The Talk
A medical-surgical eye physician and a graduate of Cornell and Harvard Universities, Dr Hall’s poetry reflects his painful discovery, that in “unspoken America,” race is the one thing by which he is first judged, first measured and metered diminished value, dignity, equality and justice. His poetry speaks not just to the surface pain of injustice and inhumanity, but deep into that pain. He has read and discussed his poetry throughout the U.S. and internationally.
Neal Hall, Dr and Poet
Dr. Neal Hall is a medical-surgical eye physician and graduate of Cornell and Harvard Universities. An internationally acclaimed poet, he has performed poetry readings throughout the United States and internationally to include: Kenya, Indonesia, France, Jamaica, Morocco, Canada, Nepal, Italy and India.
His poetry speaks not just to the surface pain of injustice and inhumanity but deep into that pain, we label and package into genteel socio-political-economic-religious constructs to blur the common lines of cause, that is our shared story. A shared story that should unite us in a common struggle to free all men.
He is the author of two award-winning books of poetry.
His first, Nigger For Life, reflects his painful discovery, that in “unspoken America,” race is the one thing by which he is first judged, first measured and metered diminished value, dignity, equality and justice. His second book, Winter’s A’ Coming Still reflects poignantly the more things are said to change, the more things are made to stay the same. His third book, Where Do I Sit. will be published this Summer 2015.
Dr. Hall’s work has appeared in The Thinker, South Africa’s leading progressive social and political journal featuring world-wide thought leaders, Ethnicity and Race in a Changing World, Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre, Hiram Poetry Review, Muse India, Bangalore, India, Their Own Bare Hands, Anthology by Bridgewater College International Poetry Festival
The celebrated poet of Jamaica, Yasus Afari, hailed Dr. Hall “ as the Malcolm X of International Poetry; a poet of intellectual passion and artistic significance whose poetry has consistently championed socio-economic and socio-political issues pertinent to social advocacy, of which we are a part, and of which poetry is pivotal.”
America’s prominent and provocative democratic intellectual and philosopher Cornel West, Ph.D., said of Dr. Hall “ [he] is a warrior of the spirit, a warrior of the mind, an activist, a poet. I sense Dr. Hall’s hypersensitivity to suffering – Martin, Malcolm and Jesus all had this hypersensitivity. Both sides of his soul have prophetic leanings. His poetry has the capacity to change ordinary people’s philosophy on social and racial issues.”
Literary Awards
Nigger For Life’s awards:
• Grand Prize Winner in: 1. The Do – It -Yourself and 2. The Los Angeles Book Festivals
• First Place Prize for Poetry in the Greater Southeast, Amsterdam, Florida, London, Paris, Great Midwest, Southern California, Do-It-Yourself, San Francisco, Great Northwest, Great Southwest, Los Angeles, Pacific Rim, New England, New York Book Festivals and National Beverly Hills Book Awards and 2012 Poetry Contest Winner, Ubud Writers & Reader’s International Festival, Bali, Indonesia.
Winter’s A’ Coming Still’s awards
First Place Prize for Poetry in the Southern California, San Francisco. New England, New York, Paris, Los Angeles, Great Midwest, Great Northwest and Great Southwest Book Festivals.
www.NealHallpoet.com