Yolanda Wisher

Yolanda Wisher
Born 1976 (age 41–42)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
Occupation Poet, spoken-word artist
Genre Poetry
Notable works Monk Eats an Afro

Yolanda Wisher (born 1976) is an American poet, educator and spoken word artist who focuses on the experience of being African-American.[1][2] She is a graduate of Temple University and was selected as the third poet laureate of Philadelphia in 2016.[3][4]

Education and early life

Yolanda Wisher was born in Philadelphia and grew up in North Wales, Pennsylvania.[5] She studied English and Black Studies, obtaining her BA in English and Black Studies from Lafayette College.[5][6] She received her MA in Creative Writing from Temple University in 2000.[4]

Career

External video
“Yolanda Wisher Named Philly's New Poet Laureate", February 5, 2016, 6ABC News
"Yolanda Wisher Performs "Gangsta Birth" @ Re-Imagining Maplewood Mall", May 30, 2015, Ronald Dove
"Imagining Germantown with Cultural Agent Yolanda Wisher", June 26, 2014, U.S. Department of Arts and Culture

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.[5] From 2010 to 2015, she served as the Director of Art Education for the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.[5]

As of 2015, Wisher is a Founding Cultural Agent for the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture.[5] In 2016, she was chosen as the third poet laureate of Philadelphia, following Sonia Sanchez (2012–13) and Frank Sherlock (2014–15), respectively,[3][7] and is a 2016 writer-in-residence at the Hedgebrook residency program for women writers.[8]

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".[5]

Works by Wisher

Books of Poetry

  • 2014: Monk Eats an Afro, ISBN 9781934909423, OCLC 8795289

Contributor to Anthologies

  • 2007: The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South, ISBN 9780820329253 OCLC 239032215
  • 2009: A Best of Fence: The First Nine Years, ISBN 9781934200049, OCLC 318878255
  • 2013: Gathering Ground: a Reader Celebrating Cave Canem's First Decade, ISBN 9780472099245, OCLC 62133808
  • 2013: Peace is a Haiku Song (ed. with Sonia Sanchez), OCLC 877155740

Wisher has also published in periodicals including 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!.[6]

Awards and honors

Wisher was chosen as the poet laureate of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, in 1999[9] and later selected as the third poet laureate of Philadelphia in 2016, by mayor-elect Jim Kenney.[5]

She was a fellow of the Cave Canem Foundation from 1999 to 2000 and has published in their anthology Gathering Ground (2013).[10]

She received a Leeway Art and Change grant in 2008.[5] and was the recipient of a Pew Center for Arts and Heritage grant for 2015.[11]

References

  1. ↑ Shea, Jana (February 15, 2012). "Yolanda Wisher kicks off Big Blue's first poetry open-mic night". WHYY Newsworks. Retrieved March 19, 2016.
  2. ↑ Baker, Brandon (July 13, 2015). "Seven poets keeping the rhythmic tradition alive in Philadelphia". Philly Voice. Retrieved March 19, 2016.
  3. 1 2 "Yolanda Wisher named Philly's new Poet Laureate". 6abc Action News. Philadelphia. Retrieved March 7, 2016.
  4. 1 2 "Alumna Yolanda Wisher named Philadelphia's third poet laureate | Temple Now". news.temple.edu. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Yolanda Wisher | Directory of Writers". Poets & Writers. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  6. 1 2 Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale. 2015.
  7. ↑ John Timpane (February 6, 2016). "Yolanda Wisher named Philly's third poet laureate". philly-archives. Retrieved March 7, 2016.
  8. ↑ "about". Yolanda Wisher. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
  9. ↑ "Yolanda Wisher | 1999 MCPL Poet Laureate". MCPL. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  10. ↑ Derricotte, Toi; Eady, Cornelius; Dungy, Camille T; Cave Canem (Organization) (January 1, 2006). Gathering Ground: a reader celebrating Cave Canem's first decade. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0472099248.
  11. ↑ "Introducing the 2015 Grantees of The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage – News – The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage". www.pcah.us. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
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