Celebrating 10 Years

Since 2014, Kitchen Table Literary Arts has been building and sustaining literary community in Tampa Bay and beyond. Our mission is to strengthen awareness, appreciation, and support for Black women and women of color writers, poets, and their work.

Team

  • A Milwaukee, Wisconsin native, Sheree L. Greer is a writer and educator currently living and working in Tampa, Florida. She founded Kitchen Table Literary Arts Center to showcase and support the work of black women and women of color writers. She is the author of two novels, Let the Lover Be and the Black Lives Matter-inspired A Return to Arms, a short story collection, Once and Future Lovers, and two student writing guides ,Stop Writing Wack Essays and Baddest Out of Your Friends. She has been published in First Bloom Anthology, LezTalk Anthology, Ms. Fit Magazine, REVIVE Magazine, Hair Trigger, The Windy City Times, Reservoir Magazine, Fictionary, Bleed Literary Journal, and the Windy City Queer Anthology: Dispatches from the Third Coast. She has performed her work across selected venues in Milwaukee, New York, Miami, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Tampa. Sheree received a Union League of Chicago Civic Arts Foundation award, earned her MFA at Columbia College Chicago, and is a VONA/VOICES alum, Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice grantee, Yaddo fellow, and Ragdale Artist House Rubin Fellow. She completed Creative Capital Core Skills workshops and was awarded an Division of Cultural Affairs grant to support her current nonfiction work. Her latest essay, "Bars" published in Fourth Genre Magazine, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Sheree teaches composition, creative writing, fiction workshop, and African American Literature at St. Petersburg College in Florida. Sheree draws endless inspiration from poet/writer/warrior, Audre Lorde, author of Zami: A New Spelling of My Name and Sister Outsider.

  • Tiffiany “Slam” Anderson is the former president of The Poets@USF, a student-focused open mic and poetry organization at the University of South Florida. As a spoken word artist and writer, Slam works in the community to promote literacy and self-empowerment. She writes, “I have struggled. I have cried. I know doubt and insecurity. I’ve been to the bottom with no idea or plan on how to make it back up, but I have never quit. I have never given up. I am a black woman. A warrior and a queen. I am strength, I am beauty, and I am triumph. I am proud to be a woman of the Kitchen Table. I am proud to be a black woman. I am proud to be me.” Slam’s favorite writer is Pearl Cleage, author of What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day.

  • Jasmine Smith is a Tampa, Florida native who holds a BA in Management from St. Leo University and earned her MBA with a concentration in finance at South University. Jasmine attributes her love of literature and arts to her grandmother, who instilled her love and appreciation of the arts in her children and grandchildren with frequent trips to museums, concerts, plays, and always providing lots and lots of books. As a child, Jasmine participated in an enrichment program called Saturday’s Children Inc., whose mission was to open up the world of art to young Black children by offering classes like reading, dance, drama, and wood carving. She has joined the Kitchen Table team as an opportunity to do something great for the community that will forever live in the hearts and minds of youth of color, just as Saturday’s Children Inc. lives forever in hers. Two of her favorite books are childhood classics that were given to her by her grandmother, Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold and Ashanti to Zulu by Margaret Musgrove. Jasmine still has these two books in her collection.

  • Adrien Julious is an author and poet, originally from Newark, NJ, now residing in Tampa. She recently had her first book of poetry Brownish Green Female Sheep published by Vital Narrative Press. She hosts her own blog which lives at authenticallyadrien.com. She's competed as a storm poet in the Women of The World Poetry Slam, had her short fiction included in the Fantastic Ekphrastic Art Show twice,and is currently finishing her debut YA novel.

  • Silk Jazmyne is a reading, writing, drinking student of life who loves narrative in all its forms. She’s a book reviewer, essayist and fiction writer. Her work has appeared both online and in print at Black Girl Nerds, Straylight Magazine, Femme Feature Magazine, The Gateway Review and Serendipity Literary Magazine. She was born in New York and grew up all over as a Navy brat. She holds a MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Tampa and a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications from Florida International University. She’s an Account Coordinator at a boutique advertising agency by day and a magical realist author by night. She loves the artistically strange and currently lives and works in Florida.

  • Tiffany D. Wilson is a Milwaukee, WI native who earned her bachelor's degree in multimedia journalism at Columbia College Chicago. After being nominated for two student Emmys for her work in TV news and writing for Chicago community newspapers, AustinTalks and Austin Weekly News, Tiffany took some time off. News writing left much to be desired. She hungered to be a part of positive change in a different way. Tiffany took advantage of the opportunity to become a facilitator for KTLA using her combined passion for communication, community and teaching. Tiffany is a firm believer in the ideology, “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” -Nelson Mandela. We do better when we know better.

