Prose & Cons

“HOPE WHITBY is a poet, fiction writer, and haiku aficionado. She is the creator of Art in the Shop and Books in the Bay book club supporting the local Richmond art scene since 2012. 

Hope has received awards for her poetry from the Virginia Poetry Society and Richmond magazine. She lives in Richmond, Virginia, with her Chihuahua, Princess.” 

Hope’s new book of poetry, Traveling the River, is coming soon! We talk about pomes, life stuff, and some nitty-gritty details of starting an independent press!!

Life in 10 Minutes is a fantastic organization founded by Valley in 2010, and has grown from writing classes, to an online literary magazine, to a podcast, and, now, a press! Very imPRESSive (sorry).

You can pre-order the book now, and be sure to come by the release partay, May 2 at Life in 10 Minutes!

Lydia has become a personal favorite artist of ours so why not have her back once again! This time she brought her friend Morgan Potts who performed during the Women in Radio fundraiser, both of them did an excellent job despite the general disarray and calamity within the bar. This week we were able to have calmer discussions about their work and what they had prepared. There were talks of dreams, coincidence, waitress culture, and more. Let’s not forget that we had special guest host stand in Sumerth providing fresh and semi-profound insights. A very special episode, check it out!

What’s the only thing better than four fantastic spoken word poets performing live? Four fantastic poets performing live as part of a fundraiser for the Sister Radio Documentary project. If you were not fortunate enough to attend this stellar event at Castleburg Brewery, never fear! We got you.

Truly, this is an all-star hall-of-fame dream team of poets on par with the Tune Squad of Space Jam fame. Except for poetry, not basketball… Maybe they’re also great at basketball? Who knows!

Starting the lineup real strong was former P&C guest Lydia Armstrong. She’s built a reputation at local open mics and other performance venues as a poet who is as bold as she is eloquent. Often focusing on topics such as mental health and suicidal thoughts, dark family history and old boyfriends. Lydia also has the widely recognized ongoing photography project Thicket of Trash.

Morgan Potts was up next. An alum of VCU’s rockstar CUPSI slam team, she was kind enough to fill in for another poet who had to drop out last-minute. Thanks Morgan!! We haven’t had her as a guest for an interview yet, but after her stellar performance during this event, you’d better believe we will! Stay tuned…

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand in the red corner, making his glorious return all the way from the Prose & Cons PILOT EPISODE……… Aden Ware!!! Great to have you back, friendo. Aden’s deceptively casual style often speaks from his experience as a mixed-race man in America, a perspective we don’t often hear about. He also draws a lot of sly references to pop-culture and throws in the perfect amount of his comedic personality to create a listening experience unlike any other.

AM Pressman is another former P&C guest and a member of the highly competitive slam team The Writer’s Den. The Writer’s Den hosts slams on the last Thursday of every month. This month features national poetry slam champion Black Chakra! Pressman brought the ruckus Saturday night with their characteristically strong verse and biting delivery.

You can still donate to the Sister Radio doc! Get one of their cool shirts or something! Get involved! It’s a rad project.

Hampton Sides is a visionary author who writes primarily narrative non-fiction. His most recent book, On Desperate Ground, about the Battle of Chosin Reservoir–the most infamous battle in the Korean War–is out now. I currently reading it and this book rocks my socks. And it makes for a great last minute xmas gift!

Mr. Sides was so gracious. An amazing writer, and an amazing guy. He’s got plenty of other books as well–some war-related, some not!

Nerds, assemble! Let your geek flag fly, I say. Prose & Cons is cool and all, but how would you like to be transported to a world where anime is the sole source of entertainment? Where hentai, fan service, and camera angles are praised and condemned in the same sentence? Where whimsical tangents frequently derail the conversation and quickly devolve into uncontrollable fits of giggling? Fear not, child: you have arrived.

CROWS + PAWNS is here to sate your anime needs. This is a service we provide to our adoring fans. Of which there are many. Welcome to the cool kids club, friendo.

NEXT WEEK on P&C we got Mr. Hampton Sides, the patron saint of military and expeditionary history non-fiction goodness. He’s promoting his newish book, On Desperate Ground. I’m reading it now and can give you the inside scoop: it’s good!

NEXT TIME on Crows and Pawns: Smash Bros. Ultimate episode?? Why not!

Once in a generation, the greatest poetic minds converge into a single evening. It is a beautiful gathering of precious souls and creative spirits, the likes of which will never be seen again. Until the next time.

Word Nerds! is the brainchild of Ben and Dom, a Prose & Cons live event hosted by the effervescent Stir Crazy staff. Of course, we could not do it alone! We are blessed with our acquaintance of Michele, Imani, and Roscoe of The Writer’s Den as well as Richard Rose, Lanvi Nguyen, Koreena Lawson, Dante Ruff (Lithium God), and Priest. Dom and I even perform our own pomes!

