The Poetry Vlog (TPV): A Poetry, Arts, & Social Justice Teaching Channel

In today's reading, I read a text that transformed how I think about form (pun intended) and writing from a particular cityscape. I read "To Be Read in Either Direction" from Geoffrey O'Brien's third collection of poems, "Metropole." As always, reach out if you want to be a guest reader, have your work featured, want to hear a particular poet/poem, or have feedback. More on Geoffrey O'Brien -- (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/geoffrey-obrien) ● The Poetry Vlog is a YouTube Channel and Podcast dedicated to building social justice coalitions through poetry, pop culture, cultural studies, and related arts dialogues. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to join our fast-growing arts & scholarship community (youtube.com/c/thepoetryvlog?sub_confirmation=1). Connect with us on Instagram (instagram.com/thepoetryvlog), Twitter (twitter.com/thepoetryvlog), Facebook (facebook.com/thepoetryvlog), and our website (thepoetryvlog.com).

I had some requests lately that I read one of my own poems. So, I am reading my most recent one, "Boylesque." I have loved getting so many guest readers and requests this week. Keep them coming! ● The Poetry Vlog is a YouTube Channel and Podcast dedicated to building social justice coalitions through poetry, pop culture, cultural studies, and related arts dialogues. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to join our fast-growing arts & scholarship community (youtube.com/c/thepoetryvlog?sub_confirmation=1). Connect with us on Instagram (instagram.com/thepoetryvlog), Twitter (twitter.com/thepoetryvlog), Facebook (facebook.com/thepoetryvlog), and our website (thepoetryvlog.com).

In today's flash briefing poetry reading, Alonso Llerena is a guest reader. He reads Terrance Hayes' "American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin." We recorded in two different places and times, so the volume might jump around a bit, but it is worth it to hear his voice here again on the vlog's weekday readings! Plus, this is one of my favorite contemporary poems. More on Alonso Llerena -- Alonso is a poet and teacher in Washington D.C. of Peruvian descent. His work confronts being an immigrant here in the USA, but specifically as a Peruvian who left his country at a young age. His most recent work also addresses the Internal Armed Conflict Peru underwent from 1980-2000. Transcript of the poem, recording of Hayes reading the poem, and more on Terrance Hayes -- (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/143917/american-sonnet-for-my-past-and-future-assassin-598dc83c976f1) ● The Poetry Vlog is a YouTube Channel and Podcast dedicated to building social justice coalitions through poetry, pop culture, cultural studies, and related arts dialogues. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to join our fast-growing arts & scholarship community (youtube.com/c/thepoetryvlog?sub_confirmation=1). Connect with us on Instagram (instagram.com/thepoetryvlog), Twitter (twitter.com/thepoetryvlog), Facebook (facebook.com/thepoetryvlog), and our website (thepoetryvlog.com).

In today's flash briefing poetry reading, Alonso Llerena is a guest reader. He reads Solmaz Sharif's "Mess Hall." We recorded in two different places and times, so the volume might jump around a bit, but it is worth it to hear a fresh voice here on the vlog's weekday readings! More on Alonso Llerena -- Alonso is a poet and teacher in Washington D.C. of Peruvian descent. His work confronts being an immigrant here in the USA, but specifically as a Peruvian who left his country at a young age. His most recent work also addresses the Internal Armed Conflict Peru underwent from 1980-2000. Transcript of "Mess Hall" and more on Solmaz Sharif -- (https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/mess-hall#) ● The Poetry Vlog is a YouTube Channel and Podcast dedicated to building social justice coalitions through poetry, pop culture, cultural studies, and related arts dialogues. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to join our fast-growing arts & scholarship community (youtube.com/c/thepoetryvlog?sub_confirmation=1). Connect with us on Instagram (instagram.com/thepoetryvlog), Twitter (twitter.com/thepoetryvlog), Facebook (facebook.com/thepoetryvlog), and our website (thepoetryvlog.com).

In today's flash briefing poetry reading, Catherine Bresner is a guest reader. She reads Wallace Stevens' "A Rabbit as King of the Ghosts." We recorded in two different places and times, so the volume might jump around a bit, but it is worth it to hear Catherine's emotive reading style on this poem. More on Catherine -- Catherine Bresner is the author of the chapbook The Merriam Webster Series and the artist book Everyday Eros (Mount Analogue 2017). Her poetry has appeared in The Offing, Heavy Feather Review, Gulf Coast, Poetry Northwest, Passages North, The Pinch and elsewhere. Her book, the empty season, won the Diode Edition Book Prize in 2017 and she was a runner-up for the 2018 Rattle Poetry Prize. She has been the coordinating editor of the Seattle Review, and the publicity assistant for Wave Books. Currently, she is the managing editor for BOAAT Press. You can find more of her work at (www.catherinebresner.com). Transcript of the poem and more on Wallace Stevens: (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/21816/a-rabbit-as-king-of-the-ghosts) // (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/wallace-stevens) ● The Poetry Vlog is a YouTube Channel and Podcast dedicated to building social justice coalitions through poetry, pop culture, cultural studies, and related arts dialogues. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to join our fast-growing arts & scholarship community (youtube.com/c/thepoetryvlog?sub_confirmation=1). Connect with us on Instagram (instagram.com/thepoetryvlog), Twitter (twitter.com/thepoetryvlog), Facebook (facebook.com/thepoetryvlog), and our website (thepoetryvlog.com).

