Glenis Redmond
BIOGRAPHY
Performance Formats:
Ask about Glenis' new performance with master storyteller, Charlotte Blake Alston, Tales & Tribute: A Celebration of African-American Heroes & Heritage.
Glenis Redmond's love of words has carried her across the country for over thirteen years. Glenis logs over 35,000 miles a year bringing poetry to the masses. This Road Warrior Poet, though steeped in Afro-Carolinian roots, speaks a universal tongue of love, loss, celebration, sorrow and hope. Her verse uplifts family, culture, and community. Glenis is a gentle pen pusher as she encourages others to find their voice at diverse venues across the country from prisons, universities, festivals, conferences, theaters to schools. Her poems soothe, illicit and inspire others to pick up their pen and travel their own poetic road.
"Ms. Glenis Redmond is absolutely phenomenal! The seniors were mesmerized from the first to the last spoken word. Ms. Glenis has the unique ability to take you on an unforgettable journey that soothes the heart and touches the soul while building bridges of understanding, forgiveness and love. Her message connects to the core of the human experience illuminating our commonalities regardless of age, gender, socio-economic status, ethnicity or creed. Moreover, her words are transparent and fluid like water, with the power to draw you in and allow you to see, hear, feel smell and remember the times and the people of your past and present. Furthermore, her delivery is bold, engaging and spellbounding. You haven't fully lived until you experience Ms. Redmond, a performance poet extraordinaire. We will never be the same." - Melanie Marie Ford; Director, New Brunswick Senior Citizens Resource Center, NJ
Glenis has won numerous awards including the North Carolina Literary Award and a Denny C. Plattner Award for Outstanding Poetry awarded by the Appalachian Heritage Journal as well as being named a Cave Canem Fellow in 2010. Glenis is a national workshop leader with the Kennedy Center's Partnership in Education Program in Washington, D.C. Her work has aired on National Public Radio. She is a past winner of the Southern Fried Poetry Slam and a top ten finalist in the National Poetry Slam.
Glenis has been published most recently in Meridians, African Voices, EMRYS, Asheville Poetry Review, 2006 Kakalak: A Journal of Carolina Poets, Appalachian Heritage and the Appalachian Journal. Glenis' newest full length book of poetry, Under The Sun , was released in August, 2008 by Main Street Press. She is the subject of an award-winning DVD, "Mama's Magic". Glenis has also published a full-length book of poetry, Backbone, and several chapbooks of original poetry including one for children. Glenis' second CD, "Monumental", features her performance of original poetry written in tribute to those who lift us up: mothers and grandmothers, sisters and brothers, and those in the world who dare to write, to speak, to dance, to sing for us all. "Glenis On Poetry" is her first CD exploring her philosophy of poetry and education.
Glenis began writing poetry at the age of 12. She worked for seven years as a family counselor. While enrolled in a Doctoral program in psychology, she rediscovered her love for poetry. Pregnancy with twins and a serious illness helped her find the strength to follow her heart and dedicate her life to poetry.
Tributary Residency
Glenis is well known for her in-depth work in communities with a wide range of people from many different circumstances, ages and backgrounds. Tributary Poetry Project is a writing initiative that focuses on place-based and regionally centered poetry, encouraging participants to reflect on the stories, facts and myths of their own family and community. The intent of the project is to encourage participants to become their own tributaries by creating poems that will be offered to the community as a gift. This offering will help bolster the individual who is acting as a tributary and it will also benefit the greater community by creating stronger ties thus ensuring a tighter knit community.
Glenis Redmond's Poetic Dialogue: Talking Back
Glenis Redmond's performances for both adults and youth are "poetic community forums" where she draws on the African-American musical tradition of call and response. It is a spontaneous conversation, much like life as she encourages the heart to open, allowing a deeper poetic dialogue between the artist and the audience. Glenis offers up a performance of her poetry based in her life, her observations and her journey in the world. Throughout, she invites the audience to explore and then speak about the music, meaning and metaphor of these poems and this performance to their own lives:
What is the song this poetry sings in your ear, your heart?
What does it mean in your life, your development?
What is your metaphor for your journey?
These "talk back" moments in Glenis' performances allow a meeting ground for both youth and elders in the audience to speak, be heard with respect, and learn from one another. Generational values are shared as bridges of understanding are formed that can serve as a teaching tools to transform discussions within personal lives and the greater community.
Glenis offers two teacher workshops developed in conjunction with The Kennedy Center Partnership In Education program:
Poetry Off the Page For Teachers of Grades 4th-12th
Experience poetry coming to life! This two-part workshop is based on the belief that poetry, in addition to being written and read, should be performed.
In session one, join workshop leader Glenis Redmond, performance poet from North Carolina, to learn ways to help students use brainstorming, imagery, and layering to write powerful and effective poems. Clear and easy poetic structures and formats empower students to expand their imaginations and to cross creative boundaries.
In session 2, examine ways to involve students in memorizing and performing their poems to further communicate the written word with appropriate voice projection, physical stance, and gesture.
Glenis teaches student workshops in poetry writing and performance for 4th - university students, professional writers and other adults.
Tales & Tribute: A Celebration of African-American Heroes & Heritage with Charlotte Blake Alston
From slave ships to plantations, from the struggle for Civil Rights to a seat in the White House…the African American journey is a richly embroidered quilt made by many courageous hands. Some of these weavers are well-known to us (Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr.) but many others are the unsung heroes, upon whose shoulders the rest of us now stand. In this special performance, powerful storyteller Charlotte Blake Allston & compelling spoken-word poet Glenis Redmond give voice to the past, blending folklore, story, song, and poetry into a one-of-a-kind celebration of African-American heritage and history.
