The Poetry Gods

Latest Episodes:

Season 2, Episode 12 Featuring Willie Perdomo Sep 05, 2017

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

Season 2, Episode 11 Featuring Eboni Hogan Aug 22, 2017

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

Season 2, Episode 10 Featuring Lauren Whitehead Aug 08, 2017

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

Season 2, Episode 9 Featuring Adam Falkner Jul 25, 2017

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

Season 2, Episode 8 Featuring John Manuel Arias Jul 11, 2017

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

Season 2, Episode 7 Featuring Nicole Shanté Jun 27, 2017

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

Season 2, Episode 6 Featuring Desiree C. Bailey Jun 13, 2017

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

Season 2, Episode 5 Featuring Aracelis Girmay May 30, 2017

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

Season 2, Episode 4 Featuring Noel Quiñones May 16, 2017

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

Season 2, Episode 3 Featuring Patricia Smith (Part 2) May 02, 2017

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

Season 2, Episode 2 Featuring Patricia Smith (Part 1) Apr 18, 2017

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 2 of The Poetry Gods! On this episode of The Poetry Gods, we talk to one of our favorite poets and people, Patricia Smith live from Vassar College about all the books we won't get to read, poetry, music, and beyond. Check out the episode and look out for Part 2 on May 2nd, 2017. As always you can reach us at emailthepoetrygods@gmail.com. PATRICIA SMITH BIO: Patricia Smith has been called “a testament to the power of words to change lives.” She is the author of seven books of poetry, including Incendiary Art (2017); Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah (2012), which won the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets; Blood Dazzler (2008), a chronicle of the human and environmental cost of Hurricane Katrina which was nominated for a National Book Award; and Teahouse of the Almighty, a 2005 National Poetry Series selection published by Coffee House Press. Her work has appeared in Poetry, the Paris Review, the New York Times, TriQuarterly, Tin House, The Washington Post, and in both Best American Poetry and Best American Essays. Her contribution to the crime fiction anthology Staten Island Noir, which she edited, won the Robert L. Fish Award from the Mystery Writers of America for the best debut story of the year and was chosen for Best American Mystery Stories 2013. Smith also penned the critically acclaimed history Africans in America (1999) and the award-winning children’s book Janna and the Kings (2003). She is a 2014 Guggenheim fellow, a 2012 fellow at both MacDowell and Yaddo, a two-time Pushcart Prize winner, recipient of a Lannan fellowship and a four-time individual champion of the National Poetry Slam, the most successful poet in the competition’s history. She is currently working on a biography of Harriet Tubman, a poetry volume combining text and 19th century African-American photos, and a collaborative novel with her husband Bruce DeSilva, the Edgar-Award winning author of the Liam Mulligan crime novels. Follow Patricia Smith on Twitter and Instagram: @pswordwoman Follow The Poetry Gods on all social media: @_joseolivarez, @azizabarnes, @iamjonsands, @thepoetrygods & CHECK OUR WEBSITE: thepoetrygods.com/ (much thanks to José Ortiz for designing the website! shouts to Jess X Snow for making our logo)

Season 2, Episode 1 Featuring Tim Seibles Apr 04, 2017

Welcome to Season 2 of The Poetry Gods! We're back! Thank you to everyone who has been politely and not so politely asking us about when Season 2 would drop. It's here. On this episode of The Poetry Gods, we talk to Tim Seibles about the body as embassy for communication, writing poems that are not just diplomatic, and much more. As always you can reach us at emailthepoetrygods@gmail.com. TIM SEIBLES BIO: Tim Seibles is the author of several collections of poetry, including Body Moves (1988), Hurdy-Gurdy (1992), Hammerlock (1999), Buffalo Head Solos (2004), and Fast Animal (2012), which won the Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize and was nominated for a 2012 National Book Award. His latest book, One Turn Around The Sun, is available now. His work has also been featured in the anthologies In Search of Color Everywhere: A Collection of African American Poetry (1994, edited by E. Ethelbert Miller and Terrance Cummings), Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry (2009, edited by Camille Dungy), and Best American Poetry (2010, edited by Amy Gerstler). Seibles’ honors include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, as well as an Open Voice Award from the National Writers Voice Project. In 2013 he received the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for poetry. He has taught at Old Dominion University, the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast MFA program, and at Cave Canem. Seibles lives in Norfolk, Virginia. Follow The Poetry Gods on all social media: @_joseolivarez, @azizabarnes, @iamjonsands, @thepoetrygods & CHECK OUR WEBSITE: thepoetrygods.com/ (much thanks to José Ortiz for designing the website! shouts to Jess X Snow for making our logo)

