Prose & Cons

Hope's new book of poetry, Traveling the River, is coming soon! We talk about pomes, life stuff, and some nitty-gritty details of starting an independent press!!

Lydia has become a personal favorite artist of ours so why not have her back once again! This time she brought her friend Morgan Potts who performed during the Women in Radio fundraiser, both of them did an excellent job despite the general disarray and calamity within the bar. This week we were able to have calmer discussions about their work and what they had prepared. There were talks of dreams, coincidence, waitress culture, and more. Let's not forget that we had special guest host stand in Sumerth providing fresh and semi-profound insights. A very special episode, check it out!

What's the only thing better than four fantastic spoken word poets performing live? Four fantastic poets performing live as part of a fundraiser for the Sister Radio Documentary project. If you were not fortunate enough to attend this stellar event at Castleburg Brewery, never fear! We got you.

Hampton Sides is a visionary author who writes primarily narrative non-fiction. His most recent book, On Desperate Ground, about the Battle of Chosin Reservoir–the most infamous battle in the Korean War–is out now. I currently reading it and this book rocks my socks. And it makes for a great last minute xmas gift! Mr. Sides was so … Continue reading Hampton Sides →

Nerds, assemble! Let your geek flag fly, I say. Prose & Cons is cool and all, but how would you like to be transported to a world where anime is the sole source of entertainment? Where hentai, fan service, and camera angles are praised and condemned in the same sentence? Where whimsical tangents frequently derail the conversation and quickly devolve into uncontrollable fits of giggling? Fear not, child: you have arrived.

Once in a generation, the greatest poetic minds converge into a single evening. It is a beautiful gathering of precious souls and creative spirits, the likes of which will never be seen again. Until the next time. Word Nerds! is the brainchild of Ben and Dom, a Prose & Cons live event hosted by the … Continue reading Word Nerds! →

Who loves anime? Nerds love anime! And yeeeees, we are giant nerds. Although, to clarify, Dom, Douglass, and I are not the cool kind of nerd that has come into vogue in recent years (you kids don't know how good you have it!), we're slightly grown up versions of our even-more-awkward pimply tween selves who hid our manga collection and anime addiction from our cooler "friends." Dom, Douglass, and I are still the raging dorks we once were, and that is something worth celebrating!

This book offers inspired clarity on a topic that makes many of us uncomfortable just to think about, let alone try to solve. Of course, Rome wasn't built in a day! (That doesn't have anything to do with institutional bias but I just thought I'd pepper in 1-2 historical fun facts.) Enacting real change in the world of systemic prejudice takes a constant intentional effort. That may be why so many lame-o CEOs are too reticent to try! Or maybe it's because they're reaping the rewards from a corporate structure that's been actively designed to benefit them? Who knows!

Here's a tidbit of info you might not know: there's a bleep-ton of murals in our fair city! There are many of them, and they are awesome. Now, FOR THE FIRST TIME, a collection of these murals has been curated by one of Richmond's most celebrated muralists, the Night Owl (aka Mickael Broth). Dom and I sat down with Mr. Owl to chat about how he started off as a lad, tagging walls, and the unjust consequences he ultimately faced. We even touch on the US prison industrial complex! Oh yeah, we also talk about murals. It's mostly about murals.

What to say about these four precious souls? Young. Enthusiastic. Bright futures, all. AND SMERT AF [To be read in Stefon's voice] If you just stumbled out of the ICA, high on life and just a smidge of salvia, this episode is for you. Radio's hottest show is Prose & Cons. This podcast has everything: holographic poems, group telepathy, and milfs! LEt' s throw down some art SUBSCRIBE TODAY Come to our first ever live event, WEDNESDAY 11-7 at Stir Crazy roundabout 7 (please).

Get it?? This week's episode is all about Richmond's favorite (adopted?) son, Edgar Allen! Dom conducts an informative AND entertaining interview with Tyler Minx of the Richmond Poe Museum and even manages not to screw it up too bad. Good job, Dom! Also, I spent WAY too long having fun with the intro and outro, so please, respect my art...

Are you a nerd? Do you love Japanese comics as much as we do? Good! This episode is for you. You, specifically. We have tailored this episode to your exact specifications, [insert name here]. Crows & Pawns is where we get even more ridiculously self-indulgent and instead of interviewing guests who are smart about things, we interview... ourselves?! Top 3 manga galore, enjoy!

