Lee Matthew Goldberg is an awesome fiction writer and screenwriter hailing from NYC.  Listen to us discuss his new book, "The Ancestor", learn what led him to writing, how he starts his novels, & find out some of his inspirations & processes!

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com

http://leematthewgoldberg.com

Order your copy here:  https://downandoutbooks.com/bookstore/goldberg-ancestor/

BIO:  Lee Matthew Goldberg is the author of the novels THE ANCESTOR, THE MENTOR, THE DESIRE CARD, and SLOW DOWN. He has been published in multiple languages and nominated for the 2018 Prix du Polar. ORANGE CITY is forthcoming in 2021. After graduating with an MFA from the New School, his writing has also appeared in The Millions, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, LitReactor, Monkeybicycle, Fiction Writers Review, Cagibi, the anthology Dirty Boulevard, The Montreal Review, The Adirondack Review, The New Plains Review, Underwood Press and others. He is the editor-in-chief and co-founder of Fringe, dedicated to publishing fiction that’s outside-of-the-box. His pilots and screenplays have been finalists in Script Pipeline, Book Pipeline, Stage 32, We Screenplay, the New York Screenplay, Screencraft, and the Hollywood Screenplay contests. He is the co-curator of The Guerrilla Lit Reading Series and lives in New York City.

Listen to poet, John Compton, read his poetry and discuss his journey into writing poetry, publishing, and connecting with industry folks!

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com

https://www.facebook.com/josh.compton.12914

Bio:  John Compton (formerly John Thompson) is a 33-year-old gay poet who lives in Kentucky. His poetry resides in his chest like many hearts & they bloom like vigorously infectious wild flowers. He has published 1 book and 5 chapbooks: "trainride elsewhere" (August 2016/TBA) from Pressed Wafer/Rouge Wolf Press; "that moan like a saxophone" (December 2016); Ampersand (March 2019) from Plan B Press; "a child growing wild inside the mothering womb" (June 2020) from Ghost City Press; "burning his matchstick fingers his hair went up like a wick" (Fall), From Dark Heart Press, "to wash all the pretty things off my skin" (end of 2021) from Ethel Zine & Micro-Press. Compton has been published in numerous magazines and anthologies.

https://ghostcitypress.com/2020-summer-series/a-child-growing-wild-inside-the-mothering-womb

https://www.planbpress.com/store/p56/ampersand_by_john_thompson.html

https://www.amazon.com/that-moan-like-saxophone-thompson-ebook/dp/B01NBP6JL3

winter poem

mouth open letting snow cover my burial plot of words

& fingers too cold to dig the tongue out: frozen corpse,

the stature of teeth chirping a ruptured poem

we seeded him holy

you'll find him in a chair sequenced

gay is vandalism

we used white rags & smoke to purify him

to bleach the sin, to poach the black resin from the heart-skin to bring him right by rules of man

his arms & ankles tied    crosswise the naked body a rosary         bead tucked in each wound

how we bury fish

motionless in my womb... i remembered my fish - i was eight. it was floating belly up.

i tapped on my stomach as a mother – a little girl trying to tap her fish from sleep.

i gave birth to a stillborn. my father explained to me how we bury fish: i heard the toilet flush behind my sobbing.

John Compton Book Launch and Open Mic with Redheaded Stepchild

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IlBdFVBCcE

Yay!  The 60th episode.  How surreal.  I introduce to you Clinnesha D. Sibley, a writer & playwright with many publications and theatrical productions under her belt.  Hear us discuss her process, her advice to writers, & what creative projects she's working on now. 

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com

http://thewriteaddiction.com

A Love Letter to Ntozake

You played with Barbies and watched as little boys gawked at Cindy Crawford in a

Pepsi commercial.

Your teacher suggested The Babysitters Club, “Kristy’s Great Idea” for your book

project because it was heartwarming, not um…controversial… like The Bluest Eye.

You watched The Cosby Show and knew you wanted to be that kind of black.

You were eating grandma’s field peas and okra when you got your period.

Mama was workin. Stayed workin.

Your body changed immediately and grandma gave you a girdle.

Same kind of girdle she gave your mama.

You stayed lookin in the mirror hoping your ass would catch up to your chest and hips.

It never did, not on its own.

Sophomore year, he let you wear his letterman.

It was warm and smelled like November.

He never let anyone but you wear his letterman.

He told you he loved you.

You didn’t know a man could ever do that.

He would take back the number 7 when y’all hated one another.

Back and forth, the jacket began to smell less like autumn and more like alcohol and

meat.

///

You were in the McDonald’s bathroom when you got one line and a faint.

You cried into your chicken nuggets.

You told your best friend and her mama who’s cool.

Then, cool mama told you ’bout Mrs. Poole…

He said he would come, too.

He lied.

But he brought you somethin to eat afterwards.

///

You left home after graduation.

Your mama had to work graduation day, and the day you moved away.

Grandma put a rolled up one hundred dollar bill in your hand for gas money and

groceries.

You got a job on campus.

He needed money and you would take care…he hated that you could do that.

You hated going home, and seeing him reminded you of how much you hated yourself.

So, you changed your look.

You found a college best friend who got you into places you were too young to be in.

She’s better than your old best friend who’s been actin real funny.

You hate her cuz you hate you.

And she hate you cause of that thing with him.

You say she pulls you down every time you get elevated.

But you high more than you elevated.

(High, drunk people don’t keep their scholarships.)

Your school daze become filled with nights you don’t remember.

And now, you goin back home.

At least you tried.

One day, you’re gonna finish.

///

Friend was like, I told you.

You had white liquor in you that night, and you fought her.

You looked at yourself in the McDonald’s bathroom mirror and didn’t like the

scratches, or your nose, your eyes, what the perm did to your hair, your dark skin, or

the fact that you flunked out of college.

Maybe your mama waz right when she called you a dumb ho; that was before she got

in bed with her best friend’s man.

You hate everything about yourself, and your mama’s probably right about you bein a

dumb ho, so…

You sleep with him again.

He tightens his sweaty palm around your heart.

You remember the baby.

This time, you won’t need Mrs. Poole.

///

Two healthy babies later, you’ve changed your look again.

People wonder what’s different.

They don’t wonder what your new hurt is. They just know you’ve got babies by him,

and so does your best friend.

But you’re the main one cuz he looks at you just like the boys looked at Cindy

Crawford.

You haven’t seen him since y’all got into it at his mama’s house.

You’ve been texting her cause she helps you understand him more…she cares about

you more than your own mama…more than your best friend, who loves him, too.

You finally talk to your mama about him, and she hugs you. Apologizes and says things

can only get worst.

///

His mama said he’s becoming like his daddy.

You realize that absent in one place means present in another.

There’s a new woman…

You consider going back to school.

You re-apply and get in.

He sees you trying to move on without him, and it gets really bad really fast, like your

mama said.

You pray, cause every time your grandma prayed, things got better, and people would

even come back Home.

You didn’t confirm with admissions, but you keep a record of dreams in a spiral

notebook.

///

You were working part time at the library when you came across for colored girls who

consider suicide when the rainbow is enuf in the return vault.

You experienced it and realized somebody was missing what you were missing. You

realize that you were born with the capacity to love yourself, and that changes the way

you look at your daughters.

--------------------------------------------------

BIO:  Clinnesha Sibley, a native of McComb, Mississippi, is a published author, community leader, and educator. She promotes creative-mindedness—believing that visual, performing, and literary arts can change the way we think about some of life’s most important questions. A writer of plays, poetry, prose, essays and creative non-fiction, Clinnesha has received numerous awards including the Holland New Voices Award, the Arkansas Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship, and the Mississippi Theatre Association Adult Playwriting Award.  Her writing has also appeared in national literary journals, anthologies, and various publications and anthologies including Feels Blind Literary, Quince Magazine, In Full Color, Black Masks Magazine, and Muzzle Magazine.

Clinnesha committed to training exclusively as a playwright while attending Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi. As an Interdisciplinary Career Oriented Humanities major, she learned to focus inward—exploring identity, psyche, and the human condition. It was at this historically black college that Clinnesha also learned the connection between social activism and artistic practice. She received her M.F.A. in Theatre (Playwriting) from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville becoming the first African-American to earn such a degree from that institution. Her plays have been called feminist, protest, political, southern, and circular.

After teaching on the college/university level for many years, Clinnesha decided to move into secondary residential education, and is currently the Literary Arts Instructor at Mississippi School of the Arts where she teaches young writers to become socially-engaged artists. Clinnesha is married to her high school sweetheart, Keith Sibley, and they have three children: Kaylee, Karlee, and Keith Jr.

Dominique M. Carson has interviewed over 100 notable figures in entertainment.  Listen to us discuss how she became a journalist for major publications and author of two biographies as well as how message therapy has sustained her while she continued to pursue her artistic goals.

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com

http://dominiquecarson.contently.com

BIO: Dominique M. Carson is a freelance journalist, researcher, massage therapist, reporter and author. Carson's work has been featured in several publications including Ebony.com, The Grio, NBC News, Singersroom.com, Soultrain.com, Education Update, and Brooklyn news media outlets. She interviewed over 100 notable figures in entertainment such as Charlie Wilson, Regina Belle, Patti Labelle, Kirk Franklin, and many more. She also collaborated with Brooklyn historian and journalist, Suzanne Spellen and launched a 118 page journal on Lefferts Manor, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, and is releasing a biography on an R&B musician this fall while her first book is going through some legalities.

Listen to this week's featured guest, poet, Angela M. Brommel.  We discuss her influence & her new poetry collection, "Mojave in July". We also talk about her past & current projects supporting the art & literary community as an art curator & Editor-in-Chief at the Citron Review.

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com

http://tolsunbooks.com/shop/mojave-in-july-pre-order

Mojave in July

by Angela M. Brommel

You can’t explain to friends from home how the desert makes it better, but you try:

Imagine a heat so dry that it presses down into the earth, releasing its scent so that it takes on the comforting smell of clay pots in your grandmother’s kitchen when you were a child, or your hideout under the evergreens where you used to sit for hours smelling only the dirt, the sap, the pine. Imagine a smell that reminds you of the kitchen on holidays: sage, rosemary, and something you chase that is reminiscent of honey, but feels like love. Some people still fight it. They call the heat oppressive, they call it unrelenting. They have not learned how to live within it.

You must learn to smell the water beneath the surface. You must learn to let the heat pass through you, warming your bones, your ligaments, and all the pieces that you call you. Let the heat draw out everything unneeded. Let it put you to bed midday. Let it make you new.

---

Images/Angela M. Brommel Book cover image art/Su Limbert

---

BIO: Angela M. Brommel is a Nevada writer with Iowa roots. In 2018, her chapbook, Plutonium & Platinum Blonde, was published by Serving House Books. Her poetry has been published in The Best American Poetry blog, The North American Review, The Literary Review’s (TLR) Share, and many other journals and anthologies. A 2018 Red Rock Canyon Artist in Residence, Angela served as the inaugural poet of the program. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University and an MA in Theatre from the University of Northern Iowa. Mojave in July is her debut full-length poetry collection. Angela is the Executive Director of the Office of Arts & Culture as well as affiliate faculty in Humanities at Nevada State College. You can also find her at The Citron Review as Editor-in-Chief.

Gay Majure Wilson wrote a biography on the suffragist, Sue Shelton White, entitled: "Some Woman Had to Fight: The Radical Life of Sue Shelton White".  Listen to us discuss Gay's story on how she started writing and how she decided to write Sue Shelton White's biography.

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

https://www.amazon.com/Some-Woman-Had-Fight-Radical-ebook/dp/B0859NBB58

BIO: Gay Majure Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and has worked as a writer, editor and project manager in software development and investment banking in Dallas, New York and London. She earned a master’s degree in family and consumer sciences from the University of Tennessee at Martin and is now an author and registered dietitian in Jackson, Tennessee.

Book Synopsis Some Woman Had to Fight: The Radical Life of Sue Shelton WhiteThis biography explores the personal, political and professional life of Sue Shelton White, a militant suffragist, pioneering Tennessee lawyer and vocal leader in the controversial protests and tireless lobbying campaign for ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, granting women their equal right to vote 100 years ago.

 gaymwilson@gmail.com

Check out Susana H. Case!  She is a NYC poet & a sociology professor at New York Institute of Technology.  Listen to us discuss how her academic work and poetics intersects & where she gets her ideas!

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

http://susanahcase.com

Susana reads from her book:

561x831.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="667">http://broadstonebooks.com/Susana_H_Case.html

The poems in this collection are inspired by the ways in which gender (and sometimes other divisions) creates opportunities for both victimization and survival. A theme woven throughout is the tension between being objectified and being human. There are three sections. The first section is organized around the idea of the stereotype of the living doll, and rebellion against that concept. The middle section, an ekphrastic section, is inspired by the life and the nutshell studies, crime model constructions, of Frances Glessner Lee, "mother of modern forensics," and includes some black and white images that are in the public domain. The third section, which includes the title poem, focuses more fully on the negative effects of objectified existences.

