BIOGRAPHY OF THE BREAD IS RISING POETRY COLLECTIVE
Since late 1994, The Bread is Rising
Poetry Collective has spread consciousness through the word in numerous appearances in performance, in festivals and gatherings,
on radio and public access cable, across the United States, Canada
and England.
As a culturally political organization,
the Collective continues its work with a regular open stage series - The People's Cafe Dedicated to Julia DeBurgos-James Baldwin-Rev.
Pedro Pietri-Lorraine Hansberry - held in Woodside, Queens, New York City.
What has been vital in the continuing work of the Collective is in
ORGANIZATION.
The Bread is Rising Poetry Collective is a member organization of The
Fed - A Network of Writing & Community Publishers (Stevenage, England).
Our sister organizations are Precious Promise Arts Circle (New
Brunswick, NJ) and Writers Block Poetry Collective (New Brunswick, NJ).
Peace and love to those organizations and movements that have made their spaces for
us over the years:
*El Puerto Rican Embassy/Iglesia de La Madre de los Tomates (NYC)
*People's Organization for Progress (Newark, NJ)
*Dove Gathering of the Arts (Jersey City, NJ)
*free2spit (New Haven, CT)
*New Haven May Day Committee (CT)
*Mahina Movement (NYC)
*The Lounge Society (New Brunswick, NJ)
*Partisan Gallery (Toronto, ON)
*Universal Arts Movement (New Haven, CT)
*Universal Culture (Paterson, NJ)
*Light & Unity Association (Philadelphia, PA)
*Kamelian Arts Society (South Orange, NJ)
*Fruit of Labor (Raleigh, NC)
*Moonstone Arts Center (Philadelphia, PA)
*Movimiento Independiente de Trabajadores (Queens, NY)
*Philippine Forum/Bayanihan Cultural Center (Woodside, NY)
*Sisa Pakari Labor & Cultural Center (Woodside, NY)
*International Migrants Alliance - USA (NYC)
*ILPS (US)
*BAYAN USA (NYC)
*Youth of Rizal (Jersey City, NJ)
*Southern Christian Leadership Conference & Baltimore People's Assembly(Baltimore, MD)
*GABRIELA DC
* #justice4monteiro (North Philadelphia, PA)
* Anakbayan New Jersey
*People's
Music Network (NYC)
The Collective has performed in:
libraries
Five
Corners, Biblioteca Criolla and Heights Branches (Jersey City, NJ); New Brunswick, NJ; Hackensack, NJ; Newark, NJ; East Orange, NJ; Toronto, ON; East Hartford,
CT; Harlem & Countee Cullen Branches (Harlem, NY); Langston Hughes Community Library (Elmhurst,
NY); East Elmhurst Library (NY); Queens Central Library (Jamaica, NY); Philadelphia
Free Public Library; East Elmhurst Public Library (NY)
cultural and community centers
El Puerto Rican Embassy (New York); Walt Whitman
Arts Center (Camden,
NJ); Kimako’s Blues People (Newark,
NJ); Weequahic Park Field House (Newark,
NJ); Club Sudan (New York, NY); Fruit of Labor World Cultural Center (Raleigh, NC); Elmcor Senior Center (Corona, NY); George Street Playhouse (New
Brunswick, NJ); International
House Garden (Philadelphia); The
Hub Teen Center (New Brunswick, NJ); Club Mahwonaj (Washington,
DC); Tropical Soul Café (Richmond,
VA); The Olive Leaf (Toledo,
OH); Mamasita's Dance Studio (Washington, DC); Bayanihan Cultural Center
(Woodside, NY); Simply Feel Better (Jersey City, NJ); Brandywine Workshop (Philadelphia)
gatherings: rallies, celebrations, commemorations,
and festivals
* Do the Right Thing Festival (Brooklyn, NY)
* Patricia Landrum Memorial Service, Grace Church Van Vorst (Jersey
City, NJ)
* Great Labor Arts Exchange:
National Labor College (Silver Spring, MD), AFSCME
Council 25 Headquarters (Detroit, MI), & Conference Center at the Maritime Institute (Linthicum, MD)
* FedFest 06 @ University of Leicester
(England)
* Zannette Lewis Environmental & Social Justice Community
Poetry Open Mic, Dr. Martin Luther King's Legacy of Environmental & Social Justice, Peabody Museum of Natural History
at Yale University (New Haven)
* May Day New Haven (CT)
* July 4th Diversity Day
(Morristown, NJ)
* Pre-Diversity Rally Gathering (Lewiston,
ME)
* Bimbo Rivas Tribute @ CHARAS