If you couldn’t make it out this time, never fear! We’ll be doing more soon. Stay tuned, and thanks for listening.

Who loves anime? Nerds love anime! And yeeeees, we are giant nerds. Although, to clarify, Dom, Douglass, and I are not the cool kind of nerd that has come into vogue in recent years (you kids don’t know how good you have it!), we’re slightly grown up versions of our even-more-awkward pimply tween selves who hid our manga collection and anime addiction from our cooler “friends.” Dom, Douglass, and I are still the raging dorks we once were, and that is something worth celebrating!

This was not meant to be a pt. 1, but, as these things often go–at least when we’re involved–our conversation went waaaaaaay longer than planned. So, instead of covering our TOP 3 in this episode, we talk TOP 2. Pt. 2 featuring TOP 1 will be released SOON. Confused yet? So are we!

To further complicate matters, this was, in fact, the SECOND time we attempted to record this one. The FIRST time, we started a FANTASTIC conversation about PRINCESS MONONOKE (seriously, our fat asses were waxing poetic) but sadly ’twas not meant to be…. By which I mean somehow I screwed up the recording and we lost a solid half hour of audio gold. Whoops! That is why the part of this episode devoted to PM is not quite as ROBUST as you might expect. We were still dealing with the painful loss of our first attempt. But bear with us! Once this sucker get going it really GET GOING.

Stay tuned for pt. 2 of Top 3 Anime Movies, featuring our 3 TOP 1s. That post may or may include less ALL CAPS.

How do we erase institutional bias? Great question! Read Erasing Institutional Bias to find out. I don’t want to spoil anything for you, geez…

…All right, all right, fine. I’ll cover the basics for ya, but you’d better still go out and buy this friggin book!

This friggin book offers inspired clarity on a topic that makes many of us uncomfortable just to think about, let alone try to solve. Of course, Rome wasn’t built in a day! (That doesn’t have anything to do with institutional bias but I just thought I’d pepper in 1-2 historical fun facts.) Enacting real change in the world of systemic prejudice takes a constant intentional effort. That may be why so many lame-o CEOs are too reticent to try! Or maybe it’s because they’re reaping the rewards from a corporate structure that’s been actively designed to benefit them? Who knows!

Despite their different fields, it’s clear that both authors are well versed in the realm of tackling biases. After earning her MA in Religious Studies at the University of Virginia and her Masters of Divinity at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Ashley has devoted her academic work to researching and writing on racial bias. She has written for blogs and led institutional conversations on race, systemic bias, and mass incarceration. Tiffany is the founder and CEO of TMI Portfolio, a collection of socially responsible and interconnected companies working to advance more culturally inclusive and equitable workforces. TMI Portfolio’s consulting arm, TMI Consulting, Inc. Previously, they co-wrote Overcoming Bias, a book focusing on addressing personal biases within ourselves.

Dom and I had a great time with Tiffany and Ashley. I did a great job interview-wise, while Dom tried his best. Bless his heart!

I hope you consider the fact that I’m writing a particularly long post for this one, and take it to mean that this episode is worth it! All jokes aside, we applaud these determined movers and shakers for writing what is sure to be required reading for employers (and employees) everywhere.

Here’s a tidbit of info you might not know: there’s a bleep-ton of murals in our fair city! There are many of them, and they are awesome. Now, FOR THE FIRST TIME, a collection of these murals has been curated by one of Richmond’s most celebrated muralists, the Night Owl (aka Mickael Broth).

Dom and I sat down with Mr. Owl to chat about how he started off as a lad, tagging walls, and the unjust consequences he ultimately faced. We even touch on the US prison industrial complex! Oh yeah, we also talk about murals. It’s mostly about murals.

This is an amazing book. You can pre-order a copy from Chop Suey (who is publishing the book). You can enjoy endless hours of mural-gazing while keeping the lights on and WonTon fed!

[Full Disclosure: I work at Chop Suey] [Fuller Disclosure:n I would be raving about this book even if I didn’t] [Fullest Disclosure: follow us on FB and subscribe to our podcast. We love you]

What to say about these four precious souls? Young. Enthusiastic. Bright futures, all. AND SMERT AF

[To be read in Stefon’s voice] If you just stumbled out of the ICA, high on life and just a smidge of salvia, this episode is for you. Radio’s hottest show is Prose & Cons. This podcast has everything: holographic poems, group telepathy, and milfs!

LEt’ s throw down some art

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Come to our first ever live event, WEDNESDAY 11-7 at Stir Crazy roundabout 7 (please).