Bio: Susana H. Case is the author of seven books of poetry. Drugstore Blue, from Five Oaks Press, won an Independent Publisher Book Award (IPPY). She is also the author of five chapbooks, two of which won poetry prizes. Her most recent chapbook is Body Falling, Sunday Morning from Milk and Cake Press. One of her collections, The Scottish Café, from Slapering Hol Press, was re-released in a dual-language English-Polish version, Kawiarnia Szkocka by Opole University Press in Poland. Her poems appear widely in magazines and anthologies. Recent poems can be found in: Calyx, The Cortland Review, Fourteen Hills, Portland Review, Potomac Review,Rattle, and RHINO, among others. Dr. Case is a Professor and Program Coordinator at the New York Institute of Technology in New York City.

I introduce to you Anne Marie Wells @amwellswrites from Wyoming, a poet and playwright.  You will find interesting tidbits about her work & her life: when she was a nanny for a rock band she wrote a draft of 70,000 word novel in 3 days, among other things! 

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com

http://annemariewellswriter.com

------------------------------

Enemy Bridge

My enemies will someday hold their dying mother in their arms, and their crooked hole of a mouth screaming anguished into the air above will become my next breath. We will share the same chorus of pain, the secret song that unites us all, a universal refrain that asks us to bless this world for its suffering for it’s the only thing that builds the bridge of empathy.

Selected by Muddy River Poetry Review, Spring 2020

----------------------------------

Shell

Holding the shell of the man he used to be to my ear, his tidal voice crashed ashore, calling me to watch a nest of turtles break free from their sandy womb, frantic to find their ocean mother; a race from first breath to moonlit waves. I will remember you this way, I promised.

Selected for publication by In Parentheses, Winter 2020

----------------------------------

Bio:

In 2015, Anne Marie Wells published her children’s book, MAMÃ, PORQUE SOU UMA AVE?/MOMMY, WHY AM I A BIRD? (Imprensa Universidade de Coimbra). She earned first place in the Riot Act Regional New Play Festival in 2017 for her play, LOVE AND RADIO (AND ZOMBIES... KIND OF), and earned second place in 2018 for her play, LAST. ONLY. BEST. In 2019, the Wrights of Wyoming judges blindly selected four of her theatrical works for the statewide play festival in Cheyenne (LAST. ONLY. BEST.; MISS SNICKLEFRITZ'S MURDER MYSTERY; THE DOOR; and INDIGO SIREN). In 2020, her play LAST. ONLY. BEST. was selected for publication in The Dallas Review, and her 10-minute play, THE DOOR will appear in The Progenitor Art & Literary Journal.

Anne Marie is also an avid storyteller and performed in and won several Cabin Fever Story Slams and was selected by The Moth to perform in a 'Main Stage' event in Jackson Hole, Wyoming in 2019.

Her poems have appeared or will appear in In Parentheses, Lucky Jefferson, Unlimited Literature, Soliloquies Anthology, Muddy River Poetry Review, Variant Literature, Poets' Choice, Meniscus Journal, Changing Womxn Collective, and The Voices Project.

Facebook: @annemariewellsriter

Instagram: @anne___.marie

Twitter: @amwellswrites

Pintrest: annemariewellswriter

Tumblr: @annemariewellswriter

This week, I talk to Filipino American writer, Jason Tanamor.  It was great discovering his work & learning more about him and his writing processes.  His latest book: "Vampires of Portlandia" is a Filipino American urban fantasy novel.   

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com

http://tanamor.com

of-portlandia.html">

Check out this episode with writer, Anya Ow, a Singaporean residing in Australia.  We discuss her work, her "co-workers" (cats), & reads a segment from her newly released novella, "Cradle and Grave".

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com

http://anyasy.com

http://neonhemlock.com

and-grave-by-anya-ow-cover.png" alt="" width="450" height="719">

This week, I feature Filipinx visual artist, Pam Peacock.  She is the very talented younger sister of Eddie Peacock, a former classmate and neighbor of mine at Clark Air Force Base & Angeles City, Philippines. Listen to us discuss her work, her process, future plans, & how she is holding up during this pandemic.

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com

http://thevoyagerpeacock.com

Instagram: @thevoyagerpeacock

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I'm back in effect, and this week, I am featuring, Filipinx poet, Ina Cariño.  We discuss her work and her future plans and how she is holding up during this Coronavirus pandemic.

Note: I will be discussing how other writers/poets/artists and creatives are dealing with creating during these times.

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

www.inacarino.com

Bio: Born in the Philippines, Ina Cariño is a queer Filipinx-American writer. She holds an MFA in creative writing from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC, and is a 2019 Kundiman Fellow. Her work appears in Waxwing, New England Review, The Oxford Review of Books, Tupelo Quarterly, and VIDA Review, among other journals. In 2019, Ina founded a reading series in the Triangle area of NC called Indigena, which centers marginalized voices, including but not limited to those of BIPOC, QTPOC, and people with disabilities. Through her writing, Ina explores the navigation of being American as a brown body, and the deeply impactful effects of living in the diaspora. She hopes to find paths to not just justice, but also to healing of self and community.

It Feels Good to Cook Rice

by Ina Cariño

it feels good to cook rice

it feels heavy to cook rice

it feels familiar

                          good

       & heavy                      to cook rice

                          when I cook rice

                  it is because hunger is not just

                             an emptiness

but a longing                                          for multo:

                                   the dead who no longer linger

                  two fingers in water

                  I know just when to stop:

                  right under the second knuckle

in the morning          chew it

                                                        with salted egg

in the evening          chew it

                                                        with salted onion

at midnight          eat it

                                                        slovenly

                with your peppered hands           licking

relishing                         each cloudmorsel

                                                      sucking greedy   as if

                there will no longer be any such thing

as rice

                              good

                is not the idea of pleasure

                                          rather

                                               it is the way

                                                         I once tripped

                                          spilled a basket

                of hulls & stones onto soil —

                homely sprinkle of husks

                as if for a sending off —

                                how right it was: palms

                                brushing the chalk of it

                                swirls rising in streaking sun

                                heavy

                is not the same as burden

                                            rather it is falling rice

                                                  as ghostly footfalls —

                                            trickling mounds

                                                          scattered on wood —

                my dead lolo in compression socks

                my dead lola in red slippers scuffing

                & a slew of yesterday’s titos & titas

                                their voices traveling to me

                                tinny                                ringing

                                 as if from yesterday’s nova

familiar just

                what it sounds like

family

                blood

home

                marrow

bone

                grit

calcified memories

                                of things that feel good

                                                                & heavy

                calcified

                                as in made stronger by mountain sun

                only to have them crumble

                                after enough time has passed

                (just like the mountain forgot what it used to be)

                            still

it feels good to cook rice

it feels good to eat rice    even by myself

& it feels familiar to know

               with each grain I swallow

I strap myself to my own

                                         heavy

                            hunger

------------------------------------------------------------

Below are links to her other works:

http://www.nereview.com/vol-40-no-3-2019/bitter-melon/ It-Feels-Good-to-Cook-Rice.php">http://waxwingmag.org/items/issue20/7_Carino-It-Feels-Good-to-Cook-Rice.php https://readwildness.com/21/carino-bodies orb.org/post/when-i-sing-to-myself-who-listens">https://www.the-orb.org/post/when-i-sing-to-myself-who-listens

IG: @indigena.collective  / Facebook: Facebook.com/indigenaNC/

Thanks for tuning in and being patient! Episode 50 features poet/writer, Tony Robles who I have back on the show. He had just been awarded the Carl Sandburg Writer-In-Residency. Tony discusses his past & current work.  He also recites his poem, "My Father's Music".  

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com

wir-tony-robles.htm">https://www.nps.gov/carl/learn/news/2020-wir-tony-robles.htm

YourArtsyGirlPodcast.com Coffee Mug" width="450" height="800">

http://tonyrobles.wordpress.com

My Father's Music My father's music Percolates and palpitates Like hot coffee dreaming A tap dancer's arrival Hitting throat with the Right note, going back, Deep, unopposed My father's music is Caught in a kettle whose Grease endured screams And flame of gas stove Decisions where curling irons Bent notes and contemplated Hooks landing on the chin and Announcing a verdict on a Rippled canvas My father's music is An empty cup of my Favorite things where soup Is made from pain and Love is made from rain My father's music is Made in wood when he Would then wouldn't then Would again and would Is softer than stone and Woodn't you know it? My father's music is the Chamber of cool poking Into the greenness of the Sun's estate of ecstatic static My father's music Is sky minus rain Divided by sun Multiplied by incense In the smoldering Pyramid of branches My father's music is the In-time pantomime of The heaven-hell debate Whose defense rest On the 8th day My father's music floats And glides from Head to thigh and on that other Side where up is down and down Is up, sticking like flap jacks Whose wings lap lap lap the Tick tock oil of greasy time My father's music Skips, bumps, burps, Slurps, sizzles on the Sunny side of the street Crackle pop Bop Pan fried With an Egg on Top My Father's Music

------------------

If you are interested in being featured on yourartsygirlpodcast.com, please send me your bio, black and white photo, and work samples to yourartsygirl@gmail.com .  Please know I cannot respond to every email, but I will reach out to if I'd like to feature you on the show!

Beverly Parayno is a talented fiction and creative non fiction writer. Learn more about her journey as a writer and her tremendous volunteer & outreach work for arts organizations. Do follow her work.  She is someone to look out for! 

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com

writerse28099night.png" alt="" width="450" height="637">

http://www.beverlyparayno.com

Bio: Beverly Parayno is from East San Jose. Her fiction, memoir, essays, and author interviews have appeared in Narrative Magazine, Bellingham Review, World Literature, The Rumpus, Warscapes and Huizache, among others. Her work has been translated into Mandarin by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. She is currently working on a memoir entitled RUN, set during her teenage runaway years in upstate New York in the mid-1980s. Parayno earned an MA from University College Cork and an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Currently, she serves on the board of PAWA, a nonprofit arts organization and publisher dedicated to supporting and promoting Filipinx writers, and on the executive committee of Litquake. She is a grants consultant for social justice nonprofits in the Bay Area. You can find her at www.beverlyparayno.com.

I open this new year, 2020, with John A. Vanek: a mystery/thriller writer with a sleuthing priest series about Father Jake Austin's life. Listen to him discuss how having a great creative writing teacher in college while going to med school inspired him to write & publish poetry & now a mystery series.

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

http://www.johnvanekauthor.com

Closing out this year with a sensational guest: poet, Nick Carbó!  Listen to this episode and discover how Nick's Filipino American literature and poetry anthologies helped catapult Filipino-American poetics.  Find out what he's been up to and listen to him read some of his poems!

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

You can purchase Secret Asian Man here: 

https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Asian-Man-Nick-Carbo/dp/1932339639

Some interesting links pertaining to Nick's work!

ghibli.org/index.php%3Fid=1&issue=01_05§ion=6&index_pos=5&inlingua=t.html"> http://archivio.el-ghibli.org/index.php%3Fid=1&issue=01_05§ion=6&index_pos=5&inlingua=t.html

Nick on NPR:

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1667164

-------------------------------------------------------------

THE BOY IN BLUE SHORTS

The screaming woman on the other side Of our tall black gate Would have thrown a rock at me My maid, Rosita, sheltered me from the insults—

Something about my being Retarded and full of worms

The woman nudged her son forward. Blue shorts, clean t-shirt, rubber slippers. She said her little boy was the one Who should have been adopted, he was healthy. He looked about my age, four or five. We were both silent. “I want to see the Mr. and the Mrs., they are making a big mistake!”

Rosita bolted the gate, took me by the hand— “those are bad people, don’t listen to them!” I felt the crisp whiteness of her skirt all the way across The garden back to our house.

------------------

The next poem was recently scrolled on the big screen in the big U2 and Bono's Joshua Tree concert in Manila in December 2019. They might use the poem in some video in the future.

DIRECTIONS TO MY IMAGINARY CHILDHOOD

If you stand on the corner Of Mabini Street and Legazpi Avenue, Wait for an orchid colored mini-bus With seven oblong doors, Open the fourth door—

An oscillating electric fan Will be driving, tell her to proceed

To the Escolta diamond district— You will pass Maneng Virays bar, La isla de los ladrones book shop, The Frederick Funston fish sauce factory, And as you turn left into Calle de los recuerdos, You will see Breto, Bataille, and Camus Seated around a card table playing Abecedarian dominoes—

Roll down your window and ask Them if Mr. Florante and Miss Laura Are home, if the answer is yes, Then proceed to Noli Me Tangere Park, And wait for a nun named Maria Clara—

If the answer is “je ne sais pas!” then turn Right into the parking lot of Sikatuna’s Supermarket to buy a basketful Of lanzones fruit, then get back To Calle de los Recuerdos until you reach The part that’s lined with tungsten-red Juan Tamad trees, on the right will be A house with an acknowledgements page And and index, open the door and enter The page and look me in the eye.