Episode 16 Featuring Where It All Started-- Season One Finale Oct 07, 2016

Welcome to Episode 16 of The Poetry Gods! On this episode of The Poetry Gods, we take you back to where it all started: the unreleased pilot episode of The Poetry Gods. We recorded this at the Solid Sound Fest where we were the WanderWord Poets In Residence. We wanted to take a step back to share where all of this started as we get ready to launch Season Two Of The Poetry Gods. See you soon, and as always you can reach us at emailthepoetrygods@gmail.com. Special Reminder: We are looking to book shows for Fall 2016 & Winter 2017. Bring The Poetry Gods to your campus! We would love to do a live show at your university! Follow The Poetry Gods on all social media: @jayohessee, @azizabarnes, @iamjonsands, @thepoetrygods & CHECK OUR WEBSITE: thepoetrygods.com/ (much thanks to José Ortiz for designing the website! shouts to Jess X Chen for making our logo)

Episode 15 Featuring Your Questions-- Part 1 Sep 13, 2016

Welcome to Episode 15 of The Poetry Gods! On this episode of The Poetry Gods, we answer your questions! We had a raucous time answering your questions about what to do when event organizers misidentify you as a slam poet, we talk about our influences as poets and writers, how we try to cultivate joy and love in our communities, talk about gatekeeping and answer a v important question from Safia Elhillo. We had so many questions that we could not answer all of them. Fret not! We will do a part two of this episode where we finish answering your questions in the near future! As always you can reach us at emailthepoetrygods@gmail.com. Special Reminder: We are looking to book shows for Fall 2016 & Winter 2017. Bring The Poetry Gods to your campus! We would love to do a live show at your university! Follow The Poetry Gods on all social media: @jayohessee, @azizabarnes, @iamjonsands, @thepoetrygods & CHECK OUR WEBSITE: thepoetrygods.com/ (much thanks to José Ortiz for designing the website! shouts to Jess X Chen for making our logo)

Episode 14 Featuring The BreakBeat Poets LIVE From Berl's Poetry Shop Sep 02, 2016

Welcome to Episode 14 of The Poetry Gods! On this episode of The Poetry Gods, we have a brand new "What's On Your Mind?" along with an archival recording of a poetry reading The Poetry Gods hosted at Berl's Brooklyn Poetry Shop on May 11th, 2016. Featured readers include: Camonghne Felix, Nate Marshall, José Olivarez, Aziza Barnes, Adam Falkner, Carvens Lissaint, Idris Goodwin, & Mahogany L. Browne. Special Reminder: Episode 15 will be dedicated to clearing out our inbox, so please send us questions and comments, and we will shout you out on an episode. Email us at emailthepoetrygods@gmail.com. Special Reminder 2: We are looking to book shows for Fall 2016 & Winter 2017. Bring The Poetry Gods to your campus! We would love to do a live show at your university! Follow Camonghne Felix on twitter: @KamoneFromPluto on instagram: @kamkilla Follow Nate Marshall on twitter & instagram: @illuminatemics Follow Adam Falkner on instagram: @adam_falkner Follow Carvens Lissaint on twitter & instagram: @carvenslissaint Follow Idris Goodwin on twitter & instagram: @idrisgoodwin Follow Mahogany L. Browne on twitter & instagram: @mobrowne Follow Berl's Brooklyn Poetry Shop on twitter & instagram: @berlspoetry Follow The Poetry Gods on all social media: @jayohessee, @azizabarnes, @iamjonsands, @thepoetrygods & CHECK OUR WEBSITE: thepoetrygods.com/ (much thanks to José Ortiz for designing the website! shouts to Jess X Chen for making our logo)

