Esther Iverem
Author, artist, and cultural worker for human rights and environmental justice. Independent journalist. Fangirl for the Earth
Areas of Creativity
The African diaspora, human rights and human existence. The environment: water, earth and science, extending to discoveries in the universe.
Formal Education
Georgetown University, Certificate, Nonprofit Executive Management University, M.S., Journalism, Columbia University. B.A., Broadcast Journalism, emphasis in Ethnic Studies, the University of Southern California The Philadelphia High School for Girls
Journalism
Interim Program Director and Interim Public Affairs Director, December 2022-August 2023, WPFW Pacifica Radio, 89.3 FM, Washington, DC. Responsibilities included management of on-air content, including public affairs, news and music shows, dozens of volunteer show producers, and four on-air membership drives that raised more than $1 million dollars. In addition to producing my own show, which is distributed nationally, I launched three new shows and produced four specials that were available nationally, including for the 2023 State of the Union Address. Fulfilled all required reporting to the Federal Communications Commission and Local Station Board, and worked with staff to improve several station operations, including relocation, website, and gift fulfillment, and produced four successful events in the community.
Creator, Producer and Host, Washington, DC. March 2014 to present. “On the Ground: Voices of Resistance from the Nation’s Capital,” a weekly show on two dozen stations on the Pacifica Radio Network, including in WPFW in DC, WBAI in New York, and WRFG in Atlanta, and on podcast and our website: www.onthegroundshow.org.
Creator and Manager of Independent Media, Washington, DC, March 2000 to present. I created pioneering and award-winning content for critical voices on arts, media and politics. Projects include the Pacifica Radio shows “On the Ground” “What’s at Stake” and “Community Comment.” Clients have included BET.com, Heart and Soul magazine, Huffington Post, universities, unions and other not-for-profit organizations. Experienced working with content contributors, various CMS, website redesign, HTML and CSS, social media, digital strategies, advertisers, successful grant-writing, as well as Photoshop, InDesign, Audition, Premiere and accounting software programs.
Contributing Film and Arts Writer and Critic for BET.com, Washington, DC, February 2000 to December 2007. For Tom Joyner’s BlackAmericaWeb.com, 2006 to 2009. Weekly reviews and reporting on movies, TV shows, film festivals, a wide range of arts, popular culture and media.
Staff Culture Writer, The Washington Post, Washington, DC, November 1995 to February 2000. Arts writer and critic for the Style section, creating in-depth features, news, and reviews.
Staff Culture Writer, New York Newsday, New York, NY, August 1988 to August 1995. Wrote critical essays, reviews and features. Developed and produced the weekly “Arts in the Boroughs’’ section focusing on New York City’s diverse neighborhoods.
Staff News Reporter, The New York Times, New York, NY, September 1985 to July 1988. General assignment, Metropolitan section. Covered all subjects, from crime to the United Nations. Before writing for Metropolitan, wrote as a news assistant on the national desk.
Staff News Reporter, The News-Journal, Wilmington, DE, June 1983 to September 1985. General assignment and beat coverage of Delaware and Southeastern Pennsylvania.
Selected Honors and Awards
2024 and 2025 Fellow in the Arts and Humanities, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Honored for my work in journalism, creative writing and visual arts. All awards from the commission are supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities.
Selected to have three of my textile works, “Through Many Dangers, Toils and Snares,” “And Grace Will Lead Us Home,” and “For the Sao Jose 1794” included in the permanent collection of the DC Commission of the Arts and Humanities through the Art Bank program, October 2022 and October 2024
Awardee, The Diverse City Fund, for “On the Ground: Voices of Resistance from the Nation’s Capital,” Annual awards from 2015 to 2024.
Awardee, Women and Media Award from the Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press, Washington, DC. The Award recognizes the work furthering media democracy and media justice. October 2020
2018 and 2022 Fellow in the Arts and Humanities, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. The same year, awarded a Projects, Events and Festivals Grant for the radio series, “DC in the Era of Climate Change.” Commission awards are supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities.
