Gayle Howell aka Ladysilk
Gayle Howell, known in the poetry world as the “Lady Silk” is an award winning poet, writer and spoken word artist who has been writing since the age of 14.
Born Gayle Jackson in the late 1950’s, Gayle uses the spoken and written word to express what she calls “the essence of her soul.” A product of the culturally rich environs of Harlem in New York City; at the age of 10 her family moved to the Bronx. This extraordinarily curious child grew up on Boston Road in the Bronx of New York City. Not happy with the move she would encounter poetry; which gave her a place of seclusion, a place where she would find solace in the written and spoken word. Her greatest influences and earliest inspirations came while in Junior High School. She states “We all had to read and respond to a sonnet called “The Silken Tent” by Robert Frost”. I felt that the poem was the epitome of myself Thus, my first pen name “Nubian Poet Silk” Smiling to herself, Gayle begins to recite “She is as in a field a silken tent at midday when the sunny summer breeze has dried the dew and all its ropes relent.” Gayle declares that poetry is an extremely powerful medium, of which she uses to express her most inner emotions as it brings clarity to matters of the heart. Married and the mother of five children, “The Lady” speaks to the effects of life’s little moments as well as to lasting memories that sometimes struggles to reach the surface. Her words provide a gateway into her heart, which allows the reader, to peer into the depths of her soul. She calls herself the “Love Poet”
A recipient of JMW Publishing’s Achievement awards in (2004) The Editor’s Choice Awards from the International Library of Poetry Editor’s Choice Award for outstanding achievement in Poetry (2003 and 2004). She has performed on several blog talk radio shows and exclusively at Mike Geffner’s Inspired Word. She is the Author of Silk Elements “A Poets Origin” and currently working her first Novella, 3 Generations Thralldom release date sometime November 2014. Her second book of poetry Secrets “Confessions of a Mad Poet will be released at the Harlem Book Fair on July 12, 2014.
Gayle recently started a nonprofit organization called my sisters keeper and was able to support the program from the proceeds of her first book Silk Elements. The concept of her organization is to provide displaced women of Domestic Violence with a decorated shoebox. Contained inside each shoebox will be personal items that women neglect to take, when they leave home. Her first donation is scheduled for none other than May 11, 2014, which ironical is Mother’s Day. Gayle holds a degree in Marketing & Management and currently resides in Glassboro, NJ and New York City.
She and can be reached at apoetsilk@gmail.com or verbalpen.org