An eco poem explores the relationship between humans and the natural world through the lens of environmental change. In this episode, Leo reflects on shifting landscapes, shares Jane Hirshfield's "Common Pigeon" (used with permission), and offers prompts and resources to help listeners write their own eco poems.

Visit thepoetrylab.com to find the Show Notes for this episode. The Poetry Lab Podcast is produced by Danielle Mitchell, with special guest hosts Lori Walker, bridgette bianca, Leonora Simonovis and Ravina Wadhwani.

EPISODE GUIDE

Eco-poetry asks us to look closer—at the world, and our place in it.

02:00 — What Are Eco-Poems? How eco-poetry goes beyond nature writing to explore environmental change and human impact.

05:00 — Expanding the Definition Different approaches to eco-poetry, including cultural, spiritual, and ancestral relationships to land.

08:00 — A Close Reading: The Common Pigeon How research, history, and emotional resonance work together to transform an overlooked subject.

10:30 — What Makes an Eco-Poem Effective Blending facts with feeling to create awareness, connection, and a shift in perspective.

12:00 — Prompt 1: Writing Place and Change A two-stanza exercise exploring a place you know, then and now, and your emotional connection to it.

13:30 — Prompt 2: Rewriting the Overlooked Choose a misunderstood animal or plant, research it, and build a poem that argues for its importance.

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What does it mean to lead from a place of authenticity? In this episode, Ravina shares how facing imposter syndrome shaped her path to creating brave spaces rooted in honesty and care. Stay to the end for a short reading list and a writing prompt to help you craft your own intentional space.

Visit thepoetrylab.com to find the Show Notes for this episode. The Poetry Lab Podcast is produced by Danielle Mitchell, with special guest hosts Lori Walker, bridgette bianca, Leonora Simonovis and Ravina Wadhwani.

EPISODE GUIDE

Safety isn't a guarantee, even in the most intentional spaces. Ravina explores how we begin to build brave ones.

02:00 — Moving Through Imposter Syndrome How doubt shows up in your work and what it takes to keep creating anyway.

05:00 — Building the Space You Needed The origin of Writing as Healing and how one aligned offering can grow into real community.

08:00 — What Makes a Space "Brave" Why we can't guarantee safety—and how courage, discomfort, and truth shape meaningful creative spaces.

11:00 — Aligning Your Work with Your Mission How clarity of purpose shapes your events, your voice, and the people your work reaches.

13:00 — Bringing Your Vision to Life A writing prompt and final challenge to help you build your own table and find your co-creators.

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Every great literary event starts with a "why." Join bridgette as she shares a decade of hard-won lessons from the LA poetry scene, from curating unforgettable readings to keeping the mic open with intention. Let's talk about what it really takes to plan a lit event—vibes, budgets, and boundaries and all.

Visit thepoetrylab.com to find the Show Notes for this episode. The Poetry Lab Podcast is produced by Danielle Mitchell, with special guest hosts Lori Walker, bridgette bianca, Leonora Simonovis and Ravina Wadhwani.

EPISODE GUIDE

Behind every great reading is a series of deliberate choices. Here bridgette breaks them down.

02:00 — Open Mics vs Readings (The What) Understand the difference between open mics and curated readings—and what each demands from a host.

05:00 — Start with Your Why Define your purpose for hosting, whether it's community-building, visibility, or creating space for specific voices.

08:00 — When and Where to Host Choose the right timing and venue, and think through logistics like capacity, accessibility, and cost.

10:30 — Who You Need in the Room From featured readers to support staff, build your lineup and your team so you're not doing it alone.

13:00 — Budgeting Your Event (The How) Plan for real costs—space, materials, marketing, and paying artists—and create multiple budget scenarios.

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Creative hustle culture pushes artists to constantly produce, post, and perform, often at the expense of their voice and joy. In this episode, Lori shares how to break free from the cycle of overexposure and burnout with practical strategies to reclaim your time and creativity. This is about building a sustainable artistic practice that prioritizes authenticity over algorithms.

Visit thepoetrylab.com to find the Show Notes for this episode. The Poetry Lab Podcast is produced by Danielle Mitchell, with special guest hosts Lori Walker, bridgette bianca, Leonora Simonovis and Ravina Wadhwani.

EPISODE GUIDE

If your creativity feels like output instead of expression, something's off.

02:15 — What Creative Hustle Culture Really Is The pressure to constantly produce, share, and grow—and how it quietly replaces your actual creative work.

05:15 — How Hustle Culture Hijacks Your Voice The signs you're creating for visibility, validation, or marketability instead of creative truth.

