fiction."―Anthony Cohen, president, The Menare Foundation, Inc.

About the Author

A passionate seeker of truth about the past, Susan Cooke Soderberg has been active for the past 40+ years writing, lecturing, testifying and leading tours of historic sites. Her formal education includes a BA in Art History from the College of William and Mary and an MA in American Studies from George Washington University. She is retired as a public historian with the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission where she created the Underground Railroad Experience Trail and an exhibit of 19 th century carpentry tools inside Oakley Cabin, refurbished the Bussard farmhouse and interpretive signs at the Agricultural History Farm Park and wrote many historic markers, among other tasks. She written several books on state and local history, as well as numerous scholarly articles, as well as being a researcher and consultant for the Emmy Award winning documentary, “Life in a War Zone: Montgomery County in the Civil War,” produced by Heritage Montgomery. Currently, she is president of the Germantown Historical Society, an advisor for the King Barn Dairy Mooseum, a member of Montgomery Preservation, a Commissioner on the Governor’s Maryland Military Monuments Commission, and will soon have published by Georgetown University Press a biography of Josiah Henson, a man who grew up enslaved in Montgomery County and now has a road and a park named for him in the County.

Montgomery Preservation Inc. (MPI) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to preserving, protecting, and promoting the architectural heritage and historic landscapes of Montgomery County, Maryland. Founded in 1984, MPI advocates for historic sites, hosts educational events, and manages the historic Silver Spring B&O Railroad Station. 

Black Voices Through Poetry

Hosted by Poet Brenda Bunting

Featuring Brendardo (the Sing-Song Poet),

Kadijah Ali Coleman, Catrice Greer & Patti Ross

Tuesday, February 24th 7PM

Artwork by Claudia Aziza Gibson-Hunter

Join us Tuesday, February 24th at 7pm for Black Voices Through Poetry. Hosted by Poet Brenda Bunting, this program features Brendardo (the Sing-Song Poet),

Kadijah Ali Coleman, Catrice Greer and Patti Ross.

This program is presented virtually on Zoom. Register in Advance for Zoom Link.

About Our Host

Poet BRENDA BUNTING, MAT is an award winning orator and the author of “Poems of Love and Violence in between Life and Death” 1st and 2nd editions. She is a storyteller with NABS and DVHSC. She is an active member of the RAINN Speaker's Bureau and multi-abuse survivor who creates powerful workshops utilizing the therapeutic benefits of writing poems for mental wellness and healing from traumatic events. She hosts poetry events and is regularly featured at live and virtual events in the DC, MD, and VA area. Brenda has been published in numerous online and print publications. She is a teacher, holistic educator and advocate, a life member of the Kentucky State Poetry Society, and a certified life coach. She is working on her latest book of poems and first novel. Check out her artist page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/BDBpoet 

BRENARDO is a lyrical adventurer of word and sound. The poems he brings to the foreshow his versatility as a ‘Page Plus Performance Poet."

Born in Washington DC in 1955, Brenardo (the Sing-Song Poet) is currently a resident of Baltimore County, MD. He has been writing poetry of all facets for over two thirds of his life. This journey has taken him to platforms all over the world, where his work has been seen in countless journals, newspapers, magazines, poetry anthologies in print and online. He has performed his poems and songs at festivals, schools, libraries, coffee houses, cruise ships and assorted other public and private events, where he has astounded those in attendance. He has presented alongside Amiri Baraka, Sonya Sanchez, Dick Gregory, and other esteemed visionaries.



Brenardo is a veteran of the United States Navy, and a veteran of stage, radio, and television. His poems speak to civil rights, human development, and spiritual acknowledgement and growth. An alumnus of the ‘Poets In Progress’, under the tutelage of the late Dolores Kendrick, ‘Poet Laureate for the District of Columbia; as well as the Anointed P.E.N.S. He is currently a member of the renowned poetry troupe Collective Voices, and a free-lance Poet.

He has recently published, “Bridges Over Aggravated Troubles”.

(You may contact him @ deotp123@gmail to order a copy, or for more information at his

availability @ performing).

KHADIJAH Z. ALI-COLEMAN is a multi-genre writer born in Washington DC and currently based in Baltimore, MD. She served as the second Poet Laureate of Prince George's County, MD from 2023-2025.

She is author of three poetry collections, and editor of the Liberated Muse anthology series. She is founder of Liberated Muse Arts Group and the 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, Black Writers for Peace and Social Justice, Inc.

CATRICE GREER is a poet, speaker and Founder of a writing for wellness and wellbeing workshop series, Into The Green.

Her poetic works are published internationally and domestically. Ms. Greer’s poetry and voice narration is installed permanently as public art in the Cylburn Arboretum Nature Education Center.

She is a chorister in The Community Concert Choir of Baltimore who performed for the Rome Archdiocese in Italy, Dec 2023.

Ms. Greer studies voice in the studio of Dr. Lori Sen at Peabody Institute.

PATTI ROSS a Pushcart-nominated poet and advocate for social justice and the environment, is known for her compelling spoken poetry. A graduate of American University and the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, she also holds a master’s from Keller Graduate School at DeVry and a Social Justice Certificate from UC Berkeley. Her 2021 poetry collection was published by Yellow Arrow Press, exploring human complexity and systemic inequity. In 2024, her work was featured in the HoCoPoLitSo Lucille Clifton Reading Series as part of Howard County Conservancy’s Writing the Land project. Her poetry sparks conversations on justice, sustainability, and cultural diversity.