Ni Rivera, Judy Talaugon, Martha Cinader

[link to transcript]

Season 2 Episode 4
February 14, 2026

CREDITS– HOSTS: Martha Cinader, Judy Talaugon. Featured Guest: Ni Rivera. Poetry: Julia de Burgos, Ni Rivera. Sound Design: Hernán Ramiro Rodriguez Sierra. Theme Music: Mana Luca, arranged by Hernán Ramiro Rodriguez Sierra.

Nilsa Rivera “Ni” tells new and multi-media stories about housing, food, and climate insecurity. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Tahoma Review, Hippocampus Magazine, Huffington Post, 50 GS Magazine, Six Hens Literary Journal, Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, Selkie Literary Magazine, Writing Class Radio, and Turning Dark into Light: A Mental Health Anthology.…

Dao Strom is a poet, musician, writer, and interdisciplinary artist who works with three “voices”—written, sung, visual—to explore hybridity and the intersection of personal and collective histories. She is the author/composer of several hybrid-literary works, including including the poetry-art collection, INSTRUMENT, and its musical companion of song-poems, TRAVELER’S ODE, and the forthcoming TENDER REVOLUTIONS/YELLOW SONGS…

Dorsía Smith Silva is the author of In Inheritance of Drowning (CavanKerry, 2024), which was a finalist for the Whirling Prize and reviewed by Publishers Weekly. She is a multi-nominated Pushcart Prize nominee, Best of the Net finalist, Best New Poets nominee, Cave Canem Poetry Prize Semifinalist, Poetry Editor at The Hopper, and Professor of…

Judy Talaugon is a Chumash and Filipina Land Protector from the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. She is the daughter of farmworkers and immigrant leaders. Growing up among Mexican and Filipina communities in California, she has been a long-time activist in numerous struggles, ranging from human rights to housing, land rights, and the fight…

Julia de Burgos was a Puerto Rican poet whose work engages themes of feminism and social justice. Since her death, she has been widely recognized as the contemporary foremother of Puerto Rico and of the Nuyorican poetry movement in New York. In her work, Burgos asserted her African lineage, advocating for anti-imperialism and Puerto Rican…

Martha Cinader is a poet and author living in Harlem, NY. Her young adult novel, Marq and the Queen Fish, is forthcoming in 2026 from Atmosphere Press. Cinader is the founder and Director of the Listen & Be Heard Network, where she hosts and produces The Listen & Be Heard Hour, and Beyond Borders, both non-commercial podcasts and syndicated radio shows…

Song of the Simple Truth (Canción de la verdad sencilla) is the first bilingual edition of Julia de Burgos’ complete poems. Numbering more than 200, these poems form a literary landmark—the first time her poems have appeared in a complete edition in either English or Spanish. Many of the verses presented here had been lost and are presented…

Critically Sovereign traces the ways in which gender is inextricably a part of Indigenous politics and U.S. and Canadian imperialism and colonialism. The contributors show how gender, sexuality, and feminism work as co-productive forces of Native American and Indigenous sovereignty…

Tribunal Rising commemorates the 1992 International Tribunal movement in the city of San Francisco to dismantle the legacy of Christopher Columbus and the Myth of Discovery. In 1990, “[a]t the culmination of the Special International Tribunal on the Human Rights Violations of Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War in the US, the American Indian Movement…

This remarkably timely, clear, concise, and pressing intervention is a must read for all organizers and activists fighting for and witnessing the birth of a new world. Shaka A. Shakur’s latest book reaffirms, amplifies, and extends the theory and practice of the New Afrikan Independence Movement while offering an accessible entry point for those unfamiliar…

In this striking debut, Dorsía Smith Silva explores the devastating effects of Hurricane María in Puerto Rico, highlighting the natural world, the lasting impact of hurricanes, and the marginalization of Puerto Ricans. These poems also focus on the multiple sites of oppression in the United States, especially the racial, social, and political injustices that occur…

Fifty years after the fall of Saigon, Dao Strom’s Tender Revolutions / Yellow Songs vibrates with the ramifications and ripples of Empire. A hybrid project comprised of writings, music, and visual ephemera, each of the four Yellow Songs books and the Tender Revolutions album reckon with the intimate consequences of the colonial project, reconfiguring them into complex and lucid, literal and…

New Music featuring Adam Clipple, J.T. Lewis, Hernán Ramiro Rodriguez Sierra

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s4e6
February 12th, 2026

Elizabeth Perlman, author of Word Magic: The Power of Writing to Reframe Your Story and Claim Your Intuition, joins Martha in the audio garden. They discuss the importance of empowering women to reclaim their voices. She emphasizes the need to challenge societal norms and internalized beliefs that have historically silenced women and highlights the transformative power of writing as a tool for self-reflection and empowerment.

Writing can be a powerful tool for self-discovery and empowerment, especially for women and girls who often struggle with self-doubt. By creating a safe and supportive space for writing, individuals can tap into their intuition and uncover hidden strengths and emotions. This process, often involving stream-of-consciousness writing, can lead to a profound sense of transformation and self-acceptance. Elizabeth encourages listeners to write freely for five minutes, then read their work aloud.

Hernán shares new music that you won’t hear anywhere else… Freedom, Equity, and Justice for the People Song, featuring Adam Clipple, J.T. Lewis, and himself on tenor saxophone. dedicated to the people and El Brujo, featuring Hernán on alto saxophone, baritone saxophone and flutes.

