• 2021-2022
• 2020-2021

2021-2022

2021-2022

Poetry Out Loud 21-22 South Central
Regional Competition Results

Welcome!

SWIC Diversity & Inclusion Committee is honored to host guest poet Charlois Lumpkin aka Mali Newman for the 21/22 South Central Regional Poetry Out Loud Competition.  We thank Mali for sharing her unique voice—filled with her passion for poetry and her dedication to black history in education— in SWIC’s celebration of Black History!

Now, more about Mali Newman…

Biography

Charlois Lumpkin, aka Mali Newman, is a native of St. Louis, Missouri and a member of the Eugene B. Redmond Writers Club and its performance troupe, the Soular Systems Ensemble.

She was 2010/2011 E. Desmond Lee playwright competition winner in the 10-Minute Play Category.  

Her poetry and prose have appeared in Drumvoices Revue, Valley Voices – A literary Review, Crossing the Divide from the Poets of St. Louis, The Hoot and Holler of the Owls, an anthology published by the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation, Merge Magazine and the forthcoming anthology 400 years:  stories of black people in poems written from love, publisher Broadside – Lotus Press. 

Poem 1 Entries

Poem 1 Entries

Poem 2 Entries

Poem 2 Entries

2020-2021

2020-2021

Poetry Out Loud 20-21 South Central
Regional Competition Results

Welcome!

SWIC Diversity & Inclusion Committee is honored to host guest poet Darlene Roy for the 20/21 South Central Regional Poetry Out Loud Competition.  We thank Darlene for sharing her unique voice—filled with her passion for poetry and her dedication to black history in education— in SWIC’s celebration of Black History!

Now, more about Ms. Darlene Roy…

DARLENE (DUNCAN) SWANSON ROY

Darlene Roy is a co-founder and has served as President of the Eugene B. Redmond Writers Club for 35 years. She is an Associate Editor of Drumvoices Revue literary magazine and has designed and co-convened numerous literary workshops, cultural programs, critical review sessions, poetry readings and conferences.

Her poems, short stories and journal entry essays have appeared in Ain’t But a Place:  An Anthology of St. Louis Writers, Best Interest of Humanity Anthology, Poetic Black American Literature Forum, Black Bards Digest, Black Bird Press News & Review, Break Word with the World, Chicago Blues Annual, Drumvoices Revue, Eyeball, Literati Chicago, Pan African Journal, St. Louis Muse, Valley Voices, Merge Magazine, Broadside Press and other literary journals. Her chapbook, Soon One Morning and other Poems, was published by Southwestern Illinois College. 

Her first book of poetry, Afrosynthesis: A Feast of Poetry and Folklore was released in early 2015. Two of her poems were featured, for three months, on Metro Link (Bi-State) buses and cars in 1994 and 2005 respectively.  She has performed her works on radio, television, as well as at universities, conferences and festivals locally and in Atlanta, GA; Oakland, Sacramento and San Francisco, CA; Chicago, IL; Indianapolis, IN; Columbia and St. Louis; MO, New Brunswick, NJ; New York, NY and Paris, France. Ms. Roy appeared in the documentary by Sandra Phifer, on the history and culture of East St. Louis, Illinois entitled, Against All of the Odds.

Ms. Roy has a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, a Masters in Social Work from St. Louis University, and was certified a Leadership Fellow at Governor State University.  

In December 2004, she retired as Director of the St. Clair County/ East St. Louis Office, Illinois Department of Human Services, after 37 years of employment. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors for volunteer work on committees, boards and advisory councils in the East St. Louis/ St. Louis Area. Ms. Roy’s son, Sergeant First Class, Troy Anthony Swanson, retired from the U. S. Army Band, after 25 years and is the Official Photographer & Website Manager for the City of East St Louis and co-owner of a photo studio in St. Louis, MO.

Poem 1 Entries

Poem 1 Entries

Poem 2 Entries

Poem 2 Entries