Anika Nailah

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About Anika Nailah
Hi, I am a former New York City, USA high school English teacher who has wanted to be an author ever since I was a little girl, thanks to wordplay, stories read to me before bed, and general encouragement from my mother. I was born in Worcester, MA in the mid 50s, from a long line of warriors both Pocasset Wampanoag & African American, thrivers and entrepreneurs, whose lineage extends from Massasoit in Massachusetts to St. Kitts in the Caribbean. I am a Black Writers Alliance Gold Pen Award Nominee. My book, Free and Other Stories, was chosen as one of 2002's best short story collections by Black Issues Book Review. My work, in Gumbo: a Celebration of African American Writing, was also broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Americana series. In recent years, I traveled across America on a National Liberation Poetry Tour to colleges/universities, women's prisons, coffehouses, art spaces, etc. giving dramatic performances of my poetry and inviting audiences to liberate themselves from old ways of thinking about race. My latest book, Every Day in the USA: 30 Black Moments is an undisguised portrayal of life in Black America, spearheading conversation to incite change. Inspired by Langston Hughes' Black Misery, I try to connect with those who can relate and raise awareness for those who cannot through C. Andrew Williams' 30 black and white illustrations of everyday racial microaggressions in the USA. (Go to https://anikanailah.com/ to learn more.) I especially love working with children, helping them to find and own their voices. Thus, I am also the Founder and former Director of Books Of Hope, a Boston-area program that encourages youth to write, self-publish, and sell their own books. When I am not touring, I write my novels, one, about early race relations in Massachusetts, a prequel to a story in my first book, and the other, a sci-fi saga. I also offer anti-racism/writing consulting services.
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Blog postOkay, so I’m walking down the street in my mostly white New England neighborhood. Let me also state that I don’t live in a city, so I have the privilege of physical space, which means bringing my mask just in case I need it during a walk around the block. I see a white woman in the distance. She's walking towards me. As we get closer, I wonder, “Is she going to move out of the way so we can social distance?” (By the way, this is a common occurrence.)
Immediately, I remember my maternal gra2 years ago Read more -
Blog postGetting Ready to Hit the Road
Hey, Everyone,
The 30 Black Moments Experience is alive and well! In a few days, I'll be in Connecticut, and then in New York City to begin the first CT/NYC tour. They won't just be signings, but workshops where you'll interact with the illustrations by using the activities in the back of the book and remixing those racial microaggressions so they can be reborn as triumph and resilience. Can't wait to meet you!
Stay tuned for deets!.......3 years ago Read more -
Blog postYes. I've done it again. Published another book! I enabled it for international distribution a few days ago on September 13, 2018. It's all very exciting and overwhelming---discovering Swiss and Australian bookstores and seeing my name and the cover of this new book and my earlier book, Free & Other Stories.
So let me tell you a bit about my newest creation...
Inspired by Langston Hughes' final work Black Misery , it is an undisguised, sometimes4 years ago Read more -
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Blog postSHEDDING THE GUILT OF NOT WRITING
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” --Maya Angelou
Has it been days, weeks, months, (years maybe) since you've written what's deep inside you? I've noticed that words unwritten find ways to drip out, the tortured flow of a cut I haven't tended to, expression once pooling redly, now released. Some wound I've denied the oxygen of re-creation.
A doughnut appears in my hand. A letter to a friend gets written out of6 years ago Read more -
Blog post"Love is the answer to everything. It's the only reason to do anything. If you don't write stories you love, you'll never make it..." (Ray Bradbury)
Hello, Dear Readers,
It's been exactly a year since I've posted here. Much has happened, not all of it good, but it's been awhile since I've had the feeling I had today when I woke up---JOY. Why? I knew I would be writing in the morning before I dove into the concerns of my day. There is nothing like the feeling of wanting to g7 years ago Read more -
Blog post"Sometimes you've got to let everything go—purge yourself . . . If you are unhappy with anything . . . whatever is bringing you down, get rid of it. Because you'll find that when you're free, your true creativity, your true self comes out."
---Tina Turner
A new year. With all my hopes, energy, and inspiration flowing from the river of youth standing up in Soweto-USA, the legacy left by my parents, all those who have spit, danced, create8 years ago Read more -
Blog post“Just remember: In dictatorships, only one person is really allowed to speak. And when I write a book or a story, I too am the only one speaking, no matter how I hide behind my characters.”
