VS

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Recorded back before COVID-19 sent the VS team home to different corners of the country, Franny and Danez sat down with poet Paige Lewis for a good ole fashioned in-person chat. Paige breaks down Beta Fish, the nonbinary epic they’re writing, the power of focusing on the micro, and more.  NOTE: Make sure you rate us on Apple Podcasts and write us a review! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You’ve just enrolled in one of the best classes anyone could ever take. This week’s guest, Chris Abani, is a master teacher, poet, screenwriter, and thinker who is ready to help you understand, even if the process kicks your butt a little. In this marathon episode recorded before the pandemic descended, Chris talks about the ways our languages shape our understanding of time and space, how the stories of his childhood in Nigeria inform his tongue, the dilemma of writing something important, and much more. Enjoy the lil bit of extra VS in this jumbo-sized episode! NOTE: Make sure you rate us on Apple Podcasts and write us a review!   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Y’all are some good-ass writers! When we put out the call for poems in response to our prompts, we didn’t know we were going to get such a wonderful collection of pieces from you beautiful listeners. We couldn’t include them all in Episode 6, so we put together a special listener-only episode full of your work. Enjoy what your podpeople have created! Listener poems in this episode: “Untitled poem for the apocalypse” by Angelina Mazza “What we need right now” by Anneka Hooft “Independence Song” by Belinda Munyeza “Hell’s Kitchen” by Bobby Larson “Taxidermied Peacock” by Bri Marino “Dispensed With” by Ciel “A Reminder From This World” by Haru Matsuura “Untitled” by Irene Vazquez “The Gathering” by Isobel Rutherford “A poem by a half-finished painting in my living room” by Jake Pruitt “Girl in Isolation” by Jireh Deng “How many different shades of blue” by Latifa Akay “The Coffee Table Speaks During Quarantine” by Mehrnoosh Torbatnejad “april, 2020” by Mina Yu “My imagination decides the size of my fear” by Nicole Arocho Hernandez “The Analog Who Broke the Camel’s Lap-top” by Carlos Pittella “Voicemail No. 47” by Quentin Felton “The Stovetop Misses Talking Shit” by Raji Ganesan “Invisible Speaker - Garden Mouse” by Oluwaseun Olayiwola “In the World Right Now” by Tiffany Wong-Jones “Instructions for a Contemporary Pastoral” by torrin a. greathouse NOTE: Make sure you rate us on Apple Podcasts and write us a review! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On this #VSfromHome episode, Danez and Franny dip into a chock-full mailbag full of your wonderful questions! Plus, we hear seven poems that listeners wrote and submitted in response to the prompts that Danez and Franny shared two episodes ago. Want more poems? Then check out the special episode released alongside this one, which features a cornucopia of listener-submitted poems that Franny and Danez selected. Listener poems in this episode: “On the Street Marked ‘Dead End’” by Christopher Crowder “Hold Me by the Stem” by Dante Clark “The Duvet Whispers to the Sex Swing” by Nova Cyprus Black “Things I Didn’t Know I Loved” by Fatima Malik “Untitled” by Simon Crow “What my dresser misses” by Lindsay Stewart NOTE: Make sure you rate us on Apple Podcasts and write us a review! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Tara Betts is on a mission to be herself. The poet, editor, and professor comes through to talk about celebrating your people, her relationship with wearing the mask of respectability, the economic challenges of working as a poet, and much more.  NOTE: Make sure you rate us on Apple Podcasts and write us a review! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, turns out the world can turn upside down. In the midst of social isolation and self-isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Franny and Danez tapped in from their homes in Massachusetts and Minneapolis, respectively, to talk about how they’re processing the absurd and unsettling time, what isolation has taught them, and the role of artistry in this crisis. Plus, they each read a new poem, send out a call for mailbag questions, and share some WRITING PROMPTS FOR Y’ALL! PLEASE share your questions for the hosts and the poems that you write to the prompts with us by emailing a voice memo recording of you reading your poem to vsthepodcast@gmail.com, so we can include them in next month’s VS episode! NOTE: Make sure you rate us on Apple Podcasts and write us a review! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Aricka Foreman is going deep. The formerly aspiring marine biologist and current excellent poet talks about her love of the ocean, her new collection Salt Body Shimmer, how she digs into the emotional depths and then pulls herself back out, and much more. NOTE: Make sure you rate us on Apple Podcasts and write us a review Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It’s Toaster Time! This week’s guest, Toaster Henderson, is a poet, teaching artist at Young Chicago Authors, and cofounder of Big Kid Slam, an all-ages slam in Chicago that’s subverting the form’s expectations and carving some really great space for poets age 18-21. The squad talks about what makes Big Kid Slam so special, the links between zoos and schools and prisons, bringing his focus to the page, and much more. Plus, we debut a BRAND NEW GAME! Follow Toaster:  https://www.instagram.com/toastersmodernlife/ Check out Big Kid Slam:  http://instagram.com/bigkidslam Poems Read: Transit by Toaster Circus by Toaster NOTE: Make sure you rate us on Apple Podcasts and write us a review! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Season 4, y’all! Danez and Franny kick off the new year with Parneshia Jones. Parneshia is the author of Vessel, and serves as Editorial Director for Trade and Engagement at Northwestern University Press. They talk about the unique potential of art-making in this moment, the space she intentionally carves for Black women in the publishing world, the majesty of the front porch, and much more. Plus, a brand new unpublished poem! Poems read by Parneshia: 2020, The Day After Resurrection Under the Moon NOTE: Make sure you rate us on Apple Podcasts and write us a review! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.