I had the pleasure of attending a workshop given by Ms. Derracoite about three years ago. She is a gifted writer and I learned to appreciate poetry and how it relates to writing prose under her tutelage. She is also a co-founder of Cave Canem, a retreat for black poets. I recommend her memoir, The Black Notes Book: An Interior Journey. I have a review of it on Amazon.com.

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Notebooks-Interior-Journey/dp/0393319016/sr=1-1/qid=1158210440/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-5999161-5260624?ie=UTF8&s=books