Bio: On the day Nick Carbó (kar-boh) was born on October 10, 1964 in a village beside the sea in the Philippines, the number one song was “Oh Pretty Woman” by Roy Orbison. One can imagine that riff (cue in Da-na-na, na-na, da-na-na, na-na) following him the rest of his life after being born to a poor peasant family and quickly improving his lot in life when he was adopted by a well-to-do Spanish/Filipino couple at around fifteen months old. Yes, there would be pretty women walking in and out of his life with the first being his adopted mother Sophie who was half Greek and half Filipino/Spanish.

Courtney LeBlanc is a poet from the Arlington/DC metro area who has a full-length poetry collection out entitled Beautiful & Full of Monsters through Vegetarian Alcoholic Press.  Listen to this episode and learn more about her work and about us discussing self promotion and coordinating your own book tour, among other things!

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

http://courtneyleblanc.com

Preorder your copy here: http://www.vegetarianalcoholicpress.com/titles/courtney-leblanc-beautiful-amp-full-of-monsters

Bio:  Courtney LeBlanc is the author of Beautiful & Full of Monsters (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press, March 2020), The Violence Within (Flutter Press, 2018, currently out of print), and All in the Family (Bottlecap Press, 2016) , and a Pushcart Prize nominee. She has an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte. She loves nail polish, wine, and tattoos.

She blogs at WordPerv and she can be contacted at Courtney (dot) LeBlanc2015 (at) gmail (dot) com.

Ron Riekki and I had a great conversation about his work, his life, and our common experiences.  He is a Saami, Karelian, Finn, and Greek writer with many writing credits. He's studied with Anne Beattie, John Casey, Jayne Anne Phillips, Anselm Hollo, and Stuart Dybek, to name a few! He also hung out with actor Sean Penn! Do give a listen and learn about this fascinating writer!

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

https://rariekki.webs.com/

You can order "Posttraumatic" here: a-memoir.aspx"> https://www.spdbooks.org/Products/9781732336162/posttraumatic-a-memoir.aspx

You can order "My Ancestors Are Reindeer Hers and I am Melting in Extinction" here: https://www.amazon.com/Ancestors-Reindeer-Herders-Melting-Extinction/dp/1627202102

"In My Ancestors are Reindeer Herders and I am Melting in Extinction, Ron Riekki presents a collection of non-fiction, short stories, and poetry about the Karelian- and Saami-American experience. In true nomadic fashion, his writing takes the reader to Kuusamo, Utah, Berkeley, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Lake Mohave, Yosemite, Karelia, and a hazmat facility where all the animals on site have been forgotten. A mix of Anselm Hollo, Gregory Orr, Eric Torgersen, and Nils-Aslak Valkeapää, Riekki’s writing forces the Saami-American voice to be heard, a voice that some might not even realize exists. It does. Furiously."

You can order "Undocumented: Great Lakes Poets Laureate on Social Justice" here:  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1611863082/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

You can order "The Many Lives of the Evil Dead" here: https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/the-many-lives-of-the-evil-dead/

This week I am talking to the inaugural Hartford Poet Laureate, Frederick-Douglass Knowles II, whom I've known personally for many years because I also claim Norwich as my "hometown", and as colleagues, we have seen each other "grow up" in the literary scene. Listen to Frederick-Douglass talk about how it was growing up in Norwich and his evolution from spoken word, to the academics, and onto the literary page.  He is prolific with literary and social justice projects literally all over the world while performing his Hartford Poet Laureate duties.  So, listen in. You'll be inspired!

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

http://frederickdouglassknowles.com

You can purchase BlackRoseCity here: 

https://www.amazon.com/BlackRoseCity-Frederick-Douglass-Knowles-II/dp/1456729535

Bio:   Frederick-Douglass Knowles II is the inaugural Poet Laureate for Hartford, CT. His collection of poetry, BlackRoseCity, was featured at the 2018 Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP). His works have featured in the Connecticut River Review; Poems on the Road to Peace: A Tribute to Dr. King by Yale UP; Fingernails Across the Chalkboard: Poetry on HIV/AIDS by Third World Press. The Mississippi University for Women nominated his poem “Mason Freeman Cuts Jenkins Down” for a Pushcart Prize. He is the recipient of the 2019 Nutmeg Poetry Award. Frederick-Douglass is an Associate Professor of English at Three Rivers Community College.

Suzanne Frischkorn is a talented and prolific poet living in Connecticut, my home state. Listen to her explain how she got into poetry and the poetry scene and what influenced her work and the many similarities that we shared "growing up" in CT as women writers and poets in our formative years.

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

You can purchase Girl on a Bridge here: https://mainstreetragbookstore.com/product/girl-on-a-bridge/

Poem from Girl on a Bridge ---

Great Lash

You wear too much eye makeup. My sister wears too much. People think she's a whore.

Our cornfields were paved in asphalt, sulfur lights snuffed our stars. When one of us had no shoes, we went barefoot, walking streets laid with tar. First we coated lashes blackest black from tubes of green and pink, our eyes lined kohl. If it was Thursday we found boyfriends and waited by the liquor store for anyone to buy us Smirnoff. Anyone at all. We were not sweet girls.

*

We were not sweet girls, yet we wore silver chains with silver hearts & crosses, onyx rings, blush, lipstick, powder. Hair flipped by vent brush before entering a night without stars. Our parents were line dancing, were bank tellers, were absent. We were a family that knew nothing about its members.

*

We cut school and watched Foxes. We cut school and drank vodka. We cut school and got stoned, did our makeup, walked the streets. One of us got out. One of us ran into our connection working a shoe store, one of us glimpsed another with a baby, one of us marries her Thursday night boyfriend and shatters her image.

*

We were not sweet girls, no. If there had been corn, or stars? Maybe the deep sweet girlness would have surfaced ― dreamy fresh-faced girls ― petals listening to rain.

You can purchase Lit Windowpane here:  https://mainstreetragbookstore.com/product/lit-windowpane/

Poem from Lit Windowpane--

Window 

A damp windowsill means nothing— it’s no bird tapping 

     on a pane— I am waiting 

for the swallow’s stone, the anodyne 

     to illness brought by sparrow song.

This morning rain gathers in still puddles and the songbirds

     sing without percussion― loud notes echo 

the empty street— they sing and 

     sing and sing. No owl has brushed its wing

against our windowpane and sunlight

     overcomes the clouds.

Thrush birdsong: lacey throated stars. The April 

      of our fifth year reeds withered around the pond. 

Last summer I painted the porch ceiling 

     robin’s egg blue. Spring now and the sparrows 

weave a nest in our dryer vent.

     I watch you ladder your way into their world, lift 

bits of twine and sticks and string, yet

     you know they will return. How I love you

then— how I should have loved you all along.

BIO:  Suzanne Frischkorn is the author of Lit Windowpane (2008), Girl on a Bridge, (2010) and five chapbooks.  Her honors include the Aldrich Poetry Award for her chapbook, Spring Tide, selected by Mary Oliver, an Emerging Writers Fellowship from the Writer’s Center, and an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism.

Visit her website: https://suzannefrischkorn.com/

Tony Remington is a photographer and painter who practices many other art forms. Listen to us discuss his humanistic photojournalist style and portraiture, his vision and desire to continue to create in many genres such as cartooning. 

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

https://www.instagram.com/xtoid/

https://tonyremington.wixsite.com/mysite

Article on the Al Robles Express, 2019, by Lisa Suguitan Melnick: 

http://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/the-al-robles-express-is-on-the-right-track

Article on Tony Remington's exhibit by Carlos Zialcita:

http://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/tony-remingtons-launching-point-to-fil-am-consciousness

Bio:

Tony Remington grew up in San Francisco's Haight/Ashbury and has lived in many parts of San Francisco such as Daly City and West Oakland. Although he had experience many Balikbayan trips to the Philippines with his parents, in 2005 he began a series of extended visits to the Philippines that accumulated to more than seven years.

In 1970 he began his life as a photographer, became involved in Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State College, and developed an interest in Eastern Philosophy.

Upon leaving college and after completing his first major photographic essay in the Philippines, he began his work in the post-International Hotel community of San Francisco with poet/activist Al Robles and poet/social worker Presco Tabios. It was here working as food delivery person for home-bound seniors in a makeshift re-established post "Manilatown" he photographed the "Manongs" from 1977 to 1981.

The bulk of his economic life span included odd jobs such as handyman carpentry, but most notably to commericial photography, working 15 years as a commercial digital product photographer for two prepress/printing companies.

The mainstay of Tony Remington's vision is rooted in his ongoing body of work as a social realist photographer. This influence formally began to transfer into his paintings in 2017 as the official artist of the Manilatown Heritage Foundation's 50th Anniversary of the International Hotel Eviction of August 4.

In his own words "I believe in a deeper indigenous sense of continued spiritual evolution."

Point-1-Poster.jpg" alt="Tony's Gallery Showing Info" width="550" height="711">

Manong Wilfred Ventura, post Manilatown era, Amparo Hotel, San Francisco, CA, 1979, by Tony Remington

Ocean Beach, San Francisco, CA, 1975, by Tony Remington

Ondoy Flood, Philippines, 2009, by Tony Remington

"Greetings from an Old Soul", Artex Compound Barangay, Panhulo, Malabon City, Metro Manila, Philippines, 2009, by Tony Remington

Laga Festival, Kalinga Apayao, Cordilleras of Luzon, Philippines, 2019, by Tony Remington

Juanita Tamayo Lott at the 5th Annual Filipino American International Book Fest, San Francisco Public Library, October 2019, by Tony Remington

John Davis Jr. is a Floridian poet residing in the Tampa Bay area. He has been writing and publishing for about 20 years.  Listen to us discuss how the Florida landscape and his love for travel influences his work and about his future projects. 

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com

http://poetjohndavisjr.com

You can purchase "Hard Inheritance" here: https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Inheritance-John-Davis-Jr/dp/1944355197/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1508088573&sr=8-2&keywords=Hard+Inheritance

You can order "Middle Class American Proverb here: https://www.amazon.com/Middle-Class-American-Proverb-Davis/dp/0942544129/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414094131&sr=8-1&keywords=Middle+Class+American+Proverb

Bio:  John Davis Jr. is a Florida poet. His books include Hard Inheritance (Five Oaks Press, 2016), Middle Class American Proverb (Negative Capability Press, 2014), and two other collections. His poems have been published internationally, with appearances in magazines like Nashville Review, Barren magazine, The American Journal of Poetry, The Common online, and Steel Toe Review, among many others. He holds an MFA from University of Tampa in addition to a master's in education. He presently serves as associate dean of academic affairs for Keiser University in Clearwater.  

Listen to my interview with Elmer Omar Bascos Pizo, currently residing in Hawai‘i, an amazing poet with raw insight and stories. I had the chance to meet him out in San Francisco in October at the 5th Annual Filipino American International Book Festival where I learned of his work and found out that we also share some interesting parallels and intersections. Listen to him read and discuss his poems from his debut full-length poetry collection, "Leaving Our Shadows Behind Us" published by Bamboo Ridge Press in 2019.

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

Me & Elmer at the 5th Annual Filipino American International Book Festival in San Francisco, October 2019, organized by PAWA, Inc. & San Francisco Public Library.

You can order his book here at: Bamboo Ridge Press

--------------------------------------------------

SIBULAN Negros Oriental, Philippines At the mouth of the sea where the Ocoy River ends, brown bodies of naked boys pop in and out of the swirling water, like fish gasping for air. Foaming soapsuds stained with dirt from clothing women scrub on the river banks dissolve in the green water, like this half spoonful of sugar I just dropped into my cup of tea.

AFTER THE LOVE-MAKING Be honest, you insist, catching your breath. I want you to describe how I made love to you. Do you really care? I ask. You nod. All right then, I say, swiping my wet lips with my tongue. 

You're a half-ripe tangerine, somewhat sweet, a bit sour, even after dipped in salt.

BIO:

Elmer Omar Bascos Pizo is an emerging voice in local literature, who translates his feelings into his poetry, reinterpreting his life experiences and working diligently to maintain authenticity. His poems are uniquely provocative, often sad in depicting his journey from an abusive childhood in the Philippines, through the trials of an overseas Filipino worker enduring and witnessing injustice and torture in the Middle East, to the challenges of a hard-working immigrant in 21st-century Hawai‘i. This is an important collection that offers a glimpse into a life of laboring to survive. Sometimes self-deprecating and occasionally humorous, Pizo’s distinctive poetry affirms the redemption found in the small sparks of humanity.

