Niama Leslie Williams Ph.D.
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Niama Leslie Williams Quick Facts
Main Areas: Trauma Survival, Creativity Training and Enhancement, Creative Writing, LiteratureCareer Focus: Author, Speaker, Professor of American Literature and Creative Writing, Business Owner
Affiliation: Women for Hire, Onyx Woman, SistaTalk, Nothing Binding, Black Author Network
BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT
Niama Leslie Williams (http://www.blowingupbarriers.com), a June 2006 Leeway Foundation Art and Social Change Grant recipient, and a 2006 (July) participant in a Sable Literary Magazine/Arvon Foundation residential course in Shropshire, UK, possesses a doctorate in African American literature from Temple University, a bachelor’s in comparative literature from Occidental College, and a master’s in professional writing from the University of Southern California. Dr. Williams’ master’s thesis at USC earned her an honorable mention in the University’s 1991 Phi Kappa Phi competition. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, she currently resides in Norristown, Pennsylvania.
Dr. Williams has participated in several writers’ conferences, including the Squaw Valley Community of Writers (2000), Hurston/Wright Writers Week (1996), and Flight of the Mind (1993). Her work has appeared in Poets & Writers Magazine; Dark Eros: Black Erotic Writings; Spirit & Flame: An Anthology of African American Poetry; Catch the Fire: A Cross-Generational Anthology of Contemporary African-American Poetry; Beyond the Frontier: African American Poetry for the 21st Century; Mischief, Caprice, and Other Poetic Strategies (Red Hen Press); A Deeper Shade of Sex: The Best in Black Erotica, and Check the Rhyme: An Anthology of Female Poets & Emcees. Check the Rhyme was nominated for an NAACP Image Award (2007).
Her prose publications include essays and short stories in MindFire Renewed, P.A.W. (Philadelphia Artists Writers) Prints, Midnight Mind Magazine, Amateur Computerist, Tattoo Highway #6, Obsidian II: Black Literature in Review, and Sojourner: The Women’s Forum. She has 9 titles available for sale (http://www.blowingupbarriers.com/drnispicks.html).
Dr. Williams hosts “Poetry & Prose & Anything Goes with Dr. Ni” Saturday afternoons from 12:00 – 1:30 p.m. EST on BlogTalkRadio (www.blogtalkradio.com/drni). The show originally aired from February to April of 2007 on Passionate Internet Voices Talk Radio, a station owned by Ms. Lillian Cauldwell of Ann Arbor, MI. Dr. Ni has two blogs, one functioning as a newsletter (subscribe via blowingupbarriers.com) and the other as a literary blog inviting feedback and critique from readers (http://drnisnotesandnibbles.blogspot.com/).
Her short story “The Embrace” was selected for the 2006-2007 Writing Aloud series at the InterAct Theatre Company in Philadelphia, PA, and her poem “Myself As Water” earned second place in the EcoPoetry Greenfest Philly 2008 contest.
Of her purpose for writing Dr. Williams says: "I frequently do not err on the side of caution in my writing, but I believe in the purpose of it: to speak to the things others do not want to speak of, with the hopes of reaching that one woman, or her lover, or her friend, who refuses to deal with her pain, who hides from it, who doesn't think she'll survive it. That's the audience I hope to reach."
Niama Leslie Williams, Ph.D.
301 E. Brown Street, A-3
Norristown, PA 19401
484/231-1768
484/674-7804 (fax)
drni@blowingupbarriers.com
http://www.blowingupbarriers.com
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/drni
http://www.aweber.com/z/article/?drnisnews
http://www.sushituesday.com/niama-williams-journal/
EDUCATION:
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY Philadelphia, PA
Ph.D. in African American Studies
Dissertation: Black Poetic Feminism: The Imagination of Toi Derricotte
Master of Arts Degree in African American Studies
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Los Angeles, CA
M.P.W. Professional (Creative) Writing
OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE Los Angeles, CA
Bachelor of Arts Degree in Comparative Literature
WRITER'S DIGEST SCHOOL Cincinnati, OH
Writing to Sell Fiction
ALGONKIAN POETRY WORKSHOP (Online)
Art of Poetry III
WOMEN'S BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CNTR Philadelphia, PA
FastTrac New Venture Course (Business Plan writing)
TEACHING EXPERIENCE:
2008 NORRISTOWN AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT Norristown, PA
Substitute Teacher at Norristown Area High School.
