Quintessential Poetry: A Global Poetry & Spoken Word Poetry Podcast

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Aaron R., also known as - Aaron R The Poet - writes poetry and also produces and directs short poem films. Poetry is a way to express real-life situations in a way that all people can relate to using a myriad of topics. Aaron R was the winner of first ever World Food Day poetry competition organized by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Aaron R has also had poems featured in books on social justice. Aaron R also has a book Poetically Correct Volume 1 available on Amazon.com and iTunes. Aaron can be reached at aaronRpoems.com.

J.Swann aka Blackswann and is a Rap Artist/Poet from Baltimore MD. He's been doing music for years, performing out of state in different cities. Not too long ago, he won a Caribbean open mic contest in Philadelphia. And right now he is working on his BlackSwann album which will be available in early April.

Rebecca, a Louisiana native, is an educator, photographer, PhD student, and award-winning poet whose writing, performance, and contribution to the poetry community has been recognized in Philadelphia, Baltimore and beyond. Rebecca is the founder and creative director of A DOSE OF DUPAS, an event-based poetry company that houses several live art events as well as national artist development events. In addition to performance, production and commissioned composition, Rebecca has published four CDs and a book of original works entitled "The Exchange". Rebecca has appeared on Centric, Fox 5, and OneMicTV.com. A recent tour included appearances on C- Span & PBS News and in The Washington Post alongside President Clinton. For a longer bio, please visit rebeccadupas.com/bio.

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Kim D. Bailey is a 2016 Pushcart Nominee for nonfiction, and 2018 Best of the Net Nominee for poetry. Currently, she works as a paid reviewer for Carpe Librum books and does some freelance work on the side. She is published in several online and print journals and in audio, including but not limited to Firefly Magazine, Tuck Magazine, Drunk Monkeys, The Scarlet Leaf Review, Writer's Digest, Anti Heroine Chic, Sick Lit, The Song Is, Indigent Press, The 52 Men Podcast, and Tupelo Press. Kim was a columnist for Five 2 One Literary Magazine from June 2016 to October 2017, writing to Breaking the Legacy of Silence. She has also held editorial positions with Firefly Magazine and Sick Lit Magazine. At the moment, Kim is taking her creativity a day at a time and is compiling a memoir as well as poems for a chapbook. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two dogs. You can find her work mostly compiled at Kim D. Bailey. www.kimbaileyspradlin.com

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Duane Vorhees and his wife and son moved the population of Farmersville, Ohio over the 1,000 mark when they moved there last year. He returned to his hometown after teaching in Korea and Japan. His book "Love's Autobiography" was published by Hawakal last summer and is available on Amazon. He manages a daily arts zine duanespoetree.blogspot.com, featuring contemporary poets from around the world.

The primary mission of Quintessential Listening: Poetry is to provide a live format for poets to showcase their work. Whether traditional poetry or spoken word, the show offers an online vehicle for artists to engage in critical dialogue and discussion about the art and craft of poetry.

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Valeri Beers is from Bangor, Maine. Her first book of poems titled ...details... published by Thomas Hill Publishing. This is her second poetry book titled "Scratching The Surface", published by Underground Writer's Association.  She has been writing all her life and is inspired to write by listening to music and needing to remember things. Valeri has been published in a number of literary magazines including anthologies by Literature Today, Lit House, The Wicked, Poets of Maine, Qutub Minar Review, Clockwise Rain, Literature Today (Vol. 1-7), Our Day of Passing, Dandelion in a Vase of Roses and Poetry Pasta  She has links to her poems on her own poetry site: wordsoftheval2000.wordpress.com. You can also connect with her on Facebook (Valeri Beers) and Twitter (@theval2000)

She has been a guest poet on the DC Poetry Project's Power of Poetics Blogtalk Radio show, talking all things poetic and reading her own poems. Valeri also helps take poetic care of Poetry Pasta (www.poetrypasta.wordpress.com), an online poetry page that shows off new poets and their words and is also the curator of the Poetry Pasta Facebook page.

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Writer's Biography

Pearl Brown holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Chemistry, She is a Montessori Certified Middle and High School Teacher. She teaches Math and Science at the Oneness Family School (from 2014 till the present) in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

I first began writing at the young age of 7 or 8. Writing was a way of expressing my love of reading. When I wrote the words came to me effortlessly. I wanted to write a story that reflected the great pleasure that I had when I read stories. I wrote a book about a young girl and her dog surviving a hurricane. I wrote the story, drew the illustrations, designed the book cover and neatly stapled the pages to fit into a book form. The name of the book was, “A Girl, Her Dog, and the Hurricane.” I even read it to my first - grade class. My next bout of writing occurred during my teenage years. My writing reflected the annoyance of my interfering and confused parents’ as they attempted to parent their rebellious daughter. I also wrote of puppy love and the devastation of my first break-up.

Then I got married, had children and began the process of pouring my life and love into their hearts. It was during this time that I began to write again. My “Eros” poems reflected my ownership of the joy I found in my intimate relationships. As my sons got older, I wrote, “A Mother’s Reflection: Aset of poems dedicated to the growth/challenges I had in the relationships with my sons.” As life got busier and busier, I stopped writing and put away my poetry. Last year, on a challenge, to redirect my life so that it reflected my first joy, I dusted off and unearthed my poems and for the first time, I began to read them to my friends and on the stage of Bossa. I love the energy and the joy that reading my poetry gives me. I plan to continue writing and speaking my work.

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In celebration of National Women's History Month, the Blogtalk Radio program Quintessential Listening: Poetry presents HERSTORY. Noted poets Francine Montemurro, Pamela L. Taylor, and Lynne Spigelmire Viti will read from their works during the broadcast.

