African-American/Black History Month is a designated time to remember people and events in the history of the African diaspora. Last year Raven Chronicles Press published POEM OF STONE & BONE, The Iconography of James W. Washington Jr. in Fourteen Stanzas and Thirty-One Days, by Carletta Carrington Wilson. This book honors the art-filled legacy and life of Mississippi-born and Seattle-based Artist, James W. Washington Jr (1909-2000). Below is a chapter from the book.
Read MoreThomas Hubbard (June 15, 1938-May 30, 2023), a retired writing instructor and spoken word performer, authored Nail and other hardworking poems, Year of the Dragon Press, 1994; Junkyard Dogz (also available on audio CD); and Injunz, a chapbook. He designed and published Children Remember Their Fathers (an anthology), and books by seven other authors. His book reviews have appeared in Square Lake, Raven Chronicles, New Pages and The Cartier Street Review. Publication credits include poems in Yellow Medicine Review, spring 2010, I Was Indian, editor Susan Deer Cloud (Foothills Publishing, 2010), and Florida Review; and short stories in Red Ink andYellow Medicine Review.
Read MoreCarletta Carrington Wilson is a literary, mixed-media, and installation artist. She explores the "text" of textiles. Her work appears in This Light Called Darkness, Take a Stand: Art Against Hate, The African American Review, Cimarron Review, Obsidian III, and Cascadian Zen: Bioregional Writings on Cascade Here and Now. Her works have been exhibited at Wa Na Wari, CoCA, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art and the Northwest African American Museum.
As artist-in-residence at the Dr. James and Janie Washington Studio and Cultural Center in the Central District, Wilson created a series of site-specific installations whose process is documented in Poem of Stone & Bone. Journal entries chart her journey and visceral responses to objects found on the grounds, in the house and studio of the artist. Poem of Stone and Bone engages objects, land and literature to create a nuanced perspective on the life and work of James W. Washington Jr.
Read MoreSusan Deer Cloud, a Catskill Native, is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, two New York State Foundation for the Arts Poetry Fellowships, and an Elizabeth George Foundation Grant. Published in numerous journals and anthologies, her most recent books are The Way to Rainbow Mountain (Shabda Press, 2019), Before Language (Shabda Press, 2016), and Hunger Moon: Poems (Shabda Press, 2014). She also edited the anthologies I Was Indian (Before Being Indian Was Cool), Volumes I & II (Foothills Publishing 2009, 2012). Currently Deer Cloud balances her life Libra-like between her mountain home and roving afar, her rambling naturally becoming an interior journey resulting in visions, stories, essays, and poems. For more: https://sites.google.com/site/susandeercloud/.
Read MoreMaryna Ajaja: on June 25, 2022, Maryna died at home in Seattle after a prolonged fight with cancer. She was a writer and a long-time film programmer for the Seattle International Film Festival, specializing in Eastern, Central European, and Russian films. Ajaja lived in the Northwest since 1969, except for seven years in Russia from 1991 to 1997; and she lived in Seattle’s Zip Code 98118, “the most diverse Zip code in America,” since 2004.
Raven included Ajaja's photos from the 98118 Project in our 2012 issue of Raven Chronicles Magazine: Vol. 17, No. 1-2, A Sense of Place. In honor of Maryna Ajaja, we share them here.
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