2004 to 2006 TEMPLE UNIVERSITY Philadelphia, PA
Taught a variety of undergraduate literature and Intellectual Heritage courses.
2005 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA Philadelphia, PA
Poetry Workshop Facilitator: Conducted poetry workshops for the Kelley Writers House as part of the Voice of Philadelphia Project.
2000 to 2003 L. A. COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT Los Angeles, CA
Instructor: Taught English courses from basic skills to college level reading and composition.
2002 FASHION INSITUTE OF DESIGN & MERCH. Los Angeles, CA
Instructor: Taught English composition and general studies.
2000 to 2001 LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY Los Angeles, CA
Instructor: Taught introductory composition, poetry, and fiction courses.
1998 WEST CHESTER UNIVERSITY West Chester, PA
Frederick Douglass Teaching Fellow - Frederick Douglass Institute & English Department: Responsible for teaching Literature 165: Introduction to African American Literature. Revised this five-week core summer session course and specialized it.
1997 LA SALLE UNIVERSITY Philadelphia, PA
Adjunct Professor – English Department: Taught African American Writers – English 370A, an undergraduate survey course.
1995 to 1997 COMMUNITY COLLEGE OF PHILA. Philadelphia, PA
Adjunct Professor – English Department: Taught English 098/099 & 100/101, linked college preparatory reading and writing courses within the English Department’s College Achievement Program.
1995 to 1996 CAMDEN COUNTY COLLEGE Camden, NJ
Adjunct Professor - English Department: Taught Black Experience in Literature and English Composition II.
1993 to 1994 TEMPLE UNIVERSITY Philadelphia, PA
Teaching Assistant – Department of African American Studies: Taught English ELECT, a college preparatory composition course.
HONORS & AWARDS:
Second Place, EcoPoetry Greenfest Philly 2008 contest, sponsored by Greenfest Philly 2008, 2nd & South Streets, Philadelphia, PA, September 7, 2008.
Contributor to Check the Rhyme: An Anthology of Female Poets & Emcees, edited by DuEwa Frazier, LitNoire Publishing, an NAACP Image Award nominee, February 2007.
Leeway Foundation Art and Social Change Grant recipient, June 2006, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Contributor to My Soul to His Spirit: Soulful Expressions from Black Daughters to Their Fathers, edited by Melda Beaty, SoulDictates Publishing, winner of Fresh Voices Award 2006, African-American Studies category, Writer’s Marketing Association.
2006 Listed within “A Celebration of Women Writers” (http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/), Mary Mark Ockerbloom, editor; University of Pennsylvania Digital Library.
2006 Listed on Britannica Online: “89 web sites, chosen by Britannica editors for our Internet Guide: > Niama Leslie Williams: Audio downloads of poetry and prose as well as descriptions of writing workshops for adults.”
2006 Accepted to Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Poetry Workshop participant, Middlebury College, Ripton, Vermont.
Third Place, First Person Festival Writing Contest sponsored by the Philadelphia City Paper and First Person Arts, June 2005.
Honorable Mention, Non-Rhyming Poetry Category, Writer’s Digest 2004 Writing Competition.
Who's Who In America 2004, 58th edition.
Honorable Mention, Rhyming Poem Category, Writer's Digest 2000 Writing Competition.
1997 First Place – Best Short Story, International Black Writers & Artists – Los Angeles Chapter, Los Angeles, CA.
1992 Honorable Mention – “Growing Out of Home” (a collection of short stories), Phi Kappa Phi All-University Honor Society’s 11th Annual Faculty and Student Recognition Awards, University of Southern California.
PUBLICATIONS: Prose
BOOK LENGTH: The Journey
Detective Fiction: The Novel
Sojourn in Calidia
Black Poetic Feminism: The Imagination of Toi Derricotte
(http://www.blowingupbarriers.com/drnispicks.html)
“Ruby,” Sushi Tuesday-Niama Williams’ Journal, Mr. Timothy Hooker, Editor, www.sushituesday.com, June 2008 to current.
“Bricks and Mortar,” Hamilton Stone Review (http://www.hamiltonstone.org/hsr.html), Ms. Edith Konecky, Fiction Editor; November 2007.
"Shropshire in Love," Afro European Sisters Network (www.aesn.nl or www.aesn.eu), Ms. Sandra Rafaela, editor; April 2007.
