"Filling in the Black" with Joan Kantor

Filling In The Black is a collection inspired by a trip the author Joan Kantor and husband took throughout the Deep South and parts of the lower Midwest to fill the gaps in their education of African American History. It turned out to be a life transforming journey, one, which through these journal writings/poems, Kantor hopes inspires others to become active participants in the world of social and historical learning.

"I’m amazed at how much there was still to learn about the story of my own country!! I hope you’ll join me on this powerful journey". 

Joan Kantor, a spoken word artist, shares her observations about everything from nature to history and mental illness. She is a poet and writer of vignettes, as well as descriptive and immersive word paintings.

Award-winning poet Joan Kantor lives with her husband in the village of Collinsville, Connecticut. Joan was a college counselor and disabilities specialist for many years. She has been a featured reader for the public television series Speaking of Poetry as well as for several art museums and galleries, and been a featured poet in The Avocet Literary Journal. Additionally, she leads workshops, has mentored for Poetry Out Loud, and  judged and mentored for the Hill-Stead Museum’s Sunken Garden Poetry Festival Fresh Voices Poetry Program. To fulfill her inclusive vision of the arts, Joan collaborates with both visual artists and musicians and currently performs in Stringing Words Together, an interactive performance of poetry and violin music.

Joan’s work has been widely published in literary journals and her first collection, Shadow Sounds (Antrim House 2010), was a finalist in the Foreword Reviews Book of the Year Awards Contest (2010).  She won First Prize for Poetry in The 2013 Hackney Literary Awards Poetry Contest and in 2015 her book, Fading Into Focus, took First Place for Poetry in The 23^rd Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards Contest. Her most recent collection, Too Close For Comfort,  was published by Aldrich Press in 2016 . She recently completed an ekphrastic project, Her Children, with quilt artist Linda Anderson. She is currently working on her next collection, Dual Impressions, original photos and poems.