Aberjhani is an American historian, columnist, novelist, poet, and editor. Although well-known for his literary and historical commentaries, he is perhaps best known as co-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance

Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance

The Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance by authors Sandra L. West and Aberjhani, is a book that made history in 2003 when it became the first published encyclopedic volume to chronicle the lives, events, and culture that comprised the celebrated historical era, 1920s-1940s, known worldwide as...

 and author of I Made My Boy Out of Poetry. He won a Choice Academic Title Award in 2004 and a Savannah Poet and Spoken Word

Spoken word

Spoken word is a form of poetry that often uses alliterated prose or verse and occasionally uses metered verse to express social commentary. Traditionally it is in the first person, is from the poet’s point of view and is themed in current events....

 Artist of the Year Award in 2006. In 2011 he became the recipient of a Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson

Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...

 Tribute Portrait VIP DOT by artist David Ilan.

Early life and education

Aberjhani grew up in Savannah, Georgia

Savannah, Georgia

Savannah is the largest city and the county seat of Chatham County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Established in 1733, the city of Savannah was the colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. Today Savannah is an industrial center and an important...

, and has published works about childhood experiences there in both prose and poetry

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...

. Upon graduating from Savannah High School in 1975, he studied journalism, creative writing, and the American Community at: Savannah State College (now University); Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida; Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota; Temple University in Philadelphia; and the New College of California

New College of California

New College of California was founded in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1971 by former Gonzaga University President, Father John Leary. After 37 years, it ceased operations in early 2008....

 in San Francisco. He completed additional studies in journalism at the Fort Benjamin Harrison School of Journalism in Indianapolis, Indiana; and studies in Equal Opportunity and Human Relations Counseling at the DEOMI Institute at Tyndale AFB, Florida. He served a two-year overseas tour of duty with the U.S. Air Force in Fairbanks, Alaska; four years in Suffolk, England; and another two years with the USAF Reserves in Charleston, S.C.

Nonfiction Works

• Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
  Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
  The Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance by authors Sandra L. West and Aberjhani, is a book that made history in 2003 when it became the first published encyclopedic volume to chronicle the lives, events, and culture that comprised the celebrated historical era, 1920s-1940s, known worldwide as...
  
   (nonfiction; 2003, Facts on File/Infobase Publishing) ISBN 0-8160-4539-9
• The Wisdom of W.E.B. Du Bois (biography; 2003, Kensington Books) ISBN ISBN 0-8065-2510-X
• The American Poet Who Went Home Again (memoir; 2007, Black Skylark Singing) ISBN 978-1-4357-1769-5

Fiction and Poetry Collections

• I Made My Boy Out of Poetry (short fiction and poetry; 1997 and 2003, Washington Publications and iUniverse Publishing) ISBN 0-595-15765-3
• Visions of a Skylark Dressed in Black (poetry; 2006, BSE-Publishing)
• The Bridge of Silver Wings (poetry; 2007, Black Skylark Singing)ISBN 978-0-557-06324-6
• Christmas When Music Almost Killed the World (novel; 2007, Black Skylark Singing) ISBN 978-1-4357-3420-3
• Elemental the Power of Illuminated Love (art and poetry; 2008, Soar Pub) ISBN 0-9721142-7-0
• The River of Winged Dreams (poetry; 2010, Bright Skylark Literary Productions) ISBN 978-0-557-50288-2

Work as Online Columnist

The Digital Clarity Group’s Examiner.com

Examiner.com

Examiner.com is a media company based in Denver, Colorado, that operates a network of local news websites, allowing "pro–am contributors" to share their city-based knowledge on a blog-like platform, in 238 markets throughout the United States and parts of Canada with two national editions, one for...

, under the umbrella of the Anschutz Company has hosted Aberjhani’s National African-American Art Examiner Column since July 2009. The title of the column has proven somewhat misleading as topics addressed in it have ranged from fine art and artists’ biographies to reports on contemporary politics, social network trends, and popular culture. With more than 100 installments, it has garnered notable international acclaim for a series of articles on the life and death of Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson

Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...

, the controversial case of Georgia death-row prisoner Troy Anthony Davis

Troy Anthony Davis

Troy Anthony Davis was an American man convicted of and executed for the August 19, 1989, murder of police officer Mark MacPhail in Savannah, Georgia. MacPhail was working as a security guard at a Burger King restaurant when he intervened to defend a man being assaulted in a nearby parking lot...

, the presidency of Barack Obama

Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

, and the United Nation’s 2011 International Year for People of African Descent.