Nick Flynn agreed to come on YourArtsyGirlPodcast, so I got a chance to pick his brains a little! We talk about his upbringing, the production of his film, "Being Flynn" that was based on his famed memoir "Another Bullshit Night in Suck City", some of his writing process, his new work, as well as hear him answer a question posed by one of my listeners, P.K. Harmon out in Guam. 

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

http://nickflynn.org

You can order Nick Flynn's new collection of poetry here:

https://www.graywolfpress.org/books/i-will-destroy-you

  https://wwnorton.com/books/Another-Bullshit-Night-in-Suck-City

Bio:  Nick Flynn has worked as a ship's captain, an electrician, and as a case-worker with homeless adults.  He is the author of twelve books, including the New York Times best-selling memoir "Another Bullshit Night in Suck City".  His most recent book is "I Will Destroy You" (Graywolf, 2019).  He has received fellowships from (among other organizations): The Guggenheim Foundation, The Fine Arts Work Center, and The Library of Congress.  His work has won two PEN prizes, been a finalist for France's Prix Femina, and has been translated into fifteen languages. Some of the venues his poems, essays, and non-fiction have appeared in include The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and the National Public Radio's "this American Life".  Since 2004, he has spent each spring in residence at the University of Houston, where is a professor on the Creative Writing faculty.

Dr. Melinda Luisa de Jesús is definitely a Renaissance woman! She is a scholar, a classical singer, a poet, & a visual artist. Listen to her discuss her journey into creativity through her earlier beginnings as a classically trained mezzo-soprano. As a feminist scholar, it wasn't until she found her voice in poetry with various publications to her first poetry collection "peminology", did her world open up even more to include visual arts in her artistic and intellectual repertoire.  

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

Order "peminology" here:

23634481.html">http://www.lulu.com/shop/http://www.lulu.com/shop/melinda-luisa-de-jes%C3%BAs/peminology/paperback/product-23634481.html

PEMINOLOGY by Melinda Luisa de Jesús Published by Paloma Press Release Date: March 2018 ISBN: 9781387483686 Pages: 80, full-color Available on 23528832.html">Lulu and at select bookshops

In honor of International Women’s Day, Paloma Press is proud to announce the release of PEMINOLOGY, a first poetry collection by Melinda Luisa de Jesus, a feminist of color who teaches and writes about critical race theory, girlhood and monsters, and believes, “as did the ancients, that a poem can change the world.”

Excerpt:

Jealousy

1. Wanting to be blonde-haired, blue-eyed, small-boned and delicate

ivory-complexioned, sweet and ladylike a fairy princess,

or green-eyed and red-haired like a mermaid

Anything but brown-skinned brown-eyed

black-haired loud

big fat

different.

2. I love your poems

I hate your poems I want to lick them,

chew the paper they’re on savor each line

then swallow them whole

make them mine.

3. Wishing I felt more connection

Planted in American soil wilting

bleached I long to be coconut, carabao brown.

Advance words: “Melinda Luisa de Jesús’ debut collection of poems comes from a space of longing, rebellion, grief, love, poetics and politics. Bold, unafraid and uncompromising, peminology carves out a space for de Jesús’ vision and her generation of Filipinas in immigrant America. She speaks in multiple voices and registers, as a daughter, to a daughter, as a mother, to a mother, as a storyteller, dredging up a past and confronting fiercely the present. peminology is poetic auto ethnography. It must be read. It must be heard. It must be listened to. This is Asian-America. This is post-Trump’s America. This is the America we live in.” —Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt, author of The Postcolonial Citizen: The Intellectual Migrant

“peminology is bold, raw, and honest. Weaving between past and present, de Jesús creates a narrative of traumas that connect girlhood to womanhood. Charting the intersections of racial and feminist awakenings, these poems offer avenues for shame and rage to become strength and resistance. “The Tractor,” “Patriarchy,” and “Imagine That” are but a few examples of the timely critiques—anthems, even—that de Jesús situates amidst her chronology of oppression and opposition. Her experimentation with form, including the hay(na)ku, the hay(na)ku sentence, and the pantoum, interrupts Western poetic conventions as much as the language and imagery itself. The stand out poem—“Bellies”— followed by “Pantoum for Eloisa,” explores the heartbreaking complexities of brown women negotiating motherhood and white imperialism. This collection will leave you simultaneously heartbroken and empowered, ready to rise out of your seat to demand recognition, and sit down with your child to nurture self-love. A must-read for 2018.” —Linda Pierce Allen, co-editor of Global Crossroads: A World Literature Reader and Questions of Identity: Complicating Race in American Literary History

Bio:

Melinda Luisa de Jesús is Associate Professor and former Chair of Diversity Studies at California College of the Arts. She writes and teaches about Filipinx/American cultural production, girl culture, monsters, and race/ethnicity in the United States. She edited Pinay Power: Peminist Critical Theory, the first anthology of Filipina/American feminisms (Routledge 2005). Her academic writing has appeared in Mothering in East Asian Communities: Politics and Practices; Completely Mixed Up: Mixed Heritage Asian North American Writing and Art; Approaches to Teaching Multicultural Comics; Ethnic Literary Traditions in Children’s Literature; Challenging Homophobia; Radical Teacher; The Lion and the Unicorn; Ano Ba Magazine; Rigorous; Konch Magazine; Rabbit and Rose; MELUS; Meridians; The Journal of Asian American Studies, and Delinquents and Debutantes: TwentiethCentury American Girls’ Cultures.

She is also a poet and her chapbooks, Humpty Drumpfty and Other Poems; Petty Poetry for SCROTUS Girls’ with poems for Elizabeth Warren and Michelle Obama; Defying Trumplandia; Adios Trumplandia!; James Brown’sWig and Other Poems; and Vagenda of Manicide and Other Poems were published by Locofo Chaps in 2017. Her first collection of poetry, peminology, was published by Paloma Press in 2018.

In Spring 2019 Melinda was the Muriel Gold Senior Visiting Professor at the Institute for Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies at McGill University in Montreal, Canada where she organized the Pinay Power II: Celebrating Peminisms in the Diaspora conference (see pinaypower.ca for more info).

She is a mezzo-soprano, a mom, an Aquarian, and admits an obsession with Hello Kitty. More info: http://peminist.com

Twitter: @peminology 

Upon my visit to San Francisco to attend the 5th Annual International Filipino American Book Festival, I had the pleasure to learn about Betty Ann Besa-Quirino's work and her prolific Filipino cookbooks.  However, after interviewing her and learning more about her on YourArtsyGirlPodcast, I found Ms. Betty Ann to be even more fascinating than ever that I wanted to keep on talking to her. For as most authors, she does more than writing Filipino cookbooks and food blogs, she is a journalist, creative writer and an artist as well!

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

https://www.asianinamericamag.com/about/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1723844802/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1977701973/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i2

Bio:  Elizabeth Ann Besa-Quirino, is a journalist, and a multi-award-winner of the Plaridel Writing Awards and has been a winner of the Doreen Gamboa Fernandez Food Writing Awards. She is the author of her newest cookbook “Instant Filipino Recipes: My Mother’s Traditional Philippine Food in a Multicooker Pot”. Other cookbooks she has written are: “My Mother’s Philippine Recipes” and “How To Cook Philippine Desserts, Cakes and Snacks”. She is a correspondent for Positively Filipino online magazine; and blogs about Filipino home cooking on her site AsianInAmericaMag.com

Betty Ann, as she is fondly called, was born in the Philippines and raised in Tarlac province where her way of life was molded early on by her parents’ farming and agricultural business. From the time she was a little girl, Betty Ann learned how to cook traditional Philippine dishes from her mother and has transformed these culinary skills to modern day Filipino cooking in her American kitchen. Based in New Jersey, Betty Ann is a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP-New York); the New York Women’s Culinary Alliance; the Association of Culinary Historians of the Philippines.

Instant Filipino Recipes Cookbook: My Mother’s Traditional Philippine Food In a Multicooker Pot. (2018; Amazon.com) – This is perhaps the first Filipino cookbook published in America with recipes for the popular kitchen appliance, the Instant Pot or multicooker. The author has put together 36 traditional Philippine recipes, each with full color photos and shares a faster way to cook these classics without losing the soul of mom’s cooking.

My Mother’s Philippine Recipes (2017; Amazon.com) – The author shares a collection of her mother’s recipes from her childhood, often served to family and friends who stopped by their home in Tarlac. The Besa home was known to locals as “the home along the highway”, a stopover of friends and family enroute to Baguio. Friends relished the multi-course meals her mother prepared with produce ingredients harvested from their farm, expertly grown by her father.

War & Forgiveness article: 

http://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/war-and-forgiving

Instagram: @bettyannquirino

Twitter: @bettyannquirino

Pintrest: BettyAnnBesa Quirino

This week, I will take you to the small island of Guam where Dr. Irena Kečkeš works and lives.  She teaches Fine Arts at the University of Guam and is a master printmaker who creates and exhibits internationally.  Listen to her explain her illustrious career and her adventurous journey in keeping true to her art and why it is important for her to connect with her art community all over the world.

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

http://irenakeckes.wixsite/irenaart

"Bonding" Exhibit - Santander, Spain

ARTIST STATEMENT | Irena Kečkeš

Living and working in diverse artistic and scholarly environments in Europe, Japan, USA, New Zealand, and more recently Guam, has shaped my approach to art making and thinking. My main artistic practice is printmaking. I employ both Eastern and Western print methods, placing an equal importance on concepts and technologies. My art research has been informed by ecologically responsive, and expanded forms of contemporary print, as well aspects of phenomenology, deep ecology, and Buddhist practice and philosophy. While using one of the oldest printmaking methods, woodblock printing, my practice has moved towards what may be called an extended field of print; my large-scale woodcuts are often placed alongside the three-dimensional objects – carved wooden plates. More recently I have been printing on diverse material: from translucent tracing papers (woodcut print installation “Polyphonic”, 2017), to plastic and Mylar sheets, to various fabrics. I also collaborate with other artists in making a print installations, such as was the project “Bonding”, a large print installation made of woodcuts and linocuts on fabric, exhibited in Spain during the Impact 10 international printmaking conference in 2018. Merging intellectual and physical acts of making, exploring embodied ways of knowing, and mind-body interrelations have been key components of my artistic query.

My PhD study, completed in 2015, investigated forms of contemporary printmaking, its relationships with aspects of Buddhism, and more. It explored if and how a Buddhist notion of interconnectedness may inform ecologically mindful printmaking. Likewise, the cycle of my works titled “Black Prints” (2015) explored the process of carving as a meditative practice. This approach remains present in most of my work, today as well. In creating my prints, an equal importance has been placed on concepts, on technologies and on blending art with craft, and body with mind.

"Polyphonic" Exhibit

keckes1.jpg" alt="Woodcuts" width="450" height="225">

keckes2.jpg" width="450" height="225">

(Woodcuts)

Bio: 

Irena Kečkeš received PhD in Fine Arts from the University of Auckland, New Zealand (2015), MFA in printmaking from Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan (2005) and BA in art education, Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb, Croatia (2000). Integrating theory and practice has been a key element to her research through which she has been exploring connections between eco-Buddhism and printmaking, extended forms of print and art/craft relationship. Her practice involves large-scale monochrome woodcuts and print installations. Irena’s artwork has been exhibited internationally in many group and independent exhibitions. She presented at several international printmaking conferences including IMPACT 10 international printmaking conference in Santander, Spain (2018), SGCI 2016 in Portland USA, IMPACT 9 in China (2015), IMPACT 8 in Scotland (2013), 3rd IMC in Hawaii (2017) and 2nd IMC in Tokyo, Japan (2014). She will next participate in SGCI 2020, in Puerto Rico. Since 2015, Irena is an Associate Professor of Art at College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at University of Guam.

Learn about Daniel García Ordaz, his poetry and insights.  He is a poet, songwriter and teacher from McCallen, TX, doing amazing things for his community as the founder of the Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival.

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

GarciaOrdaz.png" alt="book cover of You Know What I'm Sayin'" width="450" height="695">You can order here: 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EYRBUTU/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i3

GarciaOrdaz.png" alt="book cover" width="450" height="723">You can order here:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HWW4BVS/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0

Daniel's Poets & Writers page: 

https://www.pw.org/directory/writers/daniel_garcia_ordaz

Our Serpent Tongue

Check out one of the young mover and shaker of the art world: Heidi Luerra.  She is an art entrepreneur who made it her business to showcase a wide range of artists all across the globe with RAW:natural born artists, the world’s largest independent arts organization. She recently launched her new book to continue on with that vein, helping artists & creatives with the business side of art-making entitled "The Work of Art, A No Nonsense Field Guide for Creative Entrepreneurs".