Also: Jocelyn Grover, Declaration of a Gen Z Stargazer , new stream poetry by Martha Cinader

CREDITS– HOSTS: Martha Cinader, Tony Robles, Hernán Ramiro Rodriguez Sierra. FEATURED GUEST: Eliazbeth Perlman AUTHOR QUOTES: Zakiyya Modeste, Eileen Tabios, Judy Talaugon, Jocelyn Grover. POETRY: Crystal Cauley, Elizabeth Perlman, Martha Cinader. MUSIC: Freedom, Equity, and Justice for the People Song by Hernán Ramiro Rodriguez Sierra, Adam Clipple, J.T. Lewis, Hernán Ramiro, El Brujo, by Hernan Ramiro Rodriguez Sierra, also on alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, flutes. ORIGNAL SOUNDTRACK, MIXING, MASTERING, SOUND DESIGN: Hernán Ramiro Rodriguez Sierra. Executive Producer, Martha Cinader.

Laura Lengnick, a renowned soil scientist, has three decades of experience in sustainability in U.S. agriculture. She has received national recognition for her work, including a USDA Honor Award. As the founder of Cultivating Resilience, she collaborates on climate resilience projects and authored the influential book, Resilient Agriculture.

Del Gonzales is a Filipino Latino American actor and theatre maker based in New York City. His work is shaped by training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and Hamilton College, along with clown training and four years of improv with Hamilton’s troupe Yodapez

Zakiyyah’s creative journey began as a child when, at the age of three, she won her school’s Valentine’s Day Poetry Contest. Early exposure to the arts through Mount Vernon’s Creative Arts Program allowed her to act in plays alongside talented peers, including saxophonist Michael Philips. Outside the program, she trained under Tina Satin—who also taught…

Elizabeth has a BA in Media Arts and a Masters in Transformative Arts, the study of creative expression for healing, connection, and growth. She is also a certified Group Leader in The Amherst Writing Method. Before launching TIWP in 2013, Elizabeth worked for over a decade as a graphic designer and art director in the advertising…

Judy Talaugon is a Chumash and Filipina Land Protector from the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. She is the daughter of farmworkers and immigrant leaders. Growing up among Mexican and Filipina communities in California, she has been a long-time activist in numerous struggles, ranging from human rights to housing, land rights, and the fight…

Tony Robles, “The People’s Poet” was born in San Francisco and is the nephew of Filipino-American poet, historian and social justice activist Al Robles. He was a shortlist nominee for poet laureate of San Francisco in 2017 and the recipient of the San Francisco Art Commission individual literary artist grant in 2018. His two books…

Crystal Cauley (1980-2024) was the founder of the Black History Collective of Henderson County, and Black Business Network of WNC. She was a host of The Versers of Color open mic. She served on Hendersonville’s Historic Preservation Commission and on many other community boards and was a tireless advocate for her community.

Eileen R. Tabios has released collections of poetry, fiction, art, essays, and experimental writings from publishers around the world. Recent releases include her second novel The Balikbayan Artist; an autobiography, THE INVENTOR; a poetry collection Because I Love You, I Become War; an art monograph, Drawing the Six Directions; a flash fiction collection (in collaboration…

Early Christian authorities initially dismissed witchcraft as a delusion, though belief in demons and exorcism created a framework that later justified harsher responses. In the late fifteenth century, Heinrich Kramer authored Malleus Maleficarum after failing to secure convictions and facing criticism from church officials, using the text to legitimize aggressive witch-hunting and reinforce gendered suspicions…

Witches, Midwives, and Nurses examines how women-led healing was delegitimized to make way for patriarchy, capitalism, and the emerging medical industry. As we watch another agonizing attempt to shift the future of healthcare in the United States, we are reminded of the longevity of this crisis, and how firmly entrenched we are in a system…

Word Magic: The Power of Writing to Reframe Your Story & Reclaim Your Intuition by Elizabeth Perlman is a self-help book that uses writing as a tool for self-discovery, healing, and empowerment, drawing from her “Intuitive Writing Project” for women and girls. It offers practical guidance and over 150 writing prompts to help readers trust…

This book proposes that the rise of alphabetic literacy reconfigured the human brain and brought about profound changes in history, religion, and gender relations. Making connections between brain function, myth, and anthropology, Dr. Shlain shows why pre-literate cultures were principally informed by holistic, right-brain modes that venerated the Goddess, images, and feminine values. Writing drove cultures toward…

Real world stories from the frontlines of climate change, resilience, and the future of food. CLIMATE CHANGE PRESENTS an unprecedented challenge to food and farming in the U.S. and beyond. Damaging weather variability and extremes capture the headlines, but more subtle changes caused by hotter summer nights, warmer winters, and a longer growing season have…

Do you want to be heard in the garden? Please consider contributing your audio content. We grow together when we nurture our network. Click here for more information.

Joe Lovano, Glenis Redmond, Eileen Tabios

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s4e5
February 5th, 2026

Featured Guest in the Audio Garden: Tony Cranston, host of “Talking Stories Radio” on East London Radio, joins us in the audio garden to share his passion for storytelling. We explore universal themes found in myths and folk tales across cultures, such as creation and flood stories. He narrates his first published story, “A Dragon’s Wish,” a Chinese folk tale about a kind-hearted girl named Mei Mei who saves a dragon and is granted three wishes.

