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Natonya Janee' Lambert was born Sept 16th 1981 at Hannaman hospital in Philadelphia PA. Natonya is also known as Tony, Tonya, and Nate to her close friends and family. She was raised in Willingboro NJ, a small city/suburb in south Jersey. She was brought up in a loving home with her two parents, one brother, and one sister. Her pride and joy has been and will always be within her family. Natonya has been very active throughout her life. Some of her activities included dance (13 years plus) and Track & Field (7 years). She recently began dancing again for Afro One dance and Drama Studio where her study is in West African dance. She also attends Altrium dance studio for belly dancing. Natonya went to Hampton University right out of high school. After overcoming several obstacles, she obtained a degree in business management. In college, she joined the NAACP and has been a member ever since. Natonya Lambert always had a love for the arts. She has always enjoyed the theater, black art, dance, and poetry. Though she always loved to read poetry and listen to spoken word, Natonya did not begin to really write until she was in college. She always had difficulty expressing herself verbally so she began to write. Now she feels that the heart of her soul is in her poetry. To understand her, you must understand her words. It is her release on the world. It is her healing and hopefully her words will heal others.

Born in Henry County, Virginia, on 6 February 1882, Annie Bethel Bannister was the only child of Joel Cephus Bannister and Sarah Louise Scales. After her tumultuous marriage ended, Sarah took Annie to Bramwell, West Virginia; subsequently, Sarah's financial exigencies forced her to place Annie in the home of William T. Dixie, an upstanding member of the black community. Reading dime-store novels and newspapers taught the precocious youngster about the power of language. While she was illiterate herself, Sarah Scales sent Anne to the Virginia Seminary in Lynchburg, and she graduated in 1899. This period was also significant because Anne met classmate Edward Spencer. The couple married on 15 May 1901 and had three children.

Jean Toomer's family was not typical of migrating African-Americans settling in the North, or fleeing the South. Each of his maternal grandparents were born of a caucasian father. But a "speck of Black makes you Black."