Tuesday, June 7, 7pm – Poetry
The Moonstone Poetry Series Presents
Sandra Turner-Barnes & Lamont B. Steptoe
Lamont B. Steptoe is an African American with Cherokee ancestry, born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A graduate of Temple University, he is the author of twelve collections of poetry and the editor of two collections by South African poet, Dennis Brutus. Steptoe is the founder/publisher of Whirlwind Press, a Vietnam veteran, father and photographer. He is the recipient of an American Book Award, a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, two fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and an inductee of the International Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent by the Gwendolyn Brooks Center at Chicago State University. His work appears in the Longman/Penguin anthology of African American Literature edited by Keith Gilyard and the Oxford University Press Anthology of African American Literature edited by Arnold Rampersad. His most recent books are A Long Movie of Shadows, Crowns and Halos and Oracular Rumblings and Stiltwalking.
Sandra Turner-Barnes is a proud descendant of former enslaved African Americans — Joshua Sadler who founded Saddlertown in Haddon Township, NJ in the early 1800’s, as well as the Arthur/Still Family of Lawnside — Sandra is extremely honored by her ancestry. Sandra is the winner of the 1995 Ebony Magazine Literary Award for Short Fiction. She is also the author of 3 books of poetry, Always A Lady, That Sweet Philly Jazz, Too Much Woman and her latest book of poetry But, Mostly Love. Additionally, Sandra’s popular poetry and jazz CD, September Will Never Be The Same is available throughout the United States and the United Kingdom. Sandra’s first children’s book, Beyond The Back of the Bus, illustrated by artist, fellow poet, and Lawnside resident, Bernard Collins, Jr., was published in 2010. Sandra is the recipient of the 1993 George Washington Carver Humanitarian Award, the City of Philadelphia’s 2005 “Movers & Shakers” Award; the 2006 Lawnside, New Jersey Heritage Award, the City of Camden/Walt Whitman Vanguard Writers’ Award, and the 2007 Diversity Award, presented by the Camden, New Jersey National Education Association. Sandra Turner-Barnes is an arts administrator as well as an artist, and she was appointed Executive Director of the Camden County Cultural & Heritage Commission in May of 2006. Sandra also serves as an adjunct professor for the Rutgers’ University Roberto Clemente Course, as a member of the New Jersey State Black Cultural & Heritage Initiative, the New Jersey Heritage & Tourism Task Force, and as a member of the International Black Storytellers Group, “Keepers of the Culture.” Sandra is married to Jazz Saxophonist, Robert Bootsie Barnes, and has two daughters, Richelle & Renelle; 2 grandsons, Reginald & Richone; and, 2 granddaughters; Mia & Journee. Contact: Email: Cadillac711@Gmail.com Telephone: 856-547-2848
“Ms. Turner-Barnes jazz poetry is a must have for jazz listeners and poetry lovers…straight from the head, hip, heart & soul she delivers a funky, neo jazz joint, that…like the lady herself, is musically progressive, (a fantastic fusion with Mystic Traveler), poetically pleasing and simply put….all that!” Oni Lasana
