Quintessential Poetry: A Global Poetry & Spoken Word Poetry Podcast

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Catfish McDaris has been active in the small press world for 30 years. His biggest seller is Prying: with Jack Micheline and Charles Bukowski. He has four walls, a ceiling, heat, food, a woman, a daughter, one cat, a typing machine, and a mailbox. Sometimes he gets lucky and someone publishes his words. In 1998 he read at a big Beatnik gathering in Cherry Valley, NY at Ginsberg’s farm. Catfish McDaris served in the Army artillery shooting 155 MM Howitzers. His dad was on the Bataan Death March and his older brother did two tours in Vietnam and retired as a sergeant major. Catfish is an aging New Mexican living near Milwaukee. His work has recently been translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Polish, Swedish, Arabic, Mandarin, Bengali, Mandarin, Tagalog, and Esperanto. His 30 years of published material is in the Special Archives Collection at Marquette Univ. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Catfish McDaris

2368 S. 59th St.

West Allis, WI 53219

U.S.A.

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This Episode is Prerecorded

Alatishe Kolawole wishes to embody integrity. His dream and his vision are to become a positive example for many young people, all over the world. Faith - an invisible power - and the will to grow humanly even when times are hard and difficult guide and inspire his work. The poet has the certainty that the right wins over iniquity. He has faith that the sun will rise again, life will go on and things will improve in some way. Somehow, even when it seems impossible. His poetry is aimed primarily at boys and girls all over the world. His verses have been published in the Punch Papers (Arts & Culture), Wildfire Publications Magazine (United States), The Poet's Attic World Anthology (United States), Genoa Poetry, (Italy) and other literary magazines. Alatishe travels through the stages of life trying to anticipate the future. His poetry collection Welcome to the Poets Residence and We Need a Road on this Broken Heart are scheduled for 2020 "Immerse your feet in this river of hope" by Alatishe opens the new series by Lavinia.

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 Dee Scribes has been a poet and cultural record-keeper since second grade. She uses language to highlight the needs of her community and her personal journey through life. She's been featured at The Gathering, P.O.G, National Arts & Humanities Celebration for Ebenezer AME Church, AWAKE and many other events in the DMV and Chicagoland area. She is CEO of Dee.Core Accessories, which allows her and her clientele to show their creativity through fashion. Although she holds a M.S. in instructional design and development, her favorite form of communication is hip-hop.  A true B-girl/round-the-way girl for the south suburbs of Chicago, the realness of her message and heart of her cadence is bound to make every venue your favorite classroom.

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BIO: Bio: Alan King is the author of Point Blank (Silver Birch Press, 2016) and DRIFT (Willow Books/Aquarius Press, 2012). He's a Caribbean American, whose parents emigrated from Trinidad and Tobago to the U.S. in the 1970s. He’s also a husband, father, and communications professional who blogs about art and social issues at alanwking.com. A Cave Canem graduate fellow, he holds a Master's of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the Stonecoast Program at the University of Southern Maine. He’s been nominated multiple times for a Pushcart Prize and was a Best of the Net selection. He’s currently working on the DRIFT audiobook.  He lives with his family in Bowie, Maryland.

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Alatishe Kolawole wishes to embody integrity.His dream and his vision are to become a positive example for many young people, all over the world. Faith - an invisible power - andthe will to grow humanly even when times arehard and difficult guide and inspire his work. The poet has the certainty that the right wins over iniquity. He has faith that the sun will rise again, life will go on and things will improve in some way. Somehow, even when itseems impossible. His poetry is aimed primarily at boys and girls all over the world. His verses have been published in the Punch Papers (Arts & Culture), Wildfire Publications Magazine (United States), The Poet's Attic World Anthology (United States), Genoa Poetry, (Italy) and other literary magazines. Alatishe travels through the stages of life trying to anticipate the future. His poetry collection Welcome to the Poets Residence and We Need a Road on this Broken Heart is scheduled for 2020 "Immerse your feet in this river of hope" by Alatishe opens the new series by Lavinia.

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Joseph Ross is the author of four books of poetry: Raising King (2020), Ache (2017), Gospel of Dust (2013) and Meeting Bone Man (2012). His poems appear in many places including, The Los Angeles Times, Poet Lore, Southern Quarterly, Xavier Review,, Beltway Poetry Quarterly and Drumvoices Revue. He has received multiple Pushcart Prize nominations and won the 2012 Pratt Library/Little Patuxent Review Poetry Prize. He recently served as the 23rd Poet-in-Residence for the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society in Howard County, Maryland. He teaches English and Creative Writing at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C. and writes regularly at www.JosephRoss.net.

