Cedric Tillman's Blog - Posts Tagged "dc"
Review: Lilies In The Valley
A review of Lilies, by poet and teacher Joseph Ross. I am thankful to Joseph for his kindness in picking up the book and taking the time.
"Cedric Tillman’s poetry collection Lilies in the Valley has vision and faith. It looks and believes. These poems look deeply into human concerns with vivid details and rich, sometimes amusing descriptions. What they always do, for me, is draw me to look deeply at my own life. Tillman explores our various identities as family members, citizens, and people of varying levels of faith. The beauty of the poems is so strong it invites us all to the same exploration. For this, we can be grateful to Cedric Tillman and to Willow Books for getting these fine poems into our hands. I’ve been enjoying this collection for a few months now and I know I will return to it again and again..."
http://josephross.net/?p=1909
Please check out some of Joseph's work here.
http://mainstreetrag.com/bookstore/pr...
"Cedric Tillman’s poetry collection Lilies in the Valley has vision and faith. It looks and believes. These poems look deeply into human concerns with vivid details and rich, sometimes amusing descriptions. What they always do, for me, is draw me to look deeply at my own life. Tillman explores our various identities as family members, citizens, and people of varying levels of faith. The beauty of the poems is so strong it invites us all to the same exploration. For this, we can be grateful to Cedric Tillman and to Willow Books for getting these fine poems into our hands. I’ve been enjoying this collection for a few months now and I know I will return to it again and again..."
http://josephross.net/?p=1909
Please check out some of Joseph's work here.
http://mainstreetrag.com/bookstore/pr...
IN MY FEELINS Is Finally Here!
Hi all:
Happy to announce that my second collection, IN MY FEELINS, is out now!
Get it from me: $21 inc. shipping, signature; Venmo (Cedric-tillman-1), Cash App ($CedricTillman), PayPal (ctwriter@hotmail.com)
or for $19 at:
Park Road Books, Charlotte
https://www.parkroadbooks.com/book/97...
Barnes and Noble:
https://www.parkroadbooks.com/book/97...
Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/My-Feelins-Ced...
IN MY FEELINS' page on my publisher's (WordTech) site (includes samples, blurbs, links to Barnes and Noble, Amazon)
https://www.wordpoetrybooks.com/tillm...
"When the world makes you into a mixtape, and what you need and what you click on and how you love seems a-jumble, read the poems of Cedric Tillman. These are fabulous poems of candor and jump, muscle and song. But his astonishing new book is also a compendium of testimonies-'Testimonial Poetics' might be a thing, starting now-to help us define ourselves in the moment, and our momentary selves."- Alan Michael Parker
"Cedric Tillman knows the reaches of the skipped stone. These poems are all-human-at once vulnerable, humorous and peacock. In My Feelins holds everything up to the light in consideration-from the domestic to the sociopolitical-while the most critical examination is reserved for the self. The reader will find themselves laughing out loud at imaginative political commentary and freshly devastated as Tillman revisits the terrorist attack in Charleston, SC and his own father's death. This collection is reflective of a heart shaped by origin and witness-a life worth reading about."- Kwoya Fagins Maples
"'Being free means getting used to the ghosts'-this is the heart of Tillman's collection. Through his mastery of persona and imagery, Tillman gives a voice to all the ghosts of his neighborhood and our neighborhood, the ghosts of his history and ours. In My Feelins is a great lyric collection, and a necessary reminder of the freedoms that can only be achieved by reckoning with the voices inside us and around us."- Jason McCall
Happy to announce that my second collection, IN MY FEELINS, is out now!
Get it from me: $21 inc. shipping, signature; Venmo (Cedric-tillman-1), Cash App ($CedricTillman), PayPal (ctwriter@hotmail.com)
or for $19 at:
Park Road Books, Charlotte
https://www.parkroadbooks.com/book/97...
Barnes and Noble:
https://www.parkroadbooks.com/book/97...
Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/My-Feelins-Ced...
IN MY FEELINS' page on my publisher's (WordTech) site (includes samples, blurbs, links to Barnes and Noble, Amazon)
https://www.wordpoetrybooks.com/tillm...
"When the world makes you into a mixtape, and what you need and what you click on and how you love seems a-jumble, read the poems of Cedric Tillman. These are fabulous poems of candor and jump, muscle and song. But his astonishing new book is also a compendium of testimonies-'Testimonial Poetics' might be a thing, starting now-to help us define ourselves in the moment, and our momentary selves."- Alan Michael Parker
"Cedric Tillman knows the reaches of the skipped stone. These poems are all-human-at once vulnerable, humorous and peacock. In My Feelins holds everything up to the light in consideration-from the domestic to the sociopolitical-while the most critical examination is reserved for the self. The reader will find themselves laughing out loud at imaginative political commentary and freshly devastated as Tillman revisits the terrorist attack in Charleston, SC and his own father's death. This collection is reflective of a heart shaped by origin and witness-a life worth reading about."- Kwoya Fagins Maples
"'Being free means getting used to the ghosts'-this is the heart of Tillman's collection. Through his mastery of persona and imagery, Tillman gives a voice to all the ghosts of his neighborhood and our neighborhood, the ghosts of his history and ours. In My Feelins is a great lyric collection, and a necessary reminder of the freedoms that can only be achieved by reckoning with the voices inside us and around us."- Jason McCall
Hot Boy Fall? Busboys and Poets, PEN/Faulkner Writers-in-Schools, Cave Canem Reading
Work's been crazy so I'm way behind on my updates over here. On October 22, I stood in for the gracious and thoughtful María Fernanda as feature at the 14th & K Busboys and Poets in DC. Some coworkers were sweet enough to come out and I got to meet Tatiana Figueroa Ramirez (COCONUT CURLS Y CAFE CON LECHE) who was a cool host and who I will forever remember as one of the major figures in peer pressuring me to get on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/ctwriter1/, btw)! I read from LILIES IN THE VALLEY and from my new collection IN MY FEELINS.