Episode 13 Featuring Camonghne Felix Aug 16, 2016

Welcome to Episode 13 of The Poetry Gods! On this episode of The Poetry Gods, we talk to Camonghne Felix about growing up in The Bronx & how she got started writing poetry. Special Reminder: Episode 15 will be dedicated to clearing out our inbox, so please send us questions and comments, and we will shout you out on an episode. Email us at emailthepoetrygods@gmail.com. Special Reminder 2: We are looking to book shows for Fall 2016 & Winter 2017. Bring The Poetry gods to your campus! We would love to do a live show at your university! CAMONGHNE FELIX BIO: Camonghne Felix is a poet, political speechwriter and essayist. She earned an MA in Arts Politics at NYU, is a 2012 Pushcart Prize nominee, and the 2013 recipient of the Cora Craig Award for Young Women. You can find her work in various spaces, including Youtube, and in publications like Apogee, Union Station, and Poetry Magazine. She is also the author of the chapbook Yolk, published via Penmanship Books in March 2015 and in May of that year was listed by Black Youth Project as a “Black Girl From the Future You Should Know.” Follow Camonghne Felix on twitter: @KamoneFromPluto on instagram: @kamkilla Follow The Poetry Gods on all social media: @jayohessee, @azizabarnes, @iamjonsands, @thepoetrygods & CHECK OUR WEBSITE: thepoetrygods.com/ (much thanks to José Ortiz for designing the website! shouts to Jess X Chen for making our logo)

Episode 12 Featuring Safia Elhillo Aug 02, 2016

Welcome to Episode 12 of The Poetry Gods! On this episode of The Poetry Gods, we talk to Safia Elhillo about her writing journey & much more. As always, you can reach us at emailthepoetrygods@gmail.com. We are looking to book shows for Fall 2016. Bring The Poetry gods to your campus! SAFIA ELHILLO BIO: Safia Elhillo’s first full-length collection, The January Children, is forthcoming from University of Nebraska Press in 2017. Sudanese by way of Washington, DC, a Cave Canem fellow and poetry editor at Kinfolks Quarterly: a journal of black expression, she received an MFA in poetry at the New School. Safia is a Pushcart Prize nominee, co-winner of the 2015 Brunel University African Poetry Prize, and winner of the 2016 Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets. In addition to appearing in several journals and anthologies including “The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop,” her work has been translated into Arabic and Greek. Safia has performed at venues such as TEDxNewYork, the South African State Theatre, the New Amsterdam Theater on Broadway, and TV1’s Verses & Flow. She was a founding member of Slam NYU, the 2012 and 2013 national collegiate championship team, and was a three-time member and former coach of the DC Youth Slam Poetry team. She is currently a teaching artist with Split This Rock. Follow Safia Elhillo on twitter: @mafiasafia on instagram: @safiamafia Follow The Poetry Gods on all social media: @jayohessee, @azizabarnes, @iamjonsands, @thepoetrygods & CHECK OUR WEBSITE: thepoetrygods.com/ (much thanks to José Ortiz for designing the website! shouts to Jess X Chen for making our logo)