08:15 — Reclaiming Your Creative Autonomy Practical shifts: honoring your voice, creating work that isn't for content, and setting boundaries around visibility.

12:00 — Redefining Success as a Creative Moving away from metrics and toward work that actually makes you feel alive and connected.

15:00 — Building a Sustainable Creative Practice Letting go of constant output and choosing a slower, more intentional relationship to your work.

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Ever blanked on stage? Ravina has—in front of her entire high school. What could've been the end of her poetry journey became a lesson in resilience, community, and remembering that showing up is the real win. In this episode, learn how support, self-compassion, and a little reframing can turn setbacks into stepping stones.

Visit thepoetrylab.com to find the Show Notes for this episode. The Poetry Lab Podcast is produced by Danielle Mitchell, with special guest hosts Lori Walker, bridgette bianca, Leonora Simonovis and Ravina Wadhwani.

EPISODE GUIDE

Even the worst moment on stage can become something you carry forward.

03:30 — The Build-Up to the Fall Training, confidence, and the pressure of stepping into a moment that felt like everything.

05:30 — When Your Mind Goes Blank The physical and emotional reality of stage fright, shame, and losing your place.

07:00 — The Lesson That Changed Everything How one conversation reframed perfectionism and made space for being human.

08:30 — You Are Not Your Mistakes Why setbacks feel permanent and how to begin releasing that story.

10:00 — Community Will Hold You What really happens when artists mess up on stage and why you're never alone in it.

12:30 — A Practice in Self-Compassion A writing prompt to help you process setbacks and reconnect with your worth.

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Collaborative poems can break creative blocks wide open. In this episode, Leo shares her experience writing with partners and groups, along with tips and playful exercises to help you try it yourself. Whether you're stuck or just craving connection, collaboration can reignite your writing in unexpected and joyful ways.

Visit thepoetrylab.com to find the Show Notes for this episode. The Poetry Lab Podcast is produced by Lori Walker and Danielle Mitchell. Hosted by Danielle Mitchell and Lori Walker, with special guest hosts bridgette bianca, Leonora Simonovis and Ravina Wadhwani.

EPISODE GUIDE

Writing with someone else can take your poem somewhere you never would have reached alone.

02:10 — Inside a Real Poetry Collaboration Leonora shares how four poets with different voices and styles turned a submission call into a collaborative writing project.

03:05 — Building the Piece Together From choosing a structure to drafting in a shared document, a practical look at how the group shaped their individual work into a cohesive whole.

04:50 — Prompt 1: The Oracle Use strange questions and borrowed language to introduce words, images, and possibilities you might not find on your own.

06:15 — Prompts 2 & 3: Half and Half + Exquisite Corpse Two ways to hand over creative control, combining different voices through shared poems, exchanged drafts, and group experimentation.

07:20 — Prompt 4: Build a Cento Create a new poem from existing language, then push the form beyond poetry books with dialogue, novels, art titles, and other sources.

08:10 — Make Collaboration Part of Your Practice How writing with others can open new creative pathways and bring more play and experimentation into your work.

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In this episode, bridgette shares five powerful personal lessons from How We Do It: Black Writers on Craft, edited by Jericho Brown. With insight from writers like Rita Dove, Frank X Walker, and E. Ethelbert Miller, this episode explores how Black writers define craft on their own terms, offering healing, joy, revolution, and permission to speak directly to your people.

Visit thepoetrylab.com to find the Show Notes for this episode. The Poetry Lab Podcast is produced by Lori Walker and Danielle Mitchell. Hosted by Danielle Mitchell and Lori Walker, with special guest hosts bridgette bianca, Leonora Simonovis and Ravina Wadhwani.

The best craft advice doesn't give you rules to follow. It changes the way you think about your writing.

02:40 — Know Who You're Writing For What How We Do It teaches about audience, cultural language, and writing without translating or explaining yourself for outsiders.

05:05 — You Don't Have to Take Every Piece of Advice (Rita Dove) Why even wisdom from writers you admire doesn't have to become gospel, and what happens when we make room for joy, flexibility, and changing our minds.

07:35 — Writing Through Grief (Frank X. Walker) bridgette reflects on returning to poetry after loss and the difficult realization that writing can be part of the healing we resist when we need it most.

10:10 — Let Curiosity Lead the Work (Evie Shockley) Instead of looking to craft essays for answers, approach writing as an experiment and use questions to break open language and possibility.

12:30 — Revision as Revolution (Mitchell S. Jackson) A bigger way to think about revision, not simply as fixing what's on the page, but as an act rooted in hope, possibility, and the belief that something can change.

14:10 — There Is Always a Next One What revision can teach us about both writing and life: the thing in front of you may be rough, but this piece is never your last chance.

