TalkWithME

Ryan is a Canadian-born author residing in Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada with his other half, bears, and mounds of snow half the year. His work can be found both in print and online in such places as: Evergreen Review, The New York Quarterly, Word Riot, Your One Phone Call, In Between Hangovers, Red Fez, and Horror Sleaze Trash. Ryan’s work is included in the anthology Resurrection of a Sunflower, which celebrates Vincent Van Gogh. Follow him on Facebook and through http://RyanQuinnFlanagan.yolasite.com/

Johnnie is a self-published Poet, Spoken Word Artist, Zinester, Videographer/Photographer, and generally an Artist-Type. He is a transplant from the Sonoran desert, where he spent much of his writing time overlooking desert mountains and watching saguaros grow. The desert is where much of his childhood trauma was healed. Johnnie has a new-found passion for storytelling and is bringing it to Topeka, KS. He is fostering relationships with other poets and artists from Topeka, Lawrence, Kansas City, and beyond.

As for culinary arts, the Kitchen Shaman blog was born in 2005 to showcase Johnnie’s talent, experience, and extensive food knowledge.

Johnnie has four poetry books and two zines for sale through his artist website. “Catharsis” is the collection dealing with trauma, healing and moving beyond. www.artisticnomads.com/diecast-poetry

Follow Johnnie on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jmgale and on other social media @johnnagale

Each month, Jennie joins Talk With ME host, Marcia Epstein, for real life conversation. This month: Flowers, Kansas Day Trips, New Experiences, Connections and Kindness

Jennie is a Licensed Esthetician & a member of Spiritual Entrepreneurs, Pryor Transformation, Shift 2 Degrees, Lawrence Women’s Network, & One Hundred Good Women. She also enjoys being onstage, including as a two-time contestant in Transformations, a charity gala, and on June 24 at Mic Drop for Willow Domestic Violence Center at Liberty Hall in Lawrence. Find Jennie at https://skincarebyjennie.net

Scott is a poet, short story writer, chaos enthusiast, and champion monkey wrench thrower, living in Oregon. He is an award winning spoken word artist and creator of “The Acoustic Tongue Sessions,” which weaves together spoken word poetry and acoustic music. It has been performed from NYC to Chicago. He has also opened for numerous bands nationwide.

His poetry can be found at Red Fez Magazine, Carcinogenic Poetry, Midnight Lane Boutique, Flash Fiction Magazine, Mad Swirl, The Five-Two, Dead Snakes and Horror, Sleaze, Trash, for starters. His chapbook “Bumrush The Fantasy,” was published by Flying Wrench Press in 2014. Scot’s poetry is also in anthologies by Lummox Press and Svensk Apache Press. In May 2017, Moran Press released his first full length poetry collection, “Crumbling Utopian Pipedream.” www.moranpress.com/store/p35/Crumbling_Utopian_Pipedream.html

Watch for a Scott Wozniak & Janne Karlsson project to be released later in 2017. Follow Scott on Twitter @ScottEWozniak

A native New Orleanian, Ralph Adamo is a poet, papa, and a professor at Xavier University of Louisiana. He is also editor of Xavier Review http://www.xula.edu/english/publications/review.html . Ralph has published seven collections of poetry, most recently Ever: Poems 2000-2014. He received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in Creative Writing in 2003, a Louisiana Division of the Arts Individual Artist Grant in 1998, and the first Marble Faun award in poetry from the Faulkner Society in 1997. Recent reviews of his work can be found in The Hollins Critic (April 2015), Rain Taxi (August 2015) and in Today’s Book of Poetry. In 2006, the Open Society Institute awarded him a Katrina Media Fellowship to pursue investigative journalism on the state of public education in the city. Before coming to Xavier, where he has encountered amazing students and brilliant colleagues, he taught creative writing at Tulane, LSU and Loyola (where he also edited New Orleans Review for five years), as well as journalism at UNO. He and his wife Kay have two children, Jack and Lily. Find Ralph Adamo on Facebook and at http://www.lavenderink.org/content/authors/276

Amy, Josh, & ME talk about supporting our Transgender & Gender NonConforming Friends-Family-CoWorkers-Neighbors

