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Chekejai: Welcome to Designing Sistas and thank you so much for being a part of this. Patricia: Thank you so much for having me. Thank you for inviting me. Chekejai: The pleasure is truly ours. So let's talk! You have a new book – Epiphany Poems -- that was just released earlier this spring. Tell us about it. Patricia: Yes! On April 6th Epiphany Poems was released nationally. It is now an internationally released title. It's been a blessing. I imagine bringing forth this work for many year. Chekejai: Years? Really? Patricia: Epiphany has been in the works for about 30 years since 1987; that's when I started writing and believe it or not, it took until 2017 to actually publish it [and for it] to come full circle. Chekejai: Everything happens in its own time but why do you think it took 30 years to bring this to the rest of us? Patricia: I wasn't really positive that I wanted to share these very personal moments with the world. It was about my most intimate life -- my love for God, for hip-hop music and growing up as a Philly girl. Epiphany covers the gamut but I wasn't really ready to share before now. Chekejai: What changed all of that? Patricia: Two things: 1) I made a declaration at church and I will return to that soon and 2) one day – not long before then, I went into my closet -- in my room at home -- and I saw this huge stack of papers on a shelf. They were neat but it was a stack nonetheless. It was the poems – my poems -- that I had been collecting over the years. I had printed them out, shifted them around, paper clipped them. I had done all of this stuff to them but I had not read, reviewed, and really edited them. I had just not put them in book form but they had been waiting for me all of those years. I had been talking about it and thinking through it. Spirit then spoke to me and said "OK Patricia, it’ time. There's no more reason to wait." Chekejai: So, it's almost like you had an "epiphany." Patricia: Yes, so [getting back to number one] this past New Year's Eve I made a declaration at church. I declared that my book would be published in March 2017. I had some work to do! I had to literally get the papers off of the shelf. I began tightening them up, modifying them and rethinking them. The process forced me to take on this project and to complete what I started. I was able to go full circle and complete it. It was about time. "The process forced me to take on this project and to complete what I started." Chekejai: That is truly powerful! Congratulations! I'm sure that it was well worth the wait too! Patricia: For me Epiphany is like a prerequisite. The plan really is to do more books as I allow God to work through me. I plan to write a series of children's books and potentially publish [the work of] other people. I am working on a series of children's books that are spirit based. My desire encourage children to follow their dreams through my books. I also desire to teach children things that are critical for them to understand—how to be patient and caring, how to share, and how to be brave and strong. My books will help to fortify who they are as young people. I would also ultimately like to work with Oprah on Super Soul Sunday; that is my plan. I will see how it aligns with God's plan. Chekejai: That is an amazing envisioning. Queen Oprah! Yes! Patricia: We have the power. The moment that we realize it, the closer we are to actually realizing everything. Oprah is going to need somebody and she will call me and I will say yes! "...and I will say yes!" Chekejai: Affirmative and congratulations in advance! What was your inspiration for Epiphany? Patricia: I started writing as an outlet. I had to find a way to express myself. My father had challenges with alcoholism. Thankfully, he recovered about 15 years before he transitioned – and he was not a violent man even in inebriated states -- but I grew up watching him and I needed to find a way to express the impact that his challenge had on me, my siblings and my mother; writing gave me that expression and that outlet. Also, as a college student I was just trying to find myself. While I was a college student at Temple University in Philadelphia, Sonia Sanchez was one of my professor and having her as a professor was a powerful experience for me. I was enamored so I begin writing more about African-American history. I also got involved with the African-American studies department in search of who I was as a woman as a Black woman. I found myself learning about who I was as a citizen in this country and about this incredible heritage. I became alive! It was this amazing experience for me and I really started to live. I had a connection with ancestors that I had no idea about until I started to really study and my poetry became much more meaningful and much more powerful. As soon as you start finding yourself you sometimes find yourself in love in the mist in the mist of all of that and I was finding love. It was just beautiful explosion of a blessing. So, for me, writing was freedom on the written page and it was really about becoming whole. Chekejai: Your poem Epiphany, is epic! It seems like you found God and all of the spaces and in all of these people and in all of these events. Patricia: So God shows up where we invite him -- that could be in front of the church or on the corner of Broad and Erie in North Philadelphia or anywhere depending on where you are inviting him so, instead of choosing, I am just open. There is no place in a corner of my life where God is not present so I had to write a letter -- a thank you letter -- for the grace. I was just being grateful. "...for the grace. I was just being grateful." You can purchase your copy of Epiphany Poems on Amazon More on Patricia Williams and her new book Epiphany Poems in the upcoming issue of Designing Sistas Magazine! The next issue on Renewal will be available online soon! Stay Tuned! Light for the journey! -ck |
C. Chekejai ColeyChekejai (shh-kay-jah), creator and publisher of Designing Sistas Magazine is a Philly native who is currently residing in the MD/DC area. She is a graduate of Temple University's School of Communications. She is mostly the mother of a beautiful 8-year-old daughter, Nile-Indigo. Archives
September 2019
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