"Neighbor Jim," Blackfemlens.org, Dr. Sikivu Hutchinson, editor; March 2007.
"Traveling," Acts of Emancipation: An Anthology of Teachers' Writing, Plymouth Writers Group, Volume Ten, Fall 2005.
"Contradiction," MindFire Renewed, Gary Blankenship, Editor; June 2005.
"Theoretical Cinematic De-elevations," P.A.W. (Philadelphia Artists Writers) Prints, Mike DelVecchia, Editor; October 2004.
"Revolution," Midnight Mind Magazine Number Five, Brett Van Ernst, Editor; July 2003.
"The E-drum: An Ode," Amateur Computerist, Volume 11, Number 2, Jay Hauben, Editor; May 2003.
"Beloved," Tattoo Highway #6, CSU Hayward, Sara McAulay, Editor; January 2003.
PUBLICATIONS: Poetry
BOOKLENGTH: Steven
Famous Faces
Soul Work
Brown Women
Sex, Blood & the Mountains
(http://www.blowingupbarriers.com/drnispicks.html)
"Banned," Check the Rhyme: An Anthology of Female Poets & Emcees, edited by DuEwa Frazier, LitNoire Publishing, release date, July 2006.
Featured Poet ("Wynton, At Last," "For The North Philly Sista," "Woman City"), http://www.ekeretallie.com/, Ekere Tallie, Editor; Summer 2006.
"The Cleaning Lady," Xconnect: Writers of the Information Age, David E. Deifer, Editor; May 2006.
"Beluga in Trenton, or The Whale," Poetry Ink, Larry Robin, Editor; April 2006.
"The Other Side," blackfemlens.org, Dr. Sikivu Hutchinson, Editor; March 2006.
"Twenty Little Projects on the Way to Annihilation," Mischief, Caprice and Other Poetic Strategies, Red Hen Press, November 2004.
"On a Street Corner, Late, Coming Home," Warpland: A Journal of Black Literature and Ideas, Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing, Chicago State University, November 2003.
"Community College," Lost and Found: An Anthology of Teachers' Writing, Plymouth Writers Group, Volume 8, Fall 2003.
"Companion Pieces," Catch the Fire: A Cross-Generational Anthology of Contemporary African-American Poetry, Putnam, January 1998.
"Merging," Dark Eros: Black Erotic Writings, St. Martin’s Press, July 1997.
PUBLICATIONS: Journalism
“Point and Counterpoint: A Review of Wanda Coleman and Shelley Berger at Beyond Baroque,” The Graduate Trojan, the University of Southern California’s graduate and professional newspaper, Fall 1999.
“Slant,” Philadelphia City Paper, July 1999.
“Selected readings by and about African Americans,” Orange County Register, May 1992: H8.
“Professional Development at UCI: The Administration Speaks,” Library Mosaics, March/April 1992: 8-11.
“Parents Pass On More Than A Love of Reading,” Orange County Register, March 1990: L27.
PUBLICATIONS: Scholarly Essays
“Asante’s Afrological Sense and Women’s Studies: Selective Encounters,” Molefi Kete Asante and Afrocentricity: In Praise and In Criticism, Winston/Derek Publishing Group, Inc., March 1995.
“Through A Glass Darkly: Nicholson’s Vision of Afrocentricity,” In Their Faces: Situating Alternatives to Afrocentrism, September 1994.
PUBLICATIONS: Drama
“306: A Play in One Act,” International Journal of Black Drama, Volume 2, Number 1, Fall 1996.
CONFERENCES/WORKSHOPS: Creative Writing
Workshop Facilitator – Taught poetry workshop online for RAWSISTAZ Annual Conference; done virtually from Philadelphia, PA; December 2008.
Participant - Sable/Arvon Residential Course, The Hurst: The John Osborne Arvon Centre, Shropshire, UK; coordinator Kadija George, editor of Sable Literary Magazine, July 2006.
Workshop Facilitator - Taught poetry workshop as part of “Poetry Pulls Pain” at the African American Museum, Philadelphia, PA; May 2005.
Participant - Squaw Valley Community of Writers, Poetry Workshop, Squaw Valley, CA - July 2000.
