Roy Kahn Johnston

Roy Kahn Johnston was born in 1938 in New York City. He moved to Southern California at the age of four and was educated in the Torrance Public Schools. He attended the Wiesbaden Conservatory in Germany, graduated with a Master's degree in Clarinet Performance from the Juilli ard School in New York City, and earned a Doctorate degree from the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles. His musical career included the Atlanta Symphony, New York Ballet, Woody Herman, Glenn Miller, and Tommy Dorsey Bands. He served as Dean of the Boston Conservatory and Associate Dean of the University of Southern Mississippi School of Fine Arts.

As a child he wrote poetry, later completed the poetry requirements for the USC Master of Professional Writing Program, and studied poetry at the Charles University in the Czech Republic and the William Joiner Center for War and Its Social Consequences at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. He is published in Senses Magazine (Sacramento, CA); The Tribune, Big City Lit, New York City, New Times (San Luis Obispo, CA); Solo Café Anthology (Carpenteria, CA); and War, Literature & the Arts (Colorado Springs, CO). His books include The Wandering Circle, The System Is Broken, Seeds of Tolerance, Kenosis, San Luis Obispo, and Dissonance and Consonance.

He has been a featured reader at the University of Oregon Portland campus; Nahargarth Palace, Madhopur, India; Annenberg Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania; Beyond Baroque, Venice, CA; People's Republic of China, Galaxy II, Yangtze Cruise; and the San Luis Obispo Poetry Festivals. He was recognized by the City of Los Angeles for his 35 years of honorable service as "Performer, Professor, Poet, and Pioneer in the field of 'cultural integration.'"

Roy has hosted noted poets and authors on his program "Cerebral Meditations" which you can find at www.blogtalkradio.com/onward.

Butterflying Lilies

Hanging from a Spider Thread

Leadership

The Northern Country