Quintessential Poetry: A Global Poetry & Spoken Word Poetry Podcast

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Author Nicole Gillespie of Kansas City, Mo., is the proud author of: Transparent Moments and Mirror’s Reflections. Gillespie’s books’ landed her The People Choice Awards  for “Best Author” in her city and 5 star ratings via Amazon.

 

Gillespie has been featured on Quintessential Listening: Poetry Radio online and she appeared twice as a guest panelist in P. English Literature Global Writers Conference, hosted by You-tuber, Peter Okonkwo of Akure, South Western part of Nigeria. She has also been featured in three magazines: ABE magazine “ All Black Everything” (Trish Mitchell, pub), “writing on the Wall Global magazine (Author Renee Drummond- Brown, pub) and Raven Cage Global magazine (Jerry Langdon, pub)

 

Gillespie is known for her pathos writing style and she inks from the depths of her soul. Gillespie’s mission is to shake and move her readers through her body of literary works. Gillespie’s primary goal as a poet is to provoke thought, enlightenment and ultimately change, which hopefully gives her readers understanding, strength and the courage to press on once reading her work. Gillespie’s insightful work can also be followed on Instagram and You Tube:

https://www.amazon.com/author/nicoleheartsdesire

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Siobhan Clover is a writer born and raised in Sussex County, Delaware and recently featured in the 2023 Delaware Bards Poetry Review. She first began her artistic journey in school plays starting at age nine, studying performance and theatrical production the entirety of her secondary education. Her first year of college at The George Washington University was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In isolation, she found an unparalleled adoration for poetry and prose, which gave her a method of expression that could not be compromised by the conditions of the external world.

She enjoys experimentation and subversion in the form while operating with the philosophy to “find a new, interesting way to say something understood by the collective.” Her body of work tackles love, grief, psychology, magic, queerness, politics, and the beauty and horror of being alive, sometimes invoking older myths and stories to vocalize these themes. Her purpose in creation is to express her worldview in a way that provides solace and a call to action, even if the call is to just sit and feel. She looks forward to strengthening and diversifying her artistic voice in order to amplify the words and actions of the many that are working towards a better future.

https://eclectic-elegies-poetry.com/

https://instagram.com/eclectic_elegies?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Instrumental music: Creative Commons,

Jason Shaw - LANDRAS DREAM.mp3

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Mark Fishbein (Poet With Guitar) was born in Brooklyn, NY.  He got a BA in Literature from CCNY in 1970, and attended the Sorbonne in Paris for French Literature.  Rejecting an academic life, he found a career in the flourishing screen printing and t-shirt dyeing industry, raising a family in NYC, always “with a book of poems in his pocket”. In 2018, Mark left the industry and immediately re-engaged with poetry. At this time, Mark has 5 books available on Amazon, including Stances, 2018 and an ekphrastic book Poems Hanging in a Wall (2020). He has published in a variety of publications from the Hill Rag to the American Atheist Magazine. His most recent work “Reflections in the Time of Trumpius Maximus,” a collection of 50 political poems written 2016-2021 (Atmosphere Press, 2021). He has also translated a collection by the French poet Paul Eluard. Online, Mark is host to weekly writers workshops, and a unique Zoom event, Planet Poetry 28, a monthly virtual magazine introducing poets from around the world who uniquely perform their poetry while showing the work on Share Screen. Mark is on the ExeCom of PGN-Poetry Global Network. He is Chancellor of “The Poetry Academy”, which offers workshops and study events focusing of subjects of interest to the modern Zoom generation of poets. Now retired, with a desire to teach poetry on the college level, Mark is currently enrolled in Columbia College, Chicago, for an MFA in Poetry, by Spring 2025. After decades of self-taught playing, Mark took up classical guitar in 2000 and currently plays professionally at art openings, poetry readings, weddings etc. He often combines his poetry reading with his eclectic music style. He now lives in Chicago with his wife Elaine, whom he met in a protest rally against the war in Vietnam. They have two sons and three grandchildren www.poetwithguitar.com.