Music Feature: An exclusive live recording from Berk’s Jazz Fest, featuring Jason Miles, Ingrid Jenson , Mike Clark, Buster Hemphill, Lionel Loueke, Hernan Ramiro Rodriguez Sierra and Joe Lovano.

From the Archives: Poetry readings by Anna Castro Spratt, a former Youth Poet Laureate of Greenville, South Carolina, and Glenis Redmond, the Poet Laureate of Greenville, who shares her poem “Forefather for David Drake,” inspired by the potter David Drake. Eileen Tabios, author of The Balikbayan Artist on aesthetics and didacticism, Olga Kavran on international law. Meredith Leigh, author of The Ethical Mead Handbook, about food systems and regional resilience.

CREDITS– HOSTS: Martha Cinader, Tony Robles, Hernan Ramiro Rodriguez Sierra. FEATURED GUEST: Tony Cranston AUTHOR QUOTES: Zakiyya Modeste, Eileen Tabios, Olga Kavran, Craig Harris, Elizabeth Perlman, Meredith Leigh. POETRY: Anna Castro Spratt, Glenis Redmond, Martha Cinader. STORY: A Dragon’s Wish told by Tony Cranston. MUSIC: The Eye of the Storm by Jason Miles, with Jason Miles – keyboard, Ingrid Jenson – trumpet, Mike Clark drums, Buster Hemphill – bass , Lionel Loueke – guitar, Joe Lovano – tenor sax, Hernan Ramiro Rodriguez Sierra – bass clarinet, tenor sax. ORIGNAL SOUNDTRACK, MIXING, MASTERING, SOUND DESIGN: Hernan Ramiro Rodriguez Sierra. Executive Producer, Martha Cinader.

Tony Cranston is a renowned author, storyteller, and teacher with over 40 years of experience worldwide. Originally stationed in the UK, Cranston has traveled to over 50 cities, reading stories and collecting many as he goes.

Olga Kavran is a Fellow at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel completing a PhD on the topic of international criminal courts’ obligation to provide information to the public, and the Founding Director of IUSTICOM, established in 2021 as the first non-governmental organisation dedicated to communicating justice.

Zakiyyah’s creative journey began as a child when, at the age of three, she won her school’s Valentine’s Day Poetry Contest. Early exposure to the arts through Mount Vernon’s Creative Arts Program allowed her to act in plays alongside talented peers, including saxophonist Michael Philips. Outside the program, she trained under Tina Satin—who also taught…

Elizabeth has a BA in Media Arts and a Masters in Transformative Arts, the study of creative expression for healing, connection, and growth. She is also a certified Group Leader in The Amherst Writing Method. Before launching TIWP in 2013, Elizabeth worked for over a decade as a graphic designer and art director in the advertising…

Craig Harris, trombonist, composer, bandleader, and sonic shaman. … his musical journey began with the Sun Ra, … place among creative music’s … leaders.

Martha Cinader is a poet and author living in Harlem, NY. Her young adult novel, Marq and the Queen Fish, is forthcoming in 2026 from Atmosphere Press. Cinader is the founder and Director of the Listen & Be Heard Network, where she hosts and produces The Listen & Be Heard Hour, and Beyond Borders, both non-commercial podcasts and syndicated radio shows…

Glenis Redmond is the First Poet Laureate of Greenville, South Carolina. She is a Kennedy Center Teaching Artist, and a Cave Canem alumni. She has authored six books of poetry: Backbone (Underground Epics, 2000), Under the Sun (Main Street Rag, 2002), and What My Hand Say (Press 53, 2016), Listening Skin (Four Way Books), Three…

Eileen R. Tabios has released collections of poetry, fiction, art, essays, and experimental writings from publishers around the world. Recent releases include her second novel The Balikbayan Artist; an autobiography, THE INVENTOR; a poetry collection Because I Love You, I Become War; an art monograph, Drawing the Six Directions; a flash fiction collection (in collaboration…

Word Magic: The Power of Writing to Reframe Your Story & Reclaim Your Intuition by Elizabeth Perlman is a self-help book that uses writing as a tool for self-discovery, healing, and empowerment, drawing from her “Intuitive Writing Project” for women and girls. It offers practical guidance and over 150 writing prompts to help readers trust…

Talking Stories is a global storytelling platform rooted in east London, bringing together voices from local communities and across the world. With an equal focus on London-based creators and international storytellers, the program showcases poets, writers, elders, and emerging voices from every continent, creating a rich dialogue between place, memory, and imagination.

This compilation of 27 poems was written over the course of 25 years, from 1998 to 2023. (The title is reflects the author’s extreme delay in sharing her work—and yes, that is a unicorn finger puppet, taking time to smell the azealas!) The main theme of every poem is self-empowerment: remembering who we really are…

Living It! is Martha Cinader’s debut as the producer of her own album, and features an eclectic array of arrangements and musical styles. It was recorded in part in a studio in New York City, part in a studio in Hamburg, and part live at the Mojo Club in Hamburg, throw in some bonus tracks…

Hewing close to the bone, the incendiary poems in Glenis Redmond’s The Listening Skin explore how an artist dares to dance and create through a pain-riddled body. Corporeal and spiritual, immediately personal and deeply historical, Redmond’s latest collection details how generational cycles of poverty, mental and physical illness, and systemic racism impact the self, the family, and…

This book is a vessel/holding liquid for thirsty desirers/in the empty spiral of the universe/where detail is opinion/one moment is all it takes to answer/when the body calls. This book is just one answer in a life of calling. The storyteller lives inside the breath of home. Whatever home is chosen, whatever breath is owned.…

A collection of biographical stories and poems about fascinating people in history whose real dreams made a real difference. Developed in performance, these stories bring old tales to life for contemporary readers in a way that is both entertaining and informative.

