Dante's New South Radio Show

June 2026 New South

Alain Johannes:

Chilean-American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, vocalist, and producer Alain Johannes has spent over four decades at the center of adventurous rock music. Born in Santiago in 1962, he began in the early Los Angeles punk scene alongside future Red Hot Chili Peppers members Hillel Slovak, Flea, and Jack Irons before co-founding the alternative rock band Eleven in 1990. He has collaborated with Queens of the Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures, Chris Cornell, PJ Harvey, Arctic Monkeys, Mark Lanegan, and Dave Grohl’s Sound City Players. A master of numerous instruments, his acclaimed solo albums include Spark (2010), Fragments and Wholes (2014), and Hum (2020).

Website: www.alainjohannes.com

Instagram: @alainjohannestour

Christopher Macken:

Christopher “SUG” Macken began his career in a small-town Georgia salon, developing a passion for transformation and style that led to a global career in fashion, beauty, and media. He rose to become a Global Creative Director for major international cosmetic brands and built a reputation as a celebrity stylist and television personality. Today he is the founder of SUG BRANDS, including SUG WEAR, SUG MEDIA, and SUG SKIN (launching Summer 2026). Based in Barcelona, Spain, Macken continues to inspire audiences with his blend of European sophistication and bold personal style.

https://www.instagram.com/mansionsandmascara/

https://www.facebook.com/MisterMacken/

http://www.sugwear.com/

Ariana Benson:

Ariana Benson’s debut poetry collection, Black Pastoral (University of Georgia Press, 2023), won the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. A finalist for both the National Book Critics Circle Leonard Prize and the Library of Virginia Prize in Poetry, the collection explores ecology, Black history, love, and the American landscape. Benson has also received a 2025 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship, and the Furious Flower Poetry Prize.

https://arianabenson.wordpress.com/about/

https://www.instagram.com/extraordin_arie/

Michael Temple:

Michael Temple is the founder of Climb Higher®, and a relationship and identity reconstruction coach specializing in heartbreak recovery, attachment wounds, and personal rebuilding. Through coaching, speaking, and social media, he helps people develop self-respect, emotional clarity, and healthier relationships. He is also an ordained pastor, law enforcement chaplain, host of The Inner Boardroom podcast, and creator of the upcoming Climb Higher Podcast launching in June 2026.

https://Stan.store/michaeltothemax

Additional Music Provided By:

Alain Johannes: www.alainjohannes.com

Documentary: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc-_u2UmFF4&t=517s

Much Love to Our Advertisers:

The Crown: www.thecrownbrasstown.com

Red Phone Booth: www.redphonebooth.com

Lucid House Publishing: www.lucidhousepublishing.com

Benheart: www.benheart.it/?srsltid=AfmBOoprk-KdotEwiA3Wv--bxJbwn8qWKoEqOtF1Gh7nSPA8UwZh79eq

Special Thanks:

Alain Johannes for the original score featured in this show: www.alainjohannes.com

Host Clifford Brooks’ The Draw of Broken Eyes & Whirling Metaphysics, Athena Departs, and Old Gods are available wherever books are sold. Learn more at: www.cliffbrooks.com/how-to-order

Dante’s Comeback Special

November 2025 – March 2026

Jerry Wayne Longmire is a veteran standup comic, creator of original viral content, and well-known internet personality. With nearly two million followers across social platforms, Jerry is beloved for his viral series' including the witty, sometimes frighteningly insightful “Truck Astrology,” the hilarious and masterfully crafted “Faulkner-esque” rants, his relatable and refreshingly vulnerable podcast “The Reckon Yard,” or from his most recent comedy special of the same name. His playful, relatable brand of storytelling and signature twang reminiscent of an East Texas junkyard upbringing effortlessly draws audiences into his side-splitting comedy show, his social media presence, and his dynamic podcast alike.

www.instagram.com/jerrywaynelive

www.jwlcomedy.wixsite.com/jerry-wayne-longmire

Nafkote Tamirat (she/her) is a novelist, short story writer, teacher, and translator. An Ethiopian American who was raised in Boston and now lives in Paris, her goal as a writer and teacher is to help amplify the unique storytelling voices and styles of writers from multiple linguistic, cultural, and creative backgrounds and traditions.

