WWBA’s new series Intersections: African American Voices of Democracy’s first event, Intersection: Jazz and Free Verse with Dudley Music, Ashley Kahn, and E. J. Antonio.
E.J. Antonio received fellowships in Poetry from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Hurston/Wright Foundation, and the Cave Canem Foundation. She’s appeared as a featured reader and performer at venues in the NY tri-state area, including Why Not Jazz Room; Arts Westchester; The Stone; the Hobart Festival of Women Writers, The Vision Festival, and Langston Hughes House. Her work has been published in various journals, magazines, and anthologies, including: the Encyclopedia Project, African Voices Literary Magazine, Black Renaissance Noire, The Mom Egg, Killens Review of Arts & Letters, Taint Taint Taint Magazine, and About Place Journal. E.J. is the author of two chapbooks, Every Child Knows (Premier Poets Chapbook Series 2007) and Solstice (Red Glass Books, 2013), and a solo jazzoetry cd Rituals in the marrow: Recipe for a jam session. E.J. is a founding member of the Jazz & Poetry Choir Collective, which released its debut cd We Were Here in spring 2020, and a founding Board Member of the non-profit Arts organization One Breath Rising
Dudley Music is a Long Island-based Hip-Hop artist, producer, and Jazz musician, playing saxophone, keys, guitar, drums, flute, clarinet and MPC. He performs, curates and hosts events around Long Island, NYC and neighboring east coast cities. When he is not creating or performing, Dudley is contributing to the growth of Long Island’s community of musicians and visual artists. Dudley is a regular at Rockwood Music Hall and recently performed at The Blue Note and Brooklyn Bowl, two of NYC’s premier live music venues. Dudley spent the Summer of 2019 on stage supporting artists like Talib Kweli, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Sublime with Rome, Slightly Stooped, Gladys Knight, and Patti Labelle. His debut EP, On My Way, was released in the Spring of 2016. With support from Hip Hop legend Talib Kweli, an extended version of the project was made available at Talib’s online store, KweliClub.com. Dudley’s sophomore EP, Rely On Me, was released December 20, 2019.
George Wallace is Writer in Residence at the Walt Whitman Birthplace (2011-present), first poet laureate of Suffolk County NY, former laureate of the International Beat Poetry Festival and author of 38 chapbooks of poetry. An adjunct professor with the English Department at Pace University in Manhattan and at Westchester Community College, Wallace is editor of Poetrybay, Poetryvlog, Walt’s Corner, and co-editor of Great Weather For Media and Long Island Quarterly. His publications include Resistance is a Blue Guitar (Blue Light Press), Simple Blues With A Few Intangibles (Foothills Publications), Belt Buckles And Bibles (NightBallet Press), Incident on the Orient Express (Nirala Press), Poppin’ Johnny (Three Rooms Press), Burn My Heart in Wet Sand (Leicester), Sulfer of Troy and Swimming Through Water (La Finestra Editrice).
An avid Whitman enthusiast, he is a major interpreter of Long Island literature and local history, as well as European Surrealism, New York School and Beat writing; and has dialogued with many of the major figures in 20th century poetry and the popular arts, including most of the poets in residence at the Whitman Birthplace.
