Ekphrastacy
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Ekphrastic poetry is a time-honored form in which the writer is inspired by and responds to a work of art in another discipline - such as visual arts, sculpture, dance and music. The word "ekphrastic" comes from the Greek word exphrasis, which means (freely translated) an "ecstatic utterance".
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Program
Poet Poem
Artist, Work title
Poet Poem
Artist, Work title
Raja Belle Freeman & white friend asks if I’m going to the protest
Liz Maugans, What Are We Running From #2
Sujata Lahke you run and run and run
Liz Maugans, What Are We Running From #2
Siaara Freeman alternate history in which
the american flag is never stitched
Kenn Hetzel, Unravelled
Ray McNiece Woe, the People
Kenn Hetzel, Abused, But Not Defeated
Sujata Lahke Not a Holiday
Malik Burpo, It’s Not A Holiday
Raja Belle Freeman crowd control
Omid Tavakoli, Cowardly Yellow
Ray McNiece mind control
Omid Tavakoli, Sea Of Cops
Siaara Freeman a sea of cops
Omid Tavakoli, Sea Of Cops
Sujata Lahke Sidewalk night
Kenneth Bernstein, Streetlights, People
Ray McNiece Carrot On A Stick Savior
Scott Kraynak, The Mechanical Carrot
Ray McNiece He Says What I Think
Scott Kraynak, Trump Gothic
Siaara Freeman The Day Jazz Crawled Out
Tracy Ameen, Where Jazz Crawled Out From
Raja Belle Freeman A Call to Arms
Tracy Ameen, Call to Arms
Sujata Lakhe And Then There Was Light
Tracy Ameen, Call to Arms
Raja Belle Freeman StageCoach Mary
Tracy Ameen, Black Mary
Siaara Freeman Black Mary Gave Birth To A New Dark
Tracy Ameen, Black Mary
Ray McNiece And the Jazz Plays On
Tracy Ameen, Where Jazz Crawled Out From
Liz Maugans, What Are We Running From #2
Sujata Lahke you run and run and run
Liz Maugans, What Are We Running From #2
Siaara Freeman alternate history in which
the american flag is never stitched
Kenn Hetzel, Unravelled
Ray McNiece Woe, the People
Kenn Hetzel, Abused, But Not Defeated
Sujata Lahke Not a Holiday
Malik Burpo, It’s Not A Holiday
Raja Belle Freeman crowd control
Omid Tavakoli, Cowardly Yellow
Ray McNiece mind control
Omid Tavakoli, Sea Of Cops
Siaara Freeman a sea of cops
Omid Tavakoli, Sea Of Cops
Sujata Lahke Sidewalk night
Kenneth Bernstein, Streetlights, People
Ray McNiece Carrot On A Stick Savior
Scott Kraynak, The Mechanical Carrot
Ray McNiece He Says What I Think
Scott Kraynak, Trump Gothic
Siaara Freeman The Day Jazz Crawled Out
Tracy Ameen, Where Jazz Crawled Out From
Raja Belle Freeman A Call to Arms
Tracy Ameen, Call to Arms
Sujata Lakhe And Then There Was Light
Tracy Ameen, Call to Arms
Raja Belle Freeman StageCoach Mary
Tracy Ameen, Black Mary
Siaara Freeman Black Mary Gave Birth To A New Dark
Tracy Ameen, Black Mary
Ray McNiece And the Jazz Plays On
Tracy Ameen, Where Jazz Crawled Out From
Poets
Ray McNiece, Cleveland Heights Poet Laureate 2020-2022
2021 Cleveland Arts Prize Lifetime Achievement Award Winner
Ray McNiece is the Poet-Laureate chosen by Heights Arts through 2022. McNiece is the author of 11 books of poems and monologues, two solo theatre works, two musidpoetry collaboration, and one collaborative theatre work. He started his own educational company Page to Stage Productions in 1994. He has worked as a consultant for WordForward in Singapore and for the nationally touring, Poetry Alive. He is also an adjunct professor at John Carroll University. He was recently certified into Young Audiences National Teaching Artist Roster, one of only twenty such teaching artists nationally.
Sujata Lakhe
Sujata Lakhe was born in India and grew up in a steel-town Bhilai before immigrating to Cleveland in her early 20s. She has co-authored research papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals in the field of Molecular Biology. Looking beyond the surface, questioning dogma, observing, making a conclusion but willing to change upon learning new information, and choosing the correct details to communicate accurately are some of the things she finds in common between the scientific process and creative writing. Her personal essays and poems can be read in Neighborhood Voices, an anthology published by Cleveland Public Library, Scene, The Blue Windmill chapbook, and Literary Cleveland Blogs. She has performed her stories and poems at the Photocentric, The Story Club Cleveland, Gilly's Music Room; she presently lives in Chagrin Falls, OH, with her husband William G Barnard IV and daughter Samira Reddy.