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Francis DiClemente is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker who lives in Syracuse, New York. He is the author of multiple poetry collections, most recently The Truth I Must Invent (Poets’ Choice, 2023) and Outward Arrangements: Poems (independently published, 2021). His writing has also appeared in Evening Street Review, Bewildering Stories, Narratively, The Millions, Artnet News, Film International, and in the books Air: A Radio Anthology (Books by Hippocampus, 2019), Chicken Soup for the Soul: Find Your Inner Strength (2014), and Six-Word Memoirs on Love and Heartbreak (Harper Perennial, 2009). He works full-time as a video producer at Syracuse University, and his blog can be found at francisdiclemente.com.

Books 

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Francis-DiClemente/author/B00APRKRKQ?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Social Media

https://twitter.com/FranDiClem

https://www.instagram.com/francisdiclemente/

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4588547/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

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Jake St. John lives in the woods on the edge of the Salmon River. He is the author of several collections of poetry including Ring of Fog (Holy and Intoxicated Publications, 2022), Night Full of Diamonds (Whiskey City Press, 2021), and Lost City Highway (A Jabber Publication, 2019). He is the editor of Elephant and is considered an original member of the New London School of poetry. His poems have appeared in print and online journals around the world.

https://www.facebook.com/jake.s.john.5?mibextid=ZbWKwL

https://youtube.com/@JakeStJohn

Jenn Knickerbocker is a writer, an author, a mother, and a teacher. Her poems can be found in print and digital journals internationally. You can find her on a forest path or sitting fireside during her free time.

https://instagram.com/jennknix?igshid=ZDdkNTZiNTM=

https://www.facebook.com/jennknix?mibextid=ZbWKwL

Book: Lips Leaves Scars

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C1JH4F6S?ref_=cm_sw_r_apan_dp_Z767HVF6N2A9DWQWNMB2

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Author/Poet Samuel Rain Benjamin aka Complicated Passions, creator of the Passions Private Collection and Dark Man Blues the series, has written over 40 books including “Love and the Conversation, The Clone in Me & The Foreplay Series” he has also performed across the country from Los Angeles to New York, notable places The World Stage, Sugar Hill, The Nuyorican Poets Café, Busboys & Poets, SWAAM, and da Poetry Lounge.

He was also the host of The Griot Café in Long Beach and former host of a long running on air open mic on Blogtalk Radio One Positive Way Radio, Samuel has also produced Dark Man Blues a show that featured poets from around the world on The Book Slam.

Samuel has also performed with the likes of Obbie West, Taalam Acey, 13ofNazareth, Lorenzo Word, shyybutflyy, Jaha Zainabu wah wah Washington and reaux fareal. He is also the co-founder of Innate Divinity Books a consulting and publishing company as well as GMG Staafly Productions LLC based in The Inland Empire of Southern California.

His latest work is from the Dark Man Blues collection “John Bold released in March 2021 later this year he is set to release The Foreplay look inside” and in 2023 Dark Man Blues returns with “An Interview with Love” More titles will be released 2022 such as “A Prelude to Passion”, “Mischievous” and “My Future Seduction” part 1. Samuel is now on tour with the Gray Beards 22/23.

https://www.darkmanblues.com/

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Kwantum Peakz (KP) is the moniker of an established slam poet who made his artistic debut in late 2018. He quickly became a regular mainstay at the Urban Legends Poetry Collective slam poetry and open mic events. They attracted a number of emerging slam poets as well as many of the finest and most seasoned artists in the field. It is there amongst his peers that KP soon realized that his style and delivery marked a stark contrast with what is more commonly viewed as slam poetry. Today, he is seen as well respected and valuable contributor to the local poetry scene.

A native of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, he is arguably an unapologetically ‘vintage’ slam poet mixing some mature flair with an intellectually dynamic touch peppered with gritty verses, spirituality and raw imagery. He diligently continues to be an ”armchair student” of the craft while being an informal devoted teacher of the art form. As an artist, KP views the devotion to his work, not as a task, but as an act of service for communities at large.  

