All Write in Sin City

On this week’s podcast, we have a group of selected poetry readings from the annual Black History Month celebrations from 2019 and 2020. The 2019 readings were recorded before our All Write in Sin City podcast was launched last May. 
 
Our Windsor-Detroit region is rich with history, including the history of previously enslaved peoples of African descent. Today, it’s also a multicultural area, home to many people who have come from all over the world, including African and Caribbean nations. So, Black History Month is a time of celebration in our area. On this podcast, we have a brief introduction into the history of the celebration itself by the event master of ceremonies, Irene Moore Davis.

We’ll hear selected poems from Mbonisi Zikhali, a poet, activist and law student here in Windsor. He reads two poems from this year’s event, followed by a selection from the 2019 event.

We'll also hear from Teajai Travis. A Windsor son, Travis is a poet, spoken word artist, and activist. We’ve heard about his City of Windsor Heritage Grant-supported project, Born Enslaved, on a previous podcast. Here, we’ll hear two of his selections from 2020, accompanied by his fiancee, Ninia Sotto. They will be followed by two additional poems from the 2019 celebration.

This podcast features poet Daniel Lockhart, fresh from his tour of multiple Canadian cities. Lockhart holds degrees from Trent University, Montana State University, and Indiana University, and is the author of four poetry collections, The Gravel Lot That Was Montana, This City at the Crossroads, Big Medicine Comes to Erie, and most recently, Devil in the Woods. He has also written a collection of essays called Wënchikàneit Visions. His work has received multiple Pushcart Prize nominations and has appeared in Malahat Review, Contemporary Verse 2, the Dalhousie Review, Grain, McNeese Review, and the Windsor Review among others.

Daniel Lockhart is also the publisher at Urban Farmhouse Press. He is a Turtle Clan member of the Moravian of the Thames First Nation, and currently resides at Waawiiyaatanong on the south shore of the Detroit River (also known as the border cities of Windsor ON and Detroit MI).

https://www.brickbooks.ca/books/devil-in-the-woods/
https://urbanfarmhousepress.ca/index.php

Before they become history, historical events are often family stories. Today we have a live recording of the Windsor book launch for To the River: The Remarkable Journey of Caroline Quarlls. It’s about one of the most famous escape stories in Underground Railroad history, and co-author Kimberly Simmons is a direct descendant of the book’s heroine.

The event was held at The Historic Sandwich First Baptist Church. The church was founded in 1820, and is the oldest active black church in Canada, and it was an important Underground Railroad site.  The current building—a large open structure—dates to 1851. Irene Moore Davis introduces Kimberly Simmons and the amazing true story in her book.

For more information on the book, follow these links:
https://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/jarvis-caroline-quarlls-part-of-windsors-remarkable-history
https://www.facebook.com/959138707439041/posts/it-is-here-may-i-offer-a-great-read-to-the-river-the-remarkable-journey-of-carol/2679135402106021/

On today’s podcast, we feature poetry and the blues on a live recording from Third Man Records in Detroit. It’s more from the fourth All Access Café, and this program brings you two amazing performances that mix the blues with poetry. The All Access Café is a unique spoken word event with a special focus, serving differently-abled artists and audiences.

First, we’ll hear from Robert Bradley, a Detroit-based blues singer-songwriter and musician, and then we’ll hear from writer and political activist John Sinclair, who delivers a powerful performance set to blues riffs. He's accompanied by Detroit musician and record producer, Tino G. 

The event was hosted by Detroit poet and arts activist M.L. Liebler. For more on these artists, check out the links below. 

https://funkydrecords.com/robert-bradley
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/john-sinclair
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sinclair_(poet)

Today’s podcast is a live recording of an event at Third Man Records in Detroit last November. It’s selected performances from the fourth All Access Café, and this program brings you transformative music and poetry performances. The All Access Café is a unique spoken word event with a special focus, serving differently-abled artists and audiences. On this episode you'll hear from:

• Detroit musician, poet and recording artist Tino G
• Jim Ferris, poet laureate of Lucas County and the Disabilities Studio Director at The University of Toledo
• Acclaimed Detroit poet and performance artist Semaj Brown, now Poet Laureate of Flint, Michigan

Detroit poet and arts activist M.L. Liebler emcees the event. For more on these talented artists, check out the following links.

https://funkydrecords.com/tino-g
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/jim-ferris
https://poets.org/poet/semaj-brown

Today’s podcast features a live recording of an event last fall with Benedek Totth, author of Dead Heat. It’s a book that has received a lot of positive reviews by major publications, but fair warning to the faint of heart: It’s a book for fans of dark, graphic literature. 