Episode 11 Featuring Morgan Parker Jul 19, 2016

Welcome to Episode 11 of The Poetry Gods! On this episode of The Poetry Gods, we skip our usual segment of "What's on Your Mind?" to talk about names, phases, brands, publishing, & so much more with genius poet Morgan Parker. As always, you can reach us at emailthepoetrygods@gmail.com. We are looking to book shows for Fall 2016. Bring The Poetry gods to your campus! MORGAN PARKER BIO: Morgan Parker is the author of Other People’s Comfort Keeps Me Up At Night (Switchback Books 2015), selected by Eileen Myles for the 2013 Gatewood Prize. Her second collection, There Are More Beautiful things than Beyonce, is forthcoming from Tin House Books in February 2017. Morgan received her Bachelors in Anthropology and Creative Writing from Columbia University and her MFA in Poetry from NYU. Her work has been featured or is forthcoming in numerous publications, as well as anthologized in Why I Am Not A Painter (Argos Books), The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop, and Best American Poetry 2016. Winner of a 2016 Pushcart Prize and a Cave Canem graduate fellow, Morgan lives with her dog Braeburn in Brooklyn, NY. She works as an Editor for Amazon Publishing's imprint Little A and Day One. She also teaches Creative Writing at Columbia University and co-curates the Poets With Attitude (PWA) reading series with Tommy Pico. With poet and performer Angel Nafis, she is The Other Black Girl Collective. She is a Sagittarius. Follow Morgan Parker on twitter: @morganapple on instagram: @morganapple0 Follow The Poetry Gods on all social media: @jayohessee, @azizabarnes, @iamjonsands, @thepoetrygods & CHECK OUR WEBSITE: thepoetrygods.com/ (much thanks to José Ortiz for designing the website! shouts to Jess X Chen for making our logo)

Episode 10 Featuring Mahogany L. Browne PART 2 Jul 05, 2016

Welcome to Episode 10 of The Poetry Gods! On this episode of The Poetry Gods, we talk about language, whiteness, community, and much much more. This is part two of our conversation with genius poet, educator, organizer Mahogany L. Browne. If you missed part one, you should go back and catch up. As always, you can reach us at emailthepoetrygods@gmail.com. MAHOGANY L. BROWNE BIO: The Cave Canem and Poets House alumnae is the author of several books including Dear Twitter: Love Letters Hashed Out On-line, recommended by Small Press Distribution & About.com Best Poetry Books of 2010. She has released five LPs including the live album Sheroshima. As co-founder of the Off Broadway poetry production, Jam On It, and co-producer of NYC’s 1st Performance Poetry Festival: SoundBites Poetry Festival, Mahogany bridges the gap between lyrical poets and literary emcee. Browne has toured Germany, Amsterdam, England, Canada and recently Australia as 1/3 of the cultural arts exchange project Global Poetics. Her journalism work has been published in magazines Uptown, KING, XXL, The Source, Canada’s The Word and UK’s MOBO. Her poetry has been published in literary journals Pluck, Manhattanville Review, Muzzle, Union Station Mag, Literary Bohemian, Bestiary, Joint & The Feminist Wire. She is anticipating the release of several poetry collections in 2015: Smudge (Button Poetry), Redbone (Willow Books) & the anthology The Break Beat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop (Haymarket). She is an Urban Word NYC mentor, as seen on HBO’s Brave New Voices and facilitates performance poetry and writing workshops throughout the country. Brown is also the publisher of Penmanship Books, the Nuyorican Poets Café Poetry Program Director and Friday Night Slam curator and currently an MFA Candidate for Writing & Activism at Pratt Institute. Follow Mahogany L. Browne on twitter & instagram: @mobrowne Follow The Poetry Gods on all social media: @jayohessee, @azizabarnes, @iamjonsands, @thepoetrygods & CHECK OUR WEBSITE: thepoetrygods.com/ (much thanks to José Ortiz for designing the website! shouts to Jess X Chen for making our logo)

