Aberjhani

American-born author Aberjhani is an historian, columnist, novelist, poet, and editor. Although well known for his blog articles on literature and politics, he is perhaps best known as co-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance and author of The River of Winged Dreams.[1] The encyclopedia won a Choice Academic Title Award in 2004.[2]

Early life and education

Born Jeffery J. Lloyd[3] on 8 July 1957[4] Aberjhani grew up in Savannah, Georgia. Upon graduating from Savannah High School in 1975, he studied journalism, creative writing, and the American community at a variety of colleges: Savannah State College (now University); Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida; Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota; Temple University in Philadelphia; and the New College of California in San Francisco. He completed additional studies in journalism at the Fort Benjamin Harrison School of Journalism in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Military service

He served a two-year tour of duty with the U.S. Air Force in Fairbanks, Alaska; four years in Suffolk, England; and another two years with the USAF Reserves in Charleston, South Carolina. He studied Equal Opportunity and Human Relations Counseling at the DEOMI Institute at Tyndale AFB, Florida.[5]

Literary career

The author took the name Aberjhani as an adult: he says that it came to him in a dream.[3] He continued writing while in the Air Force. He later served from 1994 until 2001 as co-editor of the Savannah Literary Journal. During the same period, he served as a literary reviewer for the Georgia Council for the Arts and held various position with the Poetry Society of Georgia, the oldest such literary organization in the state, and became well known as both a spoken word poet and published author.[6] His national debut came in 1997 with ESSENCE Magazine's publication of his cover story/essay "This Mother’s Son."[7] The magazine at the time commanded a circulation of 7 million readers. From 1999 to 2005 his poems appeared regularly in ESSENCE, making him one of the most well-known poets in the United States.[8]

Bibliography

History and memoir

Novel

Short fiction and poetry collections

He has self-published works about childhood experiences in Savannah in both prose and poetry as well as been published by different small and university presses.[10]

Online columnist

The Digital Clarity Group’s Examiner.com, under the umbrella of the Anschutz Company and AXS Entertainment, hosted Aberjhani’s National African-American Art Examiner column from July 2009 until June 2016.[11] His topics have included fine art and artists’ biographies, as well as reports on contemporary politics, social network trends, and popular culture. He is noted for a series of articles on the life and death of Michael Jackson, the controversial case of Georgia death-row prisoner Troy Anthony Davis, the presidency of Barack Obama, and the United Nation’s 2011 International Year for People of African Descent. His Notebook on Black History Month 2012 series covered historical and contemporary subjects including included Whitney Houston, Angela Davis, and Harry Belafonte.

Articles and essays

Selected titles as editor

Notable Anthology Inclusions

Literary influences

Aberjhani has said in interviews that he has been influenced more by literary movements than by individual writers.[14] He co-edited an encyclopedia on the Harlem Renaissance, a major 20th-century movement.[15] But others have included Modernism in general, Surrealism, the Beats, the Black Arts Movement, Postmodernism, and Existentialism. He has also gone on record as being influenced at different periods by the following authors: James Baldwin, Albert Camus, W.E.B. Du Bois, Henry Dumas, Ralph Ellison, William Faulkner, Khalil Gibran, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Federico Garcia Lorca, Dambudzo Marechera, Henry Miller, James Alan McPherson, with whom he shares the same hometown and was featured in the Literary Savannah anthology, Toni Morrison, Anais Nin, Jalal al-Din Rumi, Jean-Paul Sartre, Alice Walker, and Margaret Walker.[16]

