Chantay Leonard is a Communications major at the University of Detroit Mercy and is a Detroit based writer, performance poet, and community activist. Chantay was first published at the age of 13 years old in theme books for the Detroit Summer Youth Arts Employment Program (1993-1995) under the tutelage of Stella Crews of Broadside Press and Kaleemah Hassan . She has also trained with Dr. Terry Blackhawk and Dawn MacDuffie. Her works have appeared in high school literary magazines Style! and Passages II, theme books for the Detroit Institute of Arts, Black Ink Volume 1 and other national anthologies. A former member of Adolescent Alternatives, a church based youth community activist group, she has co-authored and appeared in two plays “A Cry Out 4 Help” and “Double Jeopardy”.

In 1997 after completing an internship at the Detroit Free Press Chantay embarked upon the beginning of her performance career at Café Mahogany. In May 2001 she joined Black Ink Collective, and has been featured at the Key Club, The Detroit Writer’s Guild 300 All Star Poetry Jam, The Taste Festival, The Camillian, The Literary Café at the University of Detroit Mercy, The Wayne State University Java Jam Series, Politics Meets Poetry for Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick, a gospel event for Councilwomen Brenda Scott, Black Ink’s “Words Unravel’, The Comerica Java Jazz Series, the Lit Festival, Black Cinema Café, The Youth Empowerment Summit and other events in the community and Metro Detroit areas.

Her poetry has also been featured in two Internet magazines Black Gurrl Poetry and Fresh Angles. She has spoken word audios in rotation on Internet radio stations Poetology.com, Urban Livez.com, Blackmic.com and Vocalized Ink.org Legacy Leonard is a also a member of Pitch Black Cultural Arts Institute, Vice President of Strength In Numbers Collective community group, talent manager for More Tales Productions, publisher of the e-newsletter “The BlackSphere”, and has her own event planning and promotion company BlackLegacy Productions.

She continues to pursue and polish her craft as a writer and performer at local workshops and venues. Chantay is currently working on her first book, I Have Come Forth By Day.

You can contact via e-mail at legacycyrah@yahoo.com or by sending an e-mail to TimBookTu and it will be forwarded.