Ama Codjoe is a poet based in New York City. She is the author of Bluest Nude and Blood of the Air. Her poems and essays have been published in many outlets and her work has twice appeared in The Best American Poetry. Her poems often engage with visual art—especially art by Black women artists. 

This conversation is much about the body. On how we relate to nudity and nakedness, on being in the body as an artist and on living a fully sensual life. Ama shares about her writing process and ekphrastic poetry, and we also talk about the many ways we love outside of the mainstream definition of that word “love.”

As we are moving into a new year I’m thinking about how Ama’s book Bluest Nude and this conversation I had with her has been a great gift to my life this past year. I hope that if you don't already know her work that discovering it now might bring about this same opening in you. 

To find out more about the Hear Me Now exhibit at The Met that Ama mentioned, she kindly passed along this link: https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2022/edgefield

You can find Ama’s work here: 

https://www.amacodjoe.com/

This episode was audio produced by Katie McMurran. Theme music is by Madisen Ward.