On this episode of The Poetry Gods, we talk to Willie Perdomo about how he got started writing poetry, The Crazy Bunch, friendships in poetry, and so much more. As always you can reach us at emailthepoetrygods@gmail.com. We love to hear from you, so please drop us a line! Leave us a review on iTunes! Bring us to your college/ local hummus emporium! WILLIE PERDOMO BIO: WILLIE PERDOMO is the author of The Essential Hits of Shorty Bon Bon (Penguin Poets), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and Milton Kessler Poetry Award; winner of the International Latino Book Award, and a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award nominee. He is also the author of Smoking Lovely (Rattapallax), winner of the PEN/Beyond Margins Awards and Where a Nickel Costs a Dime (Norton), a finalist for the Poetry Society of America Norma Farber First Book Award. Perdomo is a Pushcart nominee, two-time New York Foundation for the Arts Poetry Fellow and a former Woolrich Fellow in Creative Writing at Columbia University. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature, Bomb Magazine, and African Voices. He is currently a member of the VONA/Voices faculty and an English Instructor at Phillips Exeter Academy. Follow Willie Perdomo on Instagram & Twitter: @willieperdomo Visit Willie's website: http://willieperdomo.com/ Follow The Poetry Gods on all social media: @_joseolivarez, @azizabarnes/ @azizabarneswriter (IG), @iamjonsands, @thepoetrygods & CHECK OUR WEBSITE: thepoetrygods.com/ (much thanks to José Ortiz for designing the website! shouts to Jess X Snow for making our logo)

On this episode of The Poetry Gods, we talk to Eboni Hogan about courtship: the do's and don'ts, fragile masculinity, poetry, New York City, making the transition from poetry to screenwriting, and so much more. As always you can reach us at emailthepoetrygods@gmail.com. We love to hear from you, so please drop us a line! Leave us a review on iTunes! Bring us to your college/ local hummus emporium! EBONI HOGAN BIO: Eboni Hogan is a Brooklyn-based multi-disciplinary artist who has performed in over 65 U.S. cities, as well as internationally in Ghana, Germany, and Austria. She is the 2012 Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion and a Pushcart Prize nominee. After receiving her training as an actor and playwright from Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, her plays "Foreign Bodies" and "30,000 Teeth" would go on to be featured at The National Black Theater of Harlem, The Living Theater, The Nuyorican Poets Cafe and in The Culture Project's Women Center Stage Festival. The pilot episode of her series "The Pudding Club" is available on YouTube and a new series "Manic-Impressive" as well as a full length horror screenplay, are in development. Eboni currently freelances as a curriculum writer and side-hustles as a textile artist, crafting embroidered works of art. She hasn't received any fellowships, grants, or big-ups from HuffPost, but her kid thinks she's pretty dope. Follow Eboni Hogan on Instagram & Facebook: @ebonihogan & @the_wreckshop (for visual art) Visit Eboni's website: thewreckshoprising.com Follow The Poetry Gods on all social media: @_joseolivarez, @azizabarnes/ @azizabarneswriter (IG), @iamjonsands, @thepoetrygods & CHECK OUR WEBSITE: thepoetrygods.com/ (much thanks to José Ortiz for designing the website! shouts to Jess X Snow for making our logo)

