Cedric Tillman's Blog - Posts Tagged "lilies-in-the-valley"

I forgot to mention this here in the craziness of my move to the DC metro area that was going on at the time-but I had a great time meeting and reading with Janet Joyner and Sara Claytor (who I met at an earlier reading back in '16.) Thanks so much to Grace Ocasio (http://www.blazevox.org/index.php/Sho...) for making the introduction and to Quail Ridge for having me.
------------------------------------------------
http://www.quailridgebooks.com/event/...

Sara Claytor, Cedric Tillman & Janet Joyner - An Afternoon of NC Poets

Our Sundry Poets program presents a trio of talented NC poets on Sunday, Dec. 4, at 2 pm. Carrboro's Sara Claytor, author of Memory Bones, shares from her latest, Waiting on Unknown Roads.

Cedric Tillman shares Lilies in the Valley. “Cedric Tillman’s poems are straightforward and full of rich details. These poems unfold with rhythm and resonate with remembering; they have much emotional appeal, depicting pop culture, family life, blues, violence, love, religion and history. Lilies In The Valley is a serious and daring book.”–Lenard D. Moore, author of Forever Home.

Winston-Salem's Janet Joyner presents Waterborne, winner of the 2015 Holland Prize. "Janet Joyner, in these powerful, musically sensuous poems, reaches into our innermost hearts; and as a result we are, I think, both deeper and more honest than we were before." - Anthony Abbott (The Angel Dialogues).

Our moderator is Jo Taylor.

Event date:
Sunday, December 4, 2016 - 2:00pm
Event address:
North Hills
4209-100 Lassiter Mill Road
Raleigh, NC 27609

I'm super excited and thankful to have a new poem entitled "Supremacy, or The Black Lifestyle" up at Pleaides. The poem was actually created from the writing/feelings/ideas that came from out of the tragic shooting of nine Bible study attendees at Mother Emanuel A.M.E. in Charleston in 2015, as well as a quote from an article from the last election that came from an article written on a Ben Carson visit to NC. The first poem that came out of it all was "The Blood," which was published by Public Pool. The second is "Supremacy," here:

http://www.pleiadesmag.com/cedrictill...

Thanks for reading!

I'm back from hiatus. I'll be doing my first non-open mic reading in a bit over a year next week back home in NC over in Asheville at The Block off biltmore (their capitalization, not mine :) Show starts at 7:30-I'll do about 30 mins, try to slip in some stuff from my latest ms., which will be followed by an open mic. Come through!

https://www.facebook.com/events/17861...

Hi all (some):

I'm grateful for what's been an accidentally busy summer for online readings for me. I had come to terms with the idea that I just wouldn't be doing promotion of IN MY FEELINS because I couldn't imagine pursuing online readings but the generosity of several old friends (and some new ones) prevented me from going into a hole. So...

*On September 21, I'm tentatively scheduled to read a couple of pieces for April Armstrong's Oral Diktion Academy series. This is broadcast on Facebook and the show runs from 8-10 September 21, 2020.

*Back on July 15, Caleb Beissert of the Poetry Open Mic Asheville series had me "up" for the second time.

*On June 18, Kimberly Simms Gibbs and Andrew Clark of the CarolinaPoets reading series invited me to read with fellow Cave Canem alums Glenis Redmond and Tyree Daye for Juneteenth.

*And finally, on May 20, my old friend Al Black of the Mind Gravy Reading Series down in Columbia, SC, invited me to read.

Further off-I'm thrilled and honored to be doing an online reading on Nov. 6 for Furious Flower, an organization that does so much to promulgate Black poetry. Many thanks to the generous assistant director of FF, Dr. Lauren K. Alleyne (a seriously good poet in her own right) and director Dr. Joanne Gabbin-loved to be in the company of these good folks when I could get down to Harrisonburg pre-COVID. (James Madison U. in Harrisonburg, VA, is FF's home.)

