“Injustice is my greatest illuminator,” says Tai Amri Spann-Ryan (BA Writing & Literature, ’05). “The war on the poor, the war in Palestine and Israel. The war against those who are gender nonconforming. Spiritual answers, mostly from the wisdom of Africa, are what give me grounding and light.”
As an educator, biodynamic farmer, and artist, his methods of illumination are manifold. “I am consistently looking for opportunities to integrate all parts of myself, my African spirituality, my poetry, my child-rearing, my farming, and my speaking selves, so that I can live a life of true authenticity.”
After attending seminary in California while working with the Occupy Movement, he served as a Montessori teaching assistant and youth pastor. He has worked in Waldorf and public schools with students aged three to 18 and is currently getting his Waldorf Teaching Certificate for grades one to eight. With both his parents having taught at Quaker schools, “Education runs deep in my bones.”
“I’ve always tried to respect my students in the same way that I’ve felt respected by my teachers,” he says. “My classrooms have always included a great deal of education on the biggest matters occurring today, be that the Black Lives Matter movement or climate change. One year, while teaching during Black History Month, a Black girl in my class asked me, ‘Why do we always start Black History with slavery?’ That question forever changed the way I taught. Since that moment, I taught Black History beginning with pre-colonial African culture. The strength of the student voice in my classroom always has to be primary.”
With his wife, he lives on a half-acre of land. “In my African tradition of Ifa, all things have a purpose,” he explains. “I have been studying biodynamic growing practices that incorporate spiritual as well as organic methods, working with the rhythms of the earth, the stars, and the phases of the moon.”
He is also the co-founder of B.L.A.C.K. (Black Literature & Arts Collective of Kansas) Lawrence. Celebrating its eighth year, the group of writers, artists, and musicians perform and host events once or twice a month and have produced books and CDs collectively and individually. The collective is currently exploring collaborations with local BIPOC-led movements. “There is a strong indigenous population due to the presence of Haskell University, the only inter-tribal university in the country, and the inception of multiple indigenous-led organizations in Lawrence. We work in collaboration with groups like the Indigenous Community Center as well as Sanctuary Lawrence, a Latinx-led organization that works to meet the needs of the Latinx community.”
His work with B.L.A.C.K. Lawrence in many ways dates back to his time at Naropa, during which he founded Allies in Action and was chief editor of Tendril, a journal on diversity. He describes his time at Naropa as “bittersweet. I was very innocent when I began, I thought I was born without mirth. I discovered, confronted with spiritual bypassing, cultural appropriation, and racism denial, that I was indeed a force to be reckoned with, and that my pen was a weapon of revolution.”
One product of that revolution is his book beautiful ashe: memoirs of a sweet black boy & other poems, “a poetic memoir that speaks to the difficulties growing up as a Black male on the East Coast of the United States.” The recipient of a 2023 grant through Stories For All: A Digital Storytelling Project for the Twenty-First Century, he is currently working on publishing an audiobook of the collection through his mother’s creativity and production company Nuyoni. “I’ve always found myself between the world of page poet and spoken word poet. I love them both equally and have been as influenced by Walt Whitman as I have by Saul Williams. My mother, being a singer and performer, has always opened a space on the stage for my work, so I have attempted to use my voice and pen alike.”