Episode 9 Featuring Mahogany L. Browne Jun 21, 2016

Welcome to Episode 9 of The Poetry Gods! On this episode of The Poetry Gods, José apologizes to Nas, & we talk extensively about community and creating space with genius poet & organizer Mahogany L. Browne. This is Part 1 of our conversation with Mahogany. We couldn't stop after just an hour, so look out for Part 2 dropping on July 5th. Shout out to the sponsors: Drake! Thank you for the OVO chains. Shouts to SquareSpace-- y'all are not an official sponsor yet, but we're trying to make it happen. Holler at us. As always, you can reach us at emailthepoetrygods@gmail.com. MAHOGANY L. BROWNE BIO: The Cave Canem and Poets House alumnae is the author of several books including Dear Twitter: Love Letters Hashed Out On-line, recommended by Small Press Distribution & About.com Best Poetry Books of 2010. She has released five LPs including the live album Sheroshima. As co-founder of the Off Broadway poetry production, Jam On It, and co-producer of NYC’s 1st Performance Poetry Festival: SoundBites Poetry Festival, Mahogany bridges the gap between lyrical poets and literary emcee. Browne has toured Germany, Amsterdam, England, Canada and recently Australia as 1/3 of the cultural arts exchange project Global Poetics. Her journalism work has been published in magazines Uptown, KING, XXL, The Source, Canada’s The Word and UK’s MOBO. Her poetry has been published in literary journals Pluck, Manhattanville Review, Muzzle, Union Station Mag, Literary Bohemian, Bestiary, Joint & The Feminist Wire. She is anticipating the release of several poetry collections in 2015: Smudge (Button Poetry), Redbone (Willow Books) & the anthology The Break Beat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop (Haymarket). She is an Urban Word NYC mentor, as seen on HBO’s Brave New Voices and facilitates performance poetry and writing workshops throughout the country. Brown is also the publisher of Penmanship Books, the Nuyorican Poets Café Poetry Program Director and Friday Night Slam curator and currently an MFA Candidate for Writing & Activism at Pratt Institute. Follow Mahogany L. Browne on twitter & instagram: @mobrowne Follow The Poetry Gods on all social media: @jayohessee, @azizabarnes, @iamjonsands, @thepoetrygods & CHECK OUR WEBSITE: thepoetrygods.com/ (much thanks to José Ortiz for designing the website! shouts to Jess X Chen for making our logo)

Episode 8 Featuring Jive Poetic Jun 07, 2016

Welcome to Episode 8 of The Poetry Gods! On this episode of The Poetry Gods, we talk about love poems (including of one of our favorite love poems: Matthew Olzmann's "Mountain Dew Commercial Disguised As A Love Poem"), being present, and we talk to incredible poet and educator, Jive Poetic about technology, how he got started writing poems, and we get some incredible stories about the poetry scene in New York City. JIVE POETIC BIO: Jive Poetic received his BA in Media Studies from The University of Buffalo before dedicating all of his time to good poems, classic hip-hop albums, clever t-shirts, blue pitbulls and bodega sandwiches. Jive is the co-founder of both JAM ON IT POETRY and THE SOUNDBITES POETRY FESTIVAL. Currently he is the host of the Open Slam at THE NUYORICAN POETS CAFE'. When JIVE POETIC is not on tour he leads poetry and hip-hop workshops in the New York City Public School system and in various community centers throughout the TRI-STATE area. Follow Jive Poetic on twitter & instagram: @jivepoetic Follow The Poetry Gods on all social media: @jayohessee, @azizabarnes, @iamjonsands, @thepoetrygods & CHECK OUR WEBSITE: thepoetrygods.com/ (much thanks to José Ortiz for designing the website! shouts to Jess X Chen for making our logo)

Episode 7 Featuring Nabila Lovelace May 24, 2016

Welcome to Episode 7 of The Poetry Gods! On this episode of The Poetry Gods, Aziza talks about her trip to Dubai, José is raspy (ask Aziza about what raspy means) & recovering from the flu, Jon talks about waiting for the Podcast to drop and we talk to Poet & Organizer, Nabila Lovelace about growing up in Queens, writing poems in New York and her journey to her MFA Program at the University of Alabama. NABILA LOVELACE BIO: is a born and raised Queens native, as well as a first generation American. Her parents hail from Trinidad and Tobago and Nigeria. She is a 2015 Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop fellow, finalist for the Emerge-Be-Surface fellowship 2014, and a winner of the 2013 Poets & Writers Amy Award. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Washington Square Review, Day One, the Winter Tangerine Hands Up Don't Shoot edition & The Offing. She is a reader for both Union Station magazine and The Black Warrior Review. She is a current MFA candidate at the University of Alabama— Tuscaloosa. In her spare time she enjoys the warm weather by doing hoodrat things with her friends. Follow Nabila on twitter & instagram: @nabilas_here Follow The Poetry Gods on all social media: @jayohessee, @azizabarnes, @iamjonsands, @thepoetrygods & CHECK OUR WEBSITE: thepoetrygods.com/ (much thanks to José Ortiz for designing the website! shouts to Jess X Chen for making our logo)