Her first novel, The Parking Lot Attendant, was shortlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her second book, Teret Teret, will be published in 2027.

www.instagram.com/nafkotetamirat/?hl=en

Patricia Michaels was born in 1966 in New Mexico to Eddie Michaels (Polish-American) and Juanita Turley (Taos Pueblo). Her stepfather, Frank Turley, was a blacksmith. She grew up on Canyon Road in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where her parents owned an art gallery. She often visited Taos Pueblo and, as a teenager, moved there to live with her maternal grandparents, Ben and Manuelita Marcus.

In 1985, she apprenticed in costume design at the Santa Fe Opera. She studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts, where she joined the fashion collective "Native Uprising", led by instructor Wendy Ponca (Osage).  After IAIA, she went on to study at New's alma mater, the Chicago Art Institute.

In 2001, Michaels traveled to Milan, Italy, where she apprenticed with a tailor. She then moved to New York with her two young children.

www.patriciamichaelsdesign.com

D.L. Yancey II is a creative writer and nuclear engineer who uses artistic expression to advocate Diversity and Inclusion. After a short stint in professional football in 2008 he began a career in engineering and music. Over the course of his engineering career, he has been involved in research of galactic nuclear storms (NASA), decommissioning technologies (ORAU), and design of the first new nuclear reactor authorized to operate this century.  Musically he has recorded with Grammy award-winning record producer Lex Lucazi, shared stages with award-winning artists such as Waterloo Revival and Wess Morgan, and he’s also a winner of T.I.’s Exposure Open Mic showcase.

www.facebook.com/dlyancey

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRDfIufjbDsp8b4zPSHzNbQ

https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/dlyanceyii

Music by:

Jutin Johnson: https://shorturl.at/yGoM5

Six One Five Collective: www.sixonefivecollective.com/

Dario Plevnik: www.tiktok.com/@dario.plevnik

DL Yancey II: https://shorturl.at/LQooR

Much Love to Our Advertisers:

The Crown: www.thecrownbrasstown.com

Lucid House Publishing: www.lucidhousepublishing.com

Linden Row Inn: www.lindenrowinn.com

Red Phone Booth: www.redphonebooth.com

We Deeply Appreciate:

UCLA Extension Writing Program: www.uclaextension.edu

Mercer University Press: www.mupress.org

Alain Johannes for the original score in this show: www.alainjohannes.com

The host, Clifford Brooks’, The Draw of Broken Eyes & Whirling Metaphysics, Athena Departs, and Old Gods are available everywhere books are sold. Find them all here: www.cliffbrooks.com/how-to-order

October — Dante’s New South:

Dario Plevnik - was born in 1969 in Osijek, Croatia. A guitarist and composer since age 10, he creates the music, lyrics, arrangements, and production for his songs, performing all instruments except winds, with classical guitar as his first passion. He recorded four albums for Croatia Records: “Duše” (1994), “Iskre strasti” (1998), the instrumental “Snovi” (2000), and “English Songs” (2000). An instrumental from “Snovi” appeared on the UK release Chrisanne Collection IV alongside Henry Mancini, Nat King Cole, Bill Elliott, and Pedro Garcia. In 1999 he combined the tamburica and electric guitar in “Slavonian Horses,” representing Croatia at major European ethno festivals in Austria and Hungary. His piece “Mogu” supported therapeutic horseback riding and represented the Croatian team at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens. Active on TikTok with 167k+ followers, fans call his sound “Croatian Heart & Soul.”

Links: https://linktr.ee/darioplevnik • https://www.tiktok.com/@dario.plevnik

Ben Smith has served as Senior Pastor of Central Baptist Church in Waycross, Georgia, since 2012, with prior ministry in Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas. He holds a B.S. in Christian Ministry from Shorter University and an M.Div. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. His ministry centers on clear, verse-by-verse expository preaching that helps believers live out Scripture.

Website: https://www.BenSmithSr.org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BenSmithSr.org

X: https://www.x.com/BenSmithSr

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Bensmithsr

Amanda Dennis is the author of Her Here and Beckett and Embodiment. Her work appears in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement, and Guernica. She has held fellowships at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Columbia and Cambridge Universities, and UC Berkeley’s humanities center in Madrid. She co-directs the MFA in Creative Writing at The American University of Paris.

