April R. Silver is a social entrepreneur, activist, and writer/editor based in New York City.
She is also founder of AKILA WORKSONGS, a communications agency that publicizes and promotes a diverse clientele, from award-winning journalists, actors, filmmakers, dancers, and choreographers; national best-selling writers and poets; and GRAMMY® award-winning musicians to unrecognized artists and many others. The former talk show host of My Two Cents (formerly on BETJ, now known as Centric) is also public relations and event management consultant to both local, on-the-ground organizations and international philanthropic foundations alike.
The former middle school Language Arts teacher has been featured, profiled, or quoted in Ms., Essence, Ebony, Jet, Newsweek, The Washington Post, as well as on CNN, BET, The Tom Joyner Morning Show, and countless other outlets, nationally and internationally. As a public speaker, Ms. Silver has moderated, served as a panelist, or keynoted at hundreds of libraries, community centers, and universities nationwide and thoroughly enjoys engaging with open minds.
As a writer, her essays and writings have been published in the New York Daily News, Word.Beats.Life (The Global Journal of Hip Hop Culture), Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority by Tom Burell, Put Your Dreams First: Handle Your Entertainment Business by Thembisa Mshaka, and throughout the blogosphere. In 2010, Silver served as Managing Editor of A New Way Forward, a manual on mentor recruitment by Susan L. Taylor.
Be A Father to Your Child: Real Talk from Black Men on Fatherhood, Family, and Love (2008, Counterpoint Press) was Silver’s entry into the traditional publishing world. Of the critically acclaimed anthology, Foreword Magazine says “Editor April R. Silver has turned her first book into a must-read for anyone involved in the black community.” April is currently finishing her arts and activism memoir on her life as part of a death-defying, groundbreaking student movement at Howard University to present day. It is due summer 2013.
A native New Yorker who spent her adolescent years in Los Angeles, April is a proud Brooklynite. Her most treasured worldly possession is her Jacksons vinyl collection.
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Photo credits (top to bottom): Bruce Stansbury, Curtis Stephen, April R. Siver, Ed Marshall
