Poetry Centered

Abigail Chabitnoy curates poems that dwell in fields of searching, connecting, and being. She introduces Michael Wasson communing with those who are no longer breathing (“Aposiopesis [or, The Field between the Living & the Dead]”), Jean Valentine considering the moment and its boundaries (“To my soul”), and Saretta Morgan writing into love over many years (“Dearth-light”). To close, Chabitnoy reads her poem “Signs You Are Standing at the End,” which enters its own field of imagining across time.Find the full recordings of Wasson, Valentine, and Morgan reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Michael Wasson (April 27, 2023)Jean Valentine (September 25, 2008)Saretta Morgan (March 28, 2024)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode. Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Diego Báez introduces us to three Gabriels connected by themes of reclamation and new beginnings. He shares Gabriel Dozal approaching the US-Mexico border with humor (“You Look at Crossers, You Look Just Like Them”), Gabriel Palacios unpacking narratives of inheritance and race (“The Friar’s Daughter’s Mother”), and Jimmy Santiago Baca experiencing the birth of his son, Gabriel (“Child of the Sun—Gabriel’s Birth (Sun Prayer)”). Báez closes by reading “Neuropathy with Lamb,” which reflects on his role as a caregiver for his mother.Find the full recordings of Dozal, Palacios, and Baca reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Gabriel Dozal (May 2, 2024)Gabriel Palacios (May 2, 2024)Jimmy Santiago Baca (September 14, 1988)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode. Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Valerie Hsiung selects poems that disorient as they open us to the vital, visceral present. She introduces Roberto Tejada and the poem as a breaking fever (“Kill Time Objective”), Jennifer Elise Foerster as a channel for a multiplicity of lost voices (“Hokkolen: I become the canyon, its dreaming eye”), and Mei-mei Berssenbrugge narrowing the senses to expand what remains (“Slow Down Now”). To close, Hsiung reads from her sequence “a-begging,” her voice responding to the room where she’s recording.Watch the full recordings of Tejada, Foerster, and Berssenbrugge reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Roberto Tejada (January 12, 2023)Jennifer Elise Foerster (April 27, 2023)Mei-mei Berssenbrugge (March 13, 2010)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode. Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Geffrey Davis selects recordings that reveal the bold, risky, and relentless work of attention and connection that poetry undertakes. He shares Lisel Mueller pushing against the limits of human understanding (“What the Dog Perhaps Hears”), Carl Phillips exploring change as more than calamity (“Continuous Until We Stop”), and Ross Gay asserting that pain and grief live alongside gratitude (“Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude”). Davis closes by reading his poem “Inside the Charged Dark,” paying tribute to his mother as the model of inquiry in his life.Find the full recordings of Mueller, Phillips, and Gay reading from the Poetry Center on Voca:Lisel Mueller (October 28, 1981)Carl Phillips (November 1, 2012)Ross Gay (January 19, 2017)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode. Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Vickie Vértiz curates poems that chart a path to a collective future where we can survive crises, connect with others, and see life’s beauty. She introduces Khadijah Queen looking to words as weapons amidst grief (“bloodroot,” “Dear fear…”), Lehua M. Taitano moving through the luminous ocean of time (“Queer Check-Ins”), and Angel Dominguez breaking through the world’s isolation (“What Does the Future Sing to You in Dreams”). Vértiz closes with her poem “Disco,” a celebration of discovery and delight.Watch Suheir Hammad’s “Gaza Suite” from the 2009 Palestine Festival of Literature.Watch the full recordings of Queen, Taitano, and Dominguez reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Khadijah Queen (February 18, 2016) Lehua M. Taitano (July 25, 2019) Angel Dominguez (August 3, 2023)You can also enjoy a recording of Vickie Vértiz reading for the Poetry Center in 2016.Read about the Voca captioning project here. Every recording on Voca now has transcripts and captions—dive in and enjoy!Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode. Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Eugenia Leigh introduces poems that speak from a particular moment into our own time, offering possibility amidst struggle. She shares John Murillo’s engagement with resistance and reality (“Enter the Dragon”), Monica Sok’s truth-telling about genocide (“Tuol Sleng”), and Angel Dominguez’s joyful protest against capitalism. Leigh closes with her poem “This City,” which ends with renewal.Watch the full recordings of Murillo, Sok, and Dominguez reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:John Murillo (April 22, 2021)Monica Sok (February 13, 2020)Angel Dominguez (August 3, 2023)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode. Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Mary Jo Bang brings together poems united by astonishment at the continuation of a world that seems utterly self-destructive. She shares Claudia Rankine on the illusions of American optimism (“Don’t Let Me Be Lonely”), Srikanth Reddy on mortality and teaching literature (“Underworld Lit”), and Timothy Donnelly on the human experience of a polluted world (“In My Life”). She closes with her own “Cosmic Madonna,” an ekphrastic poem inspired by Salvador Dali.Watch the full recordings of Rankine, Reddy, and Donnelly reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Claudia Rankine (October 19, 2005)Srikanth Reddy (November 12, 2015)Timothy Donnelly (October 19, 2023)You can also enjoy a recording of Mary Jo Bang reading for the Poetry Center in 2011.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode. Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Olatunde Osinaike curates poems that meld comedy, cultural scrutiny, and self-imagination. He introduces Patricia Spears Jones clearing a path for desire (“Self-Portrait as Midnight Storm”), Morgan Parker pursuing feeling through description (“Magical Negro #217: Diana Ross Finishing a Rib in Alabama, 1990s”), and Ishmael Reed satirizing wealth and importance (“Sixth Street Corporate War”). Olatunde closes with his own self-identification, “Self-Portrait in Lieu of My EP.”Find the full recordings of Spears Jones, Parker, and Reed reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Patricia Spears Jones (October 21, 2017)Morgan Parker (September 6, 2018)Ishmael Reed (March 29, 1989)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode. Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Sawako Nakayasu selects poems that confront griefs personal and national, told directly and obliquely. She introduces Timothy Liu documenting the atrocities of Japanese imperialism (“A Requiem for the Homeless Spirits”), Daniel Borzutzky’s translation of Raul Zurita witnessing to the brutal crimes of the Chilean dictatorship (“Song for His Disappeared Love”), and Keith Waldrop conjuring a grief-riddled dream landscape (“An Apparatus”). Nakayasu closes with her own “Ant in a silvery tide,” a poem linked to a time of personal grief.Find the full recordings of Liu, Borzutzky, and Waldrop reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Timothy Liu (February 20, 2014)Daniel Borzutzky (January 10, 2019)Keith Waldrop (with Rosmarie Waldrop, March 5, 2011)You can also enjoy three recordings of Nakayasu reading for the Poetry Center in 2007, 2018, and 2023.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode. Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Jake Skeets, a poet and author, discusses the power of Diné language and its cultural resonance. Joined by Rex Lee Jim, who shares his poem "Language," they explore how voice breathes life into identity. Laura Tohe, the Navajo Nation Poet Laureate, adds depth with her rhythmic poems highlighting the sacredness of language. Together, they reflect on the impact of settler colonialism, the role of poetry in connection, and the intricate dance between language and the environment. Skeets wraps up with his own poem on the act of translation.