Cover of "Without A Song: 9/11 Concert" album by Sonny Rollins. Welcome to number 6 in Aberjhani’s Countdown of 10 Amazing Moments from the Year 2011: Preeminent saxophonist and all-around jazzmaster Sonny Rollins joined actress Meryl Streep, singer Neil Diamond, celebrated cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and Broadway actress and cabaret performer Barbara Cook as a Kennedy Center honoree at the White House and at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. on December 4, 2011. The honor served as tribute to the career of a musician whose work has won over critics and fans alike for all of six decades. Please click the link to read the full story: Countdown of 10 amazing moments from the year 2011: No. 6 Sonny Rollins - National African-American Art | Examiner.com

Jazz legend Abbey Lincoln was also a poet - National African-American Art

(AP photo of Junot Diaz by Jim McKnight) The more the fate of books in the world are called into question ––as they compete with the ever-increasing domination of techno gadgetry–– the stronger and more enduring their impact seems to become. There is, apparently, no such thing as a permanent substitute for the written word adorned by human imagination and artfully bound in hard or soft covers. This observation is particularly evident in April 2008 for three strong reasons. Number one: this is indeed National Poetry Month and celebrations of it are in full swing, complete with the first “Poem in Your Pocket Day” slated for April 17. Number two: the great and mighty 92 nd Annual Pulitzer Prizes were announced this past week with Junot Diaz taking the fiction prize for his novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao; Tracy Letts picking up the drama prize for August: Osage County; Robert Hass receiving the poetry prize for Time and Materials; Saul