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Feeling stuck in the shame of not writing "enough"? In this episode, Lori Walker dismantles the myth of writing discipline and explores how to build a sustainable creative practice rooted in rhythm, curiosity, and compassion. It's not about writing every day—it's about finding your way back, again and again.

Visit thepoetrylab.com to find the Show Notes for this episode. The Poetry Lab Podcast is produced by Lori Walker and Danielle Mitchell. Hosted by Danielle Mitchell and Lori Walker, with special guest hosts bridgette bianca, Leonora Simonovis and Ravina Wadhwani.

What if the writing routine you keep failing at was never designed for the way you create?

02:50 — The Myth of Writing Discipline Where our ideas about "serious" writing routines come from, and why consistency and output are not the only measures of a creative practice.

05:00 — When Discipline Turns Into Shame How rigid routines can turn a missed writing day into self-criticism, avoidance, and eventually not writing at all.

07:00 — Build a Relationship With Your Creative Rhythm Trade stricter systems for curiosity and attention, then start noticing when and how you naturally return to the page.

09:00 — Redefine What Counts as Success A voice memo, an hour with your work, or writing three times a week can count. You get to decide what a successful writing practice looks like.

10:20 — Let Rest Be Part of the Rhythm Rest is not what happens when creativity fails. Daydreaming, replenishing, and stepping away can be part of how the work gets made.

11:45 — You Are Not Inconsistent Writing in bursts, around caregiving, or after long periods of taking things in can all be legitimate creative rhythms.

13:20 — Keep Coming Back to the Page A sustainable writing life is not about perfect consistency. It is about creating a practice that bends, changes, and gives you a way to return.

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In her debut episode, new host Ravina Wadhwani gets real about a struggle many creatives face: standing in our own way. With warmth and vulnerability, she reflects on impostor syndrome, self-sabotage, and the pressure to succeed even when we've already achieved so much. This episode is a compassionate reminder that your magic deserves room to breathe, and you are not alone in this work.

Visit thepoetrylab.com to find the Show Notes for this episode. The Poetry Lab Podcast is produced by Lori Walker and Danielle Mitchell. Hosted by Danielle Mitchell and Lori Walker, with special guest hosts bridgette bianca, Leonora Simonovis and Ravina Wadhwani.

Sometimes the biggest thing standing between you and the creative life you want is the voice telling you that you don't belong there.

02:30 — The Stories We Learn About Ourselves How feeling too different, too sensitive, or too much can become an internal narrative that follows us into our creative lives.

04:15 — Representation Is Everything Why seeing people like yourself making art matters, and how belonging can open the door to finding your own voice.

05:00 — When Imposter Syndrome Comes With Success What happens when you finally find the community, opportunities, and recognition you wanted, but still struggle to believe you belong there.

07:00 — Let Other People Believe in You Ravina reflects on learning to receive encouragement instead of immediately rejecting it, and allowing community to become a mirror for her own worth.

08:00 — Stop Standing in Your Own Way A visualization practice for recognizing your inner critic and bringing your younger self along as you move toward the person you're becoming.

10:25 — Go Where You Are Celebrated Why your environment matters, and the courage it can take to leave spaces where competition speaks louder than celebration.

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Sharing your poems aloud can feel intimidating, even though poetry is rooted in oral tradition. In this episode, host bridgette bianca offers practical tips for reading your work with confidence and clarity, along with heartfelt advice on how to connect with your voice and your audience on stage.

Visit thepoetrylab.com to find the Show Notes for this episode. The Poetry Lab Podcast is produced by Lori Walker and Danielle Mitchell. Hosted by Danielle Mitchell and Lori Walker, with special guest hosts bridgette bianca, Leonora Simonovis and Ravina Wadhwani.

A great poem on the page still has to make the leap to the mic.

02:00 — Nervous Is Normal Why admitting you're nervous can actually help, plus how intentional breathing prepares you to step up to the mic.

03:00 — Create a Stage Version of Your Poem Mark breaths, pauses, emphasis, and audience cues directly on the page so your poem becomes a script for performance.

05:00 — Find Your Own Performance Style Borrow, play, remix, and experiment with the voices that influence you without treating any particular poetry aesthetic as law.

07:00 — Stop Performing Like Someone Else How bridgette went from flattening her natural voice to reading poems the way they actually felt comfortable in her mouth.

08:00 — Take Your Time, But Only Your Time Rehearse your full set, account for everything between poems, and respect the time you share with everyone else on the lineup.

09:45 — Know Your Audience Without Losing Yourself Why reading the room matters, but doesn't necessarily mean abandoning the poems you came to share.

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