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

This is podcast episode is greatly supplemented by the video's visual aids on YouTube. To watch instead of/in addition to listening: (https://youtu.be/SEyC1uxGvUk). Gabrielle Bates talks about dark humor and the poetics of Bojack Horseman and how she sