A Brilliant Performance and Educational Experience with Tongo Eisen-Martin

Tongo Eisen-Martin, crowned SF 8th Poet Laureate Last January.

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of featuring Tongo Eisen-Martin in my English 97 class and to the larger Harold Washington community. When you are in the presence of a master, and I am blessed to know a few, you can't help but grow along with others as you listen to their work and words of advice. My students and I learned a lot about writing--and humility. We learned that honing your pen is more important than any accolades or awards. (I dare add,  more important than publishing.)

I learned that meditation and self-reflection are key to fine tuning and improving your voice. But really, that deep thinking and internal work can be applied to anything we do in life. Who we are as activists. Who we are as mothers. Who we are as community members.

Listen to Tongo as he describes not only his writing process but his philosophy as a community educator and future goals. We need more cultural workers like these that are trying to make the world better.

​Stay tuned, podcast lovers, because I will be streaming the show in my new channel "Fighting Forward for Our Future."