On this episode of The Poetry Gods, we talk to Lauren Whitehead about courting rejection, writing in multiple disciplines, The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, masculinity, & much more. As always you can reach us at emailthepoetrygods@gmail.com. We love to hear from you, so please drop us a line! Leave us a review on iTunes! Bring us to your college/ local hummus emporium! LAUREN WHITEHEAD BIO: Lauren Whitehead is a writer, performer and Master of Fine Arts recipient in Dramaturgy from Columbia University where she was a Schubert Presidential Fellow and an Undergraduate Writing Teaching Fellow. Lauren has written, composed and performed two one-woman musicals. The first, Written in Blues, was presented in the Afro Solo Festival, The Left Coast Leaning Festival at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and at DiverseWorks in Houston, Tx. An excerpt of her second one woman show, A Tribe Called Blessed, debuted at the Women Center Stage Festival (Lynn Redgrave Theater) and was featured at The Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Her first full length play, stunning, still was read at Naked Angels 1st Mondays Play Reading Series after a residency at Vineyard Arts Project and her second full length work, American Courage, was selected for a workshop with Crowded Outlet and will have a reading at Judson Memorial Church in January of 2018. This year, Virtuosically Invisible, her non-fiction prose manuscript was runner up in a book prized judged by Maggie Nelson and her poems have been published in Apogee, Winter Tangerine and Union Station Magazine. Lauren has performed her work in various venues around the country including The Sundance Film Festival and The Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. Lauren was featured on HBO’s documentary, Brave New Voices and this fall, she will originate the role of Un/Sung in Opera Philadelphia’s production of We Shall Not be Moved, a hybrid opera written by Marc Bamuthi Joseph and directed by Bill T. Jones. Prior to that, she played the role of “Zillah” in A Bright Room Called Day (Connelly Theater). As a dramaturg, Lauren has worked in various capacities both inside and outside of the theater. She recently directed How Bodies Reclaim Light (New York Live Arts) and was playwright/adapter of Three Sisters: Tulsa 1921 (The Secret Theater). She was the assistant director of Paradox of the Urban Cliche by Craig “muMs” Grant, the festival dramaturg for The Fire This Time Festival and co-curator of the Conscious Language Festival at The Wild Project. In addition to touring with The Dialogue Arts Project, an organization that uses the arts to facilitate difficult conversations about social identity, Lauren has given a number of lectures and workshops across the country. Most recently, Lauren worked as a research assistant to Oskar Eusits at New York University in partnership with The Public Theater. Currently, Lauren teaches an Advanced Playwriting Lab at The New School and she facilitates a poetry and performance workshop at Juilliard. Follow Lauren Whitehead on Instagram : @lady_whitehead & on Twitter: @ladywhitehead Visit Lauren's website: http://www.laurenawhitehead.com/ Follow The Poetry Gods on all social media: @_joseolivarez, @azizabarnes/ @azizabarneswriter (IG), @iamjonsands, @thepoetrygods & CHECK OUR WEBSITE: thepoetrygods.com/ (much thanks to José Ortiz for designing the website! shouts to Jess X Snow for making our logo)

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 9 of The Poetry Gods! “If we commit to telling particular stories, we need to tell the circumference of them, and not just just the wound.” - Adam Falkner On this episode of The Poetry Gods, we talk to Adam Falkner about The Dialogue Arts Project, Urban Word NYC, writing, teaching, the music video for The One & much more . As always you can reach us at emailthepoetrygods@gmail.com. ADAM FALKNER BIO: Adam Falkner is an artist, educator and consultant. His work has appeared in a range of literary and academic journals, and has also been featured on HBO, NBC, NPR, BET, Upworthy, in the New York Times, and elsewhere. He is the Founder and Executive Director of the pioneering diversity consulting initiative, the Dialogue Arts Project, and Chief Operating Officer of Urban Word NYC, a nationally acclaimed youth literary arts organization. A former high school English teacher in New York City’s public schools, Adam has toured the United States as a guest artist, speaker and consultant, and was the featured performer at President Obama’s Grassroots Ball at the 2009 Presidential Inauguration. He teaches at Columbia University’s Teachers College, where he is an Arthur Zankel Fellow and PhD candidate in the English and Education program. Follow Adam Falkner on Instagram : @adam_falkner Visit Adam's website: http://www.adamfalknerarts.com/ Follow The Poetry Gods on all social media: @_joseolivarez, @azizabarnes/ @azizabarneswriter (IG), @iamjonsands, @thepoetrygods & CHECK OUR WEBSITE: thepoetrygods.com/ (much thanks to José Ortiz for designing the website! shouts to Jess X Snow for making our logo)

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 8 of The Poetry Gods! We realized many of the poetry podcasts we listened to were wildly dull. Hyper self-serious, self-agrandizing, and totally exclusive to high academic circles. That’s not the way the three of us know or love poetry. It’s also not the way any of our homies and idols dig into this craft. Poets are fucking hilarious. Joyful and absurd, with stories for days. We hear them at the bar, during their banter at the reading. We wanted to hear it in a podcast. So we made one. On this episode of The Poetry Gods, we talk to John Manuel Arias about Costa Rica, writing a book, and much, much more. As always you can reach us at emailthepoetrygods@gmail.com. JOHN MANUEL ARIAS BIO: John Manuel Arias is a gay, first generation Costa Rican/Uruguayan poet and crepe-maker raised in a DC ghetto when it was the murder capital. His poems have appeared in the James Franco Review, Rogue Agent Journal, Red Paint Hill, the After Happy Hour Review and others. His debut collection of poetry, “¡I’D RATHER SINK–!” is forthcoming from Red Paint Hill Publishing. He currently lives in San José, Costa Rica with his grandmother and four ghosts. Follow John Manuel Arias on Instagram : @latinfishdrama Follow The Poetry Gods on all social media: @_joseolivarez, @azizabarnes/ @azizabarneswriter (IG), @iamjonsands, @thepoetrygods & CHECK OUR WEBSITE: thepoetrygods.com/ (much thanks to José Ortiz for designing the website! shouts to Jess X Snow for making our logo)