Amy Hammer, LSCSW is a crafty seamstress, dog-lover, gardener, & is the therapist who

provides Transforming Our Lives, at BNCMHC https://bertnash.org/new-therapy-group-offers-support-system/ Josh Reese, LSCSW is a bow-tie wearing husband, dad, & weight lifter who supports & supervises therapists at BNCMHC who provide outpatient therapy to adults. Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center serves the Douglas County, KS community https://bertnash.org/

Additional resources for & about trans folks:

Resources for and about Transgender People

Lawrence Free Poetry team members Amelia Peters, Rowan Plinsky, Harper Schoenfeld, plus coach Andrew Martin joined ME for conversation and original poetry. LFP is the Slam Poetry Team of Lawrence (KS) Free State High School.

The team began during the 2014-15 school year, changes each year as students graduate or move on, and has consistently placed in the top 4 teams at the Louder Than A Bomb annual youth poetry festival http://youngchicagoauthors.org/louder-than-a-bomb. LTAB feeds into Brave New Voices. Lawrence Free Poetry qualified for Brave New Voices in San Francisco July 19-22, 2017. BNV http://youthspeaks.org/bravenewvoices/festival/ is the largest spoken word event in the world and is comprised of teams from all over the globe. In addition, some of the teams may be featured on HBO’s Brave New Voices program http://www.hbo.com/russell-simmons-presents-brave-new-voices

Support Lawrence Free Poetry’s trip to Brave New Voices through faculty sponsor Andrew Martin at [email protected] or at www.GoFundMe.com/send-lawrence-free-poetry-to-bnv Follow Lawrence Free Poetry at https://www.instagram.com/lawrencefreepoetry/ & https://Twitter.com/LFreePoetry

Barbara is founder & Director of the Kansas Riverkings Museum in Lawrence, KS. She also acts as Administrator for the Wakarusa River Valley Heritage Museum & teaches college classes. Ms. Higgins-Dover has conducted many research projects, published books based on that research, designed music and historical curriculum for young learners. Higgins-Dover is a life long Lawrencian, granddaughter of a Kansas Riverking.

The Kansas Riverkings Museum opened in 2015 in Abe & Jakes Landing on the banks of the Kansas River. The museum tells the story of the Kansas River commercial fishing industry in the Lawrence area from 1870-1970. As Director of the museum, Higgins-Dover & a talented group of young professionals created the documentary “When Kings Reigned.” The film tells the story of the lives of these men and the legal battles they faced. View the film trailer at www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIEMoV-tBfw and the film at screenings Summer 2017. Also, the Kansas Riverkings Museum is partnering with KU Spencer Art Museum for the Living River Festival on July 22, 2017.

For more info, follow www.facebook.com/KansasRiverkings/​

Scott is a Best of the Net and three-time Pushcart Prize nominee whose work has appeared in hundreds of literary venues, both in the United States and internationally. Scott is a member of the Southern Collective Experience, appearing regularly in many of the group’s events such as: Dante’s Old South radio program with NPR/WUTC out of Chattanooga, Tennessee; Visions of Verse poetry reading in Jasper, Georgia; and Collective Sessions open mic held at Good Acting Studio in Marietta, Georgia. Scott also serves as an editor for Walking Is Still Honest Press, The Blue Mountain Review, The Peregrine Muse, and Novelmasters. His latest full-length poetry collection, Happy Hour Hallelujah, was released in 2016 through CTU Publishing. Follow Scott Thomas Outlar on Twitter @17numa & on Facebook at www.facebook.com/17numa & at https://17numa.wordpress.com/

Each month, the Transformational Jennie Washburn joins Talk With ME host, Marcia Epstein, for real life conversation. SelfCare, Fun, Expressing Expectations, Getting Involved in Community, & Goodness. This month our message is Have Fun In Community! Jennie is a Licensed Esthetician & a member of Spiritual Entrepreneurs, Pryor Transformation, Shift 2 Degrees, Lawrence Women’s Network, & One Hundred Good Women. She also enjoys being onstage, including as a two-time contestant in Transformations, a charity gala. Find Jennie at Mic Drop for Willow Domestic Violence Center, & at https://skincarebyjennie.net