Francine Montemurro was born in Yonkers, NY, grew up in Hastings-on-Hudson, and has lived hither and yon. Her poems have appeared in the Paterson Literary Review, and have been on exhibit at Boston City Hall. She’s read her poems in and around Boston where she currently lives, works, and spends time with many friends, human and canine, real and imaginary.

Pamela L. Taylor is a data guru by day and a poet by night. Pamela’s first chapbook of poetry, My Mother’s Child, was published by Hyacinth Girl Press (2015). Her recent work has appeared in The Adirondack Review and Atlas and Alice. When Pamela is not working or writing, she’s dancing Argentine tango in the Boston area. Her blog, A Poet's Double Life, focuses on balancing poetry with a non-literary career.

Lynne Spigelmire Viti was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. She is a lecturer emerita in the Writing Program at Wellesley College. A graduate of Mercy High School in Baltimore, she attended the College of Notre Dame of Maryland, and received her B.A.cum laude in English Literature from Barnard College. After teaching high school English for several years in Stamford, Connecticut and Brookline, Massachusetts, she earned her Ph.D. and J.D. from Boston College.Viti has authored numerous academic articles on legal topics, composition theory and, literature and media. Her first chapbook, Baltimore Girls, was published in March, 2017, and her second collection, The Glamorganshire Bible, in 2018 (both from Finishing Line Press). She is also the author of a poetry micro chapbook, (Origami Poems Project 2017).

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Octaviano Merecias-Cuevas hails from Portland, Oregon. He is a spoken word artist, visual storyteller, and tri-lingual writer. Octaviano has presented and published his work in Mexico and the US. He writes in Mixteco, Spanish and English about contemporary issues affecting/shaping the Latino/Xicano/Hispanic/Indigenous experience in the US. 

Octaviano is also a motivational speaker, photographic artist, and educator, who works with a socially-engaged and social-emotional brain-targeted practices facilitating workshops, talks, discussion, forums, conferences, collaboratories with groups in the US and abroad. Octaviano spends most of his free time, volunteering as a mentor, participant or advisor in commissions, boards, campaigns and organizations that represent values of unity, healing, diversity, equity, inclusion, arts, culture and belonging. Mr. Merecias-Cuevas utilizes the latest research information on cognitive-behavioral neuroscience to inform and complement the deliverance of his interactive and multilingual presentations. Octaviano holds a Master’s Degree from the School of Language, Culture & Society at Oregon State University and is currently pursuing a professional graduate certificate at Johns Hopkins University in the Mind, Brain and Teaching Program.

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Linda Imbler is the author of three published poetry collections, "Big Questions, Little Sleep,"  "Lost and Found," and "The Sea’s Secret Song" which is an e-book published by Soma Publishing. Her new e-book "Pairings" is now available. It is also to be published by Soma Publishing. "Pairings" is a collection of short fiction pieces and each story is loosely coupled with one of Linda’s poems. Since writing her first poem for publication almost four years ago, she has had her poetry and short fiction published in numerous national and international journals and dozens of anthologies. In addition to putting pen and paper to inventive use, Linda is an avid reader and budding illustrator, Yoga and Tai Chi practitioner, stargazer, and classical guitar player. She lives in Wichita, Kansas with her husband, Mike the Luthier, several quite intelligent saltwater fish, and an ever-growing family of gorgeous guitars which she helps Mike build. She feels honored and very humbled to have been nominated in 2017 for the Pushcart Prize for her poem "Ensorcelled Within the Moonlit Eyes of P’aqo" and twice in 2018 for Best of the Net for her poems "Guitar" and "The Value of Shadows." Linda’s poetry and a listing of her publications can be found at lindaspoetryblog.blogspot.com.

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Bio:

Jerry Brunoe, a Wasco, was raised on the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon. He briefly and sporadically attended Oregon State University. His poetry has appeared in multiple literary magazines. He pretends to know what he is doing at Toe Good.

Toe Good:

www.toegood.com

Toe Good publishes artists dedicated to their craft and seeks work from underrepresented artists of all genres.

Music by Kevin MacLeod and Lino Rise

The mission of Quintessential Listening: Poetry is to provide a forum to examine topical events and contemporary issues through the power of poetry. Hosted by Dr. Michael Anthony Ingram, the live format offers poets and spoken word artists opportunities to either showcase their own poetry or the works of others. The show also offers poets the freedom to give voice as well as bear witness to the social, cultural, racial, political, health, global, gender, economic and environmental issues that affect all of our lives.

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Ryan Quinn Flanagan is a Canadian-born author presently residing in Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada with his wife and many bears that rifle through his garbage. He is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominated writer whose work has been translated into both Italian and Bangla. His work can be found both in print and online in such places as: The New York Quarterly, Evergreen Review, Ariel Chart, Cultural Weekly, This Song Is..., Ramingo's Porch, Setu, The Rye Whiskey Review, Outlaw Poetry Network, Under The Bleachers, Hidden Constellation, PPP Ezine, The Dope Fiend Daily, Poetry Bulawayo (Zimbabwe), Our Poetry Archive, The Australia Times Poetry and The Oklahoma Review.  He is the author of almost 50 books of poetry, the latest of which are: Tiger in the Tall Grass, Panthers in the Street from Leaf Garden Press, Once Around the Maypole, Twice Around the Sun from Marathon Books, Return to Vegas Poems from Alien Buddha Press, Poems to Knock the Sun Out of the Sky from Pski's Porch, In WInter's Dreams We Wake from Weasel Press, These Things You See from Clare Songbirds Publishing House and Juggernaut Fuzz from Cajun Mutt Press. His personal website is http://ryanquinnflanagan.yolasite.com/