Ep. 1 – Brenda Hillman and Geoffrey G. O’Brien: A Conversation
Brenda Hillman, Geoffrey G. O’Brien, introduced by Rachel Richardson
What is the role of creative political resistance in a time of ascendant fascism? From the elegy to the love poem, from the individual to the collective, these poets will explore how words give us strength.
Ep. 2 – Gary Snyder & Kim Stanley Robinson: Mt. Thoreau, Civil Disobedience, and Naming What Can’t Be Named
Gary Snyder, Kim Stanley Robinson, Laurie Glover, introduced by Jack Shoemaker
Pulitzer Prize winning poet Snyder and renowned science fiction writer and environmentalist Robinson climbed a mountain in the Sierras to christen it Mt. Thoreau. With their editor and publisher, they talk about civil disobedience, nature writing, the environmental movement, poetry and naming the unnameable. Sponsored by the Journal of Alta California.
Ep. 3 – Jabberwalking with Juan Felipe Herrera
Juan Felipe Herrera
This festival favorite and former U.S. Poet Laureate will teach you everything he knows about being a poet on the move. While his new book is technically for kids, anyone can learn to jabberwalk! With support from the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria.
Ep. 4 – A Journey into the Life of Rumi
Brad Gooch talks with Michael David Lukas
Brad Gooch, bestselling author of “Smash Cut,” “Flannery” and “City Poet,” brilliantly brings Rumi to life, exploring his time and place and reminding us how poetry transcends both. Sponsored by Society for Art and Cultural Heritage of India (SACHI).
Ep. 5 – Queer Poetics
Franny Choi, Tommy Pico, Sam Sax, Brenda Shaughnessy, moderated by Ari Banias
Franny Choi (“Soft Science”), Tommy Pico (“Junk”), Brenda Shaughnessy (“The Octopus Museum”) and Sam Sax (“Bury It”) bring us genre-bending work as playful as it is subversive. Bursting with questions and contradictions that resist hegemony at every turn, these poets are queering the canon one poem at a time.