We work with like-minded volunteers, educators, and organizations to provide literary arts programming that empowers Black women writers and writers of color.

Partnership

Board of Directors

  • Adella is a forward-thinking, energetic attorney. Adella practices in the areas of small business, real estate, estate planning, and general civil litigation. She also has experience representing artists with contract review and disputes. She has an extensive, interdisciplinary-focused educational background having earned her Doctorate of Physical Therapy from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and her Juris Doctorate from Chicago-Kent College of Law in Chicago, Illinois. She is a board member of Integra Rehab Solutions and the Kitchen Table Literary Arts Center. She takes a hands-on approach and is committed to providing her clients with the knowledge to make informed decisions regarding their legal needs. Her favorite book by a woman of color writer is Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston.

  • Dr. Albert Farr is the current academic chair for the Communications Department at St. Petersburg College’s Gibbs Campus in St. Petersburg Florida. He has earned a B.S. degree in English, an M.A. in English Literature, and a Ph.D. in Education from Iowa State University. His academic research in leadership in the community college as well as his doctoral dissertation is based on his partnerships that he has established with several members of the Presidents’ Roundtable. For the past three years he has also served as the sitting president of the Dr. Johnnie Ruth Clarke Chapter of NCBAA. He is also the former Assistant Director of Iowa State University’s Community College Leadership Initiative Consortium (CLIC) for which he earned a Teaching Excellence Award in 2011. Dr. Farr is originally from Chicago, Illinois and he has been married to his wife Kristen for 5 years. He has two dogs, and is an avid collector of denim jeans.

  • Donald Gordon is an enthusiastic, professionally-savvy human resources consultant with a penchant for branding. Don has comprehensive experience in Human Resource management, including employee relations, recruitment and retention, conflict resolution and compliance. He has worked as a consultant, manager and recruiter across industries including, accounting and finance, healthcare and retail. Don is a patron of the arts with a passion for the written word. Don earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism from Roosevelt University in Chicago, IL. He notes Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings as one of his favorite books.

  • Adrienne Newlon is a Boston native, who comes to Florida by way of Washington, California, Montana and North Carolina. After a first career in the culinary field, she finished her bachelor’s degree, as a first-generation student at age 34. She has run an art gallery, freelanced in editing and copy-writing, and worked with low-income youth. Wherever she plants herself, Adrienne dives into her surroundings via networking, volunteering and activism. As a Kitchen Table board member, she brings with her years of experience in community sourcing, fund-raising, outreach, and big love for KT’s mission and dedication to women writers of color and passion for the written word.

  • Orlando A. Pizana is a graduate of Howard University, earning a Bachelor's degree in English in 1999 and continuing his studies with completion of his Master’s in English Education from Florida State University in 2004. Currently a professor at St. Petersburg College, he teaches Composition, American Literature, and Honors Interdisciplinary Studies. Having completed his graduate certificate in Program Evaluation and with the planned completion of his Ph.D. in Adult Education/Curriculum & Instruction, part of Mr. Pizana’s goals include continued and focused development in his career as an instructor, guiding college students through the intricacies of English Reading and Writing Composition, and an advocate for community development for the sake of our future. Orlando A. Pizana’s favorite book by a woman of color is Jonah’s Gourd Vine by fellow Howard University Alumna Zora Neale Hurston.

  • Ashley Butler is a Serial Entrepreneur with a Bachelor’s degree in Communication from the University of South Florida. Her passion is to build successful businesses from the ground up and to utilize the resources received from her business endeavors to give back to her local community. Born and raised in Tampa, FL, she credits her local community and her love of continuous self-education with her success. Through Kitchen Table she hopes to return the favor. Ashley specializes in thinking outside of the box, fundraising, business growth while operating on meager budgets, business organization, and developing meaningful business relationships. Ashley is a lover of non-fiction books especially books on mindset and business. Her favorite book is Oprah Winfrey’s What I Know for Sure.

To Our Community

From book clubs and writing workshops to retreats and community partnerships, it has been a beautiful and affirming decade of supporting and showcasing BIPOC women writers, poets, and books! We are incredibly thankful for the encouragement and support of our community as we continue this valuable work.

Bringing the literary community together —writers and readers alike— has been the highlight of our organizational success. Our cross-generational, multicultural discussions and events continue to show us the power of art to bridge gaps, celebrate diversity, and strengthen communities.

Thank you for being a part of our journey. We look forward to many more years of showing out in these literary streets!