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 7 of The Poetry Gods! We realized many of the poetry podcasts we listened to were wildly dull. Hyper self-serious, self-agrandizing, and totally exclusive to high academic circles. That’s not the way the three of us know or love poetry. It’s also not the way any of our homies and idols dig into this craft. Poets are fucking hilarious. Joyful and absurd, with stories for days. We hear them at the bar, during their banter at the reading. We wanted to hear it in a podcast. So we made one. On this episode of The Poetry Gods, we talk to Nicole Shanté about writing her debut choreopoem "another goddamn lesbian movie" SHOWING FRIDAY JUNE 30th: 8PM - 9:30PM Downtown Art 70 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003. If you are in NYC, go see the show. Check out the episode and let us know what you think. As always you can reach us at emailthepoetrygods@gmail.com. NICOLE SHANTÉ BIO: nicole shanté is definitely the quiet one yo mama warned you about. Currently residing in Brooklyn, this cluster of Midwest accents and Southern hospitality writes, dances, and teaches from a black queer womanist lens. The choreopoet is a recipient of fellowships from Poets House, Willow Arts Alliance, The Poetry Project, & Cave Canem. She was also a contributing staff writer for Sula Collective and a Writer-in-Performance at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center. Brooklyn Arts Council awarded her a 2017 Local Arts Grant to write, produce, direct, & choreograph another goddamn lesbian movie / a choreopoem. She will be entering the University of Pittsburgh’s MFA Poetry program on full scholarship this fall. She believes Gucci Mane is the hood’s Shakespeare, yellow is your favorite color's favorite color, and ice cream > _________________. Follow Nicole Shanté on Instagram : @nikkibadapples Visit her website: https://www.nicoleshantewhite.org/ Follow The Poetry Gods on all social media: @_joseolivarez, @azizabarnes/ @azizabarneswriter (IG), @iamjonsands, @thepoetrygods & CHECK OUR WEBSITE: thepoetrygods.com/ (much thanks to José Ortiz for designing the website! shouts to Jess X Snow for making our logo)

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 6 of The Poetry Gods! We realized many of the poetry podcasts we listened to were wildly dull. Hyper self-serious, self-agrandizing, and totally exclusive to high academic circles. That’s not the way the three of us know or love poetry. It’s also not the way any of our homies and idols dig into this craft. Poets are fucking hilarious. Joyful and absurd, with stories for days. We hear them at the bar, during their banter at the reading. We wanted to hear it in a podcast. So we made one. On this episode of The Poetry Gods, we talk to Desiree C. Bailey about writing in different genres & so much more. Check out the episode and let us know what you think. As always you can reach us at emailthepoetrygods@gmail.com. DESIREE C. BAILEY BIO: Desiree C. Bailey is a poet, writer and educator. She has a BA from Georgetown University and MFA from Brown University. She has received fellowships from the Poets House, Kimbilio Fiction, The Conversation, the Norman Mailer Center, Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop and Princeton in Africa. She is also a recipient of the 2013 Poets and Writer's Amy Award. Her work is published in Best American Poetry, Callaloo, Transition, The Collagist and Muzzle, among other publications. She is currently the fiction editor at Kinfolks Quarterly. Desiree was born in Trinidad and Tobago and at a young age, moved with her family to a pre-dominantly Caribbean community in Queens, NY. She has lived in Cape Town, South Africa, working at an education reform organization by day and co-hosting an open mic/performance series at a jazz bar at night. She has also lived in Washington, DC and Providence, RI. She currently teaches English at CUNY's Borough of Manhattan Community College. Of her poem "A Retrograde" she writes: "This poem rose up out of the histories, experiences, and ideas to which I constantly return: the maroon communities of the Caribbean and Brazil that challenged the dominance of the plantation slavery system, the psychic trauma of a severed lineage, the historical violence that often resides in beautiful landscapes, the passing down of folklore, rites, and ways seeing, the ocean as a mother, the ocean as a city of ancestors or as a balm. I pose questions in this poem: Is the liberation of the body tied to the liberation of the land? What happens to the mind when the land is warped? And vice versa? What are the consequences of cultural amnesia? How do we close the distance between the past and the present? How can we open multiple ways of seeing?" These currents of thought run through much of Desiree's poetry and fiction, and guides her steps through the everyday. Follow Desiree C. Bailey on Twitter : @desireecbailey on Instagram: @desireecarla Follow The Poetry Gods on all social media: @_joseolivarez, @azizabarnes/ @azizabarneswriter (IG), @iamjonsands, @thepoetrygods & CHECK OUR WEBSITE: thepoetrygods.com/ (much thanks to José Ortiz for designing the website! shouts to Jess X Snow for making our logo)