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

http://rawartists.com

Luerra.png" alt="The Work of Art book cover" width="260" height="438">

Order Heidi's book here: "The Work of Art"

Website: http://heidiluerra.com

Bio: Heidi Luerra is the Founder & CEO of RAW:natural born artists, the world’s largest independent arts organization. For almost 20 years, Heidi has worked with creatives and artists of all types. Originally a Northern California native, Heidi moved to Los Angeles at age eighteen to fulfill her dream of being a fashion designer, in turn, earning her business stripes the hard way as an independent creative entrepreneur. Over the past decade, Heidi has grown RAW to a worldwide operation in over 80 cities with almost 200k artists in the RAW community. She currently oversees a team of sixty from RAW headquarters in downtown Los Angeles. On September 17, 2019 Heidi launched her first book, "The Work of Art, A No Nonsense Field Guide for Creative Entrepreneurs (written by a creative entrepreneur who has endured her share of nonsense)."

Margo Taft Stever is a prolific poet who has worked with many great poets through the years and through her work founding the Hudson Valley Writers Center and Slapering Hol Press.  Listen to us discuss her two books of poetry that was released this year, her work process and philosophies!

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

You can purchase a copy here:  CavanKerry Press

You can order your copy here: Kattywompus Press.  

END OF HORSES

I write to you from the end

of the time zone. You must realize

that nothing survived after

the horses were slaughtered.

We sleep below the hollow

burned-out stars.

We look into dust bowls

searching for horses.

When you walk in the country,

you will be shocked to meet

substantial masses on the road.

We do not know whom to blame

or where the horses were driven,

who slaughtered them, or for what

purpose. Had the horses slept

under the linden trees? The generals

and engineers pucker

and snore on the veranda.

First published in chapbook, Ghost Moose, Margo Taft Stever, Kattywompus Press, 2019. Forthcoming in Canary: A Literary Journal of the Environmental Crisis.

Bio: In 2019, CavanKerry Press published Margo Taft Stever’s book, Cracked Piano, and Kattywompus Press published her chapbook, Ghost Moose. Her four other poetry collections are The Lunatic Ball, 2015; The Hudson Line, 2012; Frozen Spring, 2002; and Reading the Night Sky, 1996. Her poems have appeared widely in journals such as Verse Daily, upstreet; Plume, Blackbird; Salamander; Poem-A-Day, The Academy of American Poets; Cincinnati Review; Salamander; Prairie Schooner; New England Review; Poet Lore; West Branch; Seattle Review; and in numerous anthologies. She co-authored Looking East: William Howard Taft and the 1905 U.S. Diplomatic Mission to Asia (Zhejiang University Press, 2012 and Orange Frazier Press, 2015) and created a traveling exhibition of “Looking East photographs. She is the founder of the Hudson Valley Writers Center and the founding editor of Slapering Hol Press.

Website: https://margotaftstever.com

Listen to me and Luisa Kay Reyes discuss how she got into writing, her many other talents such as singing operatic and classical music, playing the piano, and the many languages she speaks.  We also talk about the lost art of letter writing.

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

Changing Dollars

by Luisa Kay Reyes

published in Little Rose Magazine, March, 2019

As we walked into the empty breezeway of this Spanish Colonial style building that was set off of the main plaza of a rural village in Michoacan, Mexico, the sole gentleman standing there pulled out a very dusty and rickety small wooden table from the back corner along with an equally flimsy small chair and set it out in the middle of the foyer for my father.  Who promptly set his dark colored cloth bag full of Mexican currency on the top of the table. And as soon as I turned around, what had merely a second before been an empty outside corridor styled with the traditional Spanish archways, was now filled with a long line of working men who were eager to change their U.S. Dollars into Mexican pesos. It was a most exposed way of changing money.  Causing my mother to not unjustly worry about the safety of my brother and me as we were visiting our father during the summer and accompanying him while he conducted his in person money exchanges.  With it being the early 1990s and the use of Western Union, Mejico Express, and other means of electronically transferring money internationally not yet in vogue along with the reticence of the mainstream banks to change dollars in a land where counterfeit movies, music, knock-off purses, and fake sterling silver jewelry could be easily purchased at any weekly street market; there was a great demand for those willing to undergo the inherent dangers and risks of such an enterprise.  And my father happened to be one of them. With our proud to be an American side of the family comprising of teachers and professors who were highly educated but receiving at best average compensation, the mass quantities of U.S. Dollars being changed into pesos that day were a first for my brother and me.  For we had never beheld so many bills even during our periodic long drawn out Monopoly games. Yet, as the line continued increasing with the men continually bringing their dollars to change, it soon became evident that while the U.S. Dollars flowing through that day would never run out, the Mexican pesos that our father had brought with him for the exchanges - might. Once the glamour of seeing so many dollars in one place wore off and the day evidenced that it would be a sizeable one, my brother and I ventured out of the breezeway into the village’s central plaza and looked around for what treats we could find to eat.  We were deep in the heart of Mexico in the region that had once housed the mighty Purepecha empire, but with Michoacan being a primarily agricultural state, the current necessities of making a living had commanded many to go up to “el Norte” and figure out how to send their dollars back home. While every year hundreds of millions and perhaps billions of monarch butterflies migrate up to three-thousand miles from Canada and North America to their winter homes in the oyamel fir trees of Michoacan, over time it became apparent that they weren’t the only entity undergoing such a lengthy journey.  For the next time my brother and I went to visit our father in Michoacan, his money exchange business was now a brick and mortar one with several branches operated by his siblings throughout the area. “Why doesn’t Mexico just use the dollar as their currency once and for all?”  I asked my father. For it certainly seemed like a much simpler option than this continual hassle of changing money back and forth from dollars to pesos and vice versa.

“Well, that’s what I’ve always said” was his reply.  “But it is better for me that they don’t.”

Then late one night we went to meet with some city officials who were wanting to buy some dollars for the city treasury.  For with the ever present concern of the Mexican peso undergoing further devastating devaluations, even the city was deeming it expedient to have some dollars on hand. And my father’s business was in a position to sell them some dollars at a better price than the banks could offer.     Now that the money exchanging business was more official with its office in the center of the historic colonial era downtown, lots of money orders, cashier’s checks, and IRS refund checks were coming through the teller windows, as well. Often times they weren’t filled out properly and we would have to draw arrows back and forth between the “pay to” and the purchaser fields. There were also some very wrinkled diminutive peasant women covered in their native shawls among the clientele now who were coming through with thousands of dollars worth of money orders, the result of five or more sons sending their earnings back home. The locals informed us that Michoacan had reached the point to where there were more people from Michoacan living in the U.S. than in Michoacan, itself.  And the rural villages that we used to go to with our father, were now devoid of men. Since all of the able-bodied males from the ages of twelve to fifty were in the United States working. We actually missed getting to explore some of the outlying villages like we’d done before, although, sometimes my brother was able to accompany the security guards to some of the more remote branches. Why the banks were so hesitant to enter into the money exchange business was a bit mystifying for my brother and me.  Since after seeing so many dollar bills come through, it was quite easy to spot the counterfeit ones. There was just something a little bit off about the swamp green ink color or the thickness of the paper not feeling quite the same.  Yet, one time, my brother took back a counterfeit bill to the States. And after eating at a restaurant, he decided to see if he could get away with using it. Sure enough, the friendly server accepted the bill without question. And fearing that she might receive a reprimand if her boss were apprised of the fact that she had just accepted a counterfeit, I insisted we tell her to bring it back and let us pay with the real money.   She didn’t want to do so.  She just couldn’t see how the bill was a counterfeit since she swore it looked identical to the real thing.  But, after a while, we convinced her to let us pay with the real money and still a bit puzzled by it all she reluctantly accepted to make the exchange.  Admitting to us that she simply couldn’t tell the difference between it and the real money. Having more employees in the money exchange business meant there was less for us to do during our summer visits.  So my brother and I got to indulge in a lifestyle barred from us in the USA, that of spending the day in the country clubs and fine dining in the evenings.  Yet one time I decided I wanted to save some of my money to buy a new cd player. A notion for which I was quickly called to task, since my father felt the money he gave us to spend during our visits was for us to have a good time.  So, while I still managed to save back some and make my purchase when we went back to the States, I did learn to spend the money freely. A lesson I learned perhaps too well. Then one day while I was in college and driving to my local bank in Tuscaloosa, Alabama to deposit my refund check from the U.S. Treasury, I held it up and stared at it in disbelief.  I knew that getting a refund back was far better than owing money and going on an installment plan to make monthly payments to the IRS. But I couldn’t help but stare at its pale yellow background emblazoned with the statue of liberty on it.  Since I was all too familiar with these checks. They were the ones I’d seen the peasants cash back in my father’s business in Mexico. And somehow it had never occurred to me that I would one day receive one of those, as well. But upon glancing at the amount, it occurred to me that I had a lot more work to do before I could match their sums.  And now I understood first-hand where they came from.

https://www.facebook.com/LuisaKayReyesWriter/   http://www.amazon.com/author/luisakayreyeswriter/

Kay Fabella is a Filipina-American Creative living in Spain.  Listen to her inspiring story about her struggles with depression and how she carved out her space and made her name living her dream abroad, as well as publish her book: "Rewrite Your Story", showing others how to find their voice as they find their way through adversities.  

http://www.yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

Click this link to order Kay's book!

Bio:

Just when Kay Fabella was beginning to feel that she’d found her path to success―graduating from college in 3 years, a paying job in the midst of a recession, and a bright future ahead―she was diagnosed with clinical depression.

A lifelong overachiever who started reading at age 2, graduated high school at 16, and college at 19, burnout forced Kay to re-evaluate her own definition of success. She decamped for the support of family in Los Angeles, and began a journey of healing to stay away from meds and hospitals.

Along the way, Kay discovered how to create a life that was aligned with who she was―eventually leading her to create her dream life and business in Spain. The practices that Kay cultivated over the past 10 years to thrive post-burnout and manage her mental health eventually inspired her to write this book.

Rewrite Your Story chronicles how Kay recovered from burnout, and walks you through the practices she herself cultivated to begin to ask what success looked like on her terms… and invites you to do the same for your life.

Today, Kay operates her business as The Story Finder as a Filipina-American expat in Spain. Stories = diversity = inclusion = social change, and it’s Kay’s mission to give underrepresented entrepreneurs a platform to grow their audience by leveraging the power of their stories. She’s been featured in Fast Company, Thrive Global, Huffington Post and Spanish-language newspaper, El País.

Heather Davis and Jose Padua are powerhouse poets and writers that have worked and encouraged each other's work throughout the years.  Listen to us discuss their journey, their writing process and their challenges and their joys as poets who are married together with children.

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

Bio: 

Jose Padua’s first full-length book, A Short History of Monsters, was chosen by former poet laureate Billy Collins as the winner of the 2019 Miller Williams Poetry Prize and is now out from the University of Arkansas Press. His poetry, fiction, and nonfiction have appeared in publications such as Bomb, Salon.com, Beloit Poetry Journal, Exquisite Corpse, Another Chicago Magazine, Unbearables, Crimes of the Beats, Up is Up, but So Is Down: New York's Downtown Literary Scene, 1974-1992, and others. He has written features and reviews for Salon, The Weeklings, NYPress, Washington City Paper, the Brooklyn Rail, and the New York Times, and has read his work at Lollapalooza, CBGBs, the Knitting Factory, the Public Theater, the Living Theater, the Nuyorican Poets' Café, the St. Mark's Poetry Project, and many other venues. He was a featured reader at the 2012 Split This Rock poetry festival and won the New Guard Review’s 2014 Knightville Poetry Prize.

After spending the past ten years with his wife (the poet Heather L. Davis) and children in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, he and his family are back in his hometown, Washington, D.C. Padua also writes the blog Shenandoah Breakdown,  (http://shenandoahbreakdown.wordpress.com/).

Samples:

These So Long Days We Spend in the Middle of Things--Shenandoah Breakdown

https://shenandoahbreakdown.wordpress.com/2016/07/31/these-so-long-days-we-spend-in-the-middle-of-things/

A Short History of Everyone in the World – Verse Daily

http://www.versedaily.org/2019/ashorthistoryofeveryone.shtml

Gin and the River – Pea River Journal

https://peariverjournal.com/2013/11/29/pushcart-nominee-jose-padua-gin-and-the-river/

Two poems - Bomb

https://bombmagazine.org/articles/two-poems-padua/

My Confederate Town

https://www.salon.com/2013/10/27/why_do_confederate_flags_remind_me_of_home_partner/

A Life of Uncontrollable Urges (or Tourette’s and the Writing Life)

https://voxpopulisphere.com/2014/08/21/jose-padua-a-life-of-uncontrollable-urges-or-tourettes-and-the-writing-life/

Bio:

Heather Lynne Davis earned a B.A. in English from Hollins University and an M.A. in creative writing from Syracuse University. She attended the Bucknell Seminar for Younger Poets and is a winner of the Hayden Carruth Poetry Prize at Syracuse University, a Larry Neal Writer’s Award, Bethesda Literary Festival essay and poetry prizes, and the Arlington County Moving Words Poetry Contest. She is the author of The Lost Tribe of Us, which won the 2007 Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award and has published two short stories in the Rehoboth Beach Reads anthology series. A short story is also forthcoming in the anthology Us Against Alzheimer’s: Stories of Family, Love, and Faith. Her poems have appeared in Cream City Review, Gargoyle, Poet Lore, Puerto del Sol, and Sonora Review, among others. She lives in Washington, DC with her husband, the poet José Padua, and their son and daughter. She is at work on a novel.    