Kwantum was most notably featured at his book launch Up-close and Personal Interview, the B(l)ack to the Future Virtual Poetry Night as well as during a federal government lunchtime fireside chat series. In June 2022, Kwantum Peakz officially published his first poetry anthology entitled Liquid Sunshine in audiobook format currently on sale on over a dozen online distribution platform.

https://inthacity.com/liquidsunshine

https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/audiobook/liquid-sunshine-2

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/liquid-sunshine-kwantum-peakz/1141914355?ean=2940175023979

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Aaron Poochigian earned a PhD in Classics from the University of Minnesota and an MFA in Poetry from Columbia University. His thriller in verse, Mr. Either/Or, was released by Etruscan Press in the fall of 2017, and the sequel, Mr. Either/Or: All the Rage, is out this June. A recipient of an NEA Grant in translation, he has published translations with Penguin Classics and W. W. Norton. His latest collection of poetry, American Divine, the winner of the Richard Wilbur Award, came out in 2021. His other poetry collections are Manhattanite (Able Muse Press, 2017), winner of the 2016 Able Muse Book Award, and The Cosmic Purr (Able Muse Press, 2012). His work has appeared in such publications as Best American Poetry, the Paris Review and POETRY.

https://www.aaronpoochigian.com

https://twitter.com/Poochigian

https://www.facebook.com/aaron.poochigian/

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Jerry Lovelady is an American poet, a Texas native living in Beaumont, Texas where he teaches High School English. He is married to his lovely wife of 27 years, Kristi, who is the subject of many of his poems. Jerry has two books out, the first in 2021 titled Other Worlds, in Other Words and Grief and Her Three Sisters published in November, 2022. Both were published by the independent publisher Atmosphere Press.

Lovelady draws much of his inspiration from the "Mystic" poets: Walt Whitman, Emily Dickenson, and Robert Frost who got their inspirations from Nature and man interacting in spiritual ways which they recognized as important. Frost, in particular, impressed Lovelady early on with his amazing rhyming ability and the quaint, down to earth characters he wrote about. Lovelady is prone to personify the stars, the rivers and mountains in much of his poetry to good effect. He believes Nature has much to teach us if we would only listen and open our eyes to what is going on around us.  

Lovelady has lived in Florida, New Jersey, California, Georgia, and Arizona and is just as at home in a large city urban environment as he is on a river bank in the woods. He and his wife are well travelled enjoying their trips to Europe.They equally enjoy relaxing at their rustic cabin on the Sabine River in deep East Texas which has been a source of inspiration to Lovelady for two decades. Lovelady began writing poetry in 1997, working sporadically until he accumulated enough to publish in 2020. He is currently working on his third book of poems which should be ready to publish by the end of 2023.

https://jerryloveladypoetry.com

https://instagram.com/loveladyjerry

https://facebook.com/lovelady_jerry

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Lisa is a multi-disciplinary storyteller. She is a singer/songwriter (Ropeadope Records), essayist (Huffington Post, Kweli Journal, Family Stories Project, Chicken Soup for the Soul, AfroElle), and published poet currently based in Italy. The American debut of NoteSpeak was at the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival in Boulder Co. in September 2017. She was invited to be a speaker and performer at the 70th Conference on World Affairs at the University of Colorado in April 2018. In November 2019, she presented NoteSpeak (Amore e Tragedie in Musica) in Italy, Austria, and Prague. In January 2020, she presented NoteSpeak in India on the Jaipur Music Stage. Ropeadope Records released her poetic/musical album NoteSpeak (Amori e Tragedie in Musica) in March 2020, which received a four-star review from the iconic Downbeat magazine. In October 2021, she flew to Florida to search for her birth father - Angela Tucker, and her Emmy Award-winning husband, Bryan Tucker, shot a documentary about the search Lisa & Isell: A story about adoption and the Ghost Kingdom, which premiered on June 22, 2022. Angela and Lisa co-wrote an essay advocating for the rights of Black fathers for the Harvard Law Bill of Health digital symposium in May 2022. Her jazz standards album Lisa Meets Gianni with the legendary Gianni Cazzola was released on June 10, 2022, on Ropeadope Records. She was invited to participate in the Biennale in Venice in October 2022 for artist Simone Leigh's Loophole of Retreat. Her poem “Last Supper” was shortlisted for a Creators of Justice Literary Award in November 2022. Her new album NoteSpeak (Dodici), will be released by Ropeadope Records in February 2023. She is currently at work on a fictional memoir.