VS

On this week’s episode, Brittany and Ajanae continue their mini tour of the South in Houston, Texas. Next, they talk with Texas Poet Laureate Lupe Mendez about familial responsibility, masculinity, education, and the preservation of memory.  Until Next Time: Here are some pieces of media to accompany your experience of the episode, and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again! José Al...

On this week’s episode, Brittany and Ajanae travel to Houston, Texas for the first interview of their (mini) South tour. There, they talk with Joy Priest about landscape, road trips, the process of creating, putting together a collection, and what happens when Blackness meets theory. Until Next Time :  Here are some pieces of media to accompany your experience of the episode, and a writing prompt...

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In this episode, Wes reflects on his transition from being a youth to adulthood as it relates to the poetry scene, level of empathy, and approach to wonder. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In today’s episode, Kemi Alabi talks about poetic practice, pleasure, and play as it presents in their collection Against Heaven , winner of the Academy of American Poets First Book Award (Graywolf, 2022). In this conversation, they discuss the relationship between the secular and profane, subverting and breaking language, and the importance of embracing grief and the emotional body. Kemi will be...

Remica Bingham-Risher’s reverence for love and relationship is tangible in her work. The author of Soul Culture , Starlight & Error , What We Ask of Flesh , and Conversion talks with Brittany and Ajanaé about the necessity of Black women curating the archive and the value of interiority. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of p...

Franny and Danez grace us with insight on being grown and dreaming toward the future. These former VS hosts talk with Brittany and Ajanaé about the way sobriety, domesticity, and clarity about their identities as writers is shaping their lives.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In October of 1871, the oldest University in Nashville TN, teetered on the brink of collapse. To survive, Fisk University staked its last $40 on a set of field hymns and 10 descendants of American slavery. The singing group carried melodies their families shared in secret from the cotton fields of middle Tennessee to the high court of the Queen of England. The landmark tours of the Fisk Jubilee Si...

All The Apostles are Black, All the Saints Queer, and All of Them Are Brave: towards a queer canon (Pt.2)  Hello, hi Beloveds! Welcome back to the second installment of our Roll Call episode. We are your hosts, Kopano Maroga and Maneo Mohale, and we are sluts for history and sluts for discourse and are going to be picking the brains of our fabulous guests Koleka Putuma (featured in part 1) and Nak...

All The Apostles are Black, All the Saints Queer, and All of Them Are Brave: towards a queer canon (Pt.1) Hello, hi Beloveds! We are Kopano Maroga and Maneo Mohale and we have the absolute honour of hosting this 2 part episode of Roll Call for you produced by the Poetry Foundation. We are sluts for history and sluts for discourse and are going to be picking the brains of our fabulous guests Koleka...

In this episode, black feminist poet and performance artist Gabrielle Civil grapples with the slippery, urgent nature of black time, what she calls the déjà vu . She talks to fellow poets Rashidah Ismaili and jayy dodd, scholar Michelle M. Wright, and visionary six year old Naima about poetry and history, memories and the future. This episode offers sonic experiments, spotlight readings , and inti...

This episode is a roundtable discussion between Brittany, Maurisa, and Ajanae. We discuss the way that friendship has sustained us and been the catalyst for our growth as writers. We also highlight other literary friendships that inspire and guide our practices (i.e Pat Parker and Audre Lorde, Cornelius Eady and Toi Derricotte, Willie Kinard and AsiahMae, etc) and how valuable community is to the...

When many people think of experimental Black poetry, they imagine Jazz, or spoken word, or vernacular––they “envision” sound. But what about poetry you can see? In this episode, Keith S. Wilson talks with poets Alison C. Rollins and Chaun Webster about visual poetry. What is it? Where does it come from?  What strange things does it do to our sense of time? Show Notes: Hosted by: Keith S Wilson Pro...

Show Description Can any label or identity explain our freedom, our community or history? How do you identify and what does it mean? In this special episode with Jasminne Mendez, Darrel Alejandro Holnes and Raina J. León explores the fluidity of terms and identity as Black Latinx,o,e,a people from the diaspora. Work featured by Toni Morrison, Aracelis Girmay, Alan Pelaez Lopez and Elizabeth Aceved...

Friends, we’ve reached the end–Franny, Danez, and producer Daniel say their goodbyes after five wonderful years as the crew of VS. The team reminisces on some of their favorite moments from the show, tells some behind the scenes gems, and gets a lil weepy by the end. As we say in the episode, we are so deeply grateful to have had the opportunity to create this show for you. Thank you for your ears...

On our last guest interview (oh god!), the squad is joined by masterful poet and overall champion Rachel McKibbens. Recording from the spooky, amazing bar she runs in Rochester, Rachel breaks down her comfort with violence, the power of stopping without providing an ending, the joy and uniqueness of her Pink Door retreat, and much more. NOTE: Make sure you rate us on Apple Podcasts and write us a...

We’re dancing in the reflection pool with the inimitable Sarah Kay. On this penultimate interview led by Franny and Danez, the magnificent poet and poetry community member talks about what happened when she turned internal in the pandemic, the relationship between public persona and personal growth, and the gift of connecting with the form that she’s trying to pay forward to as many people as poss...

Douglas Kearney is developing some new armor for his people. The visionary poet breaks down how he is exploring the limits and possibilities of poems as protection, how he loves to share what he’s learned across generations, the power of drum machine prosody, and much more. NOTE: Make sure you rate us on Apple Podcasts and write us a review! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswiz...

Cyrée Jarelle Johnson knows how to find satisfaction on the page. The brilliant poet breaks down where satisfaction lives in his poems, where the confessional meets the surreal, how sexy poetic form can be, and much more. NOTE: Make sure you rate us on Apple Podcasts and write us a review ! Need a transcript of this episode? Request a transcript here . Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See...

George Abraham is ready to return. The Palestinian-American poet and professor talks with Franny and Danez about the experience of revisiting their first book Birthright, carving a past and future for themselves in the face of colonialism and homophobia, learning to spur their readers into action, and much more. NOTE: Make sure you rate us on Apple Podcasts and write us a review! Hosted by Simplec...

Evie Shockley is ready to bring us together. The poet, critic, and professor breaks down how she builds spaces to gather and exchange in her poems, the lineages she pulls from, balancing her critical and artistic lenses, and much more. Plus, some VERY important info about next season of VS! NOTE: Make sure you rate us on Apple Podcasts and write us a review Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company...

Aria Aber knows how to find the space between the buildings, the beauty in the ruins. The poet talks with Franny and Danez about her masterful book Hard Damage, sharing the fragments of her past with her family, writing toward city and landscape, and much more.  NOTE: Make sure you rate us on Apple Podcasts and write us a review! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for in...

The illustrious francine j. harris is in the proverbial building, and we couldn’t be more thrilled. The award-winning poet breaks down the transformative potential of being a hater, mourning the loss of anonymity at the open mic, championing the poets she’s in lineage of, and much much more. NOTE: Make sure you rate us on Apple Podcasts and write us a review! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz compa...

Cynthia Dewi Oka writes across generations, and what emerges is spectacular. The poet talks with Franny and Danez about flipping spectacle on its head as a way of subverting power, bringing both her mother and her son into the creative process, writing surreality as a young mother, and much more. This is a gem, y’all! NOTE: Make sure you rate us on Apple Podcasts and write us a review! Hosted by S...

Destiny O. Birdsong is happy to up to her elbows in the mess of life. The poet, essayist, and fiction writer talks about the joy of creating complex characters, writing auto-fiction, building books from a joke, and much more! NOTE: Make sure you rate us on Apple Podcasts and write us a review! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and us...