Presenter - "Chapter One of The Calling: A novel in progress," within "Performances: Poetry Reading: Poetic Visions of Struggle, Strength and Survival," WAAD: 2nd International conference on Women in Africa and the African Diaspora: Health and Human Rights, Indiana University - Purdue University at Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana - October 1998.
Presenter of Original Poetry - Seventeenth Conference of the Association of Black Women in Higher Education, Philadelphia, PA - June 1997.
Panelist - 9th Annual National Black Graduate Student Conference, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, presented original poetry, May 1997.
Selected Student Reader and Poetry Workshop Participant - Hurston/Wright Foundation Writer's Week at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA - July 1996.
CONFERENCES/WORKSHOPS: Academic
Presenter – “Finding the Positive: It Ain’t Hidin’: Possession, Hope and Love in Greg Sarris’ Grand Avenue,” Annual Conference of the Society for the Study of Multiethnic Literatures in the United States, Knoxville College, Knoxville, Tennessee – February 2001.
Panelist – “Lucille Clifton and Race-y Women: What We Really Want,” Transitions: Schuylkill’s Third Annual Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA – April 1999.
Presenter – “What Do We Talk To Our Daughters About?: Passing on Wisdom, Love and Mental Health via the Arts,” within panel entitled “New Perspectives on Development: The Role of the Arts,” WAAD: 2nd International Conference on Women in Africa and the African Diaspora, Indiana University, Indianapolis, Indiana – October 1998.
Presentation & discussion of the works of Alice Walker and Toni Cade Bambara, The Teaching Center, Community College of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA – November 1997.
Panelist – Third Annual African American Studies Conference, Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA; presented original poetry with the paper: “There But For The Grace of God: Women Guiding Each Other Through the Next Millennium” – April 1997.
READINGS:
Featured poet, Mad Poets’ Society Festival, Eileen D’Angelo, organizer, Media Borough Hall, Media, PA; Sunday, October 5th, 2008.
Featured poet, Dreamscape: A Gallery Exhibit Opening featuring the work of artist Jeff Thomas, Highwire Galley Dreamscape Festival, 2040 Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia, PA; Saturday, September 6th, 2008.
Featured poet, Fairmount Arts Crawl, Ward Park, Fairmount District, Philadelphia, PA; Sunday, April 27th, 2008.
Featured poet, Big Blue Marble Bookstore, Maleka Fruean, Events Coordinator, Philadelphia, PA; March 5th, 2008.
Featured poet, The 2nd Annual Women’s History Month Poetry & Prose Reading, Sponsored by The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey’s Women’s Studies and General Studies Programs, Series facilitated by Dr. Emari DiGiorgio, Assistant Professor of Writing, Pomona, NJ; Wednesday, March 12th, 2008.
Featured poet, Voices & Visions Literary Festival, Voices & Visions Bookstore, Angela Roach, proprietor; 4th & Market (at the Bourse), Philadelphia, PA; March 10, 2007.
Featured poet, Panoramic Poetry, sponsored by the October Gallery, the Littman Building, Philadelphia, PA; December 2006, January 2007 & March 2007.
Participant, "Philadelphia Ink" (a gathering of Philadelphia authors who've published books in 2006), Robin's Bookstore, Larry Robin, host & proprietor; Philadelphia, PA ; December 10, 2006.
Featured reader, "Artists Speak Out Against Sexual Abuse," Natalie Joy, host; Kaffa Crossing, West Philadelphia, PA; December 8, 2006.
Featured poet, "Women’s Ink," Robin's Bookstore, Larry Robin, host & proprietor; Philadelphia, PA; October 2006.
Featured poet, Moonstone Poetry Series, Robin's Bookstore, Justin Vitiello, series coordinator; Larry Robin, proprietor; Philadelphia, PA; July 2006.
Featured Poet in company with cellist Monica McIntyre, Voices & Visions Bookstore, Angela Roach, proprietor; Philadelphia, PA; March 2006.
Featured Poet, Monday Poets Series, Central Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA; November 2005.
Featured Poet, 2nd Friday Fringe Free for All, Community Education Center, Philadelphia, PA; September 2005.
Featured Reader, Women's Writing and Spoken Word series, Robin's Bookstore, Philadelphia, PA; July 2005.
Featured Reader, First Person Festival "Skeletons in the Closet" reading, Robin's Bookstore, Philadelphia, PA; June 2005.
