Monique Susanna Simón is the primary Administrator of this Society/Culture group.
She has taught on the college level for almost 20 years. Ms. Simon's areas of expertise are Literature of the Black World, Communications and Teaching Strategies. Her academic publications include a series of entries and articles in the African-American Encyclopedia, a cyberspace teaching and learning website: "Learning with Style" [funded by a VETEA grant], and several in-house educational evaluation documents for various teaching/learning organizations.
She is also the first to publish an official definition for the word: "Dis" in the 1993 African-American encyclopedia.
Ms. Simon is an award-winning writer of short stories and poetry. In addition, she won the First Chapter award for her Novel-in-Progress. Excerpted under the title: "Perfect Wife and Mother", a portion of this novel appeared in Carib Beat Magazine, the in-flight publication of BWIA: The British West Indian Airwarys airline. The excerpt was illustrated by the talented Stuart Hahn.
A three-act play/vignette: "Adynah" (based on the lead character in "Perfect Wife and Mother") was written and performed by Ms. Simon for Know Theatre, Inc. of Binghamton, NY. This play was graciously allowed to be during Ms. Simon's tenure as Professor of Communications/Media Arts at Broome Community College, NY, USA.
Preferring the vision of her life captured in the painting: "Monique by Night" by Mel Leipzig, Ms. Simon made a significant change to her career path that would lead to the launch of her lifelong dream: THE Caribbean Folklore Project(tm). [For more on Mel Leipzig's work: http://www.packetinsider.com/blog/art/?p=139#comment-1622 ]
As Chief Folklorist/Project Director to the project, Ms. Simon now guides the online, global Society/Culture group in collecting, cataloging, and re-imagining the folk traditions of Caribbean people throughout the world. The project emerges from a desire to share with others the love of her time at "Mamma's House" in Antigua, Caribbean and sharing that feeling of HOME with a capital "H" with like-minded people. Her poem: "Night Light: Ode to Bolans Village, Antigua (HOME) http://www.nyu.edu/calabash/vol3no2/0302003.pdf amongst the most-loved of her works, and can be read online at Calabash's web site, the NYU publication for Caribbean writers.
If you love satire, humor, poetry and the occasional musing about life's agonies and ironies, connect on Facebook through her Public Figure Page: Monique Susanna Simón for the adult dose!
