In a few words, A. K. Toney is a poet, writer and performance artist. For almost 20 years Toney has been an active member of the renowned cutting-edge African American arts enclave World Stage Performance Gallery’s Anansi Writer’s Workshop in Leimert Park Village (Los Angeles), Ca. As a member of the World Stage Toney had the honor to be mentored under the tutelage of Community leaders and Jazz greats such as Billy Higgins (World’s Most Recorded Jazz Drummer and co-founder of the World Stage Performance Gallery), Kamau Daa’ood (Poet/Author and co-founder of the World Stage Performance Gallery), Baba Juno Lewis (Percussionist/Drum Inventor composed/recorded Kula Se Mama with John Coltrane), Horace Tapscott (World renown Pianist and Activist), and Richard Fulton (Jazz Patron and Founder of Fifth Street Dick’s). These Leimert Park icons educated and molded Toney into the writer/poet and performance artist he is today.
Publications:
- Tough Love, Cultural Criticism and Familial Observations on the Life and Death of Tupac Shakur, Edited by Michael Datcher and Kwame Alexander 1996
- Catch the Fire, Cross Intergenerational Anthology, Edited by Derrick Gilbert aka D-Knowledge 1998
- Black Love, An Anthology based from writing workshops and publication through Beyond Baroque Literary Art Center, Edited by Michael Datcher 1999
- Drum Voices Revue, A Confluence of Literary culture and Vision Arts, Edited by Eugene B. Redmond 1999
- Raising Fences (A Black Man’s Love Story), Written by Michael Datcher 2001
- Caprice, Mischief, and Other Poetic Strategies (An Anthology of Poems Based on Twenty Little Poetry Projects) Edited by Terry Wolverton 2004
- Catching Hell in the City of Angels, Life and Meanings of Blackness in South Central Los Angeles, Written by Joao H. Costa Vargas 2006
Discography:
- 1998 “Afro Blue” feat. A. K. Toney (poem: For Bobby Bryant Sr.)
- Album: Flowers Stolen From The Backyard Of Old Folk
- Band: Jazz Poetry Collective
- 2008 “Us Is Change” feat. A. K. Toney (poem: Us Is Change)
- Album: Da Lion Roars
- Band: Leon Mobley and Da Lion
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