VS

Today on VS , Brittany and Ajanaé commemorate their final VS episode by answering audience questions! Join them as they discuss their favorite VS moments, how their friendship has deepened over the course of the show, their role as curators and archivists, and looking toward the next adventure.  Writing Prompt:  Write a poem setting intentions for the next season of your life. What will you pursue...

Today on VS , Brittany and Ajanae record their penultimate episode with aja monet! Join them as they discuss the role of anger and passion as poets and people, identity as a type of performance, the significance of feeling the poem in the body, poetry as a spiritual practice, and navigating the language, ethics, and the care that we give to people vs. causes.  Until Next Time: Here is some media t...

Today on VS , Brittany and Ajanae are in conversation with Shaina Phenix. Listen in as they discuss the literary universes of Black femme characters, the process of unlearning for eldest daughters, waywardness, audacity, and the ways that we learn to name and rename ourselves.  Until Next Time: Here is some media to accompany your experience of the episode and a writing prompt to tide you over unt...

Today on VS , Brittany and Ajanae interview Khadijah Queen. Listen in as they discuss their love for their hometowns, approaching non-linear form across genres, navigating projects with long life spans, the importance of leaning into intuition and curiosity, and revisiting past projects and eras in our writing. Until Next Time: Here is some media to accompany your experience of the episode and a w...

On today’s episode of VS , Brittany and Ajanae interview Rachel Eliza Griffiths; join them as they discuss forthcoming projects, their evolving concepts of home and privacy, approaching photography as a poet, writing for the ones that come after us, and the importance of curiosity. Until Next Time:  John Coltrane - A Deep Dive into John Coltrane’s ‘A Love Supreme’ by His Biographer, Lewis Porter (...

On today’s episode of VS , Brittany and Ajanae have the opportunity to talk with Cornelius Eady and Major Jackson live in Chicago! Join in as they discuss the capacity to feel, the legacy of themselves and others, the importance of community, the way that boundaries and ethics shift after writing for a long time, and what things still scare them about the page. Until Next Time:  Here is some media...

On today’s episode of VS , Brittany and Ajanae interviewed Jada Renée Allen. Listen in as they discuss their rabbit holes of research, “Drill” the manuscript and the music, the relationship between Black women and water, and the influences on our poetics.  Until Next Time:  Here is some media to accompany your experience of the episode and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again! Ale...

Today Brittany and Ajanae have the pleasure of talking with Saúl Hernández. Listen in as they discuss writing about tense familial relationships with tenderness, the act of being made invisible, grief as transformation, childhood as a lens, and how to identify a monster (spoiler alert: it could be anyone!).  Until Next Time:  Walter Mercado - Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado | Offici...

On today’s episode of VS , Ajanae and Brittany interview Barbara Fant . Join them as they discuss the relationship between family and authenticity, the importance of intergenerational connections among poets, writing as a tool for wellness, and joy as a part of chaos.  Until Next Time:  Here is some media to accompany your experience of the episode and a writing prompt to tide you over until we me...

On today’s episode of VS , Ajanae and Brittany interview W.J. Lofton. Join them as they discuss how they handle failure within their process, grief as a form of generosity, queer intimacy, spiritual expansion, and the process of unlearning harmful beliefs. Until Next Time:  Here is some media to accompany your experience of the episode and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again! Dan...

On today’s episode of VS , Ajanae and Brittany interview Hanif Abdurraqib. Listen in as they discuss burned cd’s, the cost of being a collector, living archives, new projects, and obsession as an origin story.  Until Next Time:  Here is some media to accompany your experience of the episode and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again! June Jordan - June Jordan at the NYS Writers Inst...

On today’s episode of VS , Ajanae and Brittany interview m. mick powell about their forthcoming collection, Dead Girl Cameo ( Penguin Random House). Join them as they discuss celebrity culture and conspiracy theories, obsession with the 90’s and 2000’s, Black queer feminist thought, and gathering artifacts across time periods.  Until Next Time:  Here is some media to accompany your experience of t...

On today’s episode of VS, Brittany and Ajanae have the opportunity to talk with Tiana Clark. Listen in as they discuss navigating burnout and perfectionism, advocacy within the medical system, neurodivergence, and permission as a part of the creative process.  Until Next Time:  Here is some media to accompany your experience of the episode and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again!...