Website: https://www.amandadennis.net

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amargaretdennis

Keith “Hip” Hughes is a longtime educator known for his HipHughes History YouTube channel, with 55M+ views and more than 250k subscribers. He has also served as an adjunct professor of multimodal literacy at the University at Buffalo.

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@hiphughes

Instagram: http://instagram.com/hiphughes

Additional Music: Dario Plavnik — https://www.tiktok.com/@dario.plevnik

Advertisers:

The Crown: https://www.thecrownbrasstown.com

Linden Row Inn: https://www.lindenrowinn.com

Red Phone Booth: https://www.redphonebooth.com

We Appreciate:

UCLA Extension Writing Program: https://www.uclaextension.edu

Mercer University Press: https://www.mupress.org

Alain Johannes: https://www.alainjohannes.com

Host: Clifford Brooks — The Draw of Broken Eyes & Whirling Metaphysics, Athena Departs, Old Gods.

Order books: https://www.cliffbrooks.com/how-to-order

July, August & September — Dante’s New South Mega Return

Richard Blanco — Selected by President Obama as the fifth Presidential Inaugural Poet, Blanco was the youngest, first Latinx, immigrant, and gay person in that role. In 2023, President Biden awarded him the National Humanities Medal. Born to Cuban exile parents and raised in Miami, Blanco explores identity, belonging, and place in works like Homeland of My Body, For All of Us, One Today, and The Prince of Los Cocuyos. His honors include the Agnes Starrett Prize, PEN America Beyond Margins Award, Patterson Prize, and Lambda Literary Award. Blanco is Education Ambassador for The Academy of American Poets, Associate Professor at Florida International University, and Poet Laureate of Miami-Dade County. www.richard-blanco.com

Samiya Bashir — Poet, writer, librettist, and multimedia artist described as “a dynamic, shape-shifting machine of perpetual motion.” Her work has been seen from Berlin to Accra, Florence to across the U.S. She is the author of Field Theories (Oregon Book Award) and I Hope This Helps (Nightboat Books, 2025). Honors include the Rome Prize, Pushcart Prize, and Oregon Arts & Culture Council Fellowship, with residencies at MacDowell and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. She is reigniting Fire & Inkwell to support LGBTQ+ artists and writers of African descent. www.samiyabashir.com

Octavio Quintanilla — Author of If I Go Missing (2014) and Poet Laureate of Texas. His poetry, fiction, translations, and Frontextos (visual poems) appear in Alaska Quarterly Review, Texas Observer, Green Mountains Review, and more. Exhibitions include Southwest School of Art, Weslaco Museum, and the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center. Regional editor for Texas Books in Review, poetry editor for Voices de la Luna, and faculty in Literature & Creative Writing at Our Lady of the Lake University. www.octavioquintanilla.com  |  IG: @writeroctavioquintanilla  |  X: @OctQuintanilla

Vince Herman (Leftover Salmon) — Since co-founding Leftover Salmon in 1989, Herman’s joyful, theatrical energy has defined the band. After moving from West Virginia to Boulder, CO, he briefly joined the Left-Hand String Band before forming Salmon Heads; both merged on New Year’s Eve 1989 to become Leftover Salmon. Decades on, Herman continues to bring his eclectic musical vision to audiences everywhere.

Additional Music: Alain Johannes — www.alainjohannes.com  |  Documentary: YouTube

Sponsors

• The Pickens County Chamber of Commerce
• The Crown
• Bright Hill Press

Special Thanks

• UCLA Extension Writing Program
• Mercer University Press
• Red Phone Booth
• Alain Johannes — original score: www.alainjohannes.com
• Host Clifford Brooks — The Draw of Broken Eyes & Whirling Metaphysics, Athena Departs, Old Gods: www.cliffbrooks.com/how-to-order
• Check out his Teachable courses, The Working Writer and Adulting with Autism, here: brooks-sessions.teachable.com

June 2025 Dante’s New South

Benheart: Ben is a living testimony of a dream come true: from childhood between Morocco and Italy, through technical discoveries and dramatic trials, to rebirth and the founding of a brand that fuses hearts, craftsmanship and style. Benheart is not just fashion, but a life statement - combining heart and craftsmanship, with strong roots in Florence and global vision.

www.benheart.it/?srsltid=AfmBOopJp1pzGmdew4Qc2oMvNo-0p7wLlIeJm9uVh_ETAUOWT1j-ilAd

Waqas Khwaja is the Ellen Douglass Leyburn Professor of English at Agnes Scott College where he teaches courses in Postcolonial literature, British Romanticism, Empire Narratives, Victorian Novel, and Creative Writing. He has published four collections of poetry, Hold Your Breath, No One Waits for the Train, Mariam’s Lament, and Six Geese from a Tomb at Medum, a literary travelogue about his experiences as a fellow of the International Writers Program, University of Iowa, and three edited anthologies of Pakistani literature. 

