Scribbler's Corner at River of Grass

Yvette Angelique Hyater-Adams is a poet and essayist, teaching artist, and narrative practitioner in applied behavioral science. A passionate mixed-media artist, she uses collage and fiber arts to express stories. Her work spans a wide range of corporate and private projects, but her passion is working with young African American women to help them find their voices and develop their own transformative narrative. She stopped by Scribbler's Corner at River of Grass to talk about how writing and storytelling can change lives, communities, and even the world.

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Filmmaker, director, writer, actor—Fred Zara lives in Orlando, but stopped by Scribbler's Corner at River of Grass while he was in Jacksonville for the Southeast Regional Film Festival, where his latest film, The Suicide of James Rider, was being screened.

Fred grew up in New Jersey, where, at 15, he got kicked out of the 9th grade for fighting with a teacher. He played drums in a Trenton-based punk band under the name of Fred Fatal – a wild ride he documented twenty years later in his award-winning documentary, Average Community. 

So how does a 15-year-old high school dropout with anger issues go from riding around with friends to meet their crack dealer in New Jersey to an award-winning filmmaker in Florida?

Learn more about Fred and his work at https://fredzara.wordpress.com/

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Playwright, musician, professor, Jenn Chase’s creative journey has taken her from her childhood home in Cape Cod to Dakar, Senegal, before bringing her here to us in Jacksonville where she works out of her studio in the CoRK Arts District, and as a professor teaching writing and humanities at FSCJ. A free spirit, who has failed as spectacularly as she has succeeded, and persevered to produce a significant body of work, including five albums, six theatrical productions and a variety of film and television projects on three continents. She joins us on Scribbler's Corner to talk about how bad choices have taught her the best lessons in life.

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Nikesha Elise Williams is an Emmy award winning news producer and author. She was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, and attended Florida State University where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Communication: Mass Media Studies and Honors English Creative Writing. Nikesha’s debut novel, Four Women, was awarded the 2018 Florida Authors and Publishers Association President’s Award in the category of Adult Contemporary/Literary Fiction. Four Women, was also recognized by the National Association of Black Journalists as an Outstanding Literary Work. She has subsequently published two additional novels: The Appeal of Ebony Jones, and her latest, Love Never Fails. She joins Darlyn on Scribbler's Corner at River of Grass to talk about her writer's journey, including the inspiration of Nina Simone, the importance of being heard, the "Jacksonville Renaissance" and how she lost the first draft of her first novel, Four Women, and had to start over. Her advice for new writers: Start writing, and don't ever stop.

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To celebrate National Poetry Month, Scribbler's Corner caught up with one of Jacksonville's rising stars.

Andres Rojas was born in Cuba and came to the U.S. at age 13. He attended Florida Junior College, now FSCJ, here in Jacksonville and went on to earn an M.F.A. and a J.D. from the University of Florida. His work has been featured in numerous literary magazines and included in the 2017 edition of Best New Poets. His first chapbook, Looking for What Isn’t There, is forthcoming from Paper Nautilus.

For all of that success, however, Rojas has wrestled, for decades with severe clinical depression and the kind of self doubt that all writers struggle with from time to time. He shares how he came to terms with his inner critic by learning to accept self doubt, and submit anyway, recognizing that you miss 100 percent of the shots not taken.

The song, Southbound Lane, featured in this episode, was written and produced by Andres Rojas and performed by Eclepto Funk America. It is used here with the Author's permission.

If you know and love Andy (And we are happy to say we do!) do yourself a favor: Pour yourself a drink and binge watch his archived front porch concert series available in the video section on his facebook page. It will make you smile. And it will make you want to have him over for songs and Sangria.

UPDATE: Looking for What Isn't There is now available.

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Truth telling isn't always easy, especially when those truths involve airing family secrets. Tricia Booker, author of The Place of Peace and Crickets somehow manages to tell hard truths in a way that is both caring and unsparing. She stopped by Scribbler's Corner at River of Grass this week with her constant companion: Buddy the wonder dog. 

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Tim Gilmore writes about the haunted South.

Gilmore is the author of 17 books, including a historical novel about the founder of Jacksonville, The Book of Isaiah: A Vision of the Founder of a City, illustrated by his colleague Shep Shepard, and creative nonfiction such as Goat Island Hermit: The State of Florida vs. Rollians Christopher, The Devil in the Baptist Church: Bob Gray’s Unholy Trinity, In Search of Eartha White: Storehouse for the People, The Mad Atlas of Virginia King, and Stalking Ottis Toole: A Southern Gothic. Gilmore adapted Stalking Ottis Toole as a play, which FSCJ (Florida State College at Jacksonville) Dramaworks’ Ken McCulough directed at the school’s Wilson Center in Spring 2017. Dramaworks will produce Gilmore’s The Repossession of James Edward Pough: Mass Shooting in Baymeadows in April, 2019. Repossession will be McCulough’s 50th production with FSCJ.

Gilmore is the founder of JaxbyJax, a literary arts festival built on the theme of “Jacksonville Writers Writing Jacksonville.” He’s the writer and creator of www.jaxpsychogeo.com, a project that explores place and catalogues the Southern Gothic, telling the stories of nearly 450 locations in and around Jacksonville, Florida.

Gilmore’s work has appeared in numerous national and Jacksonville area publications including Mark Ari’s EAT Poems, Andrei Condrescu’s Exquisite Corpse, Fiction Fix, Perversion Magazine and Jacksonville’s Folio Weekly. His first stories for Folio appeared in the mid-1990s. In late 2018, his essay “The Stories That Roam Jacksonville’s Streets” appeared in Bridge Eight Press’s anthology 15 Views of Jacksonville.

Tim Gilmore has presented at numerous events and venues, including the Jacksonville Historical Society (where he’s spoken on the history of murder in Jacksonville, Eartha White, Virginia King and Rollians Christopher), the Florida Historical Society, ASALH (the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History), various Popular Culture Association and Modern Language Association conferences, the Douglas Anderson Writers’ Festival, Sleeping Giant Film Festival, and JaxbyJax Literary Arts Festival. When his book In Search of Eartha White, Storehouse for the People appeared in 2014, he gave the keynote address at the Pearls and Cuff Links Fundraiser Gala for the Clara White Mission. In February 2019, Gilmore will be the keynote speaker at the University of Florida’s English Graduate Organization symposium.

Gilmore teaches Literature and Writing at Florida State College at Jacksonville, where he was awarded a 2018 Distinguished Faculty Award. The Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville named Gilmore the 2018 Literary Artist of the Year. Also i

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