“I sound my barbaric yawp over the rooftops of the world.” ― Walt Whitman
The Flour City Yawp hosted by Albert Abonado is Rochester's source for poetry and poetry related news, featuring interviews, readings, and conversations about the latest in poetry. Get your poetry fix every Thursday at 2PM.
The Roc Bottom Slam Team is in the building with Program Director/Slam Master Lu Highsmith, Aceyon, Shaq AOR, and Poetically Undefined. We talk about how it all got started, how each member became involved, and what slam poetry means to each of them. Stick around till the end to hear some of their fabulous poems too!
Tony Leuzzi and Lytton Smith join me in the studio to discuss Ben Lerner's much discussed and debated book (pamphlet?) The Hatred of Poetry. We take him to task on some of the underlying assumptions of the essay and discuss the larger implications of the arguments presented in the book.
Editor of the journal Ythm is in the studio today to talk about his exciting new project. We talk about the origins, formal constraints, and the differences between performance and the page. Sean also shares some of his poetry with us!
Poet MJ Iuppa joins me in the studio to discuss her latest collection of poems, a meditation on nature, art, and our relationships. The collection is rich with longing and stark imagery, poems of longing and memory. MJ also shares some poems from the collection.
The title comes from Mark Doty, who said he loved the small gesture of the sentence as a stay against the chaos, which feels appropriate for the two featured guests on today's show. Karen vanMeenen stops by to talk about Poetry Therapy: what it is, her involvement with it, and poetry's value as a tool for therapy. Patricia Roth Schwartz also joins us in the studio to talk about her experience teaching poetry in the prisons. It's an inspirational hour about poetry as a rehabilitative and therapeutic tool.
About Karen vanMeenen:
JoNelle (J.R.) Toriseva is in the studio to talk about her new book of poems Barbed Water. We talk about the influence of landscapes, the spiritual and Whitmanic qualities of her writing, and the process of publishing her first book. We also get to hear some poems straight from the collection.
About JoNelle (J.R.) Toriseva:
Last week Steve Huff and Christopher Kennedy talked about their involvement as teachers in MFA programs. This week, Harlow Crandall, Matt Kotula, and Carol McMahon talk about their experience as MFA students. We discuss the influence of MFAs on our writing, the community we experienced, and the dreaded workshop. All three poets share samples of their own work.
Let's talk the MFA. Steve Huff and Christopher Kennedy take a moment to discuss their experiences as teachers in the MFAs. We talk about the issues of diversity confronting MFAs, the current relevance of it, how teaching has affected their writing lives, and the kind of impact the MFAs can have on students. Christopher Kennedy also shares some of surreal poems with us.
About Steven Huff:
Poets Joe Hall and Jae Newman discuss the relationship between religion, spirituality, and poetry. We learn how these have informed their poetry, how their poetry engages the spiritual, and how their work is received by the broader literary audience. Joe Hall and Jae Newman also give us some moving readings of their poems.
About Joe Hall:
Members of the Breathing Fire Slam team Jordan Perry and Jillian Tiberio along with their coach Aceyon Owens join me in the studio. They talk about preparing for Brave New Voices, their experience participating in the slams, and learning more about slam poetry. The teens will also share some of the poems they will be reading at Brave New Voices.
