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This week, Brittany and Ajanae talk with guest Naomi Shihab Nye about the joy and wonder of youth, poets as vessels, editing as an act of devotion, and the complexity of becoming multiple selves over the course of a lifetime. Join them as they process the possibilities that can emerge over a lifetime of being immersed in poetry. Until Next Time Here are some pieces of media to accompany your experience of the episode, and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again! Carl Sandburg: Carl Sandburg- Poet of the People Mahmoud Darwish: To a Young Poet by Mahmoud Darwish | Poetry Magazine E.B white: All nearness pauses while a star can grow Prompt: Create a map. Make each plot point a past, current or future version of yourself. What is significant about each location?

On this week’s episode, Brittany and Ajanae continue their mini tour of the South in Houston, Texas. Next, they talk with Texas Poet Laureate Lupe Mendez about familial responsibility, masculinity, education, and the preservation of memory.  Until Next Time: Here are some pieces of media to accompany your experience of the episode, and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again! José Alfredo Jiménez - El Ultimo Trago Janet Jackson - Rhythm Nation Sylvia Plath - Daddy Prompt: Write a singular moment or story from three separate generations of your family. The stories do not have to have any obvious connection.

On this week’s episode, Brittany and Ajanae travel to Houston, Texas for the first interview of their (mini) South tour. There, they talk with Joy Priest about landscape, road trips, the process of creating, putting together a collection, and what happens when Blackness meets theory. Until Next Time:  Here are some pieces of media to accompany your experience of the episode, and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again! Read: Sharon Olds - “The Unborn” “After Making Love in Winter”  Patricia Smith - “When Burning Begins”  Terrence Hayes - “American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assasin”  Prompt: Write your own theory of living. Consider: What things must be present for you to feel sustained? What truths ground you? What are the facts that make you possible? 

In this episode, Wes reflects on his transition from being a youth to adulthood as it relates to the poetry scene, level of empathy, and approach to wonder.

In today’s episode, Kemi Alabi talks about poetic practice, pleasure, and play as it presents in their collection Against Heaven, winner of the Academy of American Poets First Book Award (Graywolf, 2022). In this conversation, they discuss the relationship between the secular and profane, subverting and breaking language, and the importance of embracing grief and the emotional body. Kemi will be reading at the Poetry Foundation on Dec 8th, 2022 – more info below!

Remica Bingham-Risher’s reverence for love and relationship is tangible in her work. The author of Soul Culture, Starlight & Error, What We Ask of Flesh, and Conversion talks with Brittany and Ajanaé about the necessity of Black women curating the archive and the value of interiority.

Franny and Danez grace us with insight on being grown and dreaming toward the future. These former VS hosts talk with Brittany and Ajanaé about the way sobriety, domesticity, and clarity about their identities as writers is shaping their lives. 

In October of 1871, the oldest University in Nashville TN, teetered on the brink of collapse. To survive, Fisk University staked its last $40 on a set of field hymns and 10 descendants of American slavery. The singing group carried melodies their families shared in secret from the cotton fields of middle Tennessee to the high court of the Queen of England. The landmark tours of the Fisk Jubilee Singers rescued a university, gave Nashville its identity, and set the course of American music.  One hundred fifty years later the journey of the Fisk Jubilee Singers continues. Immerse yourself in the music and voices of the original chorus and hear how their stories are transformed through poetry in this one-hour special “Three Castles and the Music City.” Produced in partnership with Nashville Public Radio [WPLN] Hosted by: Destiny Birdsong Co-Written and Produced by: Joshua Moore and Colleen Phelps Editing by: Anita Bugg Transcription by: Ayinde Jean-Baptiste Poets: Destiny Birdsong Ciona Rouse Bryan Byrdlong

All The Apostles are Black, All the Saints Queer, and All of Them Are Brave: towards a queer canon (Pt.2)  Hello, hi Beloveds! Welcome back to the second installment of our Roll Call episode. We are your hosts, Kopano Maroga and Maneo Mohale, and we are sluts for history and sluts for discourse and are going to be picking the brains of our fabulous guests Koleka Putuma (featured in part 1) and Nakhane (featured in part 2) speaking all things blackness, South Africanness, craft, microaggressions, white twinks and black queer ancestors. We are joined in these episodes by voicenote interludes from black, queer South African artists Gugulethu Duma (aka Dumama who opens and closes the show), Lindiwe Mngxitama and Kneo Mokgopa. Special thanks to our magnificent producer, Maia McDonald, and our generous mentors, Danez Smith and Jenna Wortham, for holding space for us and holding our hands through the process.  Big, black, slutty love! Maneo & Kopano Hosted by: Kopano Maroga and Maneo Mohale Featuring: Nakhane, Kneo Mokgopa, and Gugulethu Duma Produced by: Maia McDonald