Furaha Henry-Jones

Two decades ago, Furaha Henry-Jones took a chance to read her poetry out loud and later became a member of Dayton’s first National Poetry Slam Team. Since that time, she has enjoyed reading to a variety of audiences, from correctional facilities to classrooms. She is serving as the Sinclair Poet Laureate and was honored to receive the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for Poetry. Her favorite readings and recitations in recent years have included Four Women: A Tribute to Nina Simone and the Black Arts Movement at University of Dayton, Sundowners Show at the Durban Playhouse in South Africa, and Harriet: Navigation, Live and Thrive at the Neon in Dayton, Ohio. Her work walks the line of poetry and prose and her children have been the primary inspiration for most of her work. Currently, she is working on Sunlight After Evan, a blog of reflections on the loss of her son. As a legacy to her son's son--her first grandchild--she is also focused on producing a collection of children’s stories and poems based on her family.