Featured Reader, Women Against Violence informal coffee house, sponsored by the Sexual Assault Counseling Education and North Central Victim Services, Temple University, Owl Cove, Mitten Hall - March 1999.
RADIO APPEARANCES:
Featured Guest, Online Black History Month Book Fair, “Erotica and Sensual Poetry,” Ella Curry, host, BlogTalkRadio.com/BlackAuthorNetwork, February 7th, 2009.
Featured Guest, National Business Women’s Enterprise Network Radio, Shelleye Williams, host, www.blogtalkradio.com/NBWENRadio, February 6th, 2009.
Featured Guest, “Social Enterprise – The New Hero,” Strictly Business Radio, Anna D. Banks, host, http://www.blogtalkradio.com/StrictlyBusinessRadio, November 11th, 2008.
Featured Guest, “BWP Online,” Rhonda Kuykendall-Jabari, Host, BlogTalkRadio.com/yourcoffeelady, August 2nd, 2008.
Talk Show Host, “Poetry & Prose & Anything Goes with Dr. Ni,” BlogTalkRadio.com/drni – Fridays, 2-3 p.m. moved to Saturdays, 12:00 – 1:30 p.m., 2008 - current.
Featured author, Black Authors Network/Sankofa Literary Society, Ella Curry, Host, BlogTalkRadio.com, various dates February 2008 – current.
Guest, “Marketing for Fun and Profit,” Janet Elaine Smith, host; Passionate Internet Voices Talk Radio, www.internetvoicesradio.com, December 10th, 2007.
Opening poet, Wanda’s Way: Poetry Pro’s, Wanda D. Hudson, host; BlogTalkRadio, November 2007.
Guest, Air Atta Ca Talk’s radio show devoted to serious discussion of erotic literature, BlogTalkRadio, September 2007: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/AirAttaCaTalk/blog/2007/09/22/co-host-dr-ni....
Guest, “Belle With Balls,” The Rebel Belle, September 2007, Issue #14: http://www.therebelbelle.com/communications/RByell/071001/071001bwb.php
Talk Show Host, "Poetry & Prose & Anything Goes with Dr. Ni," Passionate Internet Voices Talk Radio, www.internetvoicesradio.com - Tuesdays, 8-9 p.m., February – April 2007.
Guest, Empowered Black Perspectives, hosted by Rachel Ramone, February 2007.
Guest, "Author Be Known," hosted by Lillian Cauldwell, Passionate Internet Voices Talk Radio, www.internetvoicesradio.com - December 5, 2006.
Guest, "Open Your Throat & Speak," hosted by Katherine Bonner-Jackson, Radio Volta - September 2006.
Featured Poet, "LIVE at the Writers House," hosted by Michaela Maljoun, WXPN, 88.5 FM, February 2006.
Guest, "Cultural Awareness Seminar," hosted by Bruce Bridge, owner of The Know Bookstore, WDUR (1490 AM) - 1997.
Guest Reading/Interview, "Gutspeak," hosted by Elizabeth Stinson and Fiona Bridgestocke, KUCI, University of California at Irvine, 1991.
###
Dr. Niama L. Williams, Workshop Facilitator
What
isolates many artists from their deepest, innermost selves is the
absence of play in their lives, downtime in which they can be silly,
can stumble and fall, can try and fail with no consequences, can create
something not perfect and still love themselves and the work. This
course focuses on "drawing your way to freedom," on coming to
understand what holds you back, what stems your creativity, what keeps
you in fear, and then demolishing it. Most of all, it allows you to
play as you work your way towards fighting whatever it is that keeps
you from attaining your dreams.
We will laugh, have fun, and
bond as we share with each other what keeps us stuck, discuss and
practice the rudiments of poetry, prose, and the essay, and draw with
colored pencils and markers the new vistas we want to achieve in our
work or the dragons we have to defeat.
The first series of workshops, Series A: “Killing the Muckraker,” is eight weeks in length, and is followed by Series B: “Soul Work: Breaking the Chains of Earlier Dreams,” also eight weeks in length. The third series, Series C: “Grunt Work: Creating The Path To A Fully Imagined Life,” is thirteen weeks.
The tuition for each eight-week series, Series A and Series B, is $275/participant.
The tuition for the thirteen-week series, Series C, is $450/participant.
Tuition for the entire 29-week program, Series A, B, & C, is $900/participant.
The workshop facilitator will provide all course materials.
