Charla Cultural

We're moving clouds with Ingrid Rojas Contreras. Ingrid Rojas Contreras is an award-winning author who was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia. Her essays and short stories have appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Electric Literature, Guernica, and Huffington Post, among others. She is the book columnist for KQED, the Bay Area's NPR affiliate. We'll start with a clip of from Rojas Contreras' performance at City of Asylum in July 2019, then we'll transition to an interview we just did with Ingrid, some conversation, and finally we'll get to what we're reading and some thoughts for the road. We'll be talking spiritualism, writing and identity, as well as that time I tried to buy some contraband and ended up with Something Special.

We're LOOKING BACK at Jazz Poetry. Jazz Poetry has celebrated the fusion of music and language for over 18 years. Musicians and poets are brought together by City of Asylum to experiment, collaborate, connect and to express themselves freely, yielding performances greater than their parts . Over the years, Jazz Poetry has featured hundreds of artists from hundreds of countries. This episode is really special, an opportunity to dig through performances from the City of Asylum archive 2011-2019. Unless you were sitting in the audience at the COA tent, or Alphabet City, at any of these performances, you've never heard these before. We're really excited to share. We'll Open with a performance by Sonia Sanchez from 2011. Then we'll follow up with the incredible medley featuring Justin Philip Reed, Ilya Kaminsky, Jenny Johnson, and Yusef Komunyakaa. All the music, the amazing jazz, is brought to you by Jazz Poetry musical director Oliver Lake and various musicians he's recruited to join him across the years.

We're eating fire with Jose Hernandez Diaz Jose Hernandez Diaz is a 2017 NEA Poetry Fellow. He holds degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, and Antioch University Los Angeles. His work appears in The Best American Nonrequired Reading, Green Mountains Review, Huizache, New Orleans Review, North American Review, The Progressive, Witness, among others. He has served as an editor for Floricanto Press and Lunch Ticket. His manuscript was a finalist for the 2018 Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize. We'll be talking astrology, Frida Kahlo, and the different definitions of "pocho."

Daniel Borzutzky is the author of Lake Michigan, finalist for the 2019 Griffin International Poetry Prize; The Performance of Becoming Human, which received the 2016 National Book Award. His other books include In the Murmurs of the Rotten Carcass Economy (2015); Memories of my Overdevelopment (2015); and The Book of Interfering Bodies (2011). He teaches in the English and Latin American and Latino Studies Departments at the University of Illinois at Chicago. We'll start with a Daniel Borzutzky's March 2021 performance at City of Asylum, then we'll transition to an interview we just did with Borzutzky, some conversation from us, and finally what we're reading and some thoughts for the road. We're talking joy, the love that survives, and how our country became used to massacre. 

We're turning tables with Patrick Rosal. Patrick Rosal is the award winning author of four books of poetry: Boneshepherds, My American Kundiman, Uprock Headspin Scramble and Dive, and Brooklyn Antediluvian. He is a Guggenheim fellow and lives in New Jersey. We'll be talking white space in poetry, our sister cultures, and scatological poetics. We'll also talk about my upcoming appearance on Jeopardy!, some pointers for reading poetry aloud, and about words that simply cannot be translated.

We're peeling oranges with Ada Limón. Ada Limón is the award-winning author of the poetry collections The Carrying, Bright Dead Things, and several other books, poems, and essays. We'll be talking about voice, faith, and answering the most impossible question of all: what is poetry? We'll also be talking about comics and revenge monsters.

BRIAN BROOME's debut memoir, Punch Me Up to the Gods, is New York Times Editor's Pick and the winner of the 2021 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, Poets and Writers, Medium, and more. We're talking structure, fires, and what to tell your mother when you write about how much you hate her. We'll start with a clip of Brian answering a question during his performance at City of Asylum back in August of 2021 and then Karla and I will chat a little bit about family and writing. After that, we'll listen to Brian Broome's full reading from that same performance. We'll transition to an interview I just did with Brian, some conversation from us, and finally we'll get to we're reading and some thoughts for the road.

It's the SEASON TWO premier and we're naming ghosts with Chiwan Choi. Chiwan Choi is a poet and the author of The Flood, Abductions, and The Yellow House. Choi is currently working on a fourth book titled my name is wolf. Choi is also the host of the new paranormal/literary podcast, Are You There, Ghost? It's Me, Chiwan. We'll start with the trailer for Are You There Ghost? It's Me, Chiwan and then we will chat a little bit about the relationship between ghosts and writing. After that, we'll listen to Chiwan Choi's full performance at City of Asylum back from August 6, 2019. We'll transition to an interview we just did with Chiwan, some conversation, and finally we'll get to we're reading and some thoughts for the road.

For our season finale, we're celebrating more Cave Canem poets to honor their 25th anniversary!! With performances by the poets Lyrae Van Clief-Stefan, Evie Shockley, Kevin Young, and Dawn Lundy Martin. Founded by Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady in 1996 to remedy the under-representation and isolation of African American poets in the literary landscape, Cave Canem Foundation is a home for the many voices of African American poetry and is committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of African American poets. Cave Canem has grown from a gathering of 26 poets to become an influential movement with a renowned faculty, high-achieving national fellowship of over 400 and a workshop community of 900. Cave Canem enjoys over 20 local, regional and national cultural partnerships, among them City of Asylum. We're featuring several amazing (and exclusive) performances from City of Asylum's Cave Canem archive—We're celebrating more Cave Canem poets in celebration of their 25th anniversary!! With performances by the poets Lyrae Van Clief-StefanEvie Shockley, Kevin Young, and Dawn Lundy Martin. Check out cityofasylum.org for more information on Cave Canem's October anniversary show or our show notes at charlacultural.com for more information. We'll also get into prose poetry, heists involving money, what we're reading, and some thoughts on The African Queen for the road!