He served as translation editor (and contributor) for Modern Poetry of Pakistan, showcasing translations of poems by 44 poets from Pakistan’s national and regional languages, and has guest-edited special issues on Pakistani Literature and poetry for the Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies and Atlanta Review. A bilingual edition of one of his collections, No One Waits for the Train, was published as Nadie espera el tren in Madrid, Spain, in 2024.

www.agnesscott.edu/directory/faculty/khwaja-waqas.html

Joseph Saul Portillo After dedicating 25 years to Christian ministry and cultivating a successful career in business operations, Joseph Saul Portillo turned inward to explore his artistic calling, embarking on a new chapter in Fine Art Photography. 

Today, Joseph Saul is a Creative Producer and Digital Artist based in Rome, Georgia, whose evocative work in pictorial portraiture has earned him international acclaim as a Master of Light Photographer. His award-winning style, marked by emotional depth and artistic precision, has led to collaborations across film, music, and education projects. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Rome International Film Festival and on the Advisory Board for Georgia Highlands College’s Digital Media and Communications program.

www.josephsaulart.com

Wiktor Miesok was and raised in Poland, he relocated to Norway in 2012, drawn by a longing for Tolkienian mystical landscapes. Though he seeks inspiration in the silence and raw, untamed nature of the North, he remains stubbornly Eastern European at heart.

An engineer by trade, he has a passion for storytelling and fiction that explores the human condition and its potential for both good and evil.

His latest novel, and the first serious foray into fiction, tells the story of a young man in1980s East Germany who, in his search for freedom, ends up in a Soviet penal colony and becomes entangled in the ruthless criminal underworld.

www.thegrimseries.com

www.youtube.com/@grim.hustle

Additional Music Provided by: 

Dr, Fubbs: www.tiktok.com/@doctorfubbs?lang=en

Justin Johnson: www.justinjohnsonlive.com

Our Advertisers:

Lucid House Press: www.lucidhousepublishing.com

Whispers of the Flight: www.amazon.com/Whispers-Flight-Voyage-Cosmic-Unity-ebook/dp/B0DB3TLY43

The Crown: www.thecrownbrasstown.com

Bright Hill Press: www.brighthillpress.org

We Deeply Appreciate:

UCLA Extension Writing Program: www.uclaextension.edu

Mercer University Press: www.mupress.org

Alain Johannes for the original score in this show: www.alainjohannes.com

The host, Clifford Brooks’, The Draw of Broken Eyes & Whirling Metaphysics, Athena Departs, and Old Gods are available everywhere books are sold. Find them all here: www.cliffbrooks.com/how-to-order

Check out his Teachable courses, The Working Writer and Adulting with Autism, here: brooks-sessions.teachable.com

May 2025 Dante’s New South

Alice Hong: Named one of CBC’s 2018 “30 Hot Classical Musicians Under 30,” Alice is active globally as a violinist and a composer. She performs frequently with the Atlanta Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, and more, and next weekend you can hear a premiere of Alice’s orchestral work Eden performed by the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra! Alice is passionate about revolutionizing the classical experience and making classical music more accessible and innovative. Classical Remix Music Festival is her biggest project yet, and she’d really love to see you at this inaugural season’s concerts!

Fun fact: During COVID, Alice lived in a film bubble for five weeks with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Gal Gadot, and Ryan Reynolds to film a scene in the Netflix movie Red Notice. Check it out - the movie remains in Netflix’s Top 10 of All Time Movies list (although Alice isn’t a huge fan of the movie herself).

www.aliceyhong.com

www.experienceluxardo.com/buy-tickets/p/classical-remix-gala-concert

Kit Cummings launched the Power of Peace Project (POPP) in 2010 with a bold mission: to bring hope, healing, and transformation to some of the most dangerous and divided spaces in the world. With deep experience resolving conflict behind prison walls and in at-risk communities, Kit has become a powerful voice for nonviolence, second chances, and real change.

On MLK Day 2020, the NAACP honored Kit with the Martin Luther King Jr. “Living the Dream” Award for his civil rights work, prison reform efforts, and impact on underserved youth. In 2021, he was appointed to the Georgia House of Representatives Study Committee on Youth Gangs and Violence Prevention, playing a pivotal role in the passage of HB750, a groundbreaking anti-gang bill.

From juvenile prisons to war-torn neighborhoods, Kit has taken POPP across the globe—from Tijuana’s La Mesa Prison to South African townships, from U.S. high schools to Eastern European rehab centers, and from urban courts to rural churches. His tools of change? Hope, humility, courage, and compassion.

www.kitcummings.com

www.powerofpeaceproject.com

Denton Loving lives on a farm near the historic Cumberland Gap, where Tennessee,
Kentucky, and Virginia come together. He is the author of three poetry books including Tamp which was a finalist for the Weatherford Award and recipient of the inaugural Tennessee Book Award for Poetry. He is a co-founder and editor at EastOver Press and its literary journal Cutleaf. His fiction, poetry, essays and reviews have appeared in numerous publications including The Kenyon Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Iron Horse Literary Review and Ecotone. And he's a core staff member at Table Rock Writers Workshop. He has a new book of poems coming out in August from Mercer University Press. It’s called Feller.

www.dentonloving.com

Additional Music Provided by: 

Justin Johnson: www.justinjohnsonlive.com

Our Advertisers:

Lucid House Press: www.lucidhousepublishing.com

Whispers of the Flight: www.amazon.com/Whispers-Flight-Voyage-Cosmic-Unity-ebook/dp/B0DB3TLY43

The Crown: www.thecrownbrasstown.com

Bright Hill Press: www.brighthillpress.org

We Deeply Appreciate:

UCLA Extension Writing Program: www.uclaextension.edu

Mercer University Press: www.mupress.org

Alain Johannes for the original score in this show: www.alainjohannes.com

The host, Clifford Brooks’, The Draw of Broken Eyes & Whirling Metaphysics, Athena Departs, and Old Gods are available everywhere books are sold. Find them all here: www.cliffbrooks.com/how-to-order

Check out his Teachable courses, The Working Writer and Adulting with Autism, here: brooks-sessions.teachable.com

June 2025 Dante’s New South

Benheart: Ben is a living testimony of a dream come true: from childhood between Morocco and Italy, through technical discoveries and dramatic trials, to rebirth and the founding of a brand that fuses hearts, craftsmanship and style. Benheart is not just fashion, but a life statement - combining heart and craftsmanship, with strong roots in Florence and global vision.

www.benheart.it/?srsltid=AfmBOopJp1pzGmdew4Qc2oMvNo-0p7wLlIeJm9uVh_ETAUOWT1j-ilAd

Waqas Khwaja is the Ellen Douglass Leyburn Professor of English at Agnes Scott College where he teaches courses in Postcolonial literature, British Romanticism, Empire Narratives, Victorian Novel, and Creative Writing. He has published four collections of poetry, Hold Your Breath, No One Waits for the Train, Mariam’s Lament, and Six Geese from a Tomb at Medum, a literary travelogue about his experiences as a fellow of the International Writers Program, University of Iowa, and three edited anthologies of Pakistani literature. 

He served as translation editor (and contributor) for Modern Poetry of Pakistan, showcasing translations of poems by 44 poets from Pakistan’s national and regional languages, and has guest-edited special issues on Pakistani Literature and poetry for the Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies and Atlanta Review. A bilingual edition of one of his collections, No One Waits for the Train, was published as Nadie espera el tren in Madrid, Spain, in 2024.

www.agnesscott.edu/directory/faculty/khwaja-waqas.html

Joseph Saul Portillo After dedicating 25 years to Christian ministry and cultivating a successful career in business operations, Joseph Saul Portillo turned inward to explore his artistic calling, embarking on a new chapter in Fine Art Photography. 

Today, Joseph Saul is a Creative Producer and Digital Artist based in Rome, Georgia, whose evocative work in pictorial portraiture has earned him international acclaim as a Master of Light Photographer. His award-winning style, marked by emotional depth and artistic precision, has led to collaborations across film, music, and education projects. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Rome International Film Festival and on the Advisory Board for Georgia Highlands College’s Digital Media and Communications program.

www.josephsaulart.com

Wiktor Miesok was and raised in Poland, he relocated to Norway in 2012, drawn by a longing for Tolkienian mystical landscapes. Though he seeks inspiration in the silence and raw, untamed nature of the North, he remains stubbornly Eastern European at heart.

An engineer by trade, he has a passion for storytelling and fiction that explores the human condition and its potential for both good and evil.

His latest novel, and the first serious foray into fiction, tells the story of a young man in1980s East Germany who, in his search for freedom, ends up in a Soviet penal colony and becomes entangled in the ruthless criminal underworld.

www.thegrimseries.com

www.youtube.com/@grim.hustle

Additional Music Provided by: 

Dr, Fubbs: www.tiktok.com/@doctorfubbs?lang=en

Pat Metheny: www.patmetheny.com

Justin Johnson: www.justinjohnsonlive.com

Our Advertisers:

Lucid House Press: www.lucidhousepublishing.com

Whispers of the Flight: www.amazon.com/Whispers-Flight-Voyage-Cosmic-Unity-ebook/dp/B0DB3TLY43

The Crown: www.thecrownbrasstown.com

Bright Hill Press: www.brighthillpress.org

We Deeply Appreciate:

UCLA Extension Writing Program: www.uclaextension.edu

Mercer University Press: www.mupress.org

Alain Johannes for the original score in this show: www.alainjohannes.com

The host, Clifford Brooks’, The Draw of Broken Eyes & Whirling Metaphysics, Athena Departs, and Old Gods are available everywhere books are sold. Find them all here: www.cliffbrooks.com/how-to-order

Check out his Teachable courses, The Working Writer and Adulting with Autism, here: brooks-sessions.teachable.com

May 2025 Dante’s New South

Alice Hong: Named one of CBC’s 2018 “30 Hot Classical Musicians Under 30,” Alice is active globally as a violinist and a composer. She performs frequently with the Atlanta Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, and more, and next weekend you can hear a premiere of Alice’s orchestral work Eden performed by the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra! Alice is passionate about revolutionizing the classical experience and making classical music more accessible and innovative. Classical Remix Music Festival is her biggest project yet, and she’d really love to see you at this inaugural season’s concerts!

Fun fact: During COVID, Alice lived in a film bubble for five weeks with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Gal Gadot, and Ryan Reynolds to film a scene in the Netflix movie Red Notice. Check it out - the movie remains in Netflix’s Top 10 of All Time Movies list (although Alice isn’t a huge fan of the movie herself).

www.aliceyhong.com

www.experienceluxardo.com/buy-tickets/p/classical-remix-gala-concert

Kit Cummings launched the Power of Peace Project (POPP) in 2010 with a bold mission: to bring hope, healing, and transformation to some of the most dangerous and divided spaces in the world. With deep experience resolving conflict behind prison walls and in at-risk communities, Kit has become a powerful voice for nonviolence, second chances, and real change.

On MLK Day 2020, the NAACP honored Kit with the Martin Luther King Jr. “Living the Dream” Award for his civil rights work, prison reform efforts, and impact on underserved youth. In 2021, he was appointed to the Georgia House of Representatives Study Committee on Youth Gangs and Violence Prevention, playing a pivotal role in the passage of HB750, a groundbreaking anti-gang bill.

From juvenile prisons to war-torn neighborhoods, Kit has taken POPP across the globe—from Tijuana’s La Mesa Prison to South African townships, from U.S. high schools to Eastern European rehab centers, and from urban courts to rural churches. His tools of change? Hope, humility, courage, and compassion.

www.kitcummings.com

www.powerofpeaceproject.com

Denton Loving lives on a farm near the historic Cumberland Gap, where Tennessee,
Kentucky, and Virginia come together. He is the author of three poetry books including Tamp which was a finalist for the Weatherford Award and recipient of the inaugural Tennessee Book Award for Poetry. He is a co-founder and editor at EastOver Press and its literary journal Cutleaf. His fiction, poetry, essays and reviews have appeared in numerous publications including The Kenyon Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Iron Horse Literary Review and Ecotone. And he's a core staff member at Table Rock Writers Workshop. He has a new book of poems coming out in August from Mercer University Press. It’s called Feller.

www.dentonloving.com

Additional Music Provided by: 

Pat Metheny: www.patmetheny.com

Justin Johnson: www.justinjohnsonlive.com

Our Advertisers:

Lucid House Press: www.lucidhousepublishing.com

Whispers of the Flight: www.amazon.com/Whispers-Flight-Voyage-Cosmic-Unity-ebook/dp/B0DB3TLY43

The Crown: www.thecrownbrasstown.com

Bright Hill Press: www.brighthillpress.org

We Deeply Appreciate:

UCLA Extension Writing Program: www.uclaextension.edu

Mercer University Press: www.mupress.org

Alain Johannes for the original score in this show: www.alainjohannes.com

The host, Clifford Brooks’, The Draw of Broken Eyes & Whirling Metaphysics, Athena Departs, and Old Gods are available everywhere books are sold. Find them all here: www.cliffbrooks.com/how-to-order

Check out his Teachable courses, The Working Writer and Adulting with Autism, here: brooks-sessions.teachable.com

June 2025 Dante’s New South

Benheart: Ben is a living testimony of a dream come true: from childhood between Morocco and Italy, through technical discoveries and dramatic trials, to rebirth and the founding of a brand that fuses hearts, craftsmanship and style. Benheart is not just fashion, but a life statement - combining heart and craftsmanship, with strong roots in Florence and global vision.

www.benheart.it/?srsltid=AfmBOopJp1pzGmdew4Qc2oMvNo-0p7wLlIeJm9uVh_ETAUOWT1j-ilAd

Waqas Khwaja is the Ellen Douglass Leyburn Professor of English at Agnes Scott College where he teaches courses in Postcolonial literature, British Romanticism, Empire Narratives, Victorian Novel, and Creative Writing. He has published four collections of poetry, Hold Your Breath, No One Waits for the Train, Mariam’s Lament, and Six Geese from a Tomb at Medum, a literary travelogue about his experiences as a fellow of the International Writers Program, University of Iowa, and three edited anthologies of Pakistani literature. 

He served as translation editor (and contributor) for Modern Poetry of Pakistan, showcasing translations of poems by 44 poets from Pakistan’s national and regional languages, and has guest-edited special issues on Pakistani Literature and poetry for the Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies and Atlanta Review. A bilingual edition of one of his collections, No One Waits for the Train, was published as Nadie espera el tren in Madrid, Spain, in 2024.

www.agnesscott.edu/directory/faculty/khwaja-waqas.html

Joseph Saul Portillo After dedicating 25 years to Christian ministry and cultivating a successful career in business operations, Joseph Saul Portillo turned inward to explore his artistic calling, embarking on a new chapter in Fine Art Photography. 

Today, Joseph Saul is a Creative Producer and Digital Artist based in Rome, Georgia, whose evocative work in pictorial portraiture has earned him international acclaim as a Master of Light Photographer. His award-winning style, marked by emotional depth and artistic precision, has led to collaborations across film, music, and education projects. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Rome International Film Festival and on the Advisory Board for Georgia Highlands College’s Digital Media and Communications program.

www.josephsaulart.com

Wiktor Miesok was and raised in Poland, he relocated to Norway in 2012, drawn by a longing for Tolkienian mystical landscapes. Though he seeks inspiration in the silence and raw, untamed nature of the North, he remains stubbornly Eastern European at heart.

An engineer by trade, he has a passion for storytelling and fiction that explores the human condition and its potential for both good and evil.

His latest novel, and the first serious foray into fiction, tells the story of a young man in1980s East Germany who, in his search for freedom, ends up in a Soviet penal colony and becomes entangled in the ruthless criminal underworld.

www.thegrimseries.com

www.youtube.com/@grim.hustle

Additional Music Provided by: 

Dr, Fubbs: www.tiktok.com/@doctorfubbs?lang=en

Pat Metheny: www.patmetheny.com

Justin Johnson: www.justinjohnsonlive.com

Our Advertisers:

Lucid House Press: www.lucidhousepublishing.com

Whispers of the Flight: www.amazon.com/Whispers-Flight-Voyage-Cosmic-Unity-ebook/dp/B0DB3TLY43

The Crown: www.thecrownbrasstown.com

Bright Hill Press: www.brighthillpress.org

We Deeply Appreciate:

UCLA Extension Writing Program: www.uclaextension.edu

Mercer University Press: www.mupress.org

Alain Johannes for the original score in this show: www.alainjohannes.com

The host, Clifford Brooks’, The Draw of Broken Eyes & Whirling Metaphysics, Athena Departs, and Old Gods are available everywhere books are sold. Find them all here: www.cliffbrooks.com/how-to-order

Check out his Teachable courses, The Working Writer and Adulting with Autism, here: brooks-sessions.teachable.com

May 2025 Dante’s New South

Alice Hong: Named one of CBC’s 2018 “30 Hot Classical Musicians Under 30,” Alice is active globally as a violinist and a composer. She performs frequently with the Atlanta Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, and more, and next weekend you can hear a premiere of Alice’s orchestral work Eden performed by the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra! Alice is passionate about revolutionizing the classical experience and making classical music more accessible and innovative. Classical Remix Music Festival is her biggest project yet, and she’d really love to see you at this inaugural season’s concerts!

Fun fact: During COVID, Alice lived in a film bubble for five weeks with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Gal Gadot, and Ryan Reynolds to film a scene in the Netflix movie Red Notice. Check it out - the movie remains in Netflix’s Top 10 of All Time Movies list (although Alice isn’t a huge fan of the movie herself).

www.aliceyhong.com

www.experienceluxardo.com/buy-tickets/p/classical-remix-gala-concert

Kit Cummings launched the Power of Peace Project (POPP) in 2010 with a bold mission: to bring hope, healing, and transformation to some of the most dangerous and divided spaces in the world. With deep experience resolving conflict behind prison walls and in at-risk communities, Kit has become a powerful voice for nonviolence, second chances, and real change.

On MLK Day 2020, the NAACP honored Kit with the Martin Luther King Jr. “Living the Dream” Award for his civil rights work, prison reform efforts, and impact on underserved youth. In 2021, he was appointed to the Georgia House of Representatives Study Committee on Youth Gangs and Violence Prevention, playing a pivotal role in the passage of HB750, a groundbreaking anti-gang bill.

From juvenile prisons to war-torn neighborhoods, Kit has taken POPP across the globe—from Tijuana’s La Mesa Prison to South African townships, from U.S. high schools to Eastern European rehab centers, and from urban courts to rural churches. His tools of change? Hope, humility, courage, and compassion.

www.kitcummings.com

www.powerofpeaceproject.com

Denton Loving lives on a farm near the historic Cumberland Gap, where Tennessee,
Kentucky, and Virginia come together. He is the author of three poetry books including Tamp which was a finalist for the Weatherford Award and recipient of the inaugural Tennessee Book Award for Poetry. He is a co-founder and editor at EastOver Press and its literary journal Cutleaf. His fiction, poetry, essays and reviews have appeared in numerous publications including The Kenyon Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Iron Horse Literary Review and Ecotone. And he's a core staff member at Table Rock Writers Workshop. He has a new book of poems coming out in August from Mercer University Press. It’s called Feller.

www.dentonloving.com

Additional Music Provided by: 

Pat Metheny: www.patmetheny.com

Justin Johnson: www.justinjohnsonlive.com

Our Advertisers:

Lucid House Press: www.lucidhousepublishing.com

Whispers of the Flight: www.amazon.com/Whispers-Flight-Voyage-Cosmic-Unity-ebook/dp/B0DB3TLY43

The Crown: www.thecrownbrasstown.com

Bright Hill Press: www.brighthillpress.org

We Deeply Appreciate:

UCLA Extension Writing Program: www.uclaextension.edu

Mercer University Press: www.mupress.org

Alain Johannes for the original score in this show: www.alainjohannes.com

The host, Clifford Brooks’, The Draw of Broken Eyes & Whirling Metaphysics, Athena Departs, and Old Gods are available everywhere books are sold. Find them all here: www.cliffbrooks.com/how-to-order

Check out his Teachable courses, The Working Writer and Adulting with Autism, here: brooks-sessions.teachable.com