Discover the private creative lives of others.
Featuring special guest Alan King!
STREAM HERE: https://zoom.us/j/899291819
Alan King is an author, poet, journalist and videographer, who lives with his wife and daughter in Bowie, MD. He writes about art and domestic issues on this blog.
He’s a communications specialist for a national nonprofit and a senior editor at Words Beats & Life‘s global hip hop journal.
As a staff writer for the Baltimore Afro-American Newspaper, King often out-scooped the Baltimore Sun when covering housing and the Baltimore City Council. His three-part series on East Baltimore’s redevelopment and the displaced residents brought together stakeholders (community leaders, elected officials and developers) to work out a plan that gave vulnerable residents a role in helping to build up the city’s blighted neighborhoods.
During a trip to Kingston, Jamaica, King introduced AFRO readers to the island’s rich history by highlighting its national heroes such as Marcus Garvey and Bob Marley. Additionally, his historic pieces from slavery to emancipation helped his readers understand the significance of the island’s 47th Independence Day celebration.
As a research assistant at the Center for Public Integrity, a government watchdog organization of investigative journalists, King helped compile examples of corruption for The Buying of the Presidency 2008 book.
King is the author of POINT BLANK (Silver Birch Press, 2016) and DRIFT (Aquarius Press, 2012). As a visiting author for Pen Faulkner’s Writers-in-Schools program, he’s inspiring the next generation of readers and writers. Through Pen Faulkner, his visits, as one teacher put it, helps young people “see literature as it happens, rather than as it happened in history.”
King’s honors include fellowships from Cave (cah-veh) Canem (cah-nem) and Voices of Our Nations Arts (VONA) Foundation, three Pushcart Prize nominations as well as three nominations for Best of the Net selection.
He’s a graduate of the Stonecoast MFA Low-Residency Program at the University of Southern Maine. His poems and short stories appear in various literary journals, magazines and are featured on public radio.