Totth studied American literature and now works as an editor and translator in Budapest. His translations into Hungarian include works by Stephen King, Cormac McCarthy, andHunter S. Thompson. Dead Heat caused a sensation in Hungary, where it won the Margó Prize for best first novel of the year. Find out more about the book at the link below.

http://biblioasis.com/shop/new-release/dead-heat/

This live recording took place at the St. Clair Centre for the Arts in Windsor, Ontario on October 20, 2019. Part of the BookFest / Festival du livre Windsor celebrations, the annual Books and Brunch was given over to publisher Marty Gervais, who with wife Donna, started Black Moss Press 50 years ago. Peter Hrastovec is the emcee who introduces Marty, there's a special reading by Elise Gervais, and the authors gathered share stories and celebrate the press. 

Featured Guests on the podcast: Marty Gervais, John B. Lee, Susan McMaster, Robert Hilles, Marilyn Gear Pilling, Rosemary Sullivan, Bruce Meyer, Laurence Hutchman, and MaryAnn Mulhern.

For more information about Black Moss Press and its books, visit the link below.

https://blackmosspress.com/

Marty Gervais is an award-winning journalist, photographer, poet, playwright, historian, editor and teacher. He is the inaugural Poet Laureate of Windsor, Ontario, and now Poet Laureate Emeritus. His awards include the Toronto’s Harbourfront Festival Prize, the Milton Acorn People’s Poetry Award, the City of Windsor Mayor’s Award for literature, and nearly twenty awards for journalism. Marty is also is the founder and publisher of Windsor-based Black Moss Press, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.

For the past five years, Gervais has also led a group of writers and students to France where they read at Shakespeare & Co. Books in Paris.

Marty Gervais has written more than a dozen books of poetry, two plays, and a novella. His most successful work, The Rumrunners, a book about the Prohibition period, was a Canadian bestseller in 1980, and again when re-released in 2011. Marty designed and now teaches an Editing & Publishing Practicum at the University of Windsor.

https://blackmosspress.com/

Lindsay Wong is the bestselling, award-winning author of The Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug-Raids, Demons, And My Crazy Chinese Family. Her debut memoir won the 2019 Hubert Evans Nonfiction Prize, and it was a finalist for the Writers Trust’s 2018 Hilary Weston Prize, the 2019 edition of Canada Reads, and long listed for the 2019 Stephen Leacock Medal in Humour. It was also named a Best Book of 2018 by the Quill and Quire and a 2018 Globe 100 Book. She joined author Casey Plett for a discussion about the book at BookFest Windsor/Festivale du livre 2019. Please note: This is a live recording in an auditorium.

Wong holds a BFA in Creative Writing from The University of British Columbia and a MFA in Literary Nonfiction from Columbia University in New York City. Her YA novel My Summer Of Love And Misfortune is forthcoming from Simon Pulse in 2020. Find out more about the author and the book at the following links:
https://lindsaymwong.wordpress.com/
https://quillandquire.com/review/the-woo-woo-how-i-survived-ice-hockey-drug-raids-demons-and-my-crazy-chinese-family/

Part of a series that was recorded at BookFest Windsor/Festivale du livre 2019, this podcast features four poets in conversation about Respect, a new anthology of poems inspired by the incredible richness of Detroit music. The book was published in late 2019 by Michigan State University Press. 

Two of the poets in this interview were also editors of the book, Jim Daniels and M.L. Liebler. They are joined by Cindy Hunter Morgan and W.D. Ehrhart. We hope you enjoy this conversation with four of the poets in RESPECT: The Poetry of Detroit Music.

For more information about the book and the authors, follow these links:
http://msupress.org/books/book/?id=50-1D0-45A0
https://www.cmu.edu/cas/people/daniels_jim.html
http://www.mlliebler.com/about
https://www.cindyhuntermorgan.com/
https://www.wdehrhart.com/