Life in 10 Minutes is a collection of stories that are brave and true. Sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hilarious. Usually a bit of both. L10 founder Valley Haggard is the recipient of this year's Emyl Jenkins Award for the outstanding work she has done for her ever-growing village. This episode is dedicated to her.

We all have to go on our personal odysseys for growth and money or whatever, but it's not until we return home that we see how much we've grown...or regressed. Melissa's Mount Pleasant series shows us the life and times of Iris and her father Henry after she leaves the big city lights for simpler rural times. We talked about the second book in the series "Every Now and Then" and her plans for addressing racial tension in a time where compassion amongst races seems to be waning. Ben was off larping or planting microgreens so Dom handled this biz. Give it a listen..or don't! The least you could do though is check out Melissa's work. Enjoy.

Surprise! We're huge nerds. Dom and I chat with young Douglass "Dougie Fresh" James about our top three favorite anime SHOWS of all time.

Dixon, Alec, Josh, and Akin join us for talk of condiments, jingles, and some guy named Colin Kaepernick! VCU’s Brandcenter is a nationally recognized program and we wanted to showcase the talent and brains that go into something that isn’t typically included in high and mighty discussions of “art.” I didn’t get a chance to … Continue reading Brandcenter →

Mr. King did not disappoint! You'll learn about the enigmatic wildman John Muir, father of our national parks. You'll hear tell of 30 women, crazy enough and strong enough to follow Mao's army thousands of miles across the nightmarish terrain Northwest China. What's not to love? This guy's an adventurer and a damn good writer.

Are you one of 99.4% of Americans who believe that grammar is a dusty old subject best left for Elizabethan geezers and Second-Grade teachers? Do you cringe at the letters M-L-A? Do you think words are boring? Well, then listen up, you friggin' troglodyte! Dom and I were honored and thrilled to welcome esteemed guest Kris Spisak back to the show, this time with her groundbreaking grammar-based game show, Grammartopia. Author of Get a Grip on Your Grammar: 250 Writing and Editing Reminders for the Curious or Confused and a popular blog, Kris is out to change the world. The world of words.

People don’t Die in the Comics Anymore What does that mean? Is that true? What does anything mean?? Is there such a thing as objective truth? You decide! Dom and I sat down to chat with spunky up-and-coming local filmmaking duo Austin and Dewey, of Remember Tommy Productions. The two met at film school, and … Continue reading Austin Lewis and Dewey Collins →

Andrea is an author, choreographer, performance artist, and former Richmonder! Her new novel Eden is about two sisters twenty years after getting kidnapped as children. With an opportunity to testify against their childhood kidnapper, Hope sets out to find her off-the-grid titular sister. 

Paula Gillison is an author, poet, artist, and all-around inspiration! She's got a refreshingly open-minded approach to all creative outlets and is here to share her wisdom and part of a short story!

Two local, experienced writers wrote two books about the lasting effect on slavery from the same local publisher. You'd think they'd be pretty similar, right? You'd think they'd be pals, right? Wrong! These two fine books are in fact very different ways, and these two fine gentlemen had never met before coming on our show (you're welcome, guys).

In another life, Brian was a painter. Inspired by the abstract expressionists and eventually found his own style, large canvas paintings with imagery of Catholic nuns. When he and his wife moved to Richmond in 1982 to find work, he was “reincarnated as a coyote,” forced to adapt in order to survive. Going back to … Continue reading Brian King →

Life in 10 Minutes: Stories that are Brave and True. When Valley Haggard came on our show, I asked if she might be interested in starting a podcast. A few months later and now, here we are!

The Vietnam War is a fundamental piece of our country’s history. It’s a war we see often in movies, but rarely do we get an honest, accurate portrayal. Dave Aldridge is a force. Looming at well over 6 feet, his age does not diminish his stature or his presence. He brought three stories to this … Continue reading David Aldridge →

Harry is the man. Staff writer for Richmond Magazine for goin' on 27 years, longtime fixture of local theatre, author of TWO books of Richmond history and ONE upcoming novel, Carlisle Montgomery. He fit right in with us two weirdos and came with more than one funny voice! Listen to us jabber about old-timey Richmond, blather on about bluegrass, hem and haw about this and that. It's a whole lotta fun!

Blair produces music under the name lovenloops, as a part of the creative team SolHot and its band, We Levitate. She is a producer and writer, currently penning her PhD thesis on the shared space for black girls created by SolHot, and the meditation and music that is created there.

