Karla Brundage, Freda Epum, John Medeski, Hassan Qasai, New Music & Poetry

[link to transcript]

s4e9
March 5, 2026

Karla Brundage joins Martha in the audio garden to talk about her new writing retreat in Hawaii, Writers Across Oceans, open to writers in June 2026.

Later in the hour:

New music that you won’t hear anywhere else: recorded live at Smalls, the classic “You Are So Beautiful,” by Billy Preston with Hernan Ramiro Rodriguez Sierra, John Medeski, Ches Smith and Nick Dunston. Freda Epum reads from her memoir The Gloomy Girl Variety Show. Music throughout the hour highlights Iranian master Hassan Qasai’s music as a symbol of cultural resilience, and some new music and poetry by Hernán and Martha.

Karla Brundage is founder West Oakland to West Africa Poetry Exchange and author of three books of poetry, including award winning, Blood Lies: Race Trait(or), Swallowing Watermelons, and co-author of Mulatta–Not so Tragic. Her work as editor and publisher for Pacific Raven Press has and Tar Baby Quarterly included authors in the Bay Area, Hawaii,…

Martha Cinader is a poet and author living in Harlem, NY. Her young adult novel, Marq and the Queen Fish, is forthcoming in 2026 from Atmosphere Press. Cinader is the founder and Director of the Listen & Be Heard Network, where she hosts and produces The Listen & Be Heard Hour, and Beyond Borders, both non-commercial podcasts and syndicated radio shows…

Judy Talaugon is a Chumash and Filipina Land Protector from the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. She is the daughter of farmworkers and immigrant leaders. Growing up among Mexican and Filipina communities in California, she has been a long-time activist in numerous struggles, ranging from human rights to housing, land rights, and the fight…

Freda Ndidi Epum (Free-duh Nn-dee-dee Ay-poom) is a Nigerian-American writer, artist, and consultant from Tucson, AZ. Her work has been published in The Rumpus, Electric Literature, Vol 1. Brooklyn, Entropy, Bending Genres, Cosmonauts Avenue, Heavy Feather Review, Nat.Brut, Third Coast, Atticus Review, Rogue Agent, and the 2020 Bending Genres Anthology. She received her MFA from Miami University…

Laura Lengnick, a renowned soil scientist, has three decades of experience in sustainability in U.S. agriculture. She has received national recognition for her work, including a USDA Honor Award. As the founder of Cultivating Resilience, she collaborates on climate resilience projects and authored the influential book, Resilient Agriculture.

A journal dedicated to amplifying diverse voices, fostering critical discourse, and celebrating the rich tapestry of global arts and ideas.

Writers Across Oceans invites writers to our first ever writers’ retreat “Writers Across Oceans: A Healing Session” in Waimea, Hawai’i. This event offers an opportunity for creation, fellowship, reflection, relaxation, and daydreaming amidst beautiful surroundings.

Heather Christle has just lost a dear friend to suicide and now must reckon with her own depression and the birth of her first child. As she faces her grief and impending parenthood, she decides to research the act of crying: what it is and why people do it,

The idea for this collection, Sisters Across Oceans, was inspired by the much needed conversation between influential Black women across the diaspora.

Karla Brundage’s Blood Lies: Race Trait(or) is about race. It is about the history of race, about imposed racial definitions like mulatto and quadroon.

Memoir of a Race Traitor became a classic text of white antiracist practice. Juxtaposing childhood memories with contemporary events, Segrest described her journey

“Our Spirits Carry Our Voices is a remarkable work: a travelogue in poetry, charting a journey that is spiritual as well as geographic. The linked poems are intensely personal, yet filled with historical and political resonance.

Swallowing Watermelons is Karla Brundage´s first published poetry collection and contains almost twenty years of her writing. Her poems are deeply honest, personal reflections–vivid stories from the heart cut to the bone. Moving between Hawaii, the mainland United States and Zimbabwe, she shares moments in her life as a daughter growing into a woman, as…

Black Rootedness, an anthology, is a culmination of workshops in Africa and America featuring the poets included, and shares experiences of foreigner/returnee, neo-African, borrower of phrases, and experimenter of styles that shape-and will continue to shape-the vibrant exchange between Africa and the Diaspora. Poetry is an artistic vehicle that allows this to happen with humility…

Written in an exchange with Dr. Allision Francisc, “Mulatta—Not So Tragic” embraces and emphasizes the importance of friendship, conversation, criticism, and love between creatives. In this time, of Black Girl Magic, a book about Black Girl Friendship seems essential.

Tribunal Rising commemorates the 1992 International Tribunal movement in the city of San Francisco to dismantle the legacy of Christopher Columbus and the Myth of Discovery. In 1990, “[a]t the culmination of the Special International Tribunal on the Human Rights Violations of Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War in the US, the American Indian Movement…

Living It! is Martha Cinader’s debut as the producer of her own album, and features an eclectic array of arrangements and musical styles. It was recorded in part in a studio in New York City, part in a studio in Hamburg, and part live at the Mojo Club in Hamburg, throw in some bonus tracks…

CREDITS– CO-HOSTS & PRODUCERS: Martha Cinader, Hernán Ramiro Rodriguez Sierra, Tony Robles. FEATURED GUEST: Karla Brundage. ALSO FEATURED: Freda Epum. POETRY: Karla Brundage, Martha Cinader. MEMOIR EXCERPT: Freda Epum, The Gloomy Girl Variety Show. MUSIC: Hassan Qasai – Flute, Exclusive live recording at Smalls – Jay Rodriguez with John Medeski, Ches Smith and Nick Dunston. SOUNDTRACK, MIXING, MASTERING, SOUND DESIGN: Hernán Ramiro Rodriguez Sierra. Executive Producer, Martha Cinader.

Do you want to be heard in the garden? Please consider contributing your audio content. We grow together when we nurture our network. Click here for more information.