Catch Some Dreams With Margie Shaheed's Dream Catcher!

NightBallet Press has released a brand new book of poems
by Margie Shaheed, Dream Catcher!

We are extremely pleased to continue the tradition of spotlighting a fantastic Black poet during the month of February to honor and commemorate Black History Month.

(Yes, we realize this is the first day of March, but we are claiming this book as February's title.)

Dream Catcher is filled with poems garnered in the past year of Shaheed's life: 
conversations, lovemaking, triumph in aging, political and historical happenings, friends' influences, anger at injustices, all steeped in the rich tradition of African-American storytelling.  Her strong and unique voice shines through such wonderfully titled poems as "So Dis Ain't Home Sweet Home: Adjust," "What to Do with a Nipple," and "Kneel and Be Spotted."  Here's a delightful sample poem from Dream Catcher:

Hair 101
for Ms. Thick

my club sister suggestedi get braids in my hair
said i would look cute
i told her i have an aversion
to fake hair—never did like it
now what i will do is
get my three inches
of natural hair twisted
into a short braid-like style
see how she likes that

This is Margie's third NightBallet Press book, and she continues to be our most prolific seller.  The number sold of her two previous NBP books total well over a thousand copies, so you know her poetry is on fire!

Margie Shaheed is a community poet, writer, and dyamic performance artist.  Her work has appeared in, among others, Essence Magazine, Black Magnolias Literary Journal, and Split This Rock.  Books include Mosaic (NBP, 2013), Onomatopoeia (NBP, 2015), and Playground (Hidden Charm Press, 2015).  She is also the author of Tongue Shakers: Interviews and Narratives  on Speaking Mother Tongue in a Multicultural Society (Hamilton Books, to be published later this year of 2017).   She can be contacted at m_shaheed@yahoo.com.

Of Margie's work, people have written:

*Dream Catcher is another word for the poet Margie Shaheed, who gathers pieces of life in her net from both her own experience and the evening news.  These poems name names and cultural moments. Their scope is large. They draw attention to racial oppression, to incarceration as the new slavery.  They celebrate heroes who heal us, like George Washington Carver and Colin Kaepernick. They call out puritanical hypocrisy, affirming the body and love. They sing the ordinary and the not-so-ordinary in a series of haiku. Shaheed offers elegies for an educator, a blues singer, a sister, and the victims of unjust law enforcement....The poet listens, filing nuggets away for when the time for writing comes, when she creates startling images like “a palm full of brown sugar/thrown into a pot of boiling corn” and striking figures like “grandchildren sewn into the hem” of a skirt.

Charlene Fix, Professor Emeritus, English Columbus College of Art & Design


*Margie Shaheed's work is as real as it gets, and Dream Catcher may be her best work yet.  In it, Shaheed tears down walls, pulls back muscle and exposes the bones and soul of a unique but often all-too-common American experience.  Especially now, this chapbook is essential reading.John Burroughs, author of The Eater of the Absurd, founder and editor of Crisis Chronicles Press
John Burroughs, poet, author of The Eater of the Absurd, founding editor of Crisis Chronicles Press
* Margie Shaheed’s resonant poetic voice is teeming with keen insight on life and the human condition. Her observations of reality and skillful narrative compel one to listen intently.

Vince Robinson, poet, photographer, musician

*In a literary world of fantasy and make believe, Dream Catcher presents an in-the-moment pulse for the reader to experience our vigorous world.  This is a collection of work with a sundry canvas of simplistic characters yet beautifully audacious words, challenging the art of gravity with sullen and euphoric truths.
Nikki Skies, author, poet, playwright


*Margie Shaheed's Dream Catcher poems are eloquently woven word quilts.  Life filled, sensual, powerful, tender, courageous and unapologetic, her poems are beautiful, richly crafted testaments, written by a woman who knows and understands life.  Her poems...remind us why we read and love poetry.  Clearly, she is one of America's leading and unique voices of poetry.
Lorraine Currelley, founder and executive director of Poets Network & Exchange, Inc.


Dream Catcher contains 29 poems on 32 pages, printed on thick white textured paper.  The cardstock cover is a very pale dove gray, and the thick cardstock insert is a rich mauve.  Released today, Dream Catcher is available for only $10 plus $4 shipping and handling, right here, right now!  Why wait?  Order your copy now, and avoid the rush!