Articles and Essays

• Savannah Talks Troy Anthony Davis Article Series, Red Room Author Blog, July 2009-2011.
• "Looking at the World through Michael Jackson's Left Eye" Michael Jackson Tribute Portrait, Aug 29, 2011
• “President Barack Obama and the Message Beyond the Photograph,” Examiner, May 20, 2011
• “What Death of Osama bin Laden
  Osama bin Laden
  Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
  
   Indicates about Barack Obama’s Leadership,” Examiner, May 2, 2011.
• "Black History Month: What Would DuBois Do Today?" AOL Black Voices, Feb 23, 2011.
• “As Egypt Howls and History Tweets,” Examiner, Jan 29, 2011.
• “Black History Month Enhanced by 2011 International Year for People of African Descent,” Examiner, Jan 25, 2011.
• “Haiti and Humanity’s Fierce Urgency of Now,” Examiner, Jan 22, 2010.
• “Work and Soul in Michael Jackson
  Michael Jackson
  Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
  
  's This Is It,” Examiner, Nov 14, 2009.
• “The Harlem Renaissance
  Harlem Renaissance
  The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke...
  
   Way Down South,” Amazon Short, May 2007.
• “How to Spitfire in the South, THE SOUTH Magazine,” August 2006.
• “A Legacy Less Traveled, Dr. Deborah Mack Shines a Light on Early African-American History in Savannah,” CONNECT SAVANNAH News Magazine, May 10, 2006.
• "Not Fading Away," on WWII Veteran John Morrison, CONNECT SAVANNAH News Magazine, Feb 8, 2006.
• “Woman to Woman,” CONNECT SAVANNAH News Magazine, Oct 12, 2005.
• “The Keepers of Their People's Spirit,” REDBRIDGE Review Journal, Oct 10, 2005.
• “The Artist Known as Pleasant,” CONNECT SAVANNAH News Magazine, Aug 17, 2005.
• “This Mother’s Son,” ESSENCE Magazine cover story, Nov 1997.

Literary Influences

Aberjhani has been quoted repeatedly stating he has been influenced more by literary movements as a whole than by individual writers. One of the more obvious such movements would be the Harlem Renaissance

Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke...

 which his encyclopedia documented to an unprecedented extent. But others have included Modernism

Modernism

Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...

 in general, Surrealism

Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....

, the Beats, the Black Arts Movement

Black Arts Movement

The Black Arts Movement or BAM is the artistic branch of the Black Power movement. It was started in Harlem by writer and activist Amiri Baraka...

, Postmodernism, and Existentialism

Existentialism

Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...

. Those literary artists whom he has identified as having a substantial impact upon his development as a writer comprise an eclectic list. Among them are the following: James Baldwin, Albert Camus

Albert Camus

Albert Camus was a French author, journalist, and key philosopher of the 20th century. In 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons within the Revolutionary Union Movement, which was opposed to some tendencies of the Surrealist movement of André Breton.Camus was awarded the 1957...

, W.E.B. Du Bois, Henry Dumas

Henry Dumas

Henry Dumas was an African American writer and poet.Dumas was born in Sweet Home, Arkansas in 1934 and he lived there until the age of ten, when he moved to New York City; however, he always kept with him the religious and folk traditions of his hometown. In Harlem, he attended public school and...

, Ralph Ellison, William Faulkner, Khalil Gibran

Khalil Gibran

Khalil Gibran Jubrān Khalīl Jubrān,Jibrān Khalīl Jibrān, or Jibrān Xalīl Jibrān; Arabic , January 6, 1883 – April 10, 1931) also known as Kahlil Gibran, was a Lebanese American artist, poet, and writer...

, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston was an American folklorist, anthropologist, and author during the time of the Harlem Renaissance...

, Federico Garcia Lorca, Dambudzo Marechera

Dambudzo Marechera

Dambudzo Marechera was a Zimbabwean novelist and poet.-Early life:...

, Henry Miller, Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved...

, Anais Nin, Jelalludin Rumi, Jean Paul Sartre, Alice Walker, and Margaret Walker.

General References

• 1. Allen, Patrick (2011). Literary Savannah. Trinity University Press. July. ISBN 978-159534076-4. p. 277-279, p. 281.
• 2. Scott, Dee (2010). “Interview with Aberjhani.” Authors on the Rise, February.
• 3. Staff, Savannah Tribune (2009). "Savannah Author Inducted Into Red Room Hall of Fame." The Savannah Tribune. 4 November. p. 3.
• 4. Nhojj (2008). “Singer Nhojj Interviews Aberjhani.” MySpace Entertainment Profile. 13 October 2008.
• 5. Harris, Marlive (2008). "Grits.com Interview with Aberjhani and Luther E. Vann." Grits.com. September 2008.
• 6. Sickler, Linda (2008).“ELEMENTAL, At Last” review of ELEMENTAL, The Power of Illuminated Love.CONNECT SAVANNAH, 4 June. cover story.
• 7. Weickgenant, Joel (2008). “Words and Paint.” Savannah News Press. 12 Jan. Arts Magazine cover story.
• 8. Barfield, Randall (2007). “Interview with Aberjhani.” POETRY LIFE AND TIMES eZine, July.
• 9. Gusby, Kim (2003). “Interview with Aberjhani.” Coastal Morning Sunrise on WTOC, Savannah, GA. October 2003.