Kathryn Waddell Takara, PhD, is the author of nine books of poetry, a biography, and a collection of oral histories. In 2010, she was honored with with the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. Takara is the owner and publisher of Pacific Raven Press, LLC, which has published 18 titles. She is a recognized scholar, celebrated intellectual, and performance artist. Takara's global travels are reflected in her work as footprints, phantasms, and wings to self-development, consciousness, and a call to conscience. Born and raised in Tuskegee, Alabama in the Jim Crow era, Takara is a long time resident of Hawai`i. Retired, she was an Associate Professor at the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa, where she developed and taught courses in African American and African history, politics, literature, and culture. During her tenure, she organized major conferences on a variety of African American, Black Diaspora, and minority issues, inviting national and international scholars to participate. . Takara earned her PhD in Political Science and an MA in French. An instructor of college-level French for over 10 years, she has given poetry readings in Bordeaux, France; Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire; and Niamey, Niger. In May 2017, she traveled to China for the eighth time to lecture and perform her poetry at Qingdao University and Beijing University of Foreign Studies. She has appeared in television programs and documentary films, and has given frequent interviews to publications and the media.