― Junot Díaz
Something beautiful happened in San Francisco. I came there to deliver a mini-performance of my National Liberation Poetry Tour Experience and was blessed with an affirmation about what really matters.
The first stop was a high school. Not just any high s8 years ago Read more -
Blog postI was going to block it out. I was going to click the remote off every time I saw a commercial for Father’s Day. Run from the pain. Turn the page of the ad in the paper. Shut out the hurt. Plug the empty space with a lie. Change the subject of celebration into the object of forgetfulness. Forget it happened. Forget it’s true. Forget the anger. Block the shock.
Lies have a way of catching up with your secrets.
The truth is: in your love, Dad, I have nothing to hide. No reason to not8 years ago Read more -
Blog post“we write every day, we fight every day, we think and scheme and dream a little dream every day. manuscripts pile up in the kitchen sink, run-on sentences dangle around our necks. we plant purple prose in our gardens and snip the adverbs only to thread them in our hair. we write with no guarantees, no certainties, no promises of what might come and we do it anyway. this is who we are.”
--Tahereh Mafi
KEEP FIGHTING. KEEP WRITING.8 years ago Read more -
Blog postI thought of a couple of titles for this post---A Truckload of Excuses, Fighting For Your Writing, I Want My Routine Back, etc. But they all seemed mired in guilt and desperation, neither of which are the reasons why I first picked up a pencil when I was a little girl, and began to write. Over the past few months, I've been hyper focused on just plain survival---paying bills, securing gigs, looking for funding for my Tour Experience. In the process, I lost my writing rhythm. I8 years ago Read more
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Blog post"...provocative and disturbing.." --R. Paul Shaw, World Bank Institute Ever read a book that you can't put down and wish would never end? This is the one. From the jacket: 'Economic hit men,' John Perkins writes,'are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder.'...Perkins should know--he was an economic hit man. His job9 years ago Read more
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Blog postMy father was an intense, short, brown-skinned man with an unassuming mustache and glasses. When I think of him in his quiet moments, he is alone, sitting at his desk, surrounded by his books. His time and attention, precious things--he spent very little time on the phone, for example--he is reading, always reading, highlighting, and underlining sentences in one book of many about the beginnings of the early civilizations of the Nile Valley. He devoted much of his life to gathering books,9 years ago Read more
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Blog postLast night, something extraordinary happened at Smith College in Northampton, MA. It was one of those occasions when words were triumphant. Beah Richards once said, "Words have meaning. And they can pierce you right through your heart and free you from all the chains and things that bind your mind and your body." And while I performed my liberation poetry for a small crowd of mostly academics and students, I felt every word that came from me land on their hearts. Never had I experience9 years ago Read more
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Blog postThat's right, dear readers, I am taking the leap to fully put all of me into my National Liberation Poetry Tour Experience. It's blowing up. Opportunities abound---Oakland, St. Croix, NYC, Western MA. I can barely keep up with the offers I've gotten in the last month alone. So it's time for me to put my money where my mouth is, so to speak. And if you believe in what I'm doing, maybe you'll do the same??
I've got 60 days to raise $10,000 on my online fundraising campaign. Every plac9 years ago Read more -
Blog postA backstage peek that first night, August 25, 2012, after I performed the liberation poems publicly for the first time...Visit anikanailah.com for more information about my National Liberation Poetry Tour.9 years ago Read more
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Blog post"If there's a book you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it."--Toni Morrison
Dearest Sister Toni Morrison,
You continue to honor us with your lyrical truths as you show us the joy and strength and beauty within us. May your 82nd year of life on this planet be as rich as the legacy you have crafted from the genius of your life. Write on!