David Drake is recognized as one of the United States’ most accomplished nineteenth-century potters. Yet, though his pots—many inscribed with original verse—sit in museums across the nation, he is too often passed over when considering the early foundations of African American poetry. Born in South Carolina at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Drake produced…

Ethical Meat is meat from an animal that had a good life, a good death, a good butcher, and a good cook. Ethical Meat is a movement that seeks to repair entire regional meat supply chains, and much work is underway by brave hardworking farmers, butchers, processors, chefs and cooks. Working to create the capacity…

Do you want to be heard in the garden? Please consider contributing your audio content. We grow together when we nurture our network. Click here for more information.

Judy Talaugon, Martha Cinader

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Season 2 Episode 3
January 31, 2026

Judy Talaugon and Martha Cinader speak with Olga Kavran, founding director of JUSTICOM, about her extensive experience in international criminal law and outreach, focusing on the communication of justice, and defining justice as a multifaceted concept that varies based on individual experiences and societal contexts. They go on to discuss genocide as legally defined, the role of international courts, the challenges they face and a growing expectation for justice and accountability in the international community.

Also discussed:

JUSTICOM

Fundamental Rights Research Center

The Tribunal Project

CREDITS– HOSTS: Martha Cinader, Judy Talaugon. Featured Guest: Olga Kavran. Sound Design: Hernan Ramiro Rodriguez Sierra. Theme Music: Mana Luca, arranged by Hernan Ramiro Rodriguez Sierra.

Olga Kavran is a Fellow at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel completing a PhD on the topic of international criminal courts’ obligation to provide information to the public, and the Founding Director of IUSTICOM, established in 2021 as the first non-governmental organisation dedicated to communicating justice.

Judy Talaugon is a Chumash and Filipina Land Protector from the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. She is the daughter of farmworkers and immigrant leaders. Growing up among Mexican and Filipina communities in California, she has been a long-time activist in numerous struggles, ranging from human rights to housing, land rights, and the fight…

Martha Cinader is a poet and author living in Harlem, NY. Her young adult novel, Marq and the Queen Fish, is forthcoming in 2026 from Atmosphere Press. Cinader is the founder and Director of the Listen & Be Heard Network, where she hosts and produces The Listen & Be Heard Hour, and Beyond Borders, both non-commercial podcasts and syndicated radio shows…

Tribunal Rising commemorates the 1992 International Tribunal movement in the city of San Francisco to dismantle the legacy of Christopher Columbus and the Myth of Discovery. In 1990, “[a]t the culmination of the Special International Tribunal on the Human Rights Violations of Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War in the US, the American Indian Movement…

Saumya Choudhuri, Tony Cranston, Barbara Tran, Eddie Harris, New Music, New Poetry

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s4e4
January 29, 2026

Saumya Choudhury, poet and organizer, joins Martha in the audio garden from Delhi. We also feature archival poetry from Barbara Tran. Hernan shares a rare live recording from 1986 of Eddie Harris in Paris. As always some brand new music and poetry from the garden to you.

CREDITS– HOSTS: Martha Cinader, Tony Robles, Hernan Ramiro Rodriguez Sierra. FEATURED GUEST: Saumya Choudhury. AUTHOR QUOTES: Lan Duong, Olga Kavran, Brett Cook, Seth Donnelly, Andrew Lam, Tony Cranston, Laura Lengnick. POETRY: Saumya Choudhury, Martha Cinader, Barbara Tran. MUSIC: Juanchin Candelin el Rey del Swing, by Hernan Ramiro Rodriguez Sierra who plays all woodwinds, Genji Siraisi on keys, Chris Theberge on drums and percussion Bill Ware on vibraphones, Ruben Rodriguez on bass, Pablo Vergara on piano and the voice of Faluguni Shah. Naima by John Coltrane, recorded live at The New Morning in Paris, France. Eddie Harris on saxophone and reed trumpet, Ralphe Armstrong on bass and Sherman Ferguson on drums. ORIGNAL SOUNDTRACK, MIXING, MASTERING, SOUND DESIGN: Hernan Ramiro Rodriguez Sierra. Executive Producer, Martha Cinader.

Tony Cranston is a renowned author, storyteller, and teacher with over 40 years of experience worldwide. Originally stationed in the UK, Cranston has traveled to over 50 cities, reading stories and collecting many as he goes.

Saumya Choudhury, an Indian poet and cultural organizer, founded Delhi Poetry Slam in 2013, promoting performance poetry in India. After transitioning to digital platforms, she created Poem Pajama and engaged with Santhali tribal communities. Recognized internationally, she hosts writing retreats and teaches poetry, supporting emerging writers and exploring themes of identity and loss.

Olga Kavran is a Fellow at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel completing a PhD on the topic of international criminal courts’ obligation to provide information to the public, and the Founding Director of IUSTICOM, established in 2021 as the first non-governmental organisation dedicated to communicating justice.