Awardee, The Puffin Foundation, for the radio series, “The F-Word: Conversations about Fascism” on “On the Ground: Voices of Resistance from the Nation’s Capital,” June 2017.
Awardee, The Grit Fund, The Contemporary, Baltimore, for my installation, “Regeneration: Olokun of the Galaxy,” at “XXChange,” AREA 405 gallery, Baltimore, November 2016.
Awardee, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, for the radio series “Black Power at 50 in DC, 1966-2106, October 2016.
Fellow, USC Annenberg-Getty Arts Journalism Program, May-June 2007.
Finalist, National Online Journalism Awards, 2006. SeeingBlack.com recognized for commentary.
Fellow, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts for literature. Also, recipient of a separate humanities grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities for redevelopment of SeeingBlack. October 2005.
Fellow, The National Arts Journalism Program, Chosen from a national field of applicants. Studied visual arts, film, music, literature, as well as art theory and criticism at Columbia University. 1994-1995.
Semi-Finalist, The Discovery/Nation Poetry Competition. The Nation magazine, 1994.
Recipient, The Journalism Award, The Black American Heritage Foundation, New York, NY, 1993. Also several other citations from community and professional groups and scholarships
Books Authored
Olokun of the Galaxy, Seeing Black Press, 2017.
We Gotta Have It: Twenty Years of Seeing Black at the Movies, Hatchette Book Group, 2007.
Living in Babylon: Poems and Performances, Africa World Press, 2006.
The Time: Portrait of a Journey Home, poems and photographs, Africa World Press, April 1994.
Gargoyle 74, Edited by Richard Myers Peabody, 2021
Contributor-Selected Anthologies
Resisting Arrest: Poems to Stretch to the Sky, Tony Medina, Jacar Press, 2016.
Amazing Graces, Washington-Area Women, edited by Richard Peabody, Paycock Press, 2012.
Earth Shattering: Eco Poems, edited by Neil Astley, Bloodaxe Books, 2007.
Aunties: Thirty-Five Writers Celebrate Their Other Mother, edited by Ingrid Sturgis, Ballantine Books, Random House, 2004.
DC Poets Against the War, edited by Sarah Browning, Michele Elliot and Danny Rose, Argonne House Press, 2003.
Beyond the Frontier: African American Poetry for the 21st Century, edited by E. Ethelbert Miller, Black Classic Press, 2002.
Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature and Art, edited by Tony Medina, Samiya A. Bashir, et al, Third World Press, January 2002.
Step Into a World: The New Black Literature, edited by Kevin Powell, John Wiley & Sons, 2000. Tough Love: The Life and Death of Tupac Shakur, edited by Kwame Alexander, Alexander
Publishing, 1997. The Garden Thrives: Twentieth Century African American Poets, Edited by Clarence Major, Harper Collins, 1996. Patterns Plus, a collection of contemporary essays for college students. Edited by Mary Lou Conlin, Houghton Mifflin, 1994. Walk on The Wild Side, Edited by Nicholas Christopher, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1994. In the Tradition: An Anthology of Young, Black Writers, edited by Ras Baraka and Kevin Powell, Harlem River Press, 1992.
Publication in Journals, including Gargoyle, The Nation, The African American Review, Obsidian II, The Painted Bride Quarterly, the American Poetry Review, HEAT, Sunbury, Forward Motion.
Group and Solo Art Exhibits, Performances and Recordings
Ongoing, smaller works exhibited and for sale at Abro Collective in Union Station, DC, 2023 to present.
“As Long As I Have Breath In My Body,” Exhibit of Textile Artists and Cultural Presentations by Musical Artists In Process, Sandy Spring Museum, Sandy Spring, Maryland. April-July 2025
“Legacy: Civil Rights at 60,” Exhibit by DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, January-March 2024.
