Yolanda Wisher
Yolanda Wisher (born 1976) is an American poet, educator and spoken-word artist who focuses on the experience of being African-American. She is a graduate of Temple University and was selected as the third Poet Laureate of Philadelphia in 2016.
Yolanda Wisher
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- Name
- Yolanda Wisher
- Born
- 1976
- Birthplace
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
- Education
- Lafayette College; Temple University
- Occupation
- Poet, spoken-word artist
- Nationality
- United States
- Honours
- Pew Fellowship in the Arts
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Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Yolanda Wisher • Born — 1976 • Birthplace — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US • Education — Lafayette College; Temple University • Occupation — Poet, spoken-word artist • Genre — Poetry • Notable Works — Monk Eats an Afro • Website — yolandawisher.com
Education and early life
Education and early life
Yolanda Wisher was born in Philadelphia and grew up in North Wales, Pennsylvania. Wisher graduated from North Penn High School in 1994. She studied English and Black Studies, obtaining her BA degree in English and Black Studies from Lafayette College. She received her MA in creative writing from Temple University in 2000.
Career
Career
Wisher taught English for various years at the Germantown Friends School. She was the founder and director of the Germantown Poetry Festival, a local poetry event in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia from 2006 to 2010. From 2010 to 2015, she served as the Director of Art Education for the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. As of 2015, Wisher is a Founding Cultural Agent for the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture. In 2016, she was chosen as the third poet laureate of Philadelphia, following Sonia Sanchez (2012–13) and Frank Sherlock (2014–15), respectively, and is a 2016 writer-in-residence at the Hedgebrook residency program for women writers.
Personal life
Personal life
Wisher lives in Germantown with her partner Mark Palacio and their son Thelonius. She frequently plays music with her band "Yolanda Wisher and the Quick Fixx".
Works by Wisher
Works by Wisher
Books of poetry • 2014: Monk Eats an Afro, OCLC 8795289 Contributor to anthologies • 2007: The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South, OCLC 239032215 • 2009: A Best of Fence: The First Nine Years, OCLC 318878255 • 2013: Gathering Ground: a Reader Celebrating Cave Canem's First Decade, OCLC 62133808 • 2013: Peace is a Haiku Song (ed. with Sonia Sanchez), OCLC 877155740 Wisher has also published in periodicals including The American Poetry Review, Black Arts Quarterly, Chain, Drumvoices Revue, Fence, Hanging Loose, Melus, Meridians Feminism, Race, Transnationalism, nocturnes (re)view of the literary arts, Open Letter, Ploughshares, and POeP!.
Awards and honors
Wisher was chosen as the poet laureate of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, in 1999, and later selected as the third poet laureate of Philadelphia in 2016, by mayor-elect Jim Kenney. She was a fellow of the Cave Canem Foundation from 1999 to 2000 and has published in their anthology Gathering Ground (2013). She received a Leeway Art and Change grant in 2008, and was the recipient of a Pew Center for Arts and Heritage grant for 2015.
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The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Yolanda Wisher, revision 1372843062 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
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Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Shea, Jana. Yolanda Wisher kicks off Big Blue's first poetry open-mic night. WHYY Newsworks. February 15, 2012.
- 2.Baker, Brandon. Seven poets keeping the rhythmic tradition alive in Philadelphia. Philly Voice. July 13, 2015.
- 3.Alumna Yolanda Wisher named Philadelphia's third poet laureate Temple Now. news.temple.edu. 9 February 2016.
- 4.Yolanda Wisher. www.npenn.org.
- 5.Gale. Contemporary Authors Online. 2015.
- 6.Yolanda Wisher named Philly's new Poet Laureate. 6abc Action News. 5 February 2016.
- 7.Timpane, John. Yolanda Wisher named Philly's third poet laureate. philly-archives. February 6, 2016.
- 8.about. Yolanda Wisher.
- 9.Yolanda Wisher Directory of Writers. Poets & Writers. 18 May 2005.
- 10.Yolanda Wisher 1999 MCPL Poet Laureate. MCPL.
- 11.Derricotte, Toi. Gathering Ground: a reader celebrating Cave Canem's first decade. University of Michigan Press. January 1, 2006. 0472099248.
- 12.Introducing the 2015 Grantees of The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage – News – The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. www.pcah.us. 15 June 2015.
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