(Loisaida, NY)
* Penn Avenue Festival Rocks Against Racism (Pittsburgh, PA)
* Annual Boogie Down BBQ & Open
Mic (Highland Park & Piscataway, NJ)
* Staten Island Freedom & Peace
Festival
* Annual Commemoration of Newark (NJ) 1967 Uprising
* Pedro Pietri Place Renaming Ceremony &
Reading at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe (NYC)
* New Year's Poets' Corner Tribute
(Fredericton, NB, Canada)
* Poetry and Protest: A Celebration
of Art and Activism with Dennis Brutus, Haymarket Books/Beaver Group (NYC)
* Tribute to Dr. Sonia Sanchez &
Dr. Alyce Gullatee, Westminster Presbyterian Church (Washington, DC)
* The Lounge Society Black History Month Celebration (New Brunswick,
NJ)
* Raritan River Environmental Festival
Poetry Reading at Crossroads Theatre (New Brunswick, NJ, 18 April 09)
* Remembrance & Celebration
of Daisy L. B. Robinson (1907-2009), Cobb Funeral Homes
(Elmhurst, NY)
* Brother Bey's Earth Day (Gaithersberg,
Md.; Westminster Presbyterian Church, WDC; Solar Eclipse Club, WDC)
* John Brown Raid 150th Anniversary
Bus Ride (to Harpers Ferry, WV)
* MIT asamblea @ Philippine Forum/Bayanihan
Filipino Community Center (Woodside, NY)
* Asamblea Popular (Long Island City, NY)
* Martin Luther King Jr. 4
April 2010 commemoration @ MLK statue, Martin Luther King Drive Light Rail Station (Jersey City, NJ)
* Conference of Cultural Diversity (Revere, MA)
* Poetry Ink (Robin's Bookstore & Moonstone Arts Center) (Philadelphia,
PA)
* 3rd & 4th Annual Bayanihan Cultural Festival (Woodside, NY)
* Andres Bonifacio 150th Anniversary/5th Annual Bayanihan Fesitval
(Woodside, NY)
* POP Annual Kwanzaa Festival (Mt. Pleasant Missionary Baptist
Church, Newark, NJ; REFAL Headquarters, Newark, NJ)
* Festival of Resistance (Chicago, IL)
* BAYAN Northeast Regional Conference (NYC)
* Lantern Festival for Migrants'
Rights (Woodside, NY)
* Great Labor Arts Exchange Rally
for Universal Health Care
* Chalk Ninjas Arts and Cultural
Festival, Youth of Rizal/Hope of Our Youth (HOY), Our Lady of Victory Church Yard (Jersey City, NJ)
* Queens March for Workers' & Immigrants' Rights, Manuel De Dios Unanue Triangle Park (Woodside &
Jackson Heights, NY)
* Rally in Support of Immigrant Affairs Commission, in front of City Hall at Jersey City (NJ) (motion
passed unanimously)
* Reformed Talents, Sunnyside Reformed Church (Sunnyside, NY)
* Poor People's March 45th Anniversary (Baltimore-to-Washington) and People's Assembly (Independence Park,
Washington, DC), Southern Christian Leadership Council - Baltimore and Baltimore People's Assembly
* Solidarity Night, Ya Ya (NYC)
* Solidarity Night, St Patrick's Church (Long Island City, NY)
* GABRIELA DC Solidarity Night (Augustana Lutheran Church, Washington, DC)
* Dr Anthony Monteiro is North Philadelphia March and
Rally (performed by Norris Apartments and in front of Temple University Sullivan Hall)
* Union County Peace and World Friendship Fair (Cranford,
NJ)
* St. George Earth Day Festival (Staten Island, NY)
* #JustPeacePH: Struggle for Peace: A US Tour to Promote Just Peace in the
Philippines! Beyond the Drug War: The Struggle for Peace & Human
Rights in the Philippines (New York)
* Ground Level People's Forum (New York)
* Great Falls Word Festival (Turners Falls, MA)
bookstores
Downtown
Washington, DC, Barnes & Noble
Breakdown Books (Denver, CO)
Bookmarx (Boston, MA)
Robin's Bookstore/Moonstone Arts
Center (Philadelphia, PA)
ETG Book Cafe (Staten Island,
NY)
museums
Paterson Museum (Paterson, NJ)
Yale-Peabody
Museum of Natural History (New Haven,
CT)
Barrow Mansion (Jersey City, NJ)
Hall of Peace/Dayton International
Peace Museum (Dayton, OH)
campuses and schools
Wayne
State University (Detroit)
University
of Toledo
University
of Pittsburgh Cathedral of Learning
University
of Wisconsin- Milwaukee
City
College of New York
Auraria
Campus (Denver, CO)
Columbia University Law School
Inglenook Community High School (Toronto,ON)