I first met Gail and Brittney at Ian Bodkin’s Poetry of the Whatnot reading as part of this year’s RVA Lit Crawl and knew immediately that we absolutely had to get them on the show. Brittney Scott has a new collection of poems called The Derelict Daughter, the culmination of her writing career thus far. Much of … Continue reading Gail Giewont and Brittney Scott →

Michele was a delightful guest. She reads from Catcher in the Rye, as well as from her book, Lost in the Beehive. We talk about bildungsromans and the joys of growing pains! She is also the author of Above Us Only Sky (2016) and The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors: A Novel (2010). She is welcome back anytime.

Today we are joined by the great David L Robbins. We were a bit intimidated by this guy's hefty resume and outgoing reputation, but we needn't have feared; David is as down-to-earth as us fantastically humble P&C hosts! Dom characteristically bungled his "research" within the first 30 seconds of the interview, fortunately, I was there, armed with my wealth of knowledge and snappy wit. This is a very special episode... join us, won't you?

GRAND SLAM CHAMP Imani Thompson and PAGE POET SLAM CHAMP Pressman Pressman delight our ears and hearts with their pomes of love and anguish. Ben and Dom are also present.

These two are quite a pair. Henry, at the tender age of 13, is an honest-to-goodness political activist and writer. Valley is an extraordinary writer, teacher, and community builder. We talk about school protests, Thomas Payne, Roxane Gay, and starting out in the writing game.

We got your Lydia Armstrong... We got your AM Pressman... We got your Mikemetic... What else do you want?? Seriously, please tell us. We want to make you happy. Local Voices Live is a swell event put on by WRIR twice a year featuring panels from different WRIR shows. We pretty much nailed it (i.e. got amazing guests and let them talk as much as possible). If you like poetry and/or are interested in The Human Condition, you just might enjoy this audio feast. Bon Apétit~

Lydia Armstrong is a prolific and deeply personal poet. We Prosers sat down with Lydia to discuss memes as works of art, the lasting legacy of Marina Abramović's popularization of poignant performance art, and what it's like to slog through the writing of a first novel.

Join us as we sit down with Bill Blume and Phil Hilliker, two fantastic local Middle Grade authors.

"I killed dreadlocks. It was a crime of passion." Bert Ashe is an English professor at the University of Richmond, and author of Twisted: My Dreadlock Chronicles. We sat down with Dr. Ashe in the WRIR studio to talk about his influences, his book, and his dreads. Origins. Growth. Twisted. Golden Age. Locked. Confession. Twisted is structured according to Bert's own journey of cultivating his dreadlocks, interspersed with Black history and the context of the modern dread, voiced in Ashe's characteristic pithy wit. The book starts with a confession--which Dr. Ashe reads during the second segment of the episode--he goes on to explain that he missed the Golden Age of dreads. That Bert, a down-to-earth husband, dad, and dude, has contributed to the normalization of the hairstyle that once, not so long ago, was a clear sign of righteous rebellion. "from Uppercase Dreads to common-denominator lowercase locks..." Dr. Ashe is not only unquestionably intelligent and well-educated, he's also funny as hell! We had a ball chatting with our new friend Bert, and we, your ever-humble hosts, hope you'll enjoy listening to this episode. Bert also wants to promote his RVA reading group, Black Men Read?! If you're a readerly black man in Richmond, you can contact Dr. Ashe for details!

On the last Thursday of every month, poets and poetry enthusiasts gather at Infuzion RVA for The Writer’s Den Poetry Slam. Poets include members of The Writer’s Den slam team, as well as walk-on performers. Slams provide a unique experience: during the course of three rounds, poets advance (or are eliminated) based on the combined … Continue reading Episode 14: Michelle Dodd and Rob Gibson – The Writer’s Den →

Sequelitis. After the success (and many, many hours of editing out my ums and ahs) of our pilot, the pressure was on to make a great follow-up episode. We were incredibly lucky to get two amazing poets from The Writer’s Den slam team. Roscoe is the coach, the founder. Now the official emcee for TWD … Continue reading From the Archives — Episode II: The Writer’s Den with Monica Edwards and Roscoe Burnems →

For now, new episodes of Prose & Cons only air twice a month, so on those off-weeks we’ll be posting our back catalogue of goodies! This episode is near and dear to our hearts… we not only lucked into two amazing guests, it’s also our pilot. Our firstborn. In the minutes leading up to our … Continue reading From the Archives — Episode 1: PILOT! Featuring Oliver Davis and Aden Ware →

"Mikemetic" Donovan is not only a poet and musician, he is also a WRIR veteran and a great dude. We had a great time chatting with him, and we hope you'll enjoy this special episode.