A few poems and links to poems are here: https://heatherlynnedavis.com/poetry/

Lynn McGee is a poet with many fine publications and accolades.  Listen to us discuss our childhood experiences growing up as military brats, her reading some of her fabulous poems and find out where and how she gets her ideas for her poetry collections. 

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

http://lynnmcgee.com 

Order her book:

 http://broadstonebooks.com/Lynn_McGee.html

Bio: 

Lynn McGee is the author of the poetry collection, "Tracks"(Broadstone Books, 2019);  Sober Cooking (Spuyten Duyvil Press, 2016), and two award-winning poetry chapbooks: Heirloom Bulldog (Bright Hill Press, 2015) and Bonanza (Slapering Hol Press, 1997).

 Lynn earned an MFA in Poetry at Columbia University, where she held teaching and merit fellowships. She was awarded a MacDowell fellowship, is a winner of the Judith's Room Emerging Writers Award, and taught writing at private and public colleges (George Washington University, Columbia University, Southern Methodist University, Brooklyn College/CUNY and others) as well as having led poetry workshops in public schools in New York City as an artist-in-residence with Teachers and Writers Collaborative.

A 2015 Nominee for the Best of the Net award, Lynn was also a nominee for the McGovern Prize and the Pushcart Prize, and was a semi-finalist for the Dana Award. She is a recipient of the NYC Literacy Center's Recognition Award for her work in adult literacy, and received the Heart of the Center Award from the LGBT Community Center in New York City. Today she is a communications manager at Borough of Manhattan Community College, The City University of New York. She lives in the Bronx, New York.

Listen to Tyler Gillespie and I discuss his beginnings being born and raised in Tampa Bay, Florida, his future plans, and listen to him read some of his excellent poems from his Florida Man: Poems and up and coming collections!  

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

https://tylermtg.com/

Order your copy here! 

https://www.redflagpoetry.com/store/p19/Florida_Man%3A_Poems_by_Tyler_Gillespie.html

Bio:

Tyler Gillespie is a poet and award-winning journalist published in Rolling Stone, The Guardian, Vice, The Daily Beast, Salon, GQ, The Nation, and Playboy.  He is the author of Florida Man: Poems and the forthcoming nonfiction collection Florida Men & Monsters: My Search for Pythons, Pioneers and the Truth about Paradise (University Press of Florida). He also wrote a chapbook Dirty Socks and Pine Needles(Sibling Rivalry Press, 2012) and co-edited the humor collection The Awkward Phase: The Uplifting Tales of Those Weird Kids You Went to School With.  His creative work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and appears in publications such as The New Yorker, Brevity, Los Angeles Review, and the anthology LGBT Comedic Monologues That Are Actually Funny. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of New Orleans and an MA in Journalism & Media Studies from the University of South Florida. 

Listen to Briana discuss how she got into poetry, her new collection & future projects & plans!

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

You can by her book here: 

https://www.amazon.com/Loose-Lips-Briana-Mu%C3%B1oz/dp/1889568066

Interview on San Diego Voyager: 

http://sdvoyager.com/interview/meet-briana-munoz-briana-munoz-north-county

Instagram: @womanofwords

BIO:

Briana Muñoz is a writer from San Diego, CA. now living in Los Angeles, CA.

Her poetry and short stories have been published in four editions of the Bravura Literary Journal. In the 2016 publication of the Bravura, she was awarded the second-place fiction prize. She has been published in LA BLOGA, an online publication, the Poets Responding page and in the Oakland Arts Review. Her poem “Rebirth” was featured in the Reproductive Health edition of the St. Sucia zine, a publication dedicated to “Exposing What It Is To Be A Mujer”. Briana’s work was one of ten chosen for “The Best of LA BLOGA” from 2015. One of her prouder writing accomplishments is being able to have been part of the 2017 U.S. delegation attending the international poetry festival of Havana. In March of 2018, she presented her poetry at the 21st international Spanish literature and studies conference in Quito, Ecuador. Briana is excited to continue sharing her poetry in print and spoken form. When she isn't typing away, she enjoys traveling, live music, cats, and thrift stores.

Rae Luskin is an award winning creative activist, author and artist.  Listen to her give tips on how to gain a new or different perspective through visual and creative exercises as well as writing prompts.  This is a lively episode jam-packed with great ideas for art lovers, novices and seasoned professionals.

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

http://thewinningadventure.com

Bio: Rae Luskin is an award winning artist, author, activist and the creative mindfulness mentor dedicated to raising awareness of creativity as a positive catalyst for health and well-being. She specializes in interactive presentations, providing creative tools and strategies to foster self-worth, resilience, healing, and out of the box thinking. For twenty years she has helped individuals and teams discover their passion, purpose and authentic power to become confident and effective change leaders and creative problem solvers. Rae, a community activist passionately focuses her lens on improving the lives of women and children whether designing art work for Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky’s “ask” gun safety campaign or sharing her personal story of healing from childhood sexual abuse.  Rae believes when we share our stories of resilience, people know they are not alone and it creates a positive ripple of hope. In 2016 she received woman of Distinction award and was nominated for Beauty In Beauty Out award. She is the author of Art From My Heart a self-discovery journal, Stuck to unstoppable journal and the Creative Edge: 30 days of creativity prompts  and the Benjamin Franklin award winning inspirational book, The Creative Activist: Make the World Better, One Person, One Action at a Time.  She has a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts degree from Roosevelt University and a Master’s degree in Urban Planning.

https://youtu.be/BLGDYoqTp0s

Edward Vidaurre is the barrio poet from East LA & Poet Laureate of McAllen, TX.  He has amassed several collections of poetry and has been a pivotal voice in the LatinX literary community where he runs Flowersong Books and continues to write and publish.  Listen to us discuss his process, his influences, his experiment with jazz and heavy metal music, and him reading a couple of his inspiring poems.

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

JazzHouse ~ compelling love songs to the intensity of everyday life; from the magic in the routine to the marvels and miraculousness of living. Edward Vidaurre takes us with him on his life trip, from East LA to the Rio Grande Valley and the all the far reaching roots that accompany him in the form of ancestors, spirits, family, and other familiars.

JAZzHOUSE is a base camp, and a life. We are invited in to share some food, some cafecito, or a glass of wine - to sit awhile and be grateful for every minute we are alive.

BIO:

Edward Vidaurre, the 2018-2019 McAllen,Texas Poet Laureate and author of six collections of poetry: I Took My Barrio on A Road Trip (Slough Press 2013), Insomnia (El Zarape Press 2014), Beautiful Scars: Elegiac Beat Poems (El Zarape Press 2015),Chicano Blood Transfusion (FlowerSong Press 2016), and Ramona & Rumi: Love in the Time of Oligarchy & Unedited Necessary Poems (Hercules Publishing 2018),JAZzHOUSE (Prickly Pear Press, 2019) and forthcoming from King Shot Press, WhenA City Ends. Vidaurre has been published in several literary journals and anthologies.

Vidaurre was the Director of Operations in 2018 for the Valley International PoetryFestival, moderator for Poets Responding, and founder of Pasta, Poetry & Vino - a reading series in the Rio Grande Valley. He is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee and resides in McAllen. He writes from the front lines of the Mexican-American borderlands of El Valle in south Tejas. Born and raised in Boyle Heights, California.

Poet Laureate: City of McAllen 2018-2019 Publisher: FlowerSong Books Founder of Pasta, Poetry & Vino

http://edwardvidaurre.blogspot.com/

vidaurre.poet@gmail.com">vidaurre.poet@gmail.com 

We are definitely having fun here at http://YourArtsyGirlPodcast.com! Michelle Peñaloza has a new full-length poetry collection, "Former Possessions of the Spanish Empire" & we were all abuzz about it! We also discuss the necessary "hustle" of promoting our poetry because the struggle is real, ya'll. That's why tapping into "community" & getting on this podcast show is such a symbiosis of sorts.

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

http://michellepenaloza.com

Michelle Peñaloza is author of Former Possessions of the Spanish Empire, which won the 2018 Hillary Gravendyk National Poetry Prize and will be published in August 2019 by Inlandia Institute. She is also the author of two chapbooks, landscape/heartbreak (Two Sylvias, 2015), and Last Night I Dreamt of Volcanoes (Organic Weapon Arts, 2015). Her work can be found in places like Prairie Schooner, upstreet, Pleiades, The Normal School and Third Coast. She is the recipient of fellowships from the University of Oregon, Kundiman and Hugo House as well as the 2019 Scotti Merrill Emerging Writer Award for Poetry from The Key West Literary Seminar. Michelle has also received scholarships from Lemon Tree House, Caldera, Vermont Studio Center, VONA/Voices, and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, among others. The proud daughter of Filipino immigrants, Michelle was born in the suburbs of Detroit, MI and raised in Nashville, TN. She now lives, farms, and writes in rural Northern California.

Michelle made a "mixtape" for her poetry collection. Check it out!

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3uAR57qg44gKhnG3uDQTtG?si=Y5vAGHaNTxGbLswX4wPBeg

Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor is a storyteller, writer and poet residing in Washington state. We talk about her new collection of poetry "Dancing Between Bamboo Poles", her rich family history, about being "silenced" and Filipino stereotypes, to name a few.

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

2.jpg" alt="" width="439" height="549">http://rebeccamabanglomayor.com

Rebecca's email: rmm.wordbinder@gmail.com">rmm.wordbinder@gmail.com

Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor’s non-fiction, poetry, and short fiction have appeared in print and online in several journals and anthologies including Katipunan Literary Magazine, Growing Up Filipino II: More Stories for Young Adults, Kuwento: Small Things, and Beyond Lumpia, Pansit, and Seven Manangs Wild: An Anthology. Her poetry chapbook Pause Mid-Flight was released in 2010. She is also the co-editor of True Stories: The Narrative Project Vol. 1, and her poetry and essays have been collected in Dancing Between Bamboo Poles. She has been performing as a storyteller since 2006 and specializes in stories based on Filipino folktales and Filipino-American history.

Rebecca, as Rebecca A. Saxton, received her MFA in Creative Writing from Pacific Lutheran University in 2012, her BA in Humanities from Washington State University in 1998, and her MA degree in English with honors from Western Washington University in 2003.

Artist’s Statement: As a Filipino American writer and performance storyteller, my art is based on the impact of heritage on shaping and informing personal experience and the importance of self-expression as a method of healing. I view my writing and performing as subversive acts against invisibility and silence in a society where women of color are often viewed through an objectifying, exoticizing lens. Raised in a family focused on assimilation, I grew up sheltered from the Vietnam War and the Marcos dictatorship by a shield of language. Becoming a socially aware cultural activist has been a process of understanding the impact of the American Dream trope on my family and upbringing. As a result, I have connected with diverse ethnic groups who also value art as a method of self-expression and an act of compassion. A desire for wholeness drives my art which seeks to weave past and present, folktale with fact, subjectivity with objectivity into works which entertain and enliven others.

This episode takes us to Baguio, Philippines, where I talk to fiction writer and poet, Monica Macansantos.  We talk about her writing process, her travels, her education, influences, and publishing process as we catch her at the brink of getting her novel published. Please keep an eye out on this fabulous Filipina writer!  