Please tune in the Oral Diktion and Furious Flower readings on FB, and don't forget to pick up copies of IN MY FEELINS from me (see my profile here, also my Twitter profile) or elsewhere (order from your local bookstore, Barnes and Noble online, or Amazon; LILIES IN THE VALLEY remains available through Small Press Distribution [spdbooks.org]). Thanks!

I was honored to learn at the last minute that Dr. Leak, who I had for Af-Am Lit 22 years ago, was teaching Lilies in the Valley last week. It was an absolute treat to talk to the students and read poems that I rarely read or had never read. I sat in on both of last week's courses via Zoom and it was extremely gratifying to be a part of all the frank and intimate discussion that the poems elicited on topics from race and family to relationships and sexuality. This was only my second virtual class visit (h/t to poet/novelist Destiny Birdsong, who taught the book back in '14/'15 at Vanderbilt and invited me in remotely as well as in person.) I'm looking forward to getting up to the alma mater in person sometime this semester.

I'll be reading at McIntyre's Books this Sunday, October 29 at 2 p.m. in Pittsboro, NC with with Aruna Gurumurthy. The reading is sponsored by the North Carolina Poetry Society.

McIntyre’s Books is located at 200 Market Street (Fearrington Village) in Pittsboro. From the Poetry Society's announcement:
___________________________________________
CEDRIC TILLMAN graduated from UNC Charlotte and American University's Creative Writing MFA program. His debut poetry collection, entitled Lilies in the Valley, was published by Willow Books in 2013. His latest offering, In My Feelins, was published by WordTech Poetry in 2019. Cedric lives in Charlotte.

ARUNA GURUMURTHY is a creative thinker and poet who has published seven books since 2015. Her poems appear in Bellevue Literary Review (forthcoming), storySouth, South 85 Journal, Penwood Review, and others. Aruna lives with her loving family in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and brings change in the world, one poem at a time.

Willow Books is publishing a 10th anniversary edition of Lilies (at a special prize of $10)!

https://aquariuspress.myshopify.com/p...

I'm thankful as always to Dr. Randall Horton & Heather Buchanan for giving me the chance to go the places this book has taken me. From the announcement:

"The title of my first book comes from a song we used to sing in church when I was little, down in my hometown of Lilesville, NC (pop. 600 or so). It's an old spiritual and I will always think of home when I hear it. (Please check out John P. Kee's version on YouTube to get a feeling for it!) The first section of LILIES IN THE VALLEY is mostly about those first 7 years of my life down "in the country," and I think anyone who wants to understand "where I'm coming from" in all my work has an advantage if they know small town life and religion. The title was also, to an extent, an ode to a certain type of black person-the title poem uses hyperbole to acknowledge those of us who are a little "'hood" and a little "academic" but mostly an amalgamation of both extremes-and thus are "lilies in the valley" between those constructs."

"Cedric Tillman's LILIES IN THE VALLEY is poetic scripture. Rooted in culture, family, love, and the word, Tillman proves that sacredness can drive verse and keep it fresh like newly baked biscuits. This is modern poetry but grounded in the past. It is hip-hop and Sunday morning, church dinner chatter, love and happiness, Carolina shouts and sermons, a new voice ready to testify and do so in a way that no one has yet done before." --Brian Gilmore, author of come see about me, marvin

"Cedric Tillman’s LILIES IN THE VALLEY still resonates with emotional appeal, remembering and storytelling ten years later from first publication... LILIES IN THE VALLEY is one book to read right now. Maybe these poems could save us. --Lenard D. Moore, author of The Geography of Jazz; Long Rain; and A Million Shadows At Noon; Founder, Carolina African American Writers’ Collective

Cedric Tillman hails from Anson County, NC & Charlotte. He is a graduate of UNCC and The American University's Creative Writing MFA program. He is also a Cave Canem fellow.

I'll be reading at the Anson County (NC) Library on August 18 at 10:30 a.m. It's humbling to be reading "down home" after all these years. I'm grateful to Dianne Welch of the library and Alton Chewning, whose family is well known to many of us from the area, for helping to make this happen.

August 18, 2025, 10:30 a.m.
Hampton B. Allen Library
120 S Greene St, Wadesboro, NC 28170