Brett Cook is an interdisciplinary artist and educator who uses storytelling to distill complex ideas and creative practices to transform outer and inner worlds of being. His elaborate installations feature painting, drawing, and photography to tell pluralistic stories with broad representation. His public projects typically involve community workshops featuring arts-integrated pedagogy and contemplative strategies—along with…

Andrew Lam fled Vietnam with his family during the fall of Saigon in April 1975 when he was eleven years old. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, studying biochemistry, but abandoned plans for medical school after graduation. He entered the creative writing program at San Francisco State University instead. While still in school, he…

Lan Duong is Associate Professor in Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Southern California. She is the author of Treacherous Subjects: Gender, Culture, and Trans-Vietnamese Feminism and coeditor of Southeast Asian Women in the Diaspora: Troubling Borders in Literature and Art. Her poetry has appeared in Watermark: Vietnamese American Poetry and Prose, Bold Words: Asian American Writing…

Barbara Tran is an immigrant. And a settler. She writes in multiple genres. Her debut poetry book, Precedented Parroting, is a Finalist for the 2024 Governor General’s Literary Award. She is currently at work in collaboration with Jacqueline Hoàng Nguyễn on the screenplay for Nguyễn’s debut feature film.

Across Latitude & Language brings together voices from across the globe—poets of different races, homelands, and histories, woven together by something quietly powerful: the shared weight of being human. In a world increasingly fractured by borders and conflict, this collection reminds us of the quiet universality of feeling. From the ache of personal loss and…

The past plays itself out in surprising ways in the lives of people who thought they had moved beyond the nightmares of war and exodus. It comes back on TV in the form of a confession from a cannibal; it enters the Vietnamese restaurant as a Vietnam Vet with a shameful secret; it articulates itself…

In his long-overdue first collection of essays, noted journalist and NPR commentator Andrew Lam explores his lifelong struggle for identity as a Viet Kieu, or a Vietnamese national living abroad. At age eleven, Lam, the son of a South Vietnamese general, came to California on the eve of the fall of Saigon to communist forces.…

At times humorous and ecstatic, other times poetic and elegiac, the fourteen pieces in Stories from the Edge of the Sea explore love and loss, lust and grief, longing and heartbreaks through the lives of Vietnamese immigrants and their children in California.

The title of this debut collection, Nothing Follows, is reappropriated from a government document establishing the beginning of a refugee family’s time in the United States. At every coordinate of their lives, the refugee family provides affidavits, letters, and reams of paperwork as they work to beseech those in power to grant them “family reunification” visas…

Opening with an exit, the poems in Precedented Parroting accept no assumptions. With the determination and curiosity of a problem-solving crow, this expansive debut plumbs personal archives and traverses the natural world, endeavouring to shake the tight cage of stereotypes, Asian and avian.

Real world stories from the frontlines of climate change, resilience, and the future of food. CLIMATE CHANGE PRESENTS an unprecedented challenge to food and farming in the U.S. and beyond. Damaging weather variability and extremes capture the headlines, but more subtle changes caused by hotter summer nights, warmer winters, and a longer growing season have…

Do you want to be heard in the garden? Please consider contributing your audio content. We grow together when we nurture our network. Click here for more information.

Joe Siple, Mary TallMountain, Suzette Clarke Bradshaw, Jim Pepper, New Music, New Poetry

[link to transcript]

s4e3
January 22, 2026

Author of the Murray McBride Trilogy, Joe Siple, joins Tony Robles in the audio garden. We feature poetry by Mary TallMountain and Suzette Clark Bradshaw, a new live recording from Hernan Ramiro Rodriguez Sierra, and also rare live recordings of Jim Pepper with Don Cherry.

CREDITS– HOSTS: Martha Cinader, Tony Robles, Hernan Ramiro Rodriguez Sierra. FEATURED GUEST: Joe Siple. AUTHOR QUOTES: Jan Smith, Freda Epum, Angela Marino, Saumya Choudhuri, Laura Lengnick. POETRY: Mary TallMountain, Suzette Clark Bradshaw, Martha Cinader, Demi Divine. MUSIC: Hernan Ramiro Rodriguez Sierra, Jim Pepper, Don Cherry. ORIGNAL SOUNDTRACK, MIXING, MASTERING, SOUND DESIGN: Hernan Ramiro Rodriguez Sierra.

Long before The Five Wishes of Mr. Murray McBride began winning awards and hitting Amazon bestseller lists, Joe Siple could be found at his computer, developing his voice as a writer. It took seventeen long years from the day he started his first fiction manuscript until Murray, Jason, and Tiegan propelled him to bestseller status.…

Angela Marino’s research focuses on contemporary Venezuela and political cultures of the Southwest, Caribbean, and Latin America.

Freda Ndidi Epum (Free-duh Nn-dee-dee Ay-poom) is a Nigerian-American writer, artist, and consultant from Tucson, AZ. Her work has been published in The Rumpus, Electric Literature, Vol 1. Brooklyn, Entropy, Bending Genres, Cosmonauts Avenue, Heavy Feather Review, Nat.Brut, Third Coast, Atticus Review, Rogue Agent, and the 2020 Bending Genres Anthology. She received her MFA from Miami University…

Suzette Clark Bradshaw from western North Carolina, is a self-taught poet and sculptress. Her poems have appeared in Dead Mule, Branches, Women Speak, and more.