Episode 6 Featuring Paul Tran May 10, 2016

Welcome to Episode 6 of The Poetry Gods! On this episode of The Poetry Gods, we introduce a new segment: Unpopular Opinions! What don't we like? Find out & get your Twitter fingers ready! we talk to poet, educator, and historian Paul Tran! ALSO: on Wednesday, May 10th, The Poetry Gods are hosting a reading by The Breakbeat Poets at Berl's Brooklyn Poetry Shop. If you're in NYC, come hang out with us: http://www.berlspoetry.com/events/2016/5/11/breakbeat-poets-reading-hosted-by-the-poetry-gods-featuring-readings-by-adam-falkner-mahogany-l-browne-idris-goodwin-jos-olivarez-aziza-barnes-nate-marshall-and-special-guests PAUL TRAN BIO: Paul Tran is a Vietnamese American historian and spoken word poet. He is currently the 10th ranked slam poet and top queer Asian American poet in the world. He won “Best Poet” and “Pushing the Art Forward” at the 2013 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational and represented the Nuyorican Poets Cafe at the 2015 National Poetry Slam, which placed 9th overall. He has received awards and fellowships from Kundiman, the VONA/Voices Writing Workshop, the Asian American Literary Arts & Performance Festival, Poets House Emerging Poets, the Lambda Literary Foundation Emerging LGBTQ Voices, the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference, the Vermont Studio Center, Home School Miami, the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation, the Imagining America Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Leadership Alliance & Office of the Senior Vice Provost at Harvard University, the Creative Arts Council & Dean of the College at Brown University, and the Brown-Tougaloo College Partnership. Follow Paul on twitter & instagram: @speakdeadly Follow The Poetry Gods on all social media: @jayohessee, @azizabarnes, @iamjonsands, @thepoetrygods & CHECK OUR WEBSITE: thepoetrygods.com/ (much thanks to José Ortiz for designing the website!)

Episode 5 Featuring Joshua Bennett Apr 26, 2016

Welcome to Episode 5 of The Poetry Gods! This episode is brought to you by Robitussin & Vaporub. On this episode of The Poetry Gods, we talk to poet, educator, and doctoral candidate, Joshua Bennett! We talk about Robert Kelly, mammalian solidarity, & more. JOSHUA BENNETT BIO: Joshua Bennett is a doctoral candidate in the English Department at Princeton University. Winner of the 2015 National Poetry Series, his poems have been published or are forthcoming in Beloit Poetry Journal, Callaloo, New England Review, the Kenyon Review and elsewhere. Penguin Books will publish Joshua’s first collection of poems, The Sobbing School, in 2016. Follow Joshua on twitter & instagram: @sirjoshbennett Follow The Poetry Gods on all social media: @jayohessee, @azizabarnes, @iamjonsands, @thepoetrygods & CHECK OUR NEW WEBSITE: http://thepoetrygods.com/ (much thanks to José Ortiz for designing the website!)

