Featured Speakers

Karla Brundage continues to shape contemporary poetry by intertwining personal narrative, social justice, and transatlantic Black female solidarity—while also lifting emerging voices through her editorial and exchange work. She is the author of "Blood Lies: Race Trait(or" (Finishing Line Press, 2024), and the founder of West Oakland to West Africa (WO2WA), where she has led international poetry exchanges including "Sisters Across Oceans" and edited anthologies such as "Black Rootedness: 54 Poets from Africa to America" and "Colossus: Home." She is currently guest editor for "Tar Baby: Ghana" and publisher at Pacific Raven Press. A Pushcart Prize nominee, Fulbright Fellow, and VONA and Martha’s Vineyard Summer Institute alum, her work appears in periodicities, "Blind Persistence, "K"onch Magazine," and "Essential Truths: The Bay Area in Color, Black Fire this Time." She currently lives in Waimea, Hawaii and when she is not teaching she loves running, hiking and beaching.

Kathryn Waddell Takara, Professor Emerita, is the recipient of the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award by the Honolulu NAACP as an “Agent of Change.” In 2010, she was honored by the Before Columbus Foundation for her book Pacific Raven: Hawai’i Poems. Dr. Takara is the daughter of pioneer black veterinarian, author, and world-famous Buffalo Soldier, Dr. William H. Waddell, IV, VMD (1908-2007). Born and raised in Tuskegee, Alabama, in the Jim Crow era, Takara is a longtime resident of Hawai`i. With an MA in French and a PhD in Political Science, until retiring as an emerita professor, at the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa, she taught African American and African history, politics, literature, and culture, and organized conferences on minority issues. Takara delivers lectures and performs her unique ethnic, travel, political, and eco-poetry across the United States and internationally. Notably, she has appeared in China at Qingdao University and Beijing University of Foreign Studies; Bordeaux, France; Abidjan, Côte d`Ivoire; and Niamey, Niger. In 2018-2019,she gave poetry readings in California, New York, and Virginia. She often shares her poetry with audiences in Hawai`i, including this year at the Paliku Arts Festival—and at a jazz event featuring the music of Thelonious Monk, which she co-produced. Since retiring from her position as an associate professor at the University of Hawai`i at Mànoa–where she taught Interdisciplinary Studies and Ethnic Studies courses in African American and African politics, history, literature, and culture–she has continued pursuing her career as an author and publisher.