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

 http://www.tayoliterarymag.com/monica-macansantos

Monica Macansantos was a James A. Michener Fellow in Writing at the University of Texas at Austin, where she earned her MFA in Fiction and Poetry. She also holds a PhD in Creative Writing from the Victoria University of Wellington, International Institute of Modern Letters. Her fiction has appeared in failbetter.com, Women's Studies Quarterly, The Masters Review Anthology, Day One, and TAYO Literary Magazine, among other places, while her nonfiction and journalism have appeared in Aotearotica, Takahe, New Naratif, ​SBS Life, and VICE, among other places. Her essay,"Becoming A Writer: The Silences We Write Against", was named a Notable Essay in The Best American Essays 2016. Her novella, "Leaving Auckland" (serialized in three parts on failbetter​), was a Top 25 Finalist in the Summer 2016 Glimmer Train Fiction Open, while her story, "Stopover", earned an Honorable Mention in the Winter 2013 Glimmer Train Fiction Open. She has been awarded residencies at Hedgebrook (2014) and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts (2012 & 2019). She is currently Branches Nonfiction Editor of Rambutan Literary ​and is also working on her first novel. She is represented by Kerry D'Agostino of Curtis Brown, Ltd. in New York City. 

https://www.monicamacansantos.com/publishedwork.html

Dr. Gregory Byrd is a poet, novelist and professor at Florida's St. Petersburg College.  We discuss his new poetry collection, his completion of his first novel, his growing up in Florida in a working class family, and how it shaped his aesthetics.  

http://www.yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

Order your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Name-God-Who-Speaks-Poems/dp/1680031864

This is the Name for the God who Speaks

Father, you would know these primal prayers, light flashing in the west behind live oaks, a sky-slashed language dead after Conquest. From that living world, we share only lightning, an old god speaking light out of darkness, a chant of rain as alphabet where water flowing is a word.

I found picture of us twenty-five years ago, after your divorce. We stood in front of the old Florida Keys house where I grew up. You poured concrete there to appease those Calusa gods, then steered your small boat into their vast ocean where you taught me words that cannot be spoken for greenrayed depths, the language of whale sharks surfacing, fishblood across decks and on hands. Loneliness of the Gulf Stream moves, over the horizon lightning chants, dark, by the time you hear its name.

  Gregory Byrd’s poems have appeared widely in journals such as the Tampa Review, Apalachee Review, Cortland Review, Milosao (Albania, in translation), Poeteka (Albania, in translation), and many others.  Among his poetry books are Salt and Iron (Snake Nation, 2014), At Penuel (Split Oak, 2011) and Florida Straits (Yellowjacket Press, 2005), which won the first Yellow Jacket Press Chapbook Contest for Florida Poets.  He has received a Creative Pinellas Rapid Returns Fellowship (2016), Fulbright Fellowship to Albania (2011), an SPC Distinguished Teaching Award (2015) and a Pushcart Prize Nomination (1988).  Greg has a B.A. from Eckerd College, M.A. in Creative Writing from Florida State University and Ph.D. in American Literature from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Greg’s scholarly and artistic interests are influenced by the culture and landscape of Florida as well as by his studies in poetry.  Tampa poet Silvia Curbelo writes that Greg’s poems “embody the restless energy of the Florida landscape, a place of stories fathers tell over beers and heroes facing unordinary times.”  In his poems, you’re likely to come across references to Puccini, Beethoven, Faust, or Genesis in one line and then to images of Everglades muck, rusted shotguns or dead tarpon in the next.

He has recently finished a novel about an American pilot flying for the British during World War I, Where Shadow Meets Water.  When not working on his writing, Greg fishes the flats near Clearwater, sails, rides his bicycle and works on his 1966 Ford pickup. He is founder and advisor of the Student Veterans Association at St. Petersburg College.

C.V.: https://gregorybyrd.wordpress.com/curriculum-vita-gregory-byrd/

Website: http://gregorybyrd.wordpress.com/poetry/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/GregoryByrdPoetry

Casey Clague is my first featured poet who is local to me here in the Tampa Bay area.  They just completed their MFA in Creative Writing from University of South Florida. Listen to them read a couple of poems and learn more about their future goals and their interest in literary criticism and what they do for the local literary/art community in Tampa.

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

http://caseyclague.com

Casey Clague holds an MFA from the University of South Florida. They live in Tampa where they cofounded the Read Herring reading series and serve as Assistant Poetry Editor for Sweet: A Literary Confection. Critical and creative work appears or is forthcoming in Action, Spectacle; Permafrost; Gravel; New Writing; and elsewhere. 

ANATTA

Darling, according to physics,

with the air    pulled out

from around

                        our atoms

and the atoms compressed,

we could fit in a sugar cube.

Humanity, I mean.

The skin-bound        

                             divisions of us.

Finally, the closeness

we sought

                    when we pricked  

our fingers     to make blood

brothers and sisters.           

What we came close to in sex

but even then           

                           were separated

by a silk-thin veil of sweat.

Before entropy sends its tendrils

through          our blank spaces,

crushes down our bodies

in city buses and offices,

let’s draw out            the dead air.  

Forget it like a hymn.

                                     Don’t say:

In that viewless room

we would all just face

the center. What would we do

                        with ourselves?

Kai Coggin is a Filipina American poet/writer with a newly released full-length poetry collection entitled "Incandescent" by Sibling Rivalry Press. Listen to us discuss how she came into poetry, the importance of her teachings, her amazing encounter and longstanding friendship with famed Chicana writer, Sandra Cisneros, and how she didn't know she submitted her first poetry submission to my literary & art online magazine, "The Manila Envelope", five years ago, among the many other "parallels" we have. She also reads a poem from "Incandescent" and explains the premise of it.  

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

You can order your copy here: 

https://siblingrivalrypress.bigcartel.com/product/incandescent-by-kai-coggin 

Visit her website: 

https://www.kaicoggin.com/

Incandescent

everything in me is a volcano everything in me is a blazing new sun everything in me is a conflagration of words everything in me is a color that makes up wildfire everything in me is a phoenix wing ablaze everything in me is a heart’s inferno everything in me is a lucent moon glowing growing giving off light light light in whatever form I can incandescent means emitting light as a result of being heated and isn’t everything heated and isn’t everything shamefully ablaze and isn’t everything burning before us and isn’t the whole wide world turning to ash can we still find the light in all that is being lost can we still project a vision that leads humanity forward can we still search out beauty in the rubble can we still shine amidst the trouble can we name ourselves luminous and believe it we must we do if you recognize this is how you move through life you are incandescent, too

Huda Al-Marashi discusses her mesmerizing Muslim-American memoir published by Prometheus Books, "Then Comes Marriage: My Not-So-Typical American Love Story" in this episode.  We talk about her influences, her challenges writing about her family and her life and a lot about the writing craft. More importantly, she talks about the accomplishment of being picked up by a large publishing house after years of submitting and revising.

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

http://www.hudaalmarishi.com

Huda Al-Marashi is the Iraqi-American author of "First Comes Marriage: My Not-So-Typical American Love Story", a book the Washington Post called"a charming, funny, heartbreaking memoir of faith, family, and the journey to love. If Jane Austen had grown up as a first-gen daughter of Iraqi parents in the 1990s, she might have written this.”

Excerpts from this memoir have also been anthologized in Love Inshallah: The Secret Love Lives of Muslim American Women, Becoming: What Makes a Woman, and Beyond Belief: The Secret Lives of Women and Extreme Religion.

Her other writing has appeared in the Washington Post, the LA Times, al Jazeera, VIDA Review, Refinery 29, The Rumpus, The Offing and elsewhere. She is the recipient of a Cuyahoga County Creative Workforce Fellowship and an Aspen Summer Words Emerging Writer Fellowship.

Huda currently resides in California with her husband and three children. Visit her at www.hudaalmarashi.com.

Listen to Alonso Véner, a Costa Rican writer residing in Japan, speaks of how he started writing poetry and his new interest in writing short stories. His challenge as a Latin American writer living abroad writing in Spanish, is the lack of professional literary Spanish translators to help him translate his work for a wider public. If, after listening to the show, know of someone who may be able to assist him with that, please contact him at info@alonsovener.com.

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

Alonso's short story collection!

https://www.amazon.com/Alonso-V%25C3%25A9ner/e/B007WRM9SA?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2&qid=1557405652&sr=1-2

Rodrigo Dela Peña, Jr. is a Filipino poet living in Singapore. Listen to us discuss his latest poetry collection, and hear him read a couple poems from his collection, "Aria and Trumpet Flourish".  We talk about poetic forms, his influences and his process of honoring the creative process by writing everyday.

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

Rodrigo Dela Peña, Jr. is the author of Aria and Trumpet Flourish (Math Paper Press, Singapore), as well as chapbooks, Requiem and Hymnal (Vagabond Press, Australia). His poems have been published in Rattle, Hayden's Ferry Review, Likhaan, Shanghai Literary Review, and other journals and anthologies. He has received prizes from the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, Kokoy Guevara Poetry Competition, British Council, among others. Born in the Philippines, he has been based in Singapore since 2011.

For more information or to reach out to Rodrigo, please visit his Facebook page:

 https://www.facebook.com/ariaandtrumpetflourish/

Marivi Soliven is the author of "The Mango Bride" that was published by Penguin Press.  She is a Filipina writer now residing in San Diego. Listen as she explains how she got the idea for the novel, how the novel made its impact helping Filipino women in domestic violence situations and what she is working on next. 

http://www.yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

http://www.marivisoliven.com

Marivi Soliven's debut novel The Mango Bride (Penguin, 2013) won the 2011 Carlos Palanca Memorial Award, the Philippine counterpart of the Pulitzer Prize. The novel has been translated into Spanish and Filipino, and a film adaptation is in process, with a projected release date next year. Stories and essays from 16 earlier books have appeared in anthologies in Manila and the United States. When not writing or organizing literary events, she works as a telephonic Tagalog interpreter.

Order your copy on Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/Mango-Bride-Marivi-Soliven/dp/0451239849/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1428507765&sr=8-1&keywords=the+mango+bride.

This episode takes us to Los Angeles where I got a chance to talk to Dr. Gregory Phillips.  It was his exquisite photography that caught my eye and prompted me to reach out him.  You will be amazed, just as I was, when I learned he has lived a rich life and the courage it took for him to stand for his conviction as an artist with a vision.

 http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

Dr. Gregory Phillips is a former English professor, who six years ago decided to leave teaching and pursue his life as an artist. He was living and teaching in Minnesota and woke up one cold, winter day and decided to move to Los Angeles to chase his dream to be an actor. That summer, he packed his car and headed west. It was the best decision he's ever made, he said. He's also a writer and photographer. In terms of his photography, it started as a hobby, some fifteen years ago. Shortly after starting, it became clear that he has an eye. Photography for him is a way to document the things he sees. When he first started making pictures, his subjects were mainly flowers, in color. One day, he started shooting black and white and a new world opened up for him. His hope is that when people see his photos, they have the same reaction: be moved and understand that no matter how dark the moment may be, there's always light. 

You can contact him and see more of his photos by following him on his Instagram: @cgregoryp

This episode takes us to Hawaii where I talk to photographer and writer, Floyd K. Takeuchi, about his beginnings as a photographer and writer, and his artistic philosophy on creating beautiful images of the people and places of Micronesia, Oceania, and the Pacific region.

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

Floyd K. Takeuchi is a writer-photographer who specializes in Hawaii, Japan and Oceania. He has had five solo photo exhibits in Japan and 15 shows, mostly solo exhibits, in Honolulu, Hawaii. He was awarded “Best in Show” in one of Hawaii’s largest juried photo exhibits. A collection of his photographs was acquired by the College of Micronesia-FSM as part of that college’s 25th anniversary last year. He has also had commissions to photograph in the Federated States of Micronesia and Marshall Islands for new hotel developments in those island nations. Floyd has also spent more than four decades working as a journalist and media executive in Hawaii, Guam, Fiji and Japan. He has published four books based on his photography and writing, along with an e-book that includes more than 30 videos of the best dancers in Oceania performing at the Festival of Pacific Arts. An American with degrees from Boston University and the University of Hawaii, Floyd was born and raised in the Marshall Islands, and his family lived on Saipan, in the Northern Mariana Islands, for nearly 20 years.

Website: www.floydtakeuchi.com

Instagram: @fktakeuchi

 Artist’s Statement; Floyd K. Takeuchi

After leading two media companies through the unchartered waters following the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the 2009 Great Recession, I decided I was past due for an infusion of creativity, to remember why I became a journalist 42 years ago. And that was to tell stories that help people better understand the world around them. This time, I rely on a camera to tell those stories. And I made the decision to focus on stories that showcased beauty, physical and spiritual; that honored traditions; and, which emphasized cultural values of the Pacific region. I’ve followed that standard in nearly every large, small, commercial and personal photography project I’ve taken on over the past decade. Whether it’s been documenting the behind the scenes life of a hula halau or school for nearly two years, roaming the side streets of Tokyo searching for signs of solitude and peace in one of the world’s most frenetic cities, or as I have in recent weeks, traveling by small planes and boats in the outer atolls of the Marshall Islands to do portraits of the master weavers who are reviving one that nation’s great cultural and artistic traditions, I try to remain true to my artistic values: search out beauty; honor traditions; and, respect diverse cultural values.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Here are some of the great photos by Floyd K. Takeuchi.  (Note: images are copyrighted by Floyd K. Takeuchi).

"Halau - A Life in Hula"

"Pasefika"

"Xavier High School: School on the Hill"

Listen to this week's lively session with two featured guests at the same time!  Two fabulous Filipina poets: Aileen I. Cassinetto (Poet Laureate of San Mateo County, CA) & Ivy Alvarez (Auckland, New Zealand)!

