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Curriculum Vitae
Ministry Bio
“My Mission Statement is clear: I am what I call a “word worker”. I use the written and spoken word to inspire, encourage, and inform the world, specifically those within the hip-hop generation”.
They say we are either right brained or left brained. Creative or Analytical? Those who are whole brained are rare. So I guess you can say myisha cherry is one of those rare breeds because she is uniquely both. This twenty-something woman has the logical intuitiveness of a hip-hop Socrates, blended with the praxis call of Ghandi and James Cone. That’s why she began teaching philosophy on the college level at the University of MD Baltimore County and the Community College of Baltimore County at the age of 26 and without a Ph.D. She has also facilitated thought as a host on 88.9 public talk radio and wrestles as an ordained minister in sermon preparation to accomplish theological and practical depth. However, creativity doesn’t fall far from her tree. Her creative gift has been exercised in her role as a minister of fine arts, producer and media director and in her creative writing and journalism which focuses on inspired living and pop culture. The scary thing about it is, this young “whole brained” woman is only getting started.
Hailing from Norfolk, Va and raised under the Vernell Cherry matriarch, myisha cherry took a journey through Baltimore, Maryland to pursue a B.A. in philosophy from Morgan State University and a Masters of Divinity Degree from Howard University. It was in Baltimore that she entered into the ministry at Empowerment Temple AME Church, where she served as minister of creative arts, producer, and media director, and is now an ordained clergy-person in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. She believes she has been called to the teaching and preaching ministry in an effort to encourage spiritual development and biblical and religious understanding. She has not only vowed to dedicate her life to the spiritual word but also to the written and spoken word.
In 2000, she began her writing and performance poetry career, which has led her to author three books and to be featured in Black Issues Book Review, The Free-lance Star, and recently voted in the Baltimore’s City Paper as Baltimore’s 2005 Best Preacher Poet. In 2001, she founded Mwaza Publications, a literary press whose goal is to publish talented literary content that inspires and enlightens readers.
Feeling the need for growth, she packed up her bags and migrated to the literary oasis of New York City in 2006, to dedicate her time more to the written and spoken word. In 2007, she founded an urban literary and lyrical magazine called UnMute, a magazine she believes will give voice to urban literary writers and songwriters across the world. She has released her debut album, SICK, a 16-track poetry experiment that combines poetry with soulful melody, hip-hop, rock, and folk and will release her follow up LP Folk Tales in 2010.
She balances her time between Freelance Writing (in which her work has been featured in such periodicals as URB Magazine, BustedHalo.com, Allhiphop.com, the African American Pulpit and the Urbanite Magazine), and through teaching the world the fundamentals and value of both the literary, intellectual and the spiritual word by taking on the role as transcriber and griot. She also serves as Professor in the History and Philosophy Department at York College and Instructor at The Fortune Society where she educates formerly incarcerated and adjudicated adults. Describing her life’s purpose as “Word Work”, she believes that lives can be impacted by the power of words.
Why should we even be surprised, I guess thats what whole brainers do. They use their logical and creative mind to try to make the world “whole”. Yes, thats what they do. And we are blessed all the more because of them.