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Derrick Weston Brown holds an MFA in creative writing, from American University. He has studied poetry under Dr. Tony Medina at Howard University and Cornelius Eady at American University. He is a graduate of the Cave Canem and VONA Voices summer workshops. His work has appeared in such literary journals as The Little Patuxent Review, Colorlines, The This Mag, and Vinyl online. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2012.    He worked as a bookseller andbook buyer for a bookstore which is operated by the nonprofit Teaching for Change. He was thefounder of The Nine on the Ninth, a critically acclaimed monthly poetry series that ran from 2005-2015 at the 14th & V street location of Busboys and Poets. He was the 2012-2013 Writer-In-Residence of the Howard County Poetry Literary Society, of Maryland. He is also a participating DC area author for the PEN/Faulkner Foundation’s Writers-in-Schools program. He’s performed at such esteemed venues as The Nuyorican Poets’ Cafe and the Bowery. He has lead workshops and performed at Georgetown University, George Washington University, Sweet Briar College and Chicago State. He has appeared on Al-Jazeera and NPR as well. In May of 2014 he was also the recipient of a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Grant. He is a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, and resides in Mount Rainier, Maryland. His debut collection of poetry entitled, Wisdom Teeth, was released in April 2011 on Busboys and Poets Press/PM Press. His second collection of poetry, a chapbook entitled On All Fronts , was released along with two other poetry chapbooks in a bound series from Upper Rubber Boot Press entitled Floodgates Vol.5 , this March of 2019. You can follow him on social media on Facebook and on Instagram @theoriginalDerrickWestonBrown as well as his author website DerrickWestonBrown.com

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Bill Cushing has lived in Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Florida, Maryland, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico before moving to California. As an undergrad, he was called the “blue collar” poet by classmates at the University of Central Florida because of his years serving in the Navy and later working as an electrician on oil tankers, naval vessels, and fishing boats before he returned to college at the age of 37. He earned an MFA in writing from Goddard College in Vermont and teaches at East Los Angeles and Mt. San Antonio colleges, residing in Glendale with his wife and their son. As a writer, Bill has been published in various literary journals, magazines, and newspapers, including Birders World and The San Juan Star. His short stories have appeared in Borfski Press, Newtown Literary Journal, and Sediments. He had poems in both volumes of the award-winning Stories of Music. His poetry has appeared in numerous journals, both in print and online, including Avocet, Brownstone Review, Mayo Review, Penumbra, Spectrum, The Song Is..., and West Trade Review. When not teaching or writing, Bill facilitates a writing workshop in Eagle Rock, California (9 Bridges). He also performs with a musician in a project called “Notes and Letters.” He invites anyone interested to visit and “like” their Facebook page or check their youtube page by searching “Chuck Corbisiero Bill Cushing Notes and Letters.”A nominee for both a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, Bill was named as one of the Top Ten Poets of L.A. in 2017, and in 2018, he was honored as on the ten poets to watch in L. A. His recent book, A Former Life, was released in June 2019 by Finishing Line Press, and he won the 2019 San Gabriel Valley Chapbook Competition with Music Speaks, a volume currently being prepared for wider release.

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J. P. Dancing Bear is editor for the Verse Daily and Dream Horse Press. He is the author of fourteen collections of poetry, most recently, Cephalopodic (Glass Lyre Press, 2015. His most recent book, Fishing Singing Foxes came out in March of 2019 by Salmon Poetry. His next collection, Of Oracles and Monsters, which will be released by Glass Lyre Press in the fall of 2019. His work has appeared in hundreds of magazines and anthologies including American Literary Review, Crazyhorse, Plume, Quarterly West, and others.

Editor, Verse Daily 

editor/owner, Dream Horse Press

twitter.com/jpdancingbear

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Todd Cirillo is a writer, poet, publisher and pirate. He is one of the originators of After-Hour Poetry and co-founder and editor of Six Ft. Swells Press. His books include: Burning the Evidence (Epic Rites Press, 2017), Sucker’s Paradise, Sexy Devils, Still a Party, This Troubled Heart and ROXY and Three For the Road (which he co-authored) among others. Todd is widely known for his poetry performances. He has been published in numerous national and international publications and on cocktail napkins everywhere. Todd lives in New Orleans, Louisiana and can be found soaking his pirate heart in second lines and smiling under the neons searching for shiny moments. You can find books, videos, poems at toddcirillo.com