"Soul and Jazz has, over the years, been the driving force in music that continues to conquer the world. Listeners and concert goers all want to hear the groove above all else. So when I couple the rhythms and swing of jazz with the hipness of soul music, I can feel my audience opening their hearts and minds to whatever I present to them from the stage."

Allan Harris: The Seductive Soul of…

"Music and literature connect others to the human experience. In my song, "Awake to Love,” I sing about how the world is led by fear and this causes war, destruction and evil. If we focus on love, we can find peace on this earth. When people hear my music, I want them to feel - their beauty, pain or complete joy. I want them to find the strength to walk their own path and to see that their life is art."…

"Don't overthink. Don't try to imagine what the viewer, listener, or reader understands. Keep it pure. Don't dismiss the irrational. If you understand your own work entirely it is probably not very good - and always woo the muse of the odd!"

M.A. Littler: Creative Force Blues

M.A. Littler, a German/South African writer and filmmaker has written…

"Open mindedness, hard work and dedication to your craft, gratitude, humility and confidence. It’s all about the hang, and being in the present moment. Taking time to talk with the people you meet. Whether you’re at home practicing, traveling at all hours of the night or on the stage."

Scottie Miller: Words, Notes, and Music

Carnival…

"Poetry can have the same subversive power as music. Although it is much more solitary both in creation and appreciation, it can open minds, unite them. Poetry is a door. It can open galaxies of space. It is infinite. In fact it is not much different that music and where music and poetry join, magic can result."

Omonoia Circus: Sappho's Little Boat…

"Inspiration comes from life, from all its aspects. I don’t have mentors; Once I had only a poetic grandfather, Blaise Cendrars."

Yannis Livadas:…

"As far as we know, in ancient times, poetry and music were the same thing. And of course we still speak of the music of poetry, in terms of meter, rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, repetition, and so on, even when the poetry is read silently from a page. If literature is defined as fine writing, it is always musical to some extent."

Steven Taylor: Notes Sutra,…

"I learned to be open to the chance, it made me want to “follow my inner moonlight”, express my feelings without being afraid and live my life to the fullest. Of course, “On the Road” brought in the forefront the technique of Bob prosody… More importantly, it taught me the meaning of friendship and it instructed me to try to listen to the music of the words, always underlying though seemingly latent, just like the music of the…

The experience of music and its power to bring people together, has made me appreciate any process which aspires to achieve this result. As Yannis Ritsos, a famous Greek poet wrote, “we don’t sing to separate ourselves from people - we sing to unite them.”

Pericles Kanaris: Music Odyssey

Pericles Kanaris was born in Athens, Greece where he began…

"The Nuyorican Movement has enlightened other poetic and artistic movements with the raw truths of life lived in urban landscapes; whether real or imagined."

Nancy Mercado: The Passion of Nuyorican Poetry

The recipient of an American Book Award for Lifetime Achievement and named among the Frederick Douglass 200 on the anniversary of Douglass'…

"All of the best literature is countercultural because it challenges commonly accepted ways of thinking and living."

Hassan Melehy: Langue, Poésie et Musique

Hassan Melehy is Professor of…

"Everything has its affect, especially pain, pleasure and desire."

Paul Reddick: Ride Like The Wind

Melding poetry, mystery, darkness and light, along with an extensive knowledge of the history and traditions…

"The ethos of jazz, rock ‘n’ roll, hip hop and all kinds of musical genres have inspired literary content, and literary form as well. In the case of comics, I think there are so many ways in which the structure of comics can be compared to that of music."

Julian Peters: Rhymes, Strips &…

"Poetry in Music as I mean it, is a common and universal language which encompasses in sentiment all the peoples of the world: the fights, the joys, the defeats, the victories and the shared bursts for global Love."

Gianluigi Cavaliere: Soul of Culture …

"My understanding of (American) Roots music is that musical influences arrived here with people from other countries and cultures, such as Africa and Europe, but then developed to such a degree that they are now considered distinctly (U.S.) American."

Bobbo Staron: Folk Songs &…

"A blues musician can play the notes but the bluesman feels them. Like Robert Johnson sings in Preachin' Blues (Up Jumped the Devil)..."

Reverend Freakchild: Blues Buddha

Reverend Freakchild (a.k.a.…

"Blues/ jazz is based on improve which I see as a direct connection between the artist and the spirit mind/heart of the people. The Lakota say music carries the prayers of the people."

David Lee Carson: Archetypes Visions…

"While Blues speaks of the depth of the human heart, Jazz riffs off of that emotion into exciting forays into the unconscious—not unlike a poem—relying upon associative leaps and a fanciful imaginative reach."

George Kalamaras: A Yogi of Poetry…

"My fears are that jazz will not manage to keep its relation to audiences and slowly become a music of the past."

Monika Herzig: Jazz On Earth

In 1987, the pedagogical institute in Weingarten,…

"The jazz and blues culture speaks to the world through the American experience that created it. Our gift to the world. America’s on going poem to the universe."

Alexis Rhone Fancher: Poetic Rhythms…