Fees
for sponsoring organizations are on a different scale; please contact
Dr. Williams directly or visit her website for more information. If
workshops are held at a sponsoring organization’s physical site, the
organization must pay travel and accommodations for the workshop
facilitator. In exchange for travel and accommodations, the facilitator
provides all supplies for the course (sketchbook/journals, colored
pencils, pens, etc.). In addition, the sponsoring organization is
responsible for providing the following equipment needs: chalkboard/dry
erase board, access to computer/printer, table (to gather around),
chairs (must be comfy), and podium (desktop podium is fine).
To
enroll as an individual or to hire Dr. Williams as a consultant, please
email her at niamapers@gmail.com or call her at 484/231-1768.
About the instructor:
Dr. Niama Leslie Williams is a published writer who possesses degrees
in comparative literature, creative writing, and African American
literature. Through workshops at the University of Pennsylvania and the
African American Museum, and her thirteen years as an adjunct
instructor of English and literature, Dr. Williams has practiced
bringing writers to a new depth of honesty in their work, and seeks to
bring that quality to others stifled by their everyday lives.
IT'S OKAY TO WANT: EROTICISM AND THE SURVIVAL OF SEXUAL TRAUMA
WORKSHOP FACILITATOR: DR. Niama L. Williams
My work with survivors of sexual trauma is multifaceted. It begins with my speaking engagements and my literary ministry. I have a revolving repertoire of presentations that I do forthe general public ("Over 40, Over 400, and Facing the Future Fantastically"; "Attaining the Fully Imagined Life: The Inner Self/The Outer Self"; "The Four Boyfriends: Where Do YOU Stand in Your Relationships?"; "Blowing Up Barriers Take One: Hey, Why Can't I?"), and those presentations are safe places in which people can come forward and begin to share who they are.Within each of these presentations at some point I address the erotic energy, what it brings to creativity and to life, and what may or may not stifle release of the erotic energy.
During that phase of the presentation
I use selections from my own creative work, most of it erotically-charged literature, to present my own journey from inhibition as a survivor of sexual trauma to a free, liberated, accepting woman with a healthy and vibrant libido. At this point I briefly mention that I have workshops tailored for those stifled in all areas of their lives, including erotically, and invite those attending to contact me at a later time if they would like more information.
The "Attaining the Fully Imagined Life"workshops
are primarily for those stuck in terms of career and artistic endeavor; I have developed a special form of that workshop series which focuses on the survival of sexual trauma and the liberation or containment of the erotic energies (should they become excessive).
Clients either work with me individually, or in groups of no more than eight.
Whereas the AFIL workshops feature drawing as the principal icebreaker activity each week, responses to one of my pieces of erotic literature begin the discussions and are the precipitations of the at-home writing assignments each week.
We proceed along the same outlines as the AFIL workshops:
What is not working currently (the Muckraker and how do we kill him/her (Series A); what is our body, our soul, our consciousness telling us is wrong/needs fixing (Series B); what concrete steps, based on the answers achieved in series A and series B, are we going to take and show how it feels to be supported by the group as we take them (Series C).
Niama’s special workshop series for sexual abuse survivors: "It's Okay to Want: Eroticism and Surviving Sexual Trauma."
In Dr. Ni’s words: "I use my own literary work in these workshops because my erotic literature (novels, short stories, poems, memoir) tracks for survivors my own recovery and the many ways in which I give myself permission to be the liberated survivor that I am. Survivors want to see how it's done, to know that someone has gone before and made sure the water was fine." ###
BODY OF WORK
Given the strange crux I find myself in, Black woman academic with traumatic childhood and psychiatric diagnosis, I cannot help but believe that my experience, my record of how I continue to cope, and strive, and achieve, could save someone else from darkness, could provide light and a way out to another troubled soul. My work is not solely my own; it comes across an invisible transom from a source which believes in shrouding the ordinary—ordinary people, ordinary events—with the glint of majesty, the light of understanding. It is a spiritual process. Many times a piece begins with a yearning to write about someone who would never imagine themself center stage in a creative work. Then the listening begins, the tuning of my inner ear to my soul’s voice.