On today’s episode, Brittany and Ajanae talk with Deesha Philyaw and Kiese Laymon—phenomenal writers and co-hosts of the podcast, Reckon True Stories . During this conversation, they discuss the impact of great editors, the overlap between poetry and prose, rejection in the writers room, and the beauty of friendship.  Until Next Time:  Catherine Coleman (Kiese’s Grandmother) - On Resilience, Tende...

Today’s episode was recorded live at the Sims Library in Los Angeles, California during this year's AWP conference. Join Brittany and Ajanae as they sit down with E. Hughes and Lue Hughes (no relation) to discuss the role that intimacy plays in their writing, memory being true for the moment, the role of grief in the writing process, and moments of messiness in their collections.  Until Next Time:...

On today’s episode, Brittany and Ajanaé have the honor of interviewing Nicole Sealey! Join them as they discuss friendship rituals, surviving writers conferences, learning from mentors, navigating old obsessions in new work, and love, love, and more love.  Until Next Time:  Here is some media to accompany your experience of the episode and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again! Nic...

On today’s episode of VS, Ajanae and Brittany are joined by poet Omotara James. Join them as they discuss the failure of poetry as savior, whistleblowers, art as a meet-cute, resisting shielding the speaker, and building trust with the reader.  Until Next Time:  Here is some media to accompany your experience of the episode and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again! Sharon Olds: Sh...

On today’s episode, Ajanaé and Brittany talk to Vanessa Angélica Villarreal! Listen in as they discuss mushrooms, quantum entanglements, borders, the ethics of daughters-memory, and the role of Fantasy and The Future in the Western literary canon.  Until Next Time:  Here is some media to accompany your experience of the episode and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again! Pedro Páram...

On today’s episode, Brittany and Ajanae chat with Amanda Johnston; join them as they discuss choosing joy, intentional literary citizenship, the history of Torch Literary Arts, recurring selves in the work, and existing in the here and now. Until Next Time:  Here is some media to accompany your experience of the episode and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again! Lucille Clifton - i...

Welcome to Season 9! On today’s episode of VS, Brittany and Ajanae chat with Chet’la Sebree about love, the origin of words and theory, chronic illness, vulnerability, and using language to explore our curiosities.  Until Next Time:  Here is some media to accompany your experience of the episode and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again! Natasha Tretheway: Natasha Trethewey’s Poems...

For this episode, Brittany and Ajanae had the privilege of talking with Yona Harvey and Mahogany Browne LIVE at Furious Flower 2024! Join them as they discuss the importance of community spaces, what they’ve learned from sistering and being sistered, finding affirmation in each other’s poetry, the process of shifting genres, navigating the tension between public personas and interior lives, and th...

On today’s episode of VS, Brittany and Ajanae speak with Alexa Patrick about all things nostalgic. Join them as they discuss playfulness as a craft tool, memory as a poetic foundation, the harms of being the only, prom season, desire, and having a crush on everything! Until Next Time:  Here are some pieces of media to accompany your experience of the episode and a writing prompt to tide you over u...

During today’s episode, Brittany and Ajanae talk with Ayokunle Falomo, author of the poetry collection Autobiomythography Of . Join them as they discuss the intertwining of mythology, time, and history, as well as the responsibilities of parenthood, keeping secrets, and navigating the multiplicity of the self.  Until Next Time:  Here are some pieces of media to accompany your experience of the epi...

During today’s interview, Brittany and Ajanae sit down with Sarah Ghazal Ali. Listen in as they discuss writing as a spiritual practice, honoring matrilineage, the importance of disbelief, the failed project of purity, and the generative force of fixed forms. Note: this episode was originally recorded in fall of 2024.  Until Next Time:  Here are some pieces of media to accompany your experience of...

In today’s episode, Brittany and Ajanae have the pleasure of talking to poets and artists Tank (from Tank and the Bangas) and Jamila Woods . Tank and Jamila take time before their tour to talk with our VS hosts about their entryways into poetry, how place influences their sound, the questions they hold in their minds while creating, and of course, how poetry intersects with the rest of their creat...