Love,
Anika9 years ago Read more -
Blog post"What's the worst that can happen to me if I tell this truth?"--Audre Lorde
You gave us your courage. You gave us your words. Most importantly, you gave us back our hearts through the giving of your own. We thank you. We honor you. Dearest Sister, Audre, you and your words will NEVER be forgotten.9 years ago Read more -
Blog post"An artist can show things that other people are terrified of expressing. " --Louise Bourgeois
On New Year's Eve Eve, in Hartford, CT, at Vibz Uptown , for the Tastemakers Soul Hartford, I was in the company of artists. I was among singers, those who created jewelry, movies, music, books, folks who had radio and television shows, and who owned magazines. I even sat on a panel with songwriters. Initially, I was so focused on selling my new book and10 years ago Read more -
Blog postAt last! My new book, The National Liberation Poetry Tour Experience is complete and available for sale. This is the book that culls all of the poetry I have been performing on my Tour, plus social justice resources, a workbook to help process the strong emotions that social justice evokes, next steps in your anti-racism work, and even a place to create liberation poetry and/or other forms of self-expression. Please go to my website to learn more.10 years ago Read more
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Blog postLike anyone else, life has given me its fair share of highs and lows. I’m aware of the many people who love me, and whom I love dearly, even though living the writing life sometimes makes it difficult to give the kind of attention to them that they would probably like. I’ve also lost people whom I could never imagine living without. But the one constant in my life has always been my writing. After a heart-rending breakup, after giving up on sleep at 3 o’clock in a restless morning, even while si10 years ago Read more
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Blog post"Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing.”
Last night. It was standing room only. I was about to go onstage under the masterful vision of seasoned director, Ingrid Askew with Kate Rushin, acclaimed poet and Ruth Bass Green, a musician who can make some of the most delectable sounds I have ever heard come out of a keyboard. It was Griot Women Productions presenting me. I was supposed flow some of the poetry from10 years ago Read more -
Blog postOctober 12, 1908 – April 28, 1997
You were one-of-a-kind! Thanks for the love and inspiration. Your sacrifices and efforts were not in vain...10 years ago Read more -
Blog postI invite you to learn more about me and my National Liberation Poetry Tour across America by visiting my new website. Leave me a message. Let me know what you think of it. Happy writing! Happy thriving---despite it all...10 years ago Read more
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Blog postIf you're in the Springfield, MA area this evening at 8:35P, you can hear me live on 90.7 WTCC (you may be able to listen online) broadcasting from Springfield Technical Community College. I'll be interviewed by Darryl Moss on the Reflections show.
I'll be talking about my National Liberation Poetry Tour and my next stop--Renaissance Artspace on this Friday, October 12, 2012 @7P! Come see me perform the You Cannot Break Me Show--all about reconnecting with and reclaiming one's p10 years ago Read more
Titles By Anika Nailah
Does your life as an African American in the USA seem a bit insane? Are you asking yourself questions and having racial encounters every day about which white folks have no clue? This book lets you know that you're neither crazy nor alone. In addition, if you're a white person seeking to show up as an accomplice to African Americans, you'll gain precious clues as you witness real-life scenarios you may otherwise have never known.
In the tradition of Langston Hughes' final work, Black Misery, author/cultural liberationist, Anika Nailah, shares 30 common moments in 21st Century Black American life. C. Andrew Williams' humorous yet poignant black and white illustrations enhance those scenarios to create the Everyday in the USA: 30 Black Moments experience of an undisguised portrayal of life in Black America.
The unapologetic, intimate, and ironic tone will feel familiar to African Americans, while quite eye-opening to white readers, perfectly serving as a catalyst to spearhead thoughtful cross-racial and African American community conversations.
The Ready to Go Deeper Anti-Racism Guide at the back of the book also provides 31 activities for using the book to help you not only examine individually, in workplaces, in neighborhoods, and other group settings, crucial and urgent questions about racial oppression, but offers concrete steps you can take to turn reflection into active interruption of racism in the United States of America.
The stories in Free offer a moving, strikingly original perspective on how cultural experiences and social assumptions impact our lives. The characters include young children trying to cope with the mysteries of adult behavior, adults striving to define themselves in a society unwilling to accept who and what they are, and elderly people looking back on the often difficult choices they have made. They all share a yearning to be free of the ties imposed by others, ties that bind their bodies, minds, or spirits.
"Trudy" depicts a battle of wills between a black salesclerk and a white customer, shining a harsh light on the bigotry of the 1950s. In "My Side of the Story," a little boy struggles to understand why his mother has abandoned him despite her claims that she loves him. “All These Years” is a touching vignette about a couple married for fifty-four years who reminisce about the attraction they felt at their very first meeting and realize that the magic still remains. In the aptly titled "Inside Out," a man who has adopted all the trappings of the white world–the hair, the clothes, the speech, the attitudes–finds himself still ostracized in his office and gently mocked at home by a wife who embraces her blackness with pride.
In probing the interior landscapes behind the everyday faces her characters assume, Anika Nailah brilliantly exposes the injustices and struggles African Americans confront, the skills they develop in order to survive, and the psychological and spiritual costs of survival.