What We Carry Glenis Redmond

Books and CDs by Glenis Redmond

Gwendolyn Knight: Discovering Powerful Images / Backbone / Steam Dreams, an Anthology

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What We Carry

By Glenis Redmond

Women shoulder grudges
but carry handbags anyway
hanging straps on little girl’s backs.
They tote smaller bundles
home to mostly air,
lunch money, Sunday morning collections,
tissues, a piece of peppermint candy or two.
While these womb-like pouches swing,
we slip lady like dreams
on narrow frames
training them while green
never to question the increasing load.

posted 14 September 2006

Glenis Redmond is an award-winning performance poet, praise poet, teacher, and writer. For the past twelve years, she has traveled both domestically and abroad, performing and teaching.

Her poetry has won the Carrie McCray literary award 1995, NC Literary Artist Fellowship 2005, Denny C. Plattner Award for Outstanding Poetry, 2005. She is also the two-time recipient of fellowships from both the Vermont Writing Center and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Glenis has been published in numerous literary journals and publications including Stanford University's Black Arts Quarterly, Obsidian II: Black literature in Review, Emrys Journal, Bum Rush The Page: Def Poetry Jam, Appalachian Journal, Appalachian Heritage and African Voices.

As a performer, Glenis Redmond was the Southeast Regional Individual Poetry Slam Champion in 1997 and 1998, and placed in the top ten twice in the National Individual Slam Championships. She currently presents a variety of performances for audiences of all ages in venues ranging from top performing arts centers to juvenile detention centers. Glenis has performed in many diverse locations including the Paddington Arts Festival in England, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York City, the Poetry Circus Festival in Taos, New Mexico, and the Peace Center in her native South Carolina.

As a teacher, Glenis Redmond has recently been invited to join the national touring roster for the Kennedy Center's Partnership in Education Teacher Training. She helps both professional and amateur writers from 9-90 find their own poetic voices through workshops and classes across the nation. Email: poetica11@aol.com and Website: www.glenisredmond.com