(Inglespeak & Inglestock)
Children's Studio School (Washington, DC)
Antioch University McGregor (Yellow Springs, OH)
Antioch University Seattle
Antioch University Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara Community College
The Arts Bank & Gershman Y theaters, University of the Arts
(Philadelphia)
Temple University (North Philadelphia)
Montgomery College (Silver Spring-Takoma
Park, MD)
places
of worship
Emmanuel
African Methodist Episcopal Church (Harlem, NY)
Community Church of
Boston
Imani Baptist
Church (Orange, NJ)
First Unitarian Universalist Church
of Berks County (Reading, PA)
Woodcrest Bruderhof (Rifton, NY)
Christ Church Van Vorst (Jersey City,
NJ)
Center Church Parish House (New Haven, CT)
Centenary United Methodist Church (Richmond, VA)
Grace Episcopal Church (for
Union of Black Episcopalians, Jamaica, NY)
Unitarian Society of Ridgewood (NJ)
United Church on the Green (New Haven, CT)
Mike's
Place/Reformed ChurchHighland Park, NJ)
St. Thomas African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church Paul Robeson's historic
church in Somerville, NJ)
Westminster Presbyterian Church
(Washington, DC)
Black
History Month Celebration hosted by The Lounge Society at Friendship Christian Church (New Brunswick, NJ)
Bronx Jamaat (NY)
All Souls Bethlehem Church (UUA/UCC/CC[DC])
(Brooklyn, NY)
St. James Episcopal Church - Filipino Ministry(Elmhurst,
NY)
media appearances
The Collective has also performed
on radio stations WPKN, WBAI, WBUR, WPFW, WHCR, WRSU, CHRY, CKLN, and CIUT.
The Collective hosts We The People
Speak, a weekly show aired Saturdays 10 pm on Manhattan Neighborhood
Network (http://www.mnn.org).
The Collective is a member
group of The Fed - A Network of Writing and Community Publishers (http://www.thefed.btck.co.uk).
Carlos Raul Dufflar (Founder
& Artstic Director) has published the following books of poetry: El Barrio de Naomi, The Eye of the Flower,
Haravek and Las Trincheras de la Vida/The Trenches of Life. He also has appeared in the Barnard College Open
Moments Anthology and Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam.
Angel L. Martinez (Minister of Information)
has published Spirit, Fire & Flower and the long poem "This is Not America."
His articles have appeared in Real News and The Black World Today. He is editor of The Voices, a journal
of poetry, art and commentary published by the Collective.
David Gordon (Art Director) has published
Directions. His next collection of poetry and art, Scrambled Eggs, is forthcoming.
Sr Amen-Ra Schmm Khnuu (Spiritual
Advisor & Director of Videography) is a longtime activist and Kemetic scholar who is responsible for We The People
Speak.
Mamatha
Kodidela is a poet, journalist, and translator. (More information forthcoming.)
HRK is a
poet, journalist, editor, and translator. (More information forthcoming.)
Jaya Serige is a poet and writer. (More information forthcoming.)
Carlos M. Troche (Associate Member)
has self-published several books of poetry, art, photography and letters over the years. He is one of the original poets of
the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.
Dufflar, Martinez, Gordon,
& Troche are also active members of Precious Promise Arts Circle in New Brunswick, NJ (Deborah Chainey, Coordinator).
Dufflar, Martinez & Gordon
appear in the anthologies Poems on the Road to Peace: A Collective Tribute to Dr. King, Vol. 2 (Yale University Press)
and in the 7th, 8th and 9th annual New Brunswick Free Public Library Poetry Anthology.
They, with Khnuu, are
featured in Poems on the Road to Peace, Vol. 3.
Dufflar, Martinez, & Gordon
are featured in the 6th, 10th, 11th & 12th annual New Brunswick Free Public Library Poetry Anthology, The
FED Friends Blog [http://thefed-friends.blogspot.com] and Poetry Ink 2009 & Poetry Ink 2010(Moonstone
Arts Center annual poetry anthology).
Dufflar & Martinez
appear in Drumvoices Revue Vol. 13, 14 & 15.