We're breaking It Down with S. Brook Corfman. S. Brook Corfman is the author of My Daily Actions, or The Meteorites, one of The New York Times' Best Poetry Books of 2020, a finalist for the Publishing Triangle's Trans & Gender-Variant Lit Award, and the winner of the Fordham University Press POL poetry prize judged by Cathy Park Hong. They are also the author of the collection Luxury, Blue Lace, chosen by Richard Siken for the 2018 Autumn House Rising Writer Prize, and the chapbooks Frames, Meteorites, and The Anima: Four Closet Dramas. Born and raised in Chicago, they now live in a turret in Pittsburgh. We'll be talking memory, absence, climate change, and the body as well as what we're reading and some thoughts for the road. (GUEST HOSTED BY MARISSA JOHNSON-VALENZUELA with Adriana)

We're catching up with Casandra López. Casandra López is a Chicana, Cahuilla, Luiseño, and Tongva poet and writer raised in Southern California and the author of the poetry collection Brother Bullet. We'll be talking Brother Bullet, the importance of place, and how we get to choose what to call ourselves. Finally, we'll talk about we're reading and some thoughts for the road.

We're chatting with Paisley Rekdal!! We're featuring Rekdal's performance of West: A Translation at City of Asylum back in September 2019, as well as a recent interview with Rekdal in support of her newest book Appropriate: A Provocation. We're also talking The Ferrante Project, when it's okay to wear a sombrero, and how not to be a jerk about appropriation. Paisley Rekdal is an American poet who is currently serving as Poet Laureate of Utah. She is the author of a book of essays entitled The Night My Mother Met Bruce Lee: Observations on Not Fitting In, the memoir Intimate, as well as five books of poetry. For her work, she has received numerous fellowships, grants, and awards, including but not limited to a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship among others… She has been recognized for her poems and essays in The New York Times Magazine, American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review, The New Republic, Tin House, the Best American Poetry series, and on National Public Radio, to name a few. We'll also get into country music, the epistolary form, using pseudonyms to write soft-core pornography, as well as what we're reading, and some thoughts for the road!

We're checking out Cave Canem in celebration of its 25th anniversary!! With performances by Nikki Giovanni, Colleen McElroy, Amiri Baraka, Angela Jackson, Toi Derricotte, and Tim Seibles. Founded by Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady in 1996 to remedy the under-representation and isolation of African American poets in the literary landscape, Cave Canem Foundation is a home for the many voices of African American poetry and is committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of African American poets. Cave Canem has grown from a gathering of 26 poets to become an influential movement with a renowned faculty, high-achieving national fellowship of over 400 and a workshop community of 900. Cave Canem enjoys over 20 local, regional and national cultural partnerships, among them City of Asylum. We're featuring several amazing (and exclusive) performances from City of Asylum's Cave Canem archive—Nikki Giovanni, Colleen McElroy, Amiri Baraka, Angela Jackson, Toi Derricotte, and Tim Seibles. Check out cityofasylum.org for more information on Cave Canem's anniversary show or our show notes at charlacultural.com for more information. We'll also get into cultural spaces, the importance of crow intimacy, what we're reading, and some thoughts for the road!

We're talking translation with Rosa Alcalá!! Rosa Alcalá has published three books of poetry, most recently MyOTHER TONGUE (Futurepoem, 2017). The longtime translator of poet Cecilia Vicuña, Alcalá has been the recipient of an NEA Translation Fellowship and runner-up for a PEN Translation Award. She teaches in the Department of Creative Writing and Bilingual MFA Program at the University of Texas-El Paso.​​ We're featuring Alcalá's performance and interview from City of Asylum's Literary Festival—more info on the festival can be found at cityofasylum.org. We'll also get into what it's like to be translated, how to figure out the right word, what we're reading, and some thoughts for the road!

We're hanging with Helena María Viramontes!! Award-winning fiction writer Helena María Viramontes reads and then chats with us about what matters in her writing. We'll also get into assimilation, intergenerational trauma (with jokes!), what we're reading, and some thoughts for the road!

We're talking Carlos Andrés Gómez. Carlos Andrés Gómez is a Colombian American poet, speaker, actor, and equity and inclusion strategist from New York City. We'll be discussing his latest book, Fractures, as well as culture, and where we're really from!

OUR SECOND EPISODE!!! Welcome to the second episode of Charla Cultural! It's All About Denice Frohman. DENICE FROHMAN is a poet, performer, and writer. She performs some dope words while Karla and Adriana debate Latinidad. We'll also get into what we're reading and some thoughts for the road. [Photo by Corey McDonough]

OUR INAUGURAL EPISODE!!! Welcome to the very first episode of Charla Cultural! It's All Things Franny Choi. Franny Choi performed at City of Asylum with Jazz Poetry back in September 2019. We'll feature her performance, an interview, and a lengthy discussion about her most recent book, Soft Science (Alice James Books). We'll also get into what we're reading and some thoughts for the road. This is Charla Cultural, hosted by Karla Lamb and Adriana E. Ramirez, brought to you by Aster(ix) Journal and City of Asylum. Content is mostly clean, some expletives used for emphasis.