Lamont B Steptoe and Aschak

Aschak, poet and artist, was born in Trinidad but has long been a Philadelphia resident. Besides writing and performing his poetry, he has organized readings and brought poetry to the schools. His paintings can be seen on Astral Wilderness.

Lamont B Steptoe is a poet/photographer/publisher born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is author of eight books of poetry, including Mad Minute, Uncle's South China Sea Blue Nightmare, and Dusty Road. Two new chapbooks entitled Common Salt and Trinkets and Beads are due to be issued by Whirlwind Press in the Spring of 1998. Steptoe is a father, a Vietnam Veteran and a founder of Whirlwind Press.

His work has also appeared in the following anthologies: Life on the Line: Poems of Healing, Brother to Brother, In Search of Color Everywhere, Aloud: Voices of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Unsettling America, Critical Perspectives on Dennis Brutus, Salutes: Selected Writings, In Defense of Mumia, Writing Between the Lines and Spirit and Flame.

Steptoe was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 1994 and received a 1995-96 Literary Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. He was also a Discipline Winner in the Literature category of the 1995-96 Pew Charitable Trust Fellowship Program.

He has read his work at the Library of Congress, the National Library of Nicaragua, the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, Shakespeare & Co. in Paris, the Knitting Factory, the Schomburg Center for Black Culture, and colleges and universities throughout the United States. Steptoe is also an activist in human rights, environmental issues, and gay/bisexual issues

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June 2003 Calendar