Quintessential Poetry: Online Radio, YouTube and Zoom

He goes by the name "Propaganda." He's an activist, poet, educator and the son of a Black Panther. In his debut collection of essays and poetry - "TERRAFORM: Building a Better World" - this trailblazing rapper and poet puts his teachings into his prose - conjuring verses and visions for creating a new and more equitable world.

In this thoughtful book, Propaganda looks at the ways in which our world is broken. Using the metaphor of terraforming - creating a livable world out of an inhospitable one - he shows how we can begin to reshape our homes, friendships, communities, and politics.

Chuka Susan Chesney is an artist and a poet. Her poems, art, and/or flash fiction have been published in Peacock Journal, Inklette, New England Review, Compose, Picaroon, and Lummox. Chesney’s paintings and collages have been in exhibitions and galleries across the United States.

The mission of Quintessential Listening: Poetry Online Radio is to provide a live format for emerging, mid-career, and established 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 poetry. If you would like to be a guest on QL: POR, please contact the host Dr. Michael Anthony Ingram at [email protected].

Robert Garnham has been performing comedy poetry around the UK for ten years at various fringes and festivals, and has had two collections published by Burning Eye. He has made a few short TV adverts for a certain bank, and a joke from one of his shows was listed as one of the funniest of the Edinburgh Fringe. He was recently an answer on the TV quiz show Pointless. Lately he has been writing short stories for magazines and a humorous column in the Herald Express newspaper. In 2020 he was nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

The program is sponsored by Quintessential Listening: Poetry Online Radio and the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Washington, DC Chapter. 

Quintessential Listening: Poetry Online Radio is a popular BlogtalkRadio podcast. It is also available on ITunes and Sound Cloud. Please visit www.blogtalkradio.com/ql_p for more details.

NAMI DC is the local chapter for the National Alliance on Mental Illness in the District of Columbia, providing education, support, and advocacy for individuals and their families with mental illness.

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The organization strives to fight stigma, provide support, and advocate for individuals with mental illness and their families. Your contribution will help strengthen the movement. Please click the link below to make your donation today.  If you would like to donate in honor or memory of someone(s), please give us the name(s) the way you want it listed in the comment box provided at checkout. http://www.namidc.org/donate

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Join thousands of Americans dedicated to improving the lives of people with mental illness.http://www.namidc.org/join-us

Guest Poets

Biographical Sketches:  National Mental Health Awareness Month Poetry Reading.docx

Lynne Viti, a lecturer emerita in the Writing Program at Wellesley College, was born and raised in Baltimore and now lives in Massachusetts. She is the author of Dancing at Lake Montebello: Poems (Apprentice House Press), and two chapbooks from Finishing Line: Baltimore Girls  and The Glamorganshire Bible, as well as a short story collection, Going Too Fast (Finishing Line 2020) Her work has appeared in over 100 journals and anthologies, including The Wire: Urban Decay and American Television, The Baltimore Sun, Welcome to the Neighborhood, Bad Hombres & Nasty Women, and Incandescent Minds. She blogs at lynneviti.wordpress.com.

Dancing at Lake Montebello is available from Apprentice House Press, Bookshop.org, and many other online booksellers.

Arthur Cole joined the South Wales Police at the age of nineteen.As a career detective he has dealt with all manner of major crime, including murder, robbery, and serious sexual offences. Arthur retired from the service in 1997Arthur is married to Caroline, and they have two grown up children. Christopherr, and Karen.Arthur was born in a small mining village situated at the top of the Llynfi Valley Maesteg. The majority of Arthur’s relatives were themselves miners. In February 2016, he started on his literary journey, when he collaborated with his now co-author Nigel Williams, writing their first Terry McGuire crime thriller ‘UNETHICAL CONDUCT’They have since written a further eight books in the series, Arthur has also written three books of poetry, POEMS FOR A LOST GENERATION-First World War. AN INDUSTRY NOW LOST-Coalmining, and 50 FAMOUS PEOPLE The very first poem that Arthur wrote was titled ‘ABERFAN’ in January 2016. This poem describes a soil tip disaster in South Wales that claimed many lives, the majority being young children who were attending the Pant Glas Primary school in Aberfan.The disaster resounded all over the world.Although Arthur loved English literature whilst in school, he never wrote poetry, so you could say it has taken him over 50 years for him to discover this particular talent.Arthur writes every day, when not writing poetry, he is fathoming, and writing plots for the next crime thriller..

Erin Carlyle is a poet whose roots are in the American South. Her poetry often explores the connections between poverty, place, and girlhood, and can be found in journals such as New South, Tupelo Quarterly, Bateau Press, and Prairie Schooner. Her Chapbook You Spit Hills and My Body was published on Dancing Girl Press in 2015, and Her debut full-length collection, Magnolia Canopy Otherworld, won the annual Driftwood Press Poetry Manuscript Contest and was published in December of 2020.

To read the bios of Ken Allan Dronsfield and Michael Lee Johnson, please visit QLPOR - Dronsfield and Johnson.docx

The mission of Quintessential Listening: Poetry Online Radio is to provide a live format for emerging, mid-career, and established 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 poetry. If you would like to be a guest on QL: POR, please contact the host Dr. Michael Anthony Ingram at [email protected].

Bio: The Write Blend is a unique, culturally diverse poetry ensemble of six poets whose poetry is published in a new collection of poems, entitled “The Write Blend.” The poetry ensemble has most recently been featured on Poets vs Pandemic sponsored by Café Muse and Word Works Organizations. The Write Blend has read at the Library of Congress for the Maryland State Poet Laureate, Grace Cavalieri’s, “The Poet and The Poem.” The Write Blend has also performed for a Black History Poetry Festival, sponsored by the William Joseph Seymour Foundation in Oxon Hill United Methodist Church.

Hist: Founded July 2018. Diane Wilbon Parks is the Founder of The Write Blend and invited each poet in The Write Blend to become a part of the circle of six. Because many poetry events/readings did not have a culturally diverse representation in the audiences and or featured poets, Diane believe it was critical to recruit well established, culturally diverse poets who could offer a broader landscape of poetry to all audiences. As a result, the six poets have become the right blend of voices that deliver a unique signature in their body of work and writing style, their individual contributions as leaders in the poetry community, as well as their matchless voices.

Sarah Lipton-Sidibeh, BA Honours, LLCM, FRSA, was born in London, England. She has written three volumes of short stories, three volumes of poetry, a play, a children's book, film scripts, song lyrics and two educational textbooks. Three of her short stories were broadcast on the radio. Her poetry has been published in numerous anthologies. She received an award from The Poetry Society, England, for some of her poetry. She received commended and honours certificates for some of her poems at The Richmond Music Festival, England. Her poem, 'Stagnation,' was shortlisted in The National Anthology Poetry Competition' in 2005. Her poem, 'Wishful Thinking,' was printed in 'The Poems In The Waiting Room' pamphlet in 2010. These pamphlets are distributed to hundreds of doctors' surgeries in Britain. Sarah was The Featured Poet in 'Bareback Lit Magazine' in October 2012. She was awarded a commended certificate for her song, 'I Wish,' from The United Kingdom Songwriting Competition in 2016. She is completing her first novel.