Quintessential Poetry: Online Radio, YouTube and Zoom

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).

POV: Points of View in Poetry, with Tzynya Pinchback, Jackie Oldham, and Lynne Viti 

The best poetry grows out of the poet’s unique and personal point of view, whether the subject matter be nature, human relationships, personal challenges, or politics. Each one of tonight’s   guests on Quintessential Poetry writes in a strong personal voice, expressing her deepest feelings and insights into her world.

As you hear each poem, listen for the speaker’s Point of View: the author’s personality and character filtering her experiences and observations about the stuff of daily life—picking blueberries, sorting old family photos, watching snow accumulate on the driveway, experiencing anger and frustration at the day’s news headlines.  Other poems dig even deeper, when the poet writes life’s milestones and stages— falling in or out of love, dropping a child off at college for the first time, enduring a challenging medical treatment, grieving the death of a parent or beloved friend.

So tonight— poetry as Point of View. 

Biographical Sketches of the Poets

https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRNrN3_HKnyynXjFSonZdM47VfO5mdzFlBZ-e-hXaTKkMsrH_yS3SBIo9B4a-GsxZ56gVAWsIV6YBN7/pub

Ahmad Al-Khatat, was born in Baghdad, Iraq on May 8th. He has been published in several press publications and anthologies all over the world and has poems translated in several languages. He has published two poetry books “The Bleeding Heart Poet” and “Love On The War’s Frontline” which are available on Amazon. Most of his new and old poems are also available on his official Facebook page Bleeding Heart Poet on Facebook.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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/

Clif Collins was an English professor at Montgomery College, Rockville, MD. He taught at the college for 25 years. In 2017, he wrote the book "Lives of the Apostles." The book (available on Amazon), encompasses themes of grief, loss, betrayal, coming of age, endurance, and love (in its various forms). Further, it examines the momentary circumstances of everyday people as they try to connect with life in the modern age. Friends and colleagues of Clif's will salute his poetic legacy by reading from “Lives of the Apostles.”

Heather Corbally Bryant teaches in the Writing Program at Wellesley College. She has taught at the Pennsylvania State University, the University of Michigan, and Harvard College where she won awards for her teaching. She received her A.B. with honors in History and Literature from Harvard. She received her PhD in Literature from the University of Michigan. Her academic publications include, How Will the Heart Endure: Elizabeth Bowen and the Landscape of War (University of Michigan Press, 1992). It was awarded the Murphy Prize for best first book. In 2018, she published her work of creative nonfiction, You Can’t Wrap Fire in Paper, which explores her grandmother’s years as a journalist in Shanghai during the 1920s. Since 2011 she has published six books of poetry with the Finishing Line Press: Cheap Grace, Compass Rose, My Wedding Dress, Thunderstorm, Eve’s Lament, and James Joyce’s Water Closet (forthcoming). The Parallel Press Poetry Series of the University of Wisconsin at Madison published her chapbook, Lottery Ticket (2013).  

In addition, she has published poems in The Christian Science Monitor, In Other Words, and Fourth & Sycamore. James Joyce’s Water Closet, her seventh book of poems, won honorable mention in the Finishing Line Press Open Chapbook Competition of 2018 and is going to be nominated for a Pushcart Prize. It is forthcoming in the fall of 2018. Her eighth book of poems, Island Dream Songs, a full-length collection, will be published in early 2019. Thunderstorm has been nominated for a Massachusetts Book Award.

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.

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.