User:Bcryan/sandbox

Arthur Flowers (Writer, Griot, Performance Artist)

"i am flowers of the delta clan flowers and the line of o killens novelist, syr mfa fiction prof, organizer, performance poet, mganga maua, babagriot of the hoodoo way i fancy myself a visionary" (Arthur Flowers, Rootwork the Rootsblog:a Cyberhoodoo webspace http://rootsblog.typepad.com/rootsblog/)

Personal Life

Arthur Richard Flowers,(Rickydoc) is an African American writer, griot and performance artist. He was born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee on July 30th, 1950. His parents were Dr. Arthur Flowers,Sr., and Eloise Flowers. He is a follower of hoodoo and a visionary of African American spiritual experiences. He was influenced to become a writer from his stint in the Marines and particularly from his mentor, the writer John O. Killens.

Teaching

Flowers has been an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Syracuse University since 1997. Before then he taught at Medgar Evers College 1994-1996, and CUNY Research Center, 1977.

Workshops

Co-founded the Harlem Writers Guild. He left the Guild in 1994 and co-founded the New Renaissance Guild. Among the New Renaissance Guild founders and members were Doris Jean Austin and Terry McMillan.


 * John O. Killens Workshop NYC 1973-1987
 * New Renaissance Writers Guild, NYC 1984-1988
 * Harlem Writers Guild NYC 1976-1984
 * Frederick Douglas Creative Arts Center NYC (fic/screen) 1974-1982
 * Donald Barthelme, NYC 1978-1979

Performances

Writings


 * De Mojo Blues. E.P. Dutton 1985
 * Another Good Loving Blues. Viking 1993
 * Cleveland Lee's Beale Street Band. BridgeWater Books 1995
 * Mojo Rising: Confessions of a 21st Century Conjure Man. Wanganegresse Press 2002
 * I see the Promised Land: the Life of Martin Luther King, Jr.. Tara Books, 2010

Works in Progress


 * The Hoodoo Book of Flowers''
 * '' Rest for the Weary
 * Brer Rabbit Tales Redux

References