Siaara Freeman
Siaara Freeman is from Cleveland Ohio, where she is the current Lake Erie Siren & a teaching artist for Center For Arts Inspired Learning and The Sisterhood Project in conjunction with the Anisfield-Wolf Foundation. She is a 2021 Premier Playwright fellow recipient with Cleveland Public theater. She is a 2020 Watering Hole Manuscript fellow, a 2018 Winter Tangerine chapbook fellow and a 2018 Poetry Foundation incubator fellow. Her work appears in: The Offing, BOAAT, Tinderbox, Josephine Quarterly and elsewhere. She has toured both nationally and internationally. She is the co-founder of Outsiders Queer Midwest Writers Retreat. Chances are she's by a lake, thinking about Toni Morrison and talking to ghosts. In her spare time she is growing her afro so tall God can use it for a microphone and speak through her. Her first book Urbanshee is available for pre order via Button Poetry.
Raja Belle Freeman
Raja Belle Freeman is a performance poet, visual artist, and flautist in Cleveland, OH. Currently a teaching artist with Twelve Literary Arts, she has been featured on Cleveland's local Channel 3 and Channel 5 news, as well as WCPN and several YouTube channels. She was Cleveland's 2017 Youth Poetry Slam Champion and a member of the One Mic Open Youth Poetry Slam Team for two years. A recent graduate of Cleveland State University majoring in English with a concentration in Creative Writing with a Black Studies minor, Raja is currently working on her first collection of poetry.
Ray McNiece, Cleveland Heights Poet Laureate 2020-2022
2021 Cleveland Arts Prize Lifetime Achievement Award Winner
Ray McNiece is the Poet-Laureate chosen by Heights Arts through 2022. McNiece is the author of 11 books of poems and monologues, two solo theatre works, two musidpoetry collaboration, and one collaborative theatre work. He started his own educational company Page to Stage Productions in 1994. He has worked as a consultant for WordForward in Singapore and for the nationally touring, Poetry Alive. He is also an adjunct professor at John Carroll University. He was recently certified into Young Audiences National Teaching Artist Roster, one of only twenty such teaching artists nationally.
Sujata Lakhe
Sujata Lakhe was born in India and grew up in a steel-town Bhilai before immigrating to Cleveland in her early 20s. She has co-authored research papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals in the field of Molecular Biology. Looking beyond the surface, questioning dogma, observing, making a conclusion but willing to change upon learning new information, and choosing the correct details to communicate accurately are some of the things she finds in common between the scientific process and creative writing. Her personal essays and poems can be read in Neighborhood Voices, an anthology published by Cleveland Public Library, Scene, The Blue Windmill chapbook, and Literary Cleveland Blogs. She has performed her stories and poems at the Photocentric, The Story Club Cleveland, Gilly's Music Room; she presently lives in Chagrin Falls, OH, with her husband William G Barnard IV and daughter Samira Reddy.
Siaara Freeman
Siaara Freeman is from Cleveland Ohio, where she is the current Lake Erie Siren & a teaching artist for Center For Arts Inspired Learning and The Sisterhood Project in conjunction with the Anisfield-Wolf Foundation. She is a 2021 Premier Playwright fellow recipient with Cleveland Public theater. She is a 2020 Watering Hole Manuscript fellow, a 2018 Winter Tangerine chapbook fellow and a 2018 Poetry Foundation incubator fellow. Her work appears in: The Offing, BOAAT, Tinderbox, Josephine Quarterly and elsewhere. She has toured both nationally and internationally. She is the co-founder of Outsiders Queer Midwest Writers Retreat. Chances are she's by a lake, thinking about Toni Morrison and talking to ghosts. In her spare time she is growing her afro so tall God can use it for a microphone and speak through her. Her first book Urbanshee is available for pre order via Button Poetry.
Raja Belle Freeman
Raja Belle Freeman is a performance poet, visual artist, and flautist in Cleveland, OH. Currently a teaching artist with Twelve Literary Arts, she has been featured on Cleveland's local Channel 3 and Channel 5 news, as well as WCPN and several YouTube channels. She was Cleveland's 2017 Youth Poetry Slam Champion and a member of the One Mic Open Youth Poetry Slam Team for two years. A recent graduate of Cleveland State University majoring in English with a concentration in Creative Writing with a Black Studies minor, Raja is currently working on her first collection of poetry.
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