Awards and honors

Humanitarian causes

Aberjhani founded the online Creative Thinkers International community in September 2007 to support creative nonviolent conflict resolutions in the face of escalating warfare and terrorism following 9/11.[21] Consisting of more than 500 independent artists from around the globe, the community maintains forums on such issues as Human Liberties Around the World and the potential role of the cultural arts in helping to maintain international peace.[22] In March 2013 he announced his support for the September 2013 Global March for Peace and Unity Event.[23] In January 2014 he signed the international Charter for Compassion. He later as a member contributed articles on Boko Haram, guerrilla contextualization, and social media ethics to the nonprofit organization’s Voices Compassion Education Project.[24] In 2016 he joined the Span the Gap Movement advocating that the name of the Eugene Talmadge Memorial Bridge be changed to one less racially inflammatory.[25] The author first addressed the issue the 2007 memoir The American Poet Who Went Home Again.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Morekis, Jim. "All that Jazz: Local Author Aberjhani has Penned a History of the Harlem Renaissance," Connect Savannah 3, 20 (11 February 2004): Cover story.
  2. ↑ Association of College and Research Libraries. "Outstanding Academic Titles," Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, Vol. 42, 2004: p. 768.
  3. 1 2 Thorne, Ben (18 July 1995). "Savannah poet born to dream" (PDF). Savannah morning news. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
  4. ↑ Aberjhani; Luther E. Vann (2008). Elemental : the power of illuminated love. Columbia, SC: Soar Pub. p. 127. ISBN 9780972114271. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
  5. ↑ Dravis, Betty and Chase Von. "Interview with Aberjhani, Award-Winning Poet," Dream Reachers. Winchester: VonChase Publishing, 2009. ISBN 978-0-9766787-8-6. p. 367-383
  6. ↑ Lynn Hamilton, "Success is Sweetest When It Has Suffered a Delay," Savannah Creative Loafing News Entertainment Weekly, Feb 21, 1998
  7. ↑ ESSENCE Magazine, Nov 1997: story published with full-page photo of author as part of "The Many Ways of Looking at a Black Man" special edition. Included with profiles of: entrepreneur Sean Puffy Combs; singer Maxwell; writer Michel Marriott; political activist Geronimo Ji Jaga Pratt; author John Edgar Weidman; and golfer Tiger Woods.
  8. ↑ Poems by Aberjhani published in ESSENCE Magazine: "Lady on the Lake" Oct 2005; "Fulton Street/The Series" August 2005; "Botanical Gardens #2" and "In a Quiet Place on a Quiet Street" May 2005; "Star People," April 2005; "Coffee Morning Rhapsody" February 2004; "DarkMagusMilesAhead #7" January 2003; "The Light That Never Dies" December 2001; "Every Hour Henceforth" and "Family Reunion: Remembering the Ancestors" December 1999 End-of-the-Century Collector’s Edition.
  9. ↑ Aberjhani (February 2016), Songs from the Black Skylark zPed Music Player, Sydney, Australia: Freed Reads with Bright Skylark Literary Productions, ISBN 9780966235661, 0966235665
  10. ↑ Aberjhani. The American Poet Who Went Home Again, (Bright Skylark Literary Productions, 2008) ISBN 978-1-4357-1769-5
  11. ↑ Richardson, Vanessa. "The Joys and Perils of Authorship," African-American Authors Goodreads interview feature, 20 February 2009.
  12. ↑ Farmer, Steven. “Cyber City: Locals Release CD-ROM Guide to Savannah,” Creative Loafing 3 (1996): 1, 4. , Vol 3, Oct 5, 1996, cover story.
  13. ↑ Hamilton, Lynn. After Midnight. Creative Loafing. (Dec 29, 1998: Vol 5, No. 40, cover story
  14. ↑ Kinamore, Angela. "Interview with the Authors of the Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance," African Voices (Spring 2005): pp. 41-43.
  15. ↑ Carter, Zakia. "Essentials: Must-Have Reference Books for Your Home Library," Black Issues Book Review (January 2006).
  16. ↑ Goode, Vaughnette. "Writer Takes on Harlem Renaissance," Savannah Morning News, "Closeup" (21 March 2002): Cover story.
  17. ↑ Staff. "The Best of Savannah," Connect Savannah 5, 34 (17 May 2006) p. 12
  18. ↑ Staff. "Savannah Author Inducted Into Red Room Hall of Fame", The Savannah Tribune, 4 November 2009, p. 3
  19. ↑ Michael Jackson Tribute Portrait, "Aberjhani: Poet, Writer, Historian and VIP Dot", In the News, August 31, 2011
  20. ↑ Aberjhani, Let’s Fix It 7 Steps to Help Replace Legislated Fear with Informed Compassion (Oct 2014)
  21. ↑ Poetry Life and Times An Interview with Author-Poet Aberjhani March 2015
  22. ↑ Red Room News Blog, In Aftermath of 9/11 Community Exercises Creative Options, Sept 10, 2012
  23. ↑ Aberjhani, "Honoring the History that Peace Makes," Bright Skylark Literary Productions, March 26, 2013
  24. ↑ Creative Flexibility and Annihilated Lives Aug 28, 2014
  25. ↑ Lebose, Jessica Leigh. Name Shaming the Talmadge Bridge, Connect Savannah (13 April 2016)

References

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