Episode 4 Featuring Jeanann Verlee Apr 12, 2016

Welcome to Episode 4 of The Poetry Gods! On this episode of The Poetry Gods, we talk to the extraordinary Jeanann Verlee about social media, the struggle of leisure, & we have the return of Aziza's guide to dating 101 plus so much more! If you haven't seen the news, Book Riot featured The Poetry Gods on their list of 11 poetry podcasts for Poetry Lovers-- check it out https://bookriot.com/2016/04/11/11-podcasts-for-poetry-lovers/ JEANANN VERLEE'S BIO: JEANANN VERLEE is a performance poet, editor, and former punk rocker who collects tattoos and wears polka dots. She is author of two poetry collections: Said the Manic to the Muse and Racing Hummingbirds, which earned the Independent Publisher Book Award Silver Medal in poetry. She has also been awarded the Third Coast Poetry Prize and the Sandy Crimmins National Prize for Poetry. Her work has appeared in failbetter, Rattle, Adroit, and PANK, among other journals, and anthologized in various publications, including Uncommon Core: Contemporary Poems for Learning and Living, The Courage Anthology: Daring Poems for Gutsy Girls, and Looking for the Enemy: The Eternal Internal Gender Wars of Our Sisters Anthology. She was first runner-up for the Indiana Review Poetry Prize and has received multiple nominations for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Bettering American Poetry. Verlee worked as poetry editor for Union Station Magazine, For Some Time Now: Performance Poets of New York City, and Winter Tangerine Review: Fragments of Persephone, in addition to a number of individual collections. Follow us on social media: @azizabarnes, @iamjonsands, @jayohessee, @thepoetrygods Episode 5 with Joshua Bennett drops on April 26th!

Episode 3 Featuring Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib Mar 29, 2016

Welcome to Episode 3 of The Poetry Gods! On this episode of The Poetry Gods, we talk to poet, essayist, and relentless Ohioan Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib about The Revenant and why one would go on a date to go see The Passion Of The Christ, amongst other topics. We also debate the merits of the state of Wyoming. Sorry, Wyoming! We're sure you're wonderful. Follow The Poetry Gods on Twitter: @thepoetrygods ; @azizabarnes ; @iamjonsands ; @jayohessee. HANIF WILLIS-ABDURRAQIB'S BIO: Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. He is the editor of Again I Wait For This To Pull Apart, an anthology of poems relating to music, released by Freezeray Press in 2015. His poetry has been published in Muzzle, Vinyl, PEN American, and various other journals. His essays and music criticism has been published in The FADER, Pitchfork, and The New York Times. He has been nominated for the pushcart prize, and his poem "Hestia" won the 2014 Capital University poetry prize. His first full length collection, The Crown Ain't Worth Much, is forthcoming in 2016 from Button Poetry / Exploding Pinecone Press. He is a Callaloo Creative Writing Fellow, an interviewer at Union Station Magazine, and a poetry editor at Muzzle Magazine. Additionally, he is a columnist at MTV News, where he writes about music, and fights to get Room Raiders back on the air. He thinks poems can change the world, but really wants to talk to you about music, sports, and sneakers. Follow Hanif on twitter at @nifmuhammad. Episode 4 drops on April 12th with Jeanann Verlee! Stay tuned!

Episode 2 Featuring Jeremy Michael Clark Mar 15, 2016

Welcome to Episode 2 of The Poetry Gods! In this episode we talk to Jeremy Michael Clark about the worst performances we've ever done, tattoo ideas, vulnerability and more. If you like what you hear, please follow us on soundcloud, subscribe on iTunes, and follow us on Twitter. JEREMY MICHAEL CLARK BIO: Jeremy Clark is from Louisville, Kentucky. A Cave Canem Fellow, he is currently living in Newark, New Jersey, where he is an MFA candidate at Rutgers University. Follow Jeremy on Instagram: @jmichaelclark Follow The Poetry Gods on Twitter: @ThePoetryGods @AzizaBarnes @IAmJonSands @JayOhEssEe Episode 3 drops on March 29th with HANIF WILLIS-ABDURRAQIB!

Episode 1 featuring Jayson P Smith Feb 29, 2016

Welcome to episode 1 of The Poetry Gods. In this episode of The Poetry Gods, we talk to poet Jayson P Smith about love, how to spit game, growing up the oldest child and more. If you like what you hear, please subscribe. Episode 2 coming soon featuring Jeremy Michael Clark. JAYSON P SMITH'S BIO: A 2014 Pushcart Prize Nominee & Callaloo fellow, Jayson's poems appear /are forthcoming in journals such as Day One, Twelfth House, The Rumpus, MUZZLE, & beyond. In addition to being an Urban Word NYC Mentor, Jayson is Poetry Editor at Union Station Magazine, co-curator for Poets in Unexpected Places & reader for The Atlas Review.

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