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

Aileen I. Cassinetto is the third  Poet Laureate of San Mateo County, the first  Appoint-New-County-Poet-Laureate-13334794.php">Asian American appointed to the post. She is the author of Traje de Boda (Meritage Press, 2010) and The Pink House of Purple Yam Preserves & Other Poems (Our Own Voice & Little Dove Books, 2018), as well as three chapbooks through Moria Books’ acclaimed Locofo series. She is also co-publisher of Paloma Press.

http://aileencassinetto.com

 Ivy Alvarez is a Fellow of MacDowell Colony (US), and Hawthornden (UK). Her work is widely published and anthologised, including two appearances in the Best Australian Poems series. 

With poems translated into Russian, Spanish, Japanese, and Korean, she is a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, and a recipient of grants from Creative New Zealand, Literature Wales, and the Australia Council for the Arts.

She is also a mentor for the New Zealand Society of Authors’ Youth Mentorship Programme; an editor for the NZ Poetry Society’s magazine, a fine line; a guest co-editor for Verity La.’s Discoursing Diaspora; and a former international editor for the first Aotearoa New Zealand edition of Atlanta Review.

Born in the Philippines and raised in Australia, Ivy Alvarez lived in Scotland, Ireland and Wales, before moving to Auckland, New Zealand in 2014.

http://www.ivyalvarez.com

Jo Reyes-Boitel is a poet, essayist and playwright. Listen to us discuss her new book "Michael + Josephine: a novel in verse" and as she explains how she got the inspiration for the book, how she got her start in writing and performance art, and why she helps other aspiring writers in her community. 

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

Bio:

Jo Reyes-Boitel is a poet, writer and playwright. She received her BA at University of Texas at San Antonio and she received her Bachelor’s in American Studies in 2007 where she focused on ethnic music expressions within dominant culture.  Her publications include Scalawag Journal (forthcoming), Windward Review (forthcoming), La Voz de Esperanza, Chachalaca Review, San Antonio Express-News, Dismantle (a VONA anthology) and Borderlands, to name a few.

Her performances include a one-woman performance piece, “this body” at W-I-P (Work In Progress), at Jump-start Performance Company, February 2019,“Nahual”, a one act play, written and directed for World Theater Day 2014, with one night only performance at Palo  Alto Community College and  "This is a Manifesto" workshop and performance under Virginia Grise at Jump-Start Performance Company, January 2018.

You can order her book at "Michael + Josephine: a novel in verse" Amazon which was published by FlowerSong Books, and you can read more about her, her work and her upcoming events at http://joreyesboitel.com. 

Peter J.  Crowley is a fine arts photographer from New England, now living in Olympia, Washington. He has amassed exquisite photos and portraits from people and his surroundings in Norwich, New London and Windham, CT, and wherever he may find himself. But his works include prolific and international recognition. Listen to us talk about how we met, his artistic vision and practices as well as his hope for the future. His website is http://www.peterjcrowley.com.

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

Peter J. Crowley has worked as a professional photographic artist and teacher for over thirty years.  Throughout his prolific career, Peter's work has come to exemplify not only his purist approach to the medium, but to many people, mastery of the sensuously precise image. His ability to interpret light as emotion has allowed Peter to reproduce the subtleties of tone and sculptural form that is so apparent in his superbly printed photographs. The popularity of his work has been enhanced by the technical perfection of his photography and his insistence on absolute control of the photographic processes. Peter's images have been published both locally and nationally.  Some of the numerous art and literary publications include Florida Design, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The Sun.  

Peter J. Crowley featured in Thurston Talk: https://www.thurstontalk.com/2016/09/15/peter-crowley-photography/

"Norwich Ct. Coffee in my Office 2008" by Peter J. Crowley

Get Peter J. Crowley's photographic book:  "Another Door Entered: A Life in Photographic Art"

Peter's extensive gallery shows: https://www.peterjcrowley.com/bio-resume-gallery-shows/

Yvonne Neth is a prolific visual artist working in several mediums.  Listen to us discuss her views on cultural and environmental preservation, as well as her thoughts on striking the balance as a mother and artist, and her experience being a woman in a tech field while gaining her commercial pilot license.

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

Yvonne Neth was born on the island of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) to Pohnpeian and Chamorro parents. She spent her growing years both on Pohnpei and on the island of Saipan in the Northern Marianas. Yvonne attended university in Honolulu, majoring in cultural anthropology, and also earned her FAA Commercial pilot’s license during her years in Hawaii. She returned to Pohnpei in 2009, and worked as a co-pilot for Caroline Islands Air. Eventually, the FSM Government employed Yvonne as their Aviation Operations Inspector for the nation's Division of Civil Aviation. After three years, she shifted from this position and became the Vice-Director for the NGO, Island Research and Education Initiative (IREI), a not-for-profit non governmental organization dedicated to producing culturally-relevant educational materials for Micronesia's students and conducting anthropological, environmental, and geological research in the region. Yvonne has collaborated with professionals throughout the Pacific region and has helped develop a multitude of educational products for Micronesia. 

Yvonne’s current art projects include a series of large charcoal portraits of Pacific people and a series dedicated to environment conservation. She also works with a variety of other media, including graphite, colored pencil, conte crayon, ink, pastel and watercolor.

Visit her website: http://yvonneneth.com

"...Gone Tomorrow: Tuna snarled in commercial fishing net, World Tuna Day Contest" (Majuro, RMI) Charcoal on paper by Yvonne Neth

Kristy Bowen, the founder and editor of  dancing girl press & studios has been a pivotal vehicle for promoting women poets and writers in her e-zine "Wicked Alice" and chapbook series at "dancing girl press".  Listen to us discuss how she started the venture, how she chose the name of dancing girl press, how she grew the press and studio, and her influences and creative processes as a poet and an artist in the book arts.

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

Kristy Bowen is a writer and book artist working in both text and image. She is the author of  a number of chapbooks, zines, and artist book projects, as well as several full-length collections of poetry/prose/hybrid work, including SALVAGE  (Black Lawrence Press, 2016) and MAJOR CHARACTERS IN MINOR FILMS (Sundress Publications, 2015). Based in Chicago, she runs dancing girl press & studio and spends much of her time writing, making papery things, and editing a chapbook series devoted to women authors. 

You can download and read her chapbook:

"the science of impossible objects"  

To see more her insights, influences and processes follow her blog: https://kristybowen.blogspot.com/

Bio: Tony Robles--The "people's poet", was born and raised in San Francisco.  He is the author of two collections of poetry/short stories, entitled "Cool Don't Live Here no More--A letter to San Francisco" and "Fingerprints of a Hunger Strike", both published by Ithuriel's Spear Press.  Tony is also the author of children's books, "Lakas and the Manilatown Fish" and "Lakas and the Makibaka Hotel", published by Lee and Low.  He is the recipient of the San Francisco Art Commission Individual Literary Artist Grantee in 2017 and was a short-list nominee for Poet Laureate of San Francisco in 2016.  

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

Here is the result of Tony's trip on the Al Robles Express!

https://vimeo.com/292537800

My interview with Filipina American poet, Luisa A. Igloria, has not only been informative but quite enthralling as well.  Listen to her explain how nature, place, and histories had such a profound influence on her work. Also discover how her daily ritual of writing a poem a day for eight years and going nourished her creative process and well-being. 

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

Luisa A. Igloria is the winner of the 2015 Resurgence Prize (UK), the world’s first major award for ecopoetry, selected by former UK poet laureate Sir Andrew Motion, Alice Oswald, and Jo Shapcott. Former US Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey selected her chapbook What is Left of Wings, I Ask as the 2018 recipient of the Center for the Book Arts Letterpress Poetry Chapbook award. Other works include The Buddha Wonders if She is Having a Mid-Life Crisis (Phoenicia Publishing, Montreal, 2018), Ode to the Heart Smaller than a Pencil Eraser (2014 May Swenson Prize, Utah State University Press), and 12 other books. She teaches on the faculty of the MFA Creative Writing Program at Old Dominion University, which she directed from 2009-2015, as well as at the MUSE Writers Center in Norfolk. Her website is:  http://www.luisaigloria.com

Tune in and learn about the inspiration behind the amazing Chicana poet, Ire'ne Lara Siliva's new full-length collection, "Cuicacalli/House of Song". Listen to her as she talks about her insights, aesthetics and philosophies. Please order her book here:Cuicacalli/House of Song. 

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

Ire’ne Lara Silva is the author of two poetry collections, furia (Mouthfeel Press, 2010) and Blood Sugar Canto (Saddle Road Press, 2016), which were both finalists for the International Latino Book Award in Poetry, an e-chapbook, Enduring Azucares, (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2015), as well as a short story collection, flesh to bone (Aunt Lute Books, 2013) which won the Premio Aztlán. She and poet Dan Vera are also the co-editors of Imaniman: Poets Writing in the Anzaldúan Borderlands, (Aunt Lute Books, 2017), a collection of poetry and essays. ire’ne is the recipient of a 2017 NALAC Fund for the Arts Grant, the final recipient of the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Award, the Fiction Finalist for AROHO’s 2013 Gift of Freedom Award, and the 2008 recipient of the Gloria Anzaldúa Milagro Award. ire’ne is currently working on her first novel, Naci.  Her new collection of poetry, CUICACALLI/House of Song, is forthcoming from Saddle Road Press in April 2019. For more about her, please visit her website: www.irenelarasilva.wordpress.com

Learn more about Filipina American poet, Barbara Jane Reyes' thoughts on her influences, creative process and how building a vibrant community among poets & writers is important for future Filipino American writers. http://www.barbarajanereyes.com/

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

Barbara Jane Reyes is the author of Invocation to Daughters (City Lights Publishers, 2017). She was born in Manila, Philippines, raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is the author of four previous collections of poetry, Gravities of Center (Arkipelago Books, 2003), Poeta en San Francisco (Tinfish Press, 2005), which received the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets, Diwata (BOA Editions, Ltd., 2010), which received the Global Filipino Literary Award for Poetry, and To Love as Aswang (Philippine American Writers and Artists, Inc., 2015). She is also the author of the chapbooks Easter Sunday (Ypolita Press, 2008) Cherry (Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs, 2008), and For the City that Nearly Broke Me (Aztlán Libre Press, 2012). Her sixth book, Letters to a Young Brown Girl, is forthcoming from BOA Editions, Ltd. in 2020.

Her work is published or forthcoming in Arroyo Literary Review, Asian Pacific American Journal, As/Us, Boxcar Poetry Review, The Brooklyn Rail, Chain, Eleven Eleven, Entropy, Fairy Tale Review, Fourteen Hills, Hambone, Kartika Review, Lantern Review, New American Writing, New England Review, North American Review, Notre Dame Review, Origins Journal, Poetry, Prairie Schooner, South Dakota Review, Southern Humanities Review, TAYO Literary Magazine, xcp: Cross Cultural Poetics, among others.

An Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellow, she received her B.A. in Ethnic Studies at U.C. Berkeley and her M.F.A. at San Francisco State University. She is an adjunct professor at University of San Francisco’s Yuchengco Philippine Studies Program. She has also taught at San Francisco State University and Mills College. She lives with her husband, poet Oscar Bermeo, in Oakland.

[For a complete list of publications, please click here.]

Listen and learn about Filipina American poet/writer/critic/artist, Eileen R. Tabios' past and ongoing works, her evolution and her thoughts about her creative process and influences. Please visit her website: http://www.eileenrtabios.com

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes

Eileen R. Tabios has released over 50 collections of poetry, fiction, essays, and experimental biographies from publishers in nine countries and cyberspace. Her books include a form-based “Selected Poems” series, The In(ter)vention of the Hay(na)ku: Selected Tercets 1996-2019, THE GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL: Selected Visual Poetry (2001-2019), INVENT(ST)ORY: Selected Catalog Poems & New 1996-2015, and THE THORN ROSARY: Selected Prose Poems & New 1998-2010. Her award-winning body of work includes invention of the hay(na)ku poetic form (whose 15-year anniversary was celebrated in 2018 at the San Francisco and Saint Helena Public Libraries in California) as well as a first poetry book, BEYOND LIFE SENTENCES(1998), which received the Philippines’ National Book Award for Poetry. Translated into nine languages, she also has edited, co-edited or conceptualized 15 anthologies of poetry, fiction and essays, as well as exhibited visual art in the United States, Asia and Serbia. Her writing and editing works have received recognition through awards, grants and residencies. More information is available at http://eileenrtabios.com.

You can also see some of her poems here on Poetry Foundation’s website.

Introducing this podcast as a place to talk about creativity, learn about some artists and writers. It is a safe place for artists and writers to learn about each other's creative processes and craft.  This is the first episode, so watch this podcast grow!

http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes