Inside the Writer's Head

On this episode of the “Inside the Writer’s Head” podcast, Writer-in-Residence Dani McClain interviews poet, teacher, and artist Murray. Dive into the language arts as Dani and Murray share their experiences with performance poetry and how literary concepts can be taught through movement and music. Connect with the world of poetry beyond “Dead, White Poets” as Dani and Murray talk about poetry’s power to reach moments of honesty and authenticity. https://cincinnatilibrary.org/writer-in-residence/ (https://cincinnatilibrary.org/writer-in-residence/)

On this episode of the “Inside the Writer’s Head” podcast, Writer-in-Residence Dani McClain reflects on her process with a recent writing project. She wrote an introductory essay for a new edition of Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution. In April, WW Norton reissued Adrienne Rich’s classic feminist text. Dani shares how she approached this assignment and insights to support writers of nonfiction. https://cincinnatilibrary.org/writer-in-residence/ (https://cincinnatilibrary.org/writer-in-residence/)

In this episode of "Inside the Writer's Head" Writer-in-Residence Dani McClain interviews author Sheila Williams. Sheila Williams is the author of Dancing on the Edge of the Roof, On the Right Side of a Dream, The Shade of My Own Tree and Girls Most Likely. She is a contributor to an anthology entitled A Letter For My Mother, compiled and edited by writer Nina Foxx. Sheila is a reformed corporate borg (she drank the Kool-Aid but it made her sick), loves to read, listen to music (most kinds), travel, and eat popcorn, preferably served dripping with butter. She lives in northern Kentucky.

In this episode of our “Inside the Writer’s Head” podcast, Dani McClain reflects on her time as Writer-in-Residence in a tumultuous year, and announces that her residency has been extended through 2021!

In this episode of our “Inside the Writer’s Head” podcast, Dani McClain speaks with Streetvibes editor Gabriela Godinez Feregrino.

Gabriela graduated from Ohio University in May of 2018 with a communications degree in media. In school, she studied media production with an emphasis on social change, and also finished a minor in English. She worked at the Ohio University LGBT Center where she found her love for working with and for the community around her.

Her previous employment taught her how to speak on panels, teach advocacy, and grass roots organizing. She knows the importance of advocacy and hopes to spend her life working in this sort of field. She has always been a writer and she was incredibly excited when she found out that we were hiring a new editor—she jumped at the opportunity. She feels it’s a privilege to work for this paper as well as an incredible responsibility. She hopes to showcase as many voices from the community as she possibly can.

For the latest episode of “Inside the Writer’s Head,” Writer-in-Residence Dani McClain interviews Gavin DeVore Leonard. He’s the Executive Director of https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fohvoice.org%2Fanddata=04%7C01%7CKelly.Sheehy%40cincinnatilibrary.org%7Cfe4b1abf6acc4cd4fbe608d8743ceb6d%7C77eb15114aea452097fa4d1d27ae29ac%7C0%7C0%7C637387152282564577%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000andsdata=jdH3SRaeRykdW0M5%2B2QEjKmOo%2FKjvz5pIXCWVl8u9f0%3Dandreserved=0 (Ohio Voice), Ohio's 501(c)(3) civic engagement table, a job title that he breaks down for us early in our conversation. They discuss the 2020 election, voting, and more.

In this episode of our “Inside the Writer’s Head” podcast, Dani McClain speaks with bookstore owner Gregory Kornbluh. They discuss his vision and goal for opening a book store, adapting to COVID-19, and more. A product of Sands Montessori and Walnut Hills High School, Kornbluh got his start in bookselling while doing graduate work in American Studies at UMass Boston. He went on to spend a decade in the Sales and Marketing Department of Harvard University Press, a leading publisher of nonfiction in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, where he worked closely with authors, booksellers, librarians, and media members to help new books and ideas find their audience. After thirteen years on the East Coast, he returned home in November 2018 and opened Downbound's doors late the following year.

In this episode of our “Inside the Writer’s Head” podcast, Dani McClain speaks with comedian Luna Malbroux. They discuss one of Malbroux's recent performances that speaks to sex, power, desire, and also about this moment of national uprisings and police violence against Black bodies, and so much more.

Named one of KQED's Women to Watch, Luna Malbroux is a comic, writer, and creator of the award-winning play, "How to Be A White Man".

Winner of the Comedy Hackday Grand Prize at SF Sketchfest, Luna has made international headlines as the creator of EquiTable, an app that satirically solves the wage gap by creating 'reparations, one meal at a time.' A regular contributor to national publications, Luna has been featured on Fusion TV, AJ+ and Refinery 29. Tastefully crude, Luna is also the host and creator of the live and recording ongoing comedy talk-show, Live Sex. Originally from Louisiana, Luna has dazzled audiences all across the United States with her Southern charm mixed with her bold humor a feature at festivals and clubs alike.

In this episode of our “Inside the Writer’s Head” podcast, Dani McClain speaks with local journalist Nick Swartsell.

Nick Swartsell has been staff writer and news editor at CityBeat Cincinnati for six years. He is currently furloughed due to the COVID-19 pandemic but continues to contribute to CityBeat on a regular, pro-bono basis until he can resume full time paid work.

Originally from Hamilton, Ohio, Nick completed an undergraduate degree in English and Political Science at Miami's Hamilton, Middletown and Oxford campuses.

Shortly after he graduated, he began freelancing for various publications, including a community press covering township government in nearby Fairfield Township. He completed two years of the Americorps Public Ally program in Cincinnati before pursuing a masters degree in journalism at the University of Texas at Austin.

While in Texas, he interned for The Texas Observer and The Texas Tribune, writing stories about everything from a heated political battle over an indigenous cultural site in the Texas hill country to cancer cases around a nuclear waste facility near the New Mexico border.

He completed his masters thesis on media coverage in neighborhoods undergoing economic and demographic change and subsequently spent a year covering Congress and federal agencies for The Dallas Morning News in its Washington, DC bureau before returning to Cincinnati for a job at CityBeat.

Nick's primary areas of coverage include law enforcement and the justice system, housing, systemic and individual issues around poverty, development and urban land use, transportation and breaking news, including coverage of protests, the 2016 RNC in Cleveland, the 2018 Fountain Square mass shooting and the COVID-19 crisis.

Nick currently lives in an 11-person intentional community in Mount Auburn.

In this episode of our “Inside the Writer’s Head” podcast, Dani McClain speaks with acclaimed artist and advocate Tim’m T. West. They discuss self-care in quarantine, moving back to Cincinnati, West's poetic memoirs, and more.

Tim’m T. West is an educator, poet, youth advocate, and hip-hop artist who has spent decades traveling the nation, speaking about issues at the intersection of race, gender, sexuality, and social justice. A graduate of Duke University (BA), The New School for Social Research (MA) and Stanford University (MA), he is the author of several books and hip-hop projects and is widely anthologized. He has also appeared in multiple documentaries at the intersection of hip hop and black masculinity.

Prior to joining Teach For America in 2014, Tim’m served as inaugural faculty at Oakland School for the Arts, impacted educational outcomes as an English teacher and basketball coach at Cesar Chavez Public Charter High School for Public Policy, and more recently as Director of Youth Services at Chicago’s Center on Halsted.

A Board member of the LGBT Institute located at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, Tim’m was named one of 31 icons during LGBT History Month in October of 2015. Tim’m currently leads Teach For America’s national LGBTQ+ Community Initiative, advancing safer and braver classrooms for LGBTQ educators and students in grades preK-12.