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 5 of The Poetry Gods! On this episode of The Poetry Gods, we talk to Aracelis Girmay about poetry, wolves, and more. Check out the episode and let us know what you think. As always you can reach us at emailthepoetrygods@gmail.com. ARACELIS GIRMAY BIO: Born and raised in Santa Ana, California, poet Aracelis Girmay earned a BA at Connecticut College and an MFA from New York University. Her poems trace the connections of transformation and loss across cities and bodies. In her 2011 online chat interview with the Rumpus Poetry Book Club, Girmay discussed innovative and hybrid poetric forms, stating, “I wonder what new explorations of form might have to do with documenting the new and old ways of thinking about power. Of how we’ve been taught to think by our families, institutions, television, computer culture, etc. [….] Perhaps the so-called hybrid poems are about dislocating or splintering the central lens.” Her poetry collections include Teeth (2007), Kingdom Animalia (2011), and The Black Maria (2016), named a “Top Poetry Pick” by Publisher's Weekly, O Magazine, and Library Journal. She is also the author of the collage-based picture book changing, changing (2005). In 2011 Girmay was awarded a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and in 2015 she received a Whiting Award for Poetry. A Cave Canem Fellow and an Acentos board member, she led youth and community writing workshops. She currently teaches at Hampshire College. She lives in New York City. Follow Aracelis Girmay on Twitter : @aracelisxgirmay Follow The Poetry Gods on all social media: @_joseolivarez, @azizabarnes, @iamjonsands, @thepoetrygods & CHECK OUR WEBSITE: thepoetrygods.com/ (much thanks to José Ortiz for designing the website! shouts to Jess X Snow for making our logo)

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 4 of The Poetry Gods! On this episode of The Poetry Gods, we talk to 2016 Poets House Emerging Fellow and one of the co-founders of Project X, Noel Quiñones! We talk about Ice-T, Soulja Boy, poetry, community, and so much more! Check out the episode and let us know what you think. As always you can reach us at emailthepoetrygods@gmail.com. NOEL QUIÑONES BIO: Noel Quiñones is a writer, performer, and educator raised in the Bronx. A CantoMundo, Brooklyn Poets, and Emerging Poets Fellow at Poets House, he was most recently a member of the 2016 Bowery Poetry Slam team. He has performed at historic locations such as Lincoln Center, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and Apples and Snakes - London. His work has appeared in The Acentos Review, Pilgrimage Press, Kweli Journal, and Asymptote. Follow him @NQNino322 Follow Noel Quiñones on Twitter and Instagram: @NQNino322 Follow The Poetry Gods on all social media: @_joseolivarez, @azizabarnes, @iamjonsands, @thepoetrygods & CHECK OUR WEBSITE: thepoetrygods.com/ (much thanks to José Ortiz for designing the website! shouts to Jess X Snow for making our logo)

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 3 of The Poetry Gods! On this episode of The Poetry Gods, we talk to one of our favorite poets and people, Patricia Smith live from Vassar College about experiencing setbacks on the path forward, what community means, Prince, & more. Check out the episode and let us know what you think. As always you can reach us at emailthepoetrygods@gmail.com. PATRICIA SMITH BIO: Patricia Smith has been called “a testament to the power of words to change lives.” She is the author of seven books of poetry, including Incendiary Art (2017); Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah (2012), which won the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets; Blood Dazzler (2008), a chronicle of the human and environmental cost of Hurricane Katrina which was nominated for a National Book Award; and Teahouse of the Almighty, a 2005 National Poetry Series selection published by Coffee House Press. Her work has appeared in Poetry, the Paris Review, the New York Times, TriQuarterly, Tin House, The Washington Post, and in both Best American Poetry and Best American Essays. Her contribution to the crime fiction anthology Staten Island Noir, which she edited, won the Robert L. Fish Award from the Mystery Writers of America for the best debut story of the year and was chosen for Best American Mystery Stories 2013. Smith also penned the critically acclaimed history Africans in America (1999) and the award-winning children’s book Janna and the Kings (2003). She is a 2014 Guggenheim fellow, a 2012 fellow at both MacDowell and Yaddo, a two-time Pushcart Prize winner, recipient of a Lannan fellowship and a four-time individual champion of the National Poetry Slam, the most successful poet in the competition’s history. She is currently working on a biography of Harriet Tubman, a poetry volume combining text and 19th century African-American photos, and a collaborative novel with her husband Bruce DeSilva, the Edgar-Award winning author of the Liam Mulligan crime novels. Follow Patricia Smith on Twitter and Instagram: @pswordwoman Follow The Poetry Gods on all social media: @_joseolivarez, @azizabarnes, @iamjonsands, @thepoetrygods & CHECK OUR WEBSITE: thepoetrygods.com/ (much thanks to José Ortiz for designing the website! shouts to Jess X Snow for making our logo)