Judy Talaugon is a Chumash and Filipina Land Protector from the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. She is the daughter of farmworkers and immigrant leaders. Growing up among Mexican and Filipina communities in California, she has been a long-time activist in numerous struggles, ranging from human rights to housing, land rights, and the fight…

Tony Robles, “The People’s Poet” was born in San Francisco and is the nephew of Filipino-American poet, historian and social justice activist Al Robles. He was a shortlist nominee for poet laureate of San Francisco in 2017 and the recipient of the San Francisco Art Commission individual literary artist grant in 2018. His two books…

Jan Smith has an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College, was the curator of the SOMOS Summer/Winter Writers Series from 2009-2015, and is currently the Executive Director of SOMOS(since 2014). She is a 2012 recipient of an award from Southwest Writers for her short story, “Breasts,” …

Based on an Athabascan legend passed along from mother to daughter for many generations on the upper Yukon River in Alaska, this is the tragic and shocking story–with a surprise ending–of two elderly women abandoned by a migrating tribe that faces starvation brought on by unusually harsh Arctic weather and a shortage of fish and…

The day before Murray McBride moves Jenny, his beloved wife of eighty years, into a memory care center, she convinces him to search for a case her grandfather buried long ago, said to contain “a treasure worth more than gold.” With the help of some new friends, Murray and Jenny retrace their steps from years…

Jason Cashman has reached the goal he spent the last twenty years seeking: raising a million dollars for charity. But instead of feeling content, he now feels empty. What comes next? When he meets Alexandra Lopez—a determined ten-year-old girl facing deportation and uncertainty—he is inspired by his old friend, Murray McBride, to help her fulfill…

With all his family and friends gone except an estranged grandson, retired Major League ballplayer Murray McBride is looking for a reason to live. He finds it in Jason Cashman, a spirited 10-year-old boy with a terminal heart defect and a list of five things he wants to do before he dies. Murray is determined…

Populism and Performance in the Bolivarian Revolution of Venezuela explains how supporters of the emergent socialism of Hugo Chávez negotiated terms of national belonging and participatory democracy through performance. By foregrounding populism as an embodied act, Angela Marino draws attention to repertoires of populism that contributed to what is arguably the most significant social movement in…

Tribunal Rising commemorates the 1992 International Tribunal movement in the city of San Francisco to dismantle the legacy of Christopher Columbus and the Myth of Discovery. In 1990, “[a]t the culmination of the Special International Tribunal on the Human Rights Violations of Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War in the US, the American Indian Movement…

Poetry. American Indian Studies. Illustrated by Claire Fejes. THE LIGHT ON THE TENT WALL: A BRIDGING is a collection of poetry from the late American Indian poet Mary TallMountain

Listen to the night poems for the animal spirits of mother earth  Publisher Freedom Voices Publications

In The Gloomy Girl Variety Show, Freda Epum explores the opposing forces of her “no-place, no-where” identity as a Nigerian American daughter, diasporically displaced, who spent years in and out of institutions seeking treatment for life-threatening mental illness, revealing what it takes to find refuge in love, and reimagine home.

In this remarkable collection, Tony Robles transforms a bright-lit warehouse into a psychic landscape to illuminate one man’s efforts to reassemble a broken life. Where the Warehouse Things Are gives the satisfaction of a book of poetry as well as a novelistic sense of a place and its inhabitants fully rendered. — Ron Rash, author…

Real world stories from the frontlines of climate change, resilience, and the future of food. CLIMATE CHANGE PRESENTS an unprecedented challenge to food and farming in the U.S. and beyond. Damaging weather variability and extremes capture the headlines, but more subtle changes caused by hotter summer nights, warmer winters, and a longer growing season have…

Do you want to be heard in the garden? Please consider contributing your audio content. We grow together when we nurture our network. Click here for more information.

PEN America reported ‘While the movement to ban books is driven by a vocal minority demanding censorship, a 2022 poll conducted by The American Library Association found that over 70% of parents oppose book banning leaving many public school districts in a bind.  We invite you to share your voice on the banning of books in schools and libraries in the USA. 

Learn more

Judy Talaugon, Angela Marino, Seth Donnelly, Hernan Ramiro, Olga Kavran

[link to transcript]

Season 2 Episode 2
January 17, 2026

Judy Talaugon has a wide ranging discussion with Angela Marino about Venezuela and the Americas. She also gets an update from Seth Donnelly on Tax Payers Against Genocide. Hernan Ramiro talks with Olga Kavran about international criminal law.

Tax Payers Against Genocide

2026 Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar

Fundamental Rights Research Center

The Tribunal Project

CREDITS– HOSTS: Martha Cinader, Judy Talaugon, Hernan Ramiro. Featured Guests: Angela Marino, Seth Donnelly, Olga Kavran. Sound Design: Jay Rodriguez Sierra. Theme Music: Mana Luca, arranged by Jay Rodriguez Sierra.

Seth Donnelly is a public high school teacher in the Bay Area of California, where he has taught social studies for nearly two decades. He is also an activist with the Puerto Rican independence and Black liberation movements, doing solidarity work with prisoners from those movements. Donnelly has been involved in the Haiti Action Committee…

Angela Marino’s research focuses on contemporary Venezuela and political cultures of the Southwest, Caribbean, and Latin America.

