Our Authors
Dr Ayin Adams
Ayin M. Adams, native New Yorker began writing poetry at age five and
selling them on her street corner in Brooklyn for twenty-five cents.
With much success, she quickly increased her sales to fifty cents as
passerbys' enjoyed her work.
Winner of the Pat Parker Memorial Poetry Prize, the Audre Lorde Memorial Prose Prize, Nominated as Poet of the Year, Winner of the President's Award For Literary Excellence, Grant Winner of the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Award, Winner of Sparrow Grass Publishing, Published in anthology Defjampoetry "Bum Rush The Page" 2004 top ten finalist in the Rap-It-Up BASS film competition sponsored by BET.com and Blackaids.org Foundation. 2008 Teacher of The Year Winner by the International Peace Poem. Ayin Adams holds a PhD. in Human Services and a PhD. in Metaphysics
Dr. Kathryn Waddell Takara
Kathryn Waddell Takara, author, born and raised in Tuskegee, Alabama, has recently retired as an Associate Professor from the University of Hawai`i at Mànoa, where she taught in the Interdisciplinary Studies Program and the Ethnic Studies Department and developed courses in African American and African politics, history, literature, and culture beginning in 1971.
Dr. Takara is the 2010 award winning poet by the Before Columbus Foundation for her book: Pacific Raven: Hawai'i Poems. She also received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010 from the African American Community. She was previously the recipient of the Board of Regents Outstanding Teacher Award at the University of Hawai'i at Mànoa, a two-time Fulbright Fellow, a winner of the Girl Fest Hawai'i Award, Who's Who in Poetry award, a Golden Poet Award, and a World of Poetry (merit) award, a two time Diversity Grant winner at the University of Hawai'i, and a grant recipient for two conferences at UHM, one national and one international in contemporary black voices and black issues.
She is a performance poet whose travels in Africa, Europe, Central America, Tahiti and China are reflected in her work. She has published three books of poetry: New and Collected Poems published by Ishmael Reed Press, Pacific Raven: Hawaii Poems published by Pacific Raven Press and recently, Tourmalines: Beyond the Ebony Portal, published by Pacific Raven Press (2010). In 2010, she has been on book tour throughout the Hawaiian Islands, California, Pennsylvania, New York and Boston reading at various bookstores (including Borders and Barnes & Noble, schools, jazz and community events, schools, and private parties).
Her poetry has also been published in Interdisciplinary Studies Humanities Journal, Writing Macao (China), Kudzu, Honolulu Stories, The Bamboo Muse, Words Upon the Waters, The African Journal of New Poetry, Arkansas Review, Africa Literary Journal, Julie Mango Press, Poetry Motel, Peace & Policy, From Totems to Hip Hop, Bamboo Ridge, Rainbird, Konch, Kaimana, Hawai'i Review, Chaminade Literary Review, Ramrod, O'ahu Review, Pleiades, All She Wrote: Hawai'i Women's Voices, and World of Poetry, an anthology, to mention a few.
Her essays have appeared in the Interdisciplinary Humanities Journal, Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, Social Process In Hawai'i, The Black Scholar, The Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History, Multi-America: Essays on Cultural Wars and Cultural Peace, The Western Journal of Black Studies, The Honolulu Advertiser, Honolulu Magazine, I Ka Huliau, and Valley Voices.
Takara has a Ph.D. in Political Science and an M.A. in French. She taught, advised, and mentored many students who themselves have become active in politics and the arts. She has read and performed her poetry, lectured and been a consultant in universities, colleges, schools, and community and military events throughout the Hawaiian Islands, the continental United States of America and in Beijing and Qingdao, China. Takara organized and coordinated several national and international conferences at the University of Hawai'i and in Honolulu. She has participated in several national book fairs.
Takara is a dynamic, respected public speaker and has been featured on a variety of television and radio shows in interviews and documentaries for over three decades in Hawai'i, the West Coast, and East Coast. She recently was a presenter at a spiritual workshop on Maui. She enjoys her family and friends, pets, meditation, qi gong, large garden, raising orchids and interior design. Writing is her passion and métier.
Dr. Takara is the daughter of pioneer black veterinarian, author and world famous Buffalo Soldier, Dr. William H. Waddell, IV, VMD (1908-2007)
Daphne Barbee-Wooten
Daphne Barbee-Wooten has authored
several articles, Hawaii Bar Journal, Hawaii's First Black Lawyer,
February 2004, Hawaii Bar Journal, The Lawgiver: George Marion
Johnson, J.D., LLD, February 2005, Hawaii Bar Journal, "Spreading
the Aloha of Civil Rights", October 1999. Hawaii Women Lawyers "Our
Rights, Our Lives" hand book, contributing writer, co-editor
for 3rd Edition, December 1996, Essence Magazine, African Americans
in Hawaii, April 1994, Hawaii Bar Journal, "Hawaii
Civil Rights Commission", August 1993, Contributing Writer in A GO Girl!
The Black Woman's Guide to Travel and Adventure, "Visiting
Nanny Town (The Eight Mountain Press, 1997),
"Following the Tradewinds: African Americans in Hawaii", 2004,
contributing author. She also is a regular contributing writer to Mahogany
and Afro-Hawaii News, monthly periodicals which emphasize events within
the African American community in Hawaii. She was President of African
American Lawyers Association in 2003.
Jennifer Welliver
Author Jenniffer Welliver was born and raised in Connecticut. After visiting Hawai`i numerous times, she moved to Maui where she enjoys walking on the beach and watching the beautiful sunsets from her lanai. Jenniffer Welliver is a member of the Rotary Club of Kihei-Wailea. You may visit her at: www.jwelliver.com
Belgium author Frieda Groffy
I consider myself as a citizen of the world, traveling with an open mind and lots of love and respect. I lost my heart and found the balance of my soul in Africa. My poetry can be found along the cyber literary highway. I published 6 books of poetry in my mother tongue which is Dutch- poetry and social commitment are running through my life as a red thread-. If you want to know who I am, read my work. My favorite poets Alice Walker, Nikki Giovanni, Sonja Sanchez, Ayin Adams, and Langston Hughes, to name a few. You may visit her at: www.authorsden.com/friedacgroffy