Featured Poet: Reginald Asangba Taluah

To watch Taluah perform his poem go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOkUvqkLrO8

Reginald Asangba Taluah’s poem “A Voice from Within” begins with an invocation in the tradition of song from the Upper East Region of Ghana. He likes to remind people that “in some African languages mere conversations stand as poetry and tno to mention the occasions when the drums, flutes and other instruments are accompanied in euphony by the potent voices of performers.”

“Since most great literature in Africa is to be found in Oral traditions one needs to get back to these roots in order to portray that heritage,” writes Taluah.

Reginald Asangbe Taluah was born on the 14th of April 1984. He hails from Navrongo in the Upper East Region of Ghana. He graduated from the University of Ghana in 2007 with a degree in English and Sociology and currently pursuing a Masters in Philosophy (M.Phil) in Literature in English at the Department of English-University of Ghana after serving as a Teaching Assistant in the same Department.

The Ghana Poetry Project is a new effort to promote the poetry of Ghana and its poets in Ghana and around the world. You can find out more at the Ghana Poetry Project at www.ghanapoetryproject.com.

You can find previous postings of poets in the archives.

Selected Works

3. Poetry

Dave the Potter
A picturebook poem describing the life of the slave potter Dave. Illustrated by Bryan Collier.

Contemporary Poetry of New England
“Contemporary Poetry of New England offers a vivid portrait of a region, its colors and smells, its physical and emotional textures, and the people…. It presents a range of poets, few of whom would call themselves a “region poet,” although each has taken to heart in a private way Frost’s haunting dictum: ‘Locality gives art.’”

--from the Introduction

1. Nonfiction

DJ Kool Herc
The first picturebook biography of the founder of rap and hip hop, DJ Kool Herc!

America Dreaming: How Youth Changed America in the 60s
"Phenomenal."–Howard Zinn "Excellent."–New York Times Book Review

Harlem Stomp! A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance
“Harlem Stomp! is a wonderous new book: it celebrates a time, a place, an energy, and a people who refused to be held back and so they created a culture the entire world is still reeling from.”

--George C. Wolfe, writer, director, and producer of the Public Theater, NYC

2. Fiction

A Brush with Napoleon
A seventeen-year-old is plucked out of the Grande Armee to sit in place of Napoleon for a portrait of the Emperor by the artist David.

Casa Azul
"I felt like a kid reading every word on the page! I liked the strains of "magic realism" coming through in Frida's house! Children will relate to this very much! The story is charming and reads like a thriller." –Margarita Aguilar, Assisant Curator, El Museo del Barrio

4. Middle Grade Series

Xtreme Mysteries
These kids love extreme sports--snowboarding, skateboarding, rock climbing, wake boarding--and are ready to fight when the right to do their sport is threatened.