Olga Kavran is a Fellow at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel completing a PhD on the topic of international criminal courts’ obligation to provide information to the public, and the Founding Director of IUSTICOM, established in 2021 as the first non-governmental organisation dedicated to communicating justice.

This short book deconstructs the assumption that global poverty has fallen dramatically, and lays bare the spurious methods of poverty measurement and data on which the dominant prosperity narrative depends. Here is carefully researched documentation that global poverty—and the inequalities and misery that flourish within it—remains massive, afflicting the majority of the world’s population.

Populism and Performance in the Bolivarian Revolution of Venezuela explains how supporters of the emergent socialism of Hugo Chávez negotiated terms of national belonging and participatory democracy through performance. By foregrounding populism as an embodied act, Angela Marino draws attention to repertoires of populism that contributed to what is arguably the most significant social movement in…

Tribunal Rising commemorates the 1992 International Tribunal movement in the city of San Francisco to dismantle the legacy of Christopher Columbus and the Myth of Discovery. In 1990, “[a]t the culmination of the Special International Tribunal on the Human Rights Violations of Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War in the US, the American Indian Movement…

This short book deconstructs the assumption that global poverty has fallen dramatically, and lays bare the spurious methods of poverty measurement and data on which the dominant prosperity narrative depends. Here is carefully researched documentation that global poverty—and the inequalities and misery that flourish within it—remains massive, afflicting the majority of the world’s population.

New Music, New Poetry

[link to transcript]

s4e2
January 15, 2026

Zakiyyah Modeste, a spoken word artist, actress and athlete based in Harlem, is our special guest in the audio garden. We also listen to new music from Sound System Culture at Smalls Live, new poetry and Genny Lim, ninth poet laureate of San Francisco.

CREDITS– HOSTS: Martha Cinader, Jay Rodriguez Sierra. FEATURED GUESTS: Zakkiyah Modeste, Dao Strom, Matthew Shipp, Olga Kavran POETRY: Zakiyyah Modeste, Martha Cinader, Genny Lim MUSIC: Sound System Culture live at Smalls Live. Composed by Jay Rodriguez Sierra. ORIGNAL SOUNDTRACK, MIXING, MASTERING, SOUND DESIGN: Jay Rodriguez Sierra.

Olga Kavran is a Fellow at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel completing a PhD on the topic of international criminal courts’ obligation to provide information to the public, and the Founding Director of IUSTICOM, established in 2021 as the first non-governmental organisation dedicated to communicating justice.

Zakiyyah’s creative journey began as a child when, at the age of three, she won her school’s Valentine’s Day Poetry Contest. Early exposure to the arts through Mount Vernon’s Creative Arts Program allowed her to act in plays alongside talented peers, including saxophonist Michael Philips. Outside the program, she trained under Tina Satin—who also taught…

Dao Strom is a poet, musician, writer, and interdisciplinary artist who works with three “voices”—written, sung, visual—to explore hybridity and the intersection of personal and collective histories. She is the author/composer of several hybrid-literary works, including including the poetry-art collection, INSTRUMENT, and its musical companion of song-poems, TRAVELER’S ODE, and the forthcoming TENDER REVOLUTIONS/YELLOW SONGS…

With a unique, instantly recognizable style, pianist Matthew Shipp has been active on the international jazz scene since late 1980s. His boundary-less musical approach crisscrosses free jazz, elliptical post-bop, and modern classical music. He served as pianist in the David S. Ware Quartet during the early ’90s before leading his own dates and recording duos with a…

Genny Lim is an American poet, playwright, and performer. She is the ninth poet laureate of San Francisco, California, and the first Chinese American in the role.She was the Chair of Community Arts and Education Committee, and Chair of the Advisory Board for the San Francisco Writers Corps.

Existing in the liminal space of sound of spoken word and music, Sista Zock introduces a unique Afro Jazz Fusion Sound with a touch of Hip-hop. Her latest project, Zock Solid, Where the Stem Meets the Root, features a collaboration with Abiodun of The Last Poets, adding depth and resonance to her musical journey.

Fifty years after the fall of Saigon, Dao Strom’s Tender Revolutions / Yellow Songs vibrates with the ramifications and ripples of Empire. A hybrid project comprised of writings, music, and visual ephemera, each of the four Yellow Songs books and the Tender Revolutions album reckon with the intimate consequences of the colonial project, reconfiguring them into complex and lucid, literal and…

Black Mystery School Pianists and Other Writings is a collection of essays and prose poems from acclaimed pianist and visionary Matthew Shipp. Downbeat magazine has described Shipp as “the connection between the past, present and future for jazzheads of all ages”

These pages are filled with grieving and making sense of a mother’s loss of a child as the world once again finds itself in a state of war. In 2001, Genny Lim’s daughter, Danielle Mai Ting Jue, died at the age of 19.

Do you want to be heard in the garden? Please consider contributing your audio content. We grow together when we nurture our network. Click here for more information.

PEN America reported ‘While the movement to ban books is driven by a vocal minority demanding censorship, a 2022 poll conducted by The American Library Association found that over 70% of parents oppose book banning leaving many public school districts in a bind.  We invite you to share your voice on the banning of books in schools and libraries in the USA. 

