"It was truly amazing, the caliber of work, that was submitted for inclusion in this book," said Ali-Coleman. "The included pieces range from poetry, to essay to beautiful collage art."
Ali-Coleman and writer turned realtor, Maceo Thomas, natives of the Washington DC area, began Liberated Muse Productions in early 2008 as a business partnership to coordinate the annual Capital Hip Hop Soul Fest. The online site, www.LiberatedMuse.com became the business' social network to promote the festival as well as other opportunities for local artists and performers. Membership soon extended to those who lived throughout the US and abroad and Ali-Coleman began to notice the talent on the site was above-average.
"Members began posting their writings and their artwork on the site. And, I was blown. The same idea began to sprout in my head for the anthology that was similar to the moment when Maceo and I started the Capital Hip Hop Soul Fest," said Ali-Coleman. " For the festival, we wanted to provide a venue for very talented and often slept -on performing artists from the DC area. For the anthology, I wanted to provide a venue for the writers and visual artists who would most likely not come together in another volume of work like this. And, it works, I think."
All of the visual artists and the majority of the writers featured in the book are members of www.LiberatedMuse.com. They include the owner of Whirlwind Publishing, Tichaona Chinyelu, journalist Nabina Das, hip-hop artist Omar Akbar (also known as Labtekwon), actress Farah Lawal and Tony Spires who is manager of the nationally renowned spoken- word troupe, the Punanny Poets. Sharon Burton, owner of the DC-based consulting group Authentic Art Visions is one of the visual artists featured in the book. Her artwork is featured on the book's cover.
"I am equally excited because the artwork that graces the cover the book is from original work [I created] entitled 'Believe' ," said Burton. "I didn't know that it was going to be the cover until about a month ago; it appeared on Facebook without any warning I might add, which left me completely speechless."
Ali-Coleman and Thomas have been promoting the book through a series of book signing performances throughout the Washington DC area that features music performances from members of the Liberated Muse online social network. Past performances have taken place at the Potter's House in the Adam's Morgan area in DC and the Artomatic festival this year that was held in the Navy Yard area in southeast DC. The Potter's House performance raised money for low-income students attending college in the Fall.
"Liberated Muse is a movement ," says vocalist Quineice Clarkson who has been a featured performer in the past promotions for the book and will perform in the July 3 book promoting performance at the Artomatic at 8pm.
The book is available for purchase online at http://www.OutskirtsPress.com/