On November 25th I had the pleasure of visiting DC's Takoma Education Campus as a participating writer in the PEN/Faulkner Writers-In-Schools program for the first time at Takoma Education Campus in DC. These middle school kids, about 60 or so, were so sweet but they're not shy about asking tough questions. (For example, the "n-word" is in my LILIES, as in the title poem "Lilies In The Valley," and I was asked why I'd used that word-had to explain the context.) It was good for me to get in front of a class for the first time since my short-lived stint at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College in 2011 and shake off a lot of rust. And I've never had the opportunity to sign so many books! I have to thank my poetry brothers Alan King and Derrick Weston Brown for insisting on the idea and Alan for giving them my info.
Finally, on December 1 I had the pleasure of reading with my Cave Canem family on a rainy Baltimore day at the Pratt Library, Dec. 1. The event was hosted by Reggie Harris of Poets House. Kyle Dargan, director of the MFA Creating Writing program at American University was the featured reader, but graciously shared his honorarium with the rest of us, including Abdul Ali, Teri Cross Davis, Alan King, Saida Agostini, and Hayes Davis. Steven Leyva of the University of Baltimore was also in attendance. This was my second year in a row participating, and it made think that I need to get about the business of getting some new work done every year if I want to participate-now that I'm so close to Baltimore by way of living in the DMV, I feel obligated to have new material when I raise my hand for these going forward...
More to come soon! I'll be reading in DC at the American Poetry Museum on Feb. 2 with fellow AU alum Steve Castro and Jane Alberdeston, at The New School with Xandria Phillips and James Cagney (Cave Canem reading), and at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill on April 12. I'll post about those more as they approach.
On November 25th I had the pleasure of visiting DC's Takoma Education Campus as a participating writer in the PEN/Faulkner Writers-In-Schools program for the first time at Takoma Education Campus in DC. These middle school kids, about 60 or so, were so sweet but they're not shy about asking tough questions. (For example, the "n-word" is in my LILIES, as in the title poem "Lilies In The Valley," and I was asked why I'd used that word-had to explain the context.) It was good for me to get in front of a class for the first time since my short-lived stint at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College in 2011 and shake off a lot of rust. And I've never had the opportunity to sign so many books! I have to thank my poetry brothers Alan King and Derrick Weston Brown for insisting on the idea and Alan for giving them my info.
Finally, on December 1 I had the pleasure of reading with my Cave Canem family on a rainy Baltimore day at the Pratt Library, Dec. 1. The event was hosted by Reggie Harris of Poets House. Kyle Dargan, director of the MFA Creating Writing program at American University was the featured reader, but graciously shared his honorarium with the rest of us, including Abdul Ali, Teri Cross Davis, Alan King, Saida Agostini, and Hayes Davis. Steven Leyva of the University of Baltimore was also in attendance. This was my second year in a row participating, and it made think that I need to get about the business of getting some new work done every year if I want to participate-now that I'm so close to Baltimore by way of living in the DMV, I feel obligated to have new material when I raise my hand for these going forward...
More to come soon! I'll be reading in DC at the American Poetry Museum on Feb. 2 with fellow AU alum Steve Castro and Jane Alberdeston, at The New School with Xandria Phillips and James Cagney (Cave Canem reading), and at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill on April 12. I'll post about those more as they approach.
Feb. 2 Reading at the American Poetry Museum, Washington, DC
On Sunday Feb. 2, I'll be reading at the American Poetry Museum with fellow American University MFA program graduate Steve Castro and fellow Cave Canem fellow/professor/poet Jane Alberdeston from 3-5 pm. This is my first event since IN MY FEELINS came out and I'm grateful to Samuel Miranda and Fred Joiner for their generosity in hosting us. (We'll be sure to get y'all out if you're catching the Super Bowl as I am.)
The APM's Center for Poetic Thought is located at 716 Monroe St. NE, Studio #25 in NE Washington D.C.'s Brookland neighborhood. Check out the links below for author info and books or contact me personally at cedricLtillman@gmail.com.
Jane Alberdeston
Blue Whale Phenomena
Lilies in the Valley
In My Feelins
The APM's Center for Poetic Thought is located at 716 Monroe St. NE, Studio #25 in NE Washington D.C.'s Brookland neighborhood. Check out the links below for author info and books or contact me personally at cedricLtillman@gmail.com.
Jane Alberdeston
Blue Whale Phenomena
Lilies in the Valley
In My Feelins
The Literary Cypher (Nov. 17 reading)
Many thanks to LP Kersey of the Literary Cypher, a DMV area reading series, for reaching out to me and giving me a chance to fellowship with other DMV writers (if only through Facebook). She usually have 8 readers go for about 8 minutes and though we didn't know each other for the most part, it was like family in the room. I was thrilled to be able to read with my American University classmate and "susta" Venus Thrash, and got to hear the work of Dr. Michele Simms-Burton, someone I'd gotten acquainted with via Facebook without having had the pleasure of hearing her creative output. Other readers included novelist Heather Elizabeth King, poetry duo Wilnona & Jade, poets Janique Muckelvene and Destiny Hemphill, and writer/journalist Lottie Joiner.
