Today, we present Part 1 of our conversation with poet, photographer, and educator Truth Thomas.
Our guest today is Truth Thomas (born Glenn Edward Thomas in Knoxville, Tennessee). Truth is an American singer-songwriter, poet, editor, publisher and founder of Cherry Castle Publishing, LLC. He is the author of Party of Black (2006), A Day of Presence (2008), Bottle of Life (2010), Speak Water (2012), winner of the 2013 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry, and My TV is Not the Boss of Me (2013), Jessie Redmon Fauset Book Award Finalist 2014, a children's book, illustrated by Cory Thomas. Thomas is the creator of the fixed form of poetry known as the "Skinny.” In addition, he has edited and co-edited a number of anthologies, including Where We Stand: Poems of Black Resilience (Cherry Castle Publishing, 2022), The Skinny Poetry Anthology (Cherry Castle Publishing, 2019), and is the Editor-in-Chief of The Skinny Poetry Journal.
During his early music career (recording as Glenn Edward Thomas), his first full-length studio album, Take Love, was produced in 1982 on Capitol Records by Soul Train television show creator and host Don Cornelius. In 1992, Thomas officially changed his name from Glenn Edward Thomas to Truth Thomas. He is a former Writer-in-Residence for the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society (HoCoPoLitSo) and the Inaugural Poet Laureate of Howard County, Maryland. His poems have appeared in over 150 publications, including The 100 Best African American Poems (edited by Nikki Giovanni) and This Is the Honey (edited by Kwame Alexander).
For more information about Truth, click here.
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