AMPLIFY: A Sheila-Na-Gig Anthology Celebrating Poets of Color

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Amplify
Edited by Sandra Rivers-Gill

ISBN: 978-1-962405-86-7
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ABOUT THE EDITOR:

Sandra Rivers-Gill is an award-winning poet, author, and playwright living in Northwest Ohio. Her gifting fuses the rhythm of her work with themes that explore social justice, relationships, family, and personal experiences. Her poetry has appeared in numerous publications, garnering a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations. Her debut poetry chapbook, As We Cover Ourselves With Light, (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, 2023), was a finalist for the 2024 Eric Hoffer Book Award, which was featured at the 2024 Ohioana Book Festival. She is the editor of Dopeless Hope Fiends (Radio Room Press, 2018) an anthology of poems written by women in recovery. Her award experiences have secured a finalist prize for the 2015 Promedica Revealing Hunger Spoken Word Contest, the Toledo Museum of Art Ekphrastic Awards, (2010, 2014 and 2017) and Ode to the Zip Code (2017, 2023). She wrote and directed her own one-women show, A Letter to Langston (Zora Neale Hurston’s life and friendship with Langston Hughes), presented at Bowling Green State University’s Black Issues Conference in 2020. She was one of five award-winning Ohio poets chosen to compose poems about Toledo Metroparks for the #5poets5parks 2025. She has served as a board member and poetry instructor for Naomi Inc, a non-profit treatment facility, a poetry instructor for Otterbein Senior Living Communities (formerly Sunset House), she and continues to serve as drama ministry leader, directing productions at her church, Friendship Baptist Church in Toledo. Her creative work continues as a Teaching Artist for the Ohio Art’s Council, having been chosen as one of twenty-five Ohio artists to engage older adults in her poetry workshop series, Poetry, Prompts & Pens. Her work with the older adult participants was inspired by a poetry group called the Not Dead Yet Poets. She was appointed as the inaugural Poet Ambassador of Northwest Ohio representing the Ohio Poetry Association and is currently serving a two-year term through 2026. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Liberal Studies degree from the University of Toledo.

ABOUT THE BOOK: From Sandra Rivers-Gill’s Introduction

. . . This anthology of poetry has transparency of sound: accent, tenor and vibration. It resists, yet it is persistent. It is loud and unapologetic. Here, the writer is the protagonist of his or her own narrative. The appreciation of Black Poets, Indigenous Poets and Other Poets of Color (BIPOC) brings cultural perspectives that awaken and enlighten. Historically, BIPOC voices and stories have been reduced by incomplete depictions of censorship and systemic erasure. Amplify is not about the woe but rather the right of “different” to exist in the histories of literature. This is not to suggest a change in worldviews, but for the reader to make room for “othered” voices. To be a table of accessible dialogue. The experiences of poets of color are not monolithic but are indicative of lenses of beautiful interpretation that pulsate and surge with a culturescape, at times, invisible voices that must be made visible.

CONTRIBUTORS:

Amplify contributors hail from the United States and Puerto Rico, Canada, India, Nigeria, Trinidad and Tobago, Singapore, and the United Kingdom, including: Dima Aboukasm, Abdulmueed Balogun Adewale,Pulkita Anand,Sayuri Matsuura Ayers, Deanna Be, Alexis Beckford, DJ Benhaim, Marquita Byars,Vanessa Caraveo, Rachel Chitofu, Caridad Cole, Tahirah Coleman, Matt Cooper, Triston Dabney, Tricia Diaz, Gail Epps, Jessi Farfan, Felix Flauta Jr., Lynette Ford, Susan Forman, Misti Galloway, Regina YC Garcia, Susana Gonzales, JM Huck, HuntorPrey, Shirochka Janapati, Connie Johnson, Yvonne M. Johnson, Kelletria Jolly, Robyn Katona, Thomas Kneeland, Reverie Koniecki, K. Lee, Alicia Lewis, Tamara J. Madison, Claire Maracle, Glen Marchand, Nupur Maskara, Nkasiobinnaya Mbonu, Tara Menon, Deborah A. Miranda, Russell Nichols, NitaJade, Liliana Orozco, Azeemah Parker, Cherise A. Pollard, Teju Prasad, Beth Brown Preston, Sujash Purna, Jeremiah Purvis, henry 7. reneau, jr., Sandra Rivers-Gill, Daniel Romo, Shei Sanchez, Sahara Scott, Stewart Shaw, Dorsía Smith Silva, Rose Smith, Sandra Smith, Simone Renee Spruce, Avery Irene Stewart, Jodie Summers, Lee A. Tonouchi, Rais Tuluka, Jonathan Chibuike Ukah, Grady VanWright, Raju Vegiraju, E. J. Wade, Allison Whittenberg, Tammy Wolfe, Ellen June Wright, Kenton K. Yee, Ping Yi Yee, Fola-Sie Zaumu