JP HOWARD también conocida como Juliet P. Howard es poeta, becaria graduada de Cave Canem, miembro de The Hot Poets Collective y neoyorquina. Ella cura y alimenta el Women Writers in Bloom Poetry Salon (WWBPS), un foro que ofrece a las escritoras de todos los niveles un espacio positivo y acogedor para reunirse. WWBPS organiza salones literarios en Nueva York. Su primera colección de será publicada por The Operating System. JP es exalumna del VONA/Voices 2014. Ha sido becaria de Lambda Literary Foundation Emerging LGBT Voices y becaria residente del Cave Canem Fellow en el Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Fue finalista en el Astraea’s Lesbian Writers Fund for poetry. Sus poemas han sido publicados en Adrienne: A Poetry Journal of Queer Women, The Best American Poetry Blog, MiPOesias, African Voices Magazine, Kweli Journal, The Mom Egg, “Of Fire, Of Iron”, Talking Writing, Muzzle Magazine, Connotation Press, TORCH, Queer Convention: A Chapbook of Fierce, Cave Canem Anthology XII: Poems 2008-2009, Promethean Literary Journal y Poetry in Performance. En 2009 recibió un MFA en escritura creative de The City College of New York y un pregrado de Barnard College. La página de Face Book del salón literario es https://www.facebook.com/WomenWritersinBloom.PoetrySalon
PRAISE OUR MAMAS
Praise our Mamas Praise the ones who loved us fiercely Praise Mamas who left us behind Praise their bosoms Praise tears we shed all those years Praise softness of skin against skin Praise therapists who listened again and again Praise poems we birthed Praise our ability to forgive Praise the poet’s tears, each time she relived childhood memories Praise that sweet child that lives on Praise her soft voice Praise Mama humming your favorite lullaby
Praise Mamas who shut the door Praise Mamas whose doors were wide open Praise “Come here sit on Mama lap baby” Mamas Praise Mamas who never learned to look beyond their reflection Praise Mama’s reflection Praise Mama in your mirror Praise love’s complicated contours Praise her edges, sharp then soft Praise Mamas who bend and open to hugs Praise Mamas who never learned to hug Praise a laying on of hands, soft like Mama’s Praise your best friend, who nurtures like a Mama Praise the memory of Mama Praise that soft spot in your heart Name her Mama.
TAPFNY – The Americas Poetry Festival of New York