The soul’s voice, however, can be chaotic, so I’ve become comfortable with my work’s home between forms. I’ve become more fluid in my writing, more apt to let the words come as they are, flow as they want, wander and startle where they may. I have learned when and where and how to let go of control, and the proper place of editing. I let the initial spark carry everything forward, I write it all down as it streams in, and then I let it sit for three or four days so I can edit ruthlessly. If I can be patient, I let it sit a month, or at least three weeks, and edit again. After that revision, I try to put it somewhere and forget about it so that I can do that last edit with a no longer in mad love with it eye. That unforgiving eye is so important to honing the true beauty of the original inspiration.
Teasing out hidden beauty in the ordinary is always my goal, so my work is primarily for women. We think ourselves so commonplace, so ugly, so unfit. I write for women who’ve been abused, for women who have survived trauma, for women who have survived trauma and yet do some of the most complex, complicated jobs of the twenty-first century. Women who feed babies, who love husbands or partners while fighting the memory of an intrusion at four a.m. when they were three. Women who have to go to work in the midst of all this; women who face up to the demands and somehow, some way, keep from crumbling. My work is for these women so that they don’t crumble. It is my way of saying I’ve been there, I am there, I know, don’t give up, don’t throw in the towel, not today. Women can’t work, can’t change, can’t nurture or survive if they don’t want to get out of bed, if their trauma or struggles keep them from functioning.
I start with work if you ask me about artistic goals. An adjunct professor of English since 1993, I want the freedom an adjunct can only dream about. No scrambling for classes. No praying for enough assignments from enough colleges so that I can pay the bills. I am single with no husband or partner to provide a second income. One of my parents is deceased, and the other has notoriously bad credit. The only one who can support me now is me. The more classes I am forced by economics to teach, the less time I have to write poems, edit prose, submit essays, compile manuscripts; the less time I have to network, to create opportunities to read and present at conferences. I want time to focus on my writing, a gift any woman artist in this day and age would kill for.
You may ask about my audience, and I’ll tell you that I am a middle-aged Black woman with many female friends. My friends are in their twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, sixties and seventies. I think there is even an octogenarian in the mix. My friends are white, Black, Latino, Asian, Jewish and biracial. I have friends from college, and friends that I inherited from my deceased mother, women she had known since she was in junior high school.
These women and I talk about many things, and one discussion we have often circles around race and class and culture. We don’t step around the tension; we know that honest review of our experiences of each means that sometimes the white folks will be scared, and sometimes we will be scared. These women are my community; my Black femaleness only matters to them when it cements the authenticity with which I discuss whatever is pushing my pen forward at the moment. They know that as a self-aware and committed Black woman I cannot afford to add to the lies and half-truths we tell each other about race and class and culture in this country. To do so would be to do violence to my deepest and most profound sense of self.
My trauma was about secrets and pretending there was nothing wrong. To do so as an adult would betray the three and five and eight year old that I was. It would also do unspeakable violence to my community. My audience does not read me because I’m Black; they read me because I tell truths, because I put the unmentionable down on paper. One of my closest Black friends, who is also a writer, when she hears some of my pieces laughingly comments, “Niama, will you please stop scaring the white people?” She knows.
My community is unafraid of my boldness, my discussion of what lies beneath. They encourage that element of my work because they too are tired of walking on societal and cultural eggshells. They are relieved when I speak out on something they have held in for far too long.
I speak from my experience. My wide and varied community hears me. And that is the deepest and most profound connection.
###
There are several ways to begin to find out who the illustrious Dr. Ni really is behind closed doors:
visit my website, http://www.blowingupbarriers.com; from the Welcome page onward you will learn the aims and ambitions of my company, Blowing Up Barriers Enterprises
visit my Lulu.com storefront and become familiar with the seven titles available for sale there; I have completed three novels, two of them memoir, each giving us a protagonist who is Black, female, second sighted and in peril; three collections of poetry, one dedicated to Hollywood stereotypes, one to the women who raised me and the women who raised them, and the last to people--famous and not so famous--who have touched my life and assisted me on my journey
request my Media Kit via the email address given on the "Contact Me" page of my company's website
or keep reading right here on SelfGrowth.com; book excerpts are only a few screens away!
###
Dr. Niama L. Williams
484/231-1768
484/674-7804 (fax)
http://www.blowingupbarriers.com
http://stores.lulu.com/drni
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/drni
http://drnisnotesandnibbles.blogspot.com
http://www.sushituesday.com/niama-williams-journal/
Dan ;-) Low * Maximize ...
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Jim Allen
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Dan And Jennifer
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