“SHE: DC,” a group exhibit at La Cosecha Gallery curated by Gallery@Shop Made in DC, March 2023
“DC Art Now 2022,” DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities’ annual exhibition of selected work by finalists for the Art Bank Program grant, September 6 – October 29, 2022
“Memory and Signal,” Solo exhibit and Martin Luther King Jr. artist residency with community workshops at Ann Marie Sculpture Garden and Arts Center, Solomons, MD, January — February 2021
“Enduring Ideals: Rockwell, Roosevelt and the Four Freedoms,” National Juried Traveling Show sponsored by the Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA. 2018 – 2021
New York Historical Society, New York, NY, May – September 2018. Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, MI, October 2018 – January 2019.
George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum, Washington, DC, February 2019 – May 2019; Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA, October 2020 – January 2021.
“Songs of the Caged Bird,” The Banneker-Douglass Museum, Annapolis, Md. January 12 – June 8, 2019.
“When Words Meet Art,” Takoma Park Center Gallery, Takoma, MD. Nov. 8, 2018 –Jan. 5, 2019.
“In My Mind’s Eye,” Black Artists of DC (BADC) and Pepco Edison Place Gallery, Washington, DC, February 1-28, 2018.
“Imagining Freedom: Reflections of Resistance and Joy,” DC Arts Center, Washington, DC, December 15, 2017-January 14, 2018.
“Olokun of the Galaxy,” Pop-up Exhibit and Book Celebration, 410 GooDBuddY Art Space, Washington, DC, Dec. 7, 2017.
“Kindred: Celebrating our Ancestors,” National Juried Show, Annmarie Sculpture and Art Center, Dowell, MD, August 11, 2017 – January 28, 2018.
“The Really Affordable Art Show” and Salon, BWAC Gallery, Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, Brooklyn, NY, Sept. 23, 2017-October 15, 2017.
“Art of Engagement,” Juried Show, Touchstone Gallery Wash., DC., August 4-August 24, 2017.
“Selected Works,” Solo show at The Den at the Anacostia Arts Center, Wash, DC, May-June 2017.
“We Who Believe in Freedom,” Pepco-Edison Gallery, Washington, DC, April 10-28, 2017.
“Aluminosity,” Curated for Black Artists of DC exhibit of artists utilizing aluminum in creating or fabricating of their work. District of Columbia Arts Center, Washington, DC, Dec. 2016- January 2017.
“The Artist as Maker, Thinker, Feeler National Juried Show,” Cade Art Gallery, Arnold, MD, November 18-December 19, 2016.
“XXChange,” AREA 405, My installation of pants dolls “Regeneration” exhibited by the Baltimore Women Maker’s Collective, Baltimore, MD. Nov. 4 – Dec. 1, 2016.
“Migration 61,” Busboys and Poets in association with the Phillips Collection. Quilt, “Through Many Dangers, Toils and Snares,” Washington, DC., October 2016-March 2017.
“Terra Nostra,” my poem “Earth Screaming” included as libretto in a multi-part oratorio by composer Stacy Garrop, the San Francisco Choral Society, 2015- 2016.
“At War with Ourselves,” the Battle for the Black-faced Boy, Brentwood Arts Exchange, Brentwood Maryland. May 25 – July 18, 2015.
“Black to the Future: Meditations on Regeneration,” 410 GooDBuddY Art Space, Washington, DC, March7-April 12, 2015. One-woman show.
“Emancipation: Meditations on Freedom,” DCAC, Washington, DC, November 2013- January 2014, Curator, Catalog editor and artist.
“Living Life Like It’s Golden,” Bowie State Art Gallery, Bowie, MD, February 13 – March 13, 2013.
“Show Me What You’re Working With,” Brentwood Arts Exchange, Brentwood, MD, Feb – April 2013
“A/Way Home,” District of Columbia Arts Center, Washington, DC, Nov. 30 2012-Jan. 6, 2013.