In today's flash briefing poetry reading, Catherine Bresner is a guest reader. She reads Brenda Shaughnessy's poem, "It Never Happened." We recorded in two different places and times, so the volume might jump around a bit, but it is worth it to hear Catherine's emotive reading style on this poem. More on Catherine -- Catherine Bresner is the author of the chapbook The Merriam Webster Series and the artist book Everyday Eros (Mount Analogue 2017). Her poetry has appeared in The Offing, Heavy Feather Review, Gulf Coast, Poetry Northwest, Passages North, The Pinch and elsewhere. Her book, the empty season, won the Diode Edition Book Prize in 2017 and she was a runner-up for the 2018 Rattle Poetry Prize. She has been the coordinating editor of the Seattle Review, and the publicity assistant for Wave Books. Currently, she is the managing editor for BOAAT Press. You can find more of her work at (www.catherinebresner.com). More on Brenda Shaughnessy -- (https://www.brendashaughnessy.com/) ● The Poetry Vlog is a YouTube Channel and Podcast dedicated to building social justice coalitions through poetry, pop culture, cultural studies, and related arts dialogues. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to join our fast-growing arts & scholarship community (youtube.com/c/thepoetryvlog?sub_confirmation=1). Connect with us on Instagram (instagram.com/thepoetryvlog), Twitter (twitter.com/thepoetryvlog), Facebook (facebook.com/thepoetryvlog), and our website (thepoetryvlog.com).

Catherine Bresner, a Seattle poet and “tinkerer” in visual arts, discusses the need for a feminist language of experience. You will get a peek into Matthea Harvey’s visual poetics book, “Of Lamb,” Renee Gladman’s “Prose Architectures,” and Catherine’s own visual poem, “American Sentence.” Catherine is an articulate teacher and writer, skilled at explaining her experiences in writing and being in a way that translates across multiple audiences. As she reads and shows poetry comics that I inspire her as well as her own, curl up with a spiced fall beverage of choice and join us! As always, you can always listen to the podcast version. However, this particular episode is on visual poetics — your experience will be enriched by watching :). More on Catherine -- Catherine Bresner is the author of the chapbook The Merriam Webster Series and the artist book Everyday Eros (Mount Analogue 2017). Her poetry has appeared in The Offing, Heavy Feather Review, Gulf Coast, Poetry Northwest, Passages North, The Pinch and elsewhere. Her book, the empty season, won the Diode Edition Book Prize in 2017 and she was a runner-up for the 2018 Rattle Poetry Prize. She has been the coordinating editor of the Seattle Review, and the publicity assistant for Wave Books. Currently, she is the managing editor for BOAAT Press. You can find more of her work at (www.catherinebresner.com). ● The Poetry Vlog is a YouTube Channel and Podcast dedicated to building social justice coalitions through poetry, pop culture, cultural studies, and related arts dialogues. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to join our fast-growing arts & scholarship community (youtube.com/c/thepoetryvlog?sub_confirmation=1). Connect with us on Instagram (instagram.com/thepoetryvlog), Twitter (twitter.com/thepoetryvlog), Facebook (facebook.com/thepoetryvlog), and our website (thepoetryvlog.com).

Today, I again return to some of the powerful indigenous, Latinx, Chicanx, and Black feminists that have made today's resistance movements even more possible. In re-opening the famous "This Bridge Called My Back," I turn to Audre Lorde's famous open letter, "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master's House." I have been seeing excerpts of this quoted everywhere, but sometimes greatly out of context. Stay tuned in case I heal up enough to soon do a mini vlog episode teaching this text, to which I am deeply and forever indebted. ● The Poetry Vlog is a YouTube Channel and Podcast dedicated to building social justice coalitions through poetry, pop culture, cultural studies, and related arts dialogues. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to join our fast-growing arts & scholarship community (youtube.com/c/thepoetryvlog?sub_confirmation=1). Connect with us on Instagram (instagram.com/thepoetryvlog), Twitter (twitter.com/thepoetryvlog), Facebook (facebook.com/thepoetryvlog), and our website (thepoetryvlog.com).

Today, I return to some of the powerful indigenous, Latinx, Chicanx, and Black feminists that have made today's resistance movements even more possible. In the famous "This Bridge Called My Back," I read Jo Carrillo's poem, "The Cliffs of Abiquiu." Later today, I will read Jo's more famous piece, "And When You Leave, Take Your Pictures With You." More on Jo Carrillo -- (https://www.uchastings.edu/people/jo-carrillo/) ● The Poetry Vlog is a YouTube Channel and Podcast dedicated to building social justice coalitions through poetry, pop culture, cultural studies, and related arts dialogues. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to join our fast-growing arts & scholarship community (youtube.com/c/thepoetryvlog?sub_confirmation=1). Connect with us on Instagram (instagram.com/thepoetryvlog), Twitter (twitter.com/thepoetryvlog), Facebook (facebook.com/thepoetryvlog), and our website (thepoetryvlog.com).

More feminism for you! Today, I am reading Noelle Kocot's poem, "The Future," from her book, "The Phantom Pains of Madness." More on Noelle Kocot -- (https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/noelle-kocot) ● The Poetry Vlog is a YouTube Channel and Podcast dedicated to building social justice coalitions through poetry, pop culture, cultural studies, and related arts dialogues. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to join our fast-growing arts & scholarship community (youtube.com/c/thepoetryvlog?sub_confirmation=1). Connect with us on Instagram (instagram.com/thepoetryvlog), Twitter (twitter.com/thepoetryvlog), Facebook (facebook.com/thepoetryvlog), and our website (thepoetryvlog.com).