Annette L. Murrell
WebsiteYears: 2004 and 2008
Biography
Annette L. Murrell (Dr Diva) is a jazz singer and writer. She has produced and released two recordings: My Shining Hour and Annette Murrell: Live at the Zoo Bar! She has published a chapbook titled I wanna be a bad woman. Educated at Stanford, the University of Nairobi in Kenya, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Annette has a doctorate in English and taught college writing for fourteen years. Now she is an announcer for NET Radio, Nebraska's NPR Station and a Peer Outreach Worker at Matt Talbot Kitchen and Outreach where she advocates for individuals who are homeless and have chronic mental illness. She resides in Lincoln, Nebraska with her beloved mother and anime-aficionado son. She is currently working on a play and memoir, as well as her third album.
Poem
Gorilla Warfare
Without knocking
my son bursts
into my bedroom.
“Mommy, what’s guerilla warfare?”
I stumble over a definition
so rolling on my side
I lean over the edge of my water bed
to retrieve my tattered gray dictionary.
Due to fatigue, my son’s pronunciation
or my stupidity
I look up g-o-r-i-l-l-a
and to my chagrin
the term “gorilla warfare” is not defined.
However
I note the word gorilla
is derived from the Greek Gorillai
believed to be the name of
“an alleged tribe of hairy African women.”
“What’s guerilla warfare?”
my son insists.
“It’s the kind of war
black women
wage every day,”
I reply.