Reception, November 30.
“Mermaids & Merwomen in Black Folklore,” City Gallery at Waterfront Park, Charleston, South Carolina, August 28-October 28, 2012.
“#myDeanwood: Honoring the Past to Create the Future,” DeanwoodxDesign ArtPlace Temporium, Tubman-Mahan Gallery, Washington, DC July 20-August 31, 2012.
“Mermaids & Merwomen in Black Folklore,” North Charleston Arts Festival, May 1 – June 10, 2012.
“We Carry These Memories Inside of We,” Daughters of the Dust Anniversary Exhibit, Charleston, SC, Sept. 1-Dec. 15, 2011.
“Art/Humanity,” African American Art Quilters, North Charleston Arts Festival, April 29 – June 13, 2011, and traveled to museums throughout South Carolina during 2011.
“The Oya Series,” Visual arts debut show, The Zimstone Gallery, Hyattsville, Md., April-May 2010.
“Libretto for “Turn Pain into Power,’’ a counter-quincentennial jazz suite by Fred Ho and the Afro-Asian Music Ensemble, 1997. Also, libretto for “Yes Means Yes, No Means No–Whatever She Wears, Wherever She Goes,’’ by Fred Ho, 1998.
Also, performances and collaborations with Black Voices for Peace and the late Damu Smith, DC
Poets Against the War, the Smithsonian Institute, Busboys and Poets and the Ascension Writer’s series in Washington, DC; the Atlanta Arts Festival and the National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta; the Darkroom Collective in Boston; the Painted Bride Arts Center and Temple University in Philadelphia; the Nuyorican Poets Café in New York City and the University of California at Los Angeles.
Teaching Experience
Adjunct Professor, Information Literacy and also Journalism, Trinity University, January 2012 to 2013, Washington, D.C. I planned and taught methods of researching in libraries and on the Internet, with various databases, including scholarly sources. I also taught APA- and Chicago-style research paper formats, reviewed current events and introduced various topics on the role of information and media in today’s world. For the journalism class, I taught introductory news reporting and writing.
Adjunct Professor, Journalism, Howard University, September 2007 to May 2008, Washington, D.C. Planned courses and taught introduction to news writing, as well as specialized reporting. Assigned and graded weekly assignments and exams on current events, as well as special projects.
Instructor, Literary Media, Duke Ellington High School for the Performing Arts, September 2007 to June 2009. As a part-time employee, re-launched the school newspaper, The Green Chair and published it monthly. Launched online version of the publication by initiating a new collaboration with the High School Journalism Program of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Taught introduction to reporting, news writing, criticism, basic photography and layout with InDesign software. Coordinated limited computer resources and facilitated relationships with printers and other vendors.
Writing Workshop Leader for D.C. WritersCorps at MacFarland Middle School, Garnet-Patterson Middle School and for a journalism summer camp operated by the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation, September 2003 – August 2006. Planned and taught workshops in creative writing and journalism.
Coordinated publication of student writing in annual anthologies and mini newspapers.
Guest Speaker on media, art and culture at colleges and organizations around the country, including UCLA, George Washington University, Hampton University, Duke University, Northwestern University and Morgan State University. I have worked with the Prime Movers Program at George Washington University, for the Hurston-Wright Foundation and supervised journalism interns from Howard University, American University and Montgomery County Community College in Maryland.
Additional Bibliography, Travel and Volunteer Service
Additional Bibliography, including reviews and citations of my work, available upon request.
Travel destinations include South Africa; several countries in West Africa, including Senegal, Gambia, Cote D’Ivoire, Togo, Sierra Leone; also, Brazil, Mexico, Cuba, throughout the Caribbean and throughout the United States. Raised more than $16,000 for the public elementary school my son attended.
Volunteered at the Community Education Program at Temple University in Philadelphia. Volunteered to speak to students, and to produce neighborhood and school newsletters.
