From the Burning Shore is a collection of 32 original poems inspired by the author's 30 years of youth mentoring and gang intervention work within and around Los Angeles' juvenile justice system. In these fiery times, this book reads as a road map in rhyme for all those struggling to feel their way through the smoke and flames. Written by the founder of Street Poets Inc., a Los Angeles-based non-profit organization that harnesses the healing power of poetry and music to inspire our next generation to dream a new world into being for us all, these poems represent the blood, sweat and tears of his transformational journey through the streets of our nation's City of Angels. A memoir in verse, From the Burning Shore is also a poetic prayer for a more just and soulful America, reconciled with its racist past and rooted in reverence for the natural world.
Christopher Henrikson is the founder, firekeeper and former executive director of Street Poets Inc., a Los Angeles-based non-profit organization that harnesses the healing power of poetry and music to inspire our next generation to write, rap and dream a new world into being for us all. Originally from Boston, Chris is a graduate of Duke University and the American Film Institute. He worked as an arts journalist in New York City and later as a screenwriter in Hollywood before a volunteer teaching stint in a Los Angeles County juvenile probation camp in 1995 inspired him to create Street Poets. Today, he mentors and facilitates initiatory homecoming retreats for youth, adults and emerging elders of all backgrounds, while maintaining a healing and consulting practice for individuals and organizations seeking to create change in themselves and the world around them. To learn more: christopherhenrikson.com
"These poems are scalpels of light with the power to cut through hardened hearts and dark street corners to liberate love where there is hate. With faith in human greatness, Christopher Henrikson beats the drum of hope so loud it awakens the soul's desire for wisdom and its longing for unity and community. May these poems stir in each and every one the desire to rise up to their gifts and purpose." — Malidoma Patrice Somé, author, Of Water and the Spirit and The Healing Wisdom of Africa
"There are times, like these, when healing and wholeness are to be found arising, as likely as anywhere, from the ashes of pain, loss, woundedness, and untimely death. For decades, Christopher Henrikson has been our visionary minstrel of the dark alley, a street bard conjuring and wresting truth, magic, love and community from the exhumed hearts found in the raging streets, the pen, the crack houses, the ER. These poems cleanse and inspire." — Bill Plotkin, author of Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche and Soul Initiation: A Field Guide for Visionaries, Evolutionaries, and Revolutionaries
"Christopher Henrikson knows poetry is sacred. Because when words become poems they strike a tonality of soul that is akin to music, to dance, to painting, to flowers and streams. A vortex of language from the heart. Beauty and also hard truth. I am in awe of the depth of feeling, ideas and experiences in these poems." — Luis J. Rodriguez, author of Borrowed Bones, My Nature is Hunger and Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.
"From the Burning Shore appears as a trenchant lament born of the traumas and tragedies that plague our streets, but also as a symphony of sorrows that alternate with the fires of outrage and an insistence that justice must be found, even if only in small doses, so that the ancient energies of healing and renewal can find us all again." — Michael Meade, author of The Genius Myth and Awakening the Soul
"Each poem in this collection reads like a prayer, or a healing ritual, or a shamanic incantation. A wonderful, powerful and valuable book, so needed in these turbulent times." — Leslee Goodman, editor @MoonMagazine and The Earth Speaks: Honoring Indigenous Wisdom