Learn more

Poetry, Conversation, a New Mayor in NYC, New Music

[link to transcript]

s4e1
January 8, 2026

Azúcar, poet, therapist and open mic host, is Martha’s guest in the audio garden. Also featured, a hidden track from Groove Collective, Sarah Sophie Flicker talks about the Mamdani Campaign, and Zakiyyah Modeste, aka SistaZock, on her training in theater and track.

CREDITS– HOSTS: Martha Cinader, Jay Rodriguez Sierra. FEATURED GUESTS: Azúcar, Sarah Sophie Flicker, Zakkiyah Modeste POETRY: Azucar, Martha Cinader MUSIC: Where Are Your White Shoes, Groove Collective. ORIGNAL SOUNDTRACK, MIXING, MASTERING, SOUND DESIGN: Jay Rodriguez Sierra.

Sarah Sophie is an activist, producer, writer, filmmaker, cultural organizer, creative director, and aerialist. Founder and Creative Director of celebrated political cabaret group, The Citizens Band, she is the Editor-At-Large for Violet Book. Her writing can be found at Hello Giggles, Rookie Magazine, W Magazine, Vogue, Refinery29, The Cut, Cosmo.com, Violet Book, Stylist, Rizzoli’s publication…

Simone “Azúcar” Nikkole is a songwriter, screenwriter, author, Spoken Word poet, and Sí.Nik Productions and L.A. Sugar Factory founder. Her work is featured in Silver Tongue Devil Anthology (Amazon), Poets Without Limits IncarNATION Anthology, Mo’ Joe Anthology along with The Voices Project, Learn to Love and Enhance Online Magazines.

Zakiyyah’s creative journey began as a child when, at the age of three, she won her school’s Valentine’s Day Poetry Contest. Early exposure to the arts through Mount Vernon’s Creative Arts Program allowed her to act in plays alongside talented peers, including saxophonist Michael Philips. Outside the program, she trained under Tina Satin—who also taught…

The Resistance Revival Chorus, a collective of more than 70 women and non-binary singers have announced their debut album This Joy to be released on October 16th via Righteous Babe Records. The album features original compositions along with protest classics and was recorded in New York City with GRAMMY-nominated producer Tiffany Gouché. The album is 100% created by women, non-binary artists and…

Sidepiece Sanctifications is the second poetry chapbook of work written by Simone “Azúcar” Nikkole. In Sidepiece Sanctifications, Simone “Azúcar” Nikkole documents the journey of love, infatuation and three-way relationships. She explores the experience of “the other woman” or “sidepiece” in a romantic relationship and how the woman returns to herself in recognizing her true self…

Existing in the liminal space of sound of spoken word and music, Sista Zock introduces a unique Afro Jazz Fusion Sound with a touch of Hip-hop. Her latest project, Zock Solid, Where the Stem Meets the Root, features a collaboration with Abiodun of The Last Poets, adding depth and resonance to her musical journey.

Do you want to be heard in the garden? Please consider contributing your audio content. We grow together when we nurture our network. Click here for more information.

PEN America reported ‘While the movement to ban books is driven by a vocal minority demanding censorship, a 2022 poll conducted by The American Library Association found that over 70% of parents oppose book banning leaving many public school districts in a bind.  We invite you to share your voice on the banning of books in schools and libraries in the USA. 

Learn more

Sarah Sophie Flicker, Judy Talaugon, Martha Cinader

[link to transcript]

Season 2 Episode 1
January 3, 2026

Sarah Sophie Flicker, cultural activist, aerialist, matriarch and our special guest.

We took a journey with Sarah on this episode, starting with when she met Judy Talaugon in San Francisco, as the teen flame of Metallica star Kirk Hammett. We continue all the way to being a mother of three in Brooklyn and an organizer of the Women’s March on Washington. Reflecting on the relevance, or lack thereof, of pussy hats, and millions of enthusiastic people with nowhere to go, we move on to her most recent work on Zohran Mamdani’s campaign, and with Resistance Revival Chorus.

CREDITS– HOSTS: Judy Talaugon, Martha Cinader. Featured Guest: Sarah Sophie Flicker. Music: Hernan Ramiro, Resistance Revival Chorus. Sound Design: Jay Rodriguez Sierra. Theme Music: Mana Luca, arranged by Jay Rodriguez Sierra.

Sarah Sophie is an activist, producer, writer, filmmaker, cultural organizer, creative director, and aerialist. Founder and Creative Director of celebrated political cabaret group, The Citizens Band, she is the Editor-At-Large for Violet Book. Her writing can be found at Hello Giggles, Rookie Magazine, W Magazine, Vogue, Refinery29, The Cut, Cosmo.com, Violet Book, Stylist, Rizzoli’s publication…

The Resistance Revival Chorus, a collective of more than 70 women and non-binary singers have announced their debut album This Joy to be released on October 16th via Righteous Babe Records. The album features original compositions along with protest classics and was recorded in New York City with GRAMMY-nominated producer Tiffany Gouché. The album is 100% created by women, non-binary artists and…

Tribunal Rising commemorates the 1992 International Tribunal movement in the city of San Francisco to dismantle the legacy of Christopher Columbus and the Myth of Discovery. In 1990, “[a]t the culmination of the Special International Tribunal on the Human Rights Violations of Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War in the US, the American Indian Movement…

https://www.wmagazine.com/watch/womens-march-on-washington