Buddah Desmond Wins 1st Place in Yecheilyah’s 5th Annual Poetry Contest

Happy to announce that I recently won 1st place in Yecheilyah’s 5th Annual Poetry Contest! You can read my interview and winning poem entitled, “Ghosts, Ghostbusting History + Visible / Invisible Lives (Freedom is Ours)” on the The PBS Blog. This theme for this year’s contest was “Freedom.” 

Major kudos and praise to the winners Daphne Ayo (for “Uncaged”), Renita Siqueira (for “Allowed to Exist”), and Rebecca Whitman (for “Moment of Truth”), and all of the participants!

Much gratitude to Yecheilyah and the committee for the honor. So grateful to you for providing a platform for us to share our work about timely, relevant themes and do it in a way that is enlightening, encouraging, inspiring, and uplifting.

It’s a POETRY THANG!!!!

~ Buddah Desmond

Reflections (Slaying The Monster)

I looked in the mirror
And what did I see
A monster staring back at me
From galaxies unknown
Dark, brooding
So alluring yet so scary
Projecting the happy fantasy
When really singing the lost soul blues
Self-sabotages almost consistently
Holds feelings so deep that when expressed
It’s potency trumps the fire expelled
by an entire Weyr
Putting on, showing out
Acting up, always on the raucous route
Wouldn’t stop until he’d achieved total
domination, control, and power over you
And he won
Or did he? 

When looking in the mirror
What did you see?
A figure you almost couldn’t believe
Because he looked just like you
In fact, it was you
So familiar yet so unrecognizable
How could you manage to let it all go?
No more, you say
NO MORE
His time of recklessness, dysfunction,
and drama are done
For you’re taking it back, all the way back to one
The lost, but not forgotten one
The O.G.
YOU
Time to slay the shit out of this
muthafucking monster
He’s gone on for far too long
It’s the only way to right this wrong
Say goodnight! 

From now on, when I look in the mirror
I’m going to see me
The real me
Not lost, not blue
But genuine, authentic, and true
Loved from the inside out
On that realness route
Reclaimed
And reframed
Like Fantasia, I’m finally back to me.EndFragment 

~ Buddah Desmond, From The Inside Out: A Poetry Collection (2020)

Next Event: Baltimore African American Book Festival – October 11, 2014

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Okay artists, writers, poets/spoken words artists, and book lovers: If you didn’t know, the Baltimore African American Book Festival (BAABF) is this Saturday, October 11, 2014 from 10AM-5PM at the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

Presented by the National Literary Network Organization and the Enoch Pratt Free Library, the BAABF will feature Trice Hickman (Best-Selling Author), Sheri Booker (NAACP Image Award Winning Author), Troy Johnson (AALBC.com Founder), Nikki Woods (Tom Joyner Morning Show Producer, Nikki Woods Media Founder, and Author), and Ella Curry (EDC Creations Founder). Other events include panels/workshops, kids activities, and live spoken word. The event is free and open to public.

I’ll have a table (#10) selling copies of Prevail and Exotic Shifter and will perform during the Spoken Word Hour from 1PM-2PM. My blogger buddy Marc Polite (Author, Blogger, and Founder and Editor in Chief of Polite On Society) and will be one of several authors appearing at the event as well.

So if you’re looking for a FREE event full of great edutainment, come check out the BAABF this Saturday in Baltimore, MD!

Peace, Love, and Many Blessings!

~ BuddahDesmond

I’ll Be Reading at the DC Metro Scholastic Writing Awards – 3/11/2014

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It’s with great happiness that I announce I’ve been selected to read a few works by this year’s American Voice Nominees at the 2014 DC Metro Scholastic Writing Awards!  Performing, giving back, and highlighting some of the Greater Washington Area’s up-and-coming writers—does it get any better than that?

Each year, students in grades 7-12 are encouraged to participate in the The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.  Almost 200,000 students enter their art and writing “for review by panels of art and writing professionals, and compete for recognition, scholarships, and publication opportunities” (Writopia Lab | Scholastic Writing Awards).  2.5 million students have been awarded over $25 million in cash awards and scholarships since 1923.  Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards Alumni include Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Robert Redford, Joyce Carol Oates, and Zac Posen.

Writopia Lab was selected by the Alliance of Young Artists and Writers to serve as the Scholastic Writing Awards Regional Affiliate in the Greater Washington Area.  The Scholastic Writing Awards serve as not only a celebration, but also a platform for students to creatively express themselves with their budding talents.

The Scholastic Writing Awards will be held: March 11, 2014 | 6:30PM to 8:30PM | Artisphere’s Spectrum Theater | 1611 N. Kent Street Arlington, VA 22209.  The event is open to the public.  If you’re in the area, please come celebrate the brilliant talents of some of the DC-Area’s most promising teen writers.

Congrats to all of the nominees and winners!

Until next time… Peace, Love, and Many Blessings, BuddahDesmond

BuddahDesmond Appearing at the Baltimore Urban Book Festival (BUBF) on 7/14/13

Image courtesy of the BUBF site.

I’m happy to announce that I’ll be one of the authors featured at the Baltimore Urban Book Festival (BUBF) on July 14, 2013 from 12PM-6PM.  The event will take place at the Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Museum located at 1417 Thames Street, Baltimore, MD 21231.  Some of the headlining authors include Angela Stanton, Caroline Jhingory, Donna Hill, Sadequa Johnson, and Wahida Clark.  I’ll also be one of the poets featured alongside Anthony Tyrone Pressley, Monda Raquel Webb, Michelle Lynn Stephens, and Sharon Clarkson during the Spoken Word Hour from 2:30PM-3:30PM. 
As mentioned on the BUBF website, “The mission of the Baltimore Urban Book Festival is to cultivate an environment where cultural book authors and readers have an annual opportunity to celebrate literature in a setting that encourages,educates and entertains everyone from the new reader learning phonics to the full fledged book worm.” 
Aside from the Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Museum, sponsors include Ella D. Curry Creations, The Literary Network, AALBC.com, The Baltimore Times, Mahogany Books, MosaicBooks.com, A.B.L.E. (Alliance for Black Literature & Entertainment), and the TLJ Bookstore. 

I’m looking forward to sharing my work and connecting with other authors, prospective readers, vendors, and the many organizations who’ll be in attendance.

If you’re in the Baltimore or DC Metro Area around the second weekend of July, please come support the event!

Until next time… Peace, Love, and Many Blessings, BuddahDesmond