As an only child, I learned that a good book can be the best friend anyone can have. Born in NYC to Jamaican parents, I lived in the nest of my Jamaican relatives until age seven. My father’s job, working for the Air Force, moved us to Rome, NY, where there were no relatives or friends. So reading and music became my initial focus. Before moving to Rome, NY, one of my teenage cousins started me, at age five, on piano. So, I basically started reading words and notes simultaneously. Music lessons continued through high school. I moved back to NYC to attend Queens College, studying Music Education, but didn’t complete the degree there. The aunt with whom I stayed and I had a huge disagreement, so I left and joined my parents in Oklahoma, where my father had been transferred. My father walked my papers through at the University of Oklahoma, in Norman, where I finished my BA in Music Education with a minor in English.
Subsequently, I moved to California, living in the LA area and San Francisco/Berkeley areas, then on to Seattle, Minneapolis, Albuquerque and since August 2008, here in the Madison area.
In all those areas, I have sporadically taken classes in Creative Writing, Songwriting, Playwriting (Playwrights Center in Minneapolis & Los Angeles Theatre Center)and Recording, and consistently have spewed out poetry, short stories, plays, songs, in no particular order. My play, “The Stirring Testimony of Laura’s Hair” was read at the 2001 American Psychologist Association Annual Convention in San Francisco. I composed music for plays produced by a community theater in San Francisco and currently am writing some music for a friend’s short film.
I have been married, divorced, and have two adult sons. My older son is now an independent filmmaker-writer and the younger son is an electrician.
I have worked many jobs to pay the rent, usually combining them with teaching piano and voice, performing solo gigs and playing in bands. Now I have been recording my own songs and narrating my short stories in an audio mag format called “Flick My Ear Again”, while working in an afterschool program and teaching piano and voice at MusicWorks. Within the last few months, I joined Tuesdays With Story and am enjoying the camaraderie and constructive criticism of fellow writers.
