Black Rootedness: 54 Poets from Africa to America

By Karla Brundage, Stephanie Aoun Bou Karam and Iman Gibson

West Oakland to West Africa (WO2WA) provides a sustained exchange to connect members of the African Diaspora and Africa through creative writing. Our core values are to create a safe place for the transparent healing and growth of Black people; to deliver innovative and authentic forms of writing and to engage the medium of spoken word to shape

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elyssar Press
• Release date: Jul 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9798985368642

Karla Brundage

Founder Karla Brundage, conceived of the West Oakland to West Africa organization while living and working in West Africa from 2013-2016. As an African-American woman, she established West Oakland to West Africa with the mission of providing a connection to Africa for African-Americans, using poetry as a healing technology to traverse borders spiritually, if not physically. West Africa Poetry Exchange (WO2WA), which has facilitated cross-cultural exchange between Oakland and West African poets and the publication of three books Our Spirits Carry Our Voices, Sisters Across Oceans and the upcoming Black Rootedness collection. A Bay Area based poet, activist, and educator with a passion for social justice. Born in Berkeley, California in the summer of love to a Black mother and white father, Karla spent most of her childhood in Hawaii where she developed a deep love of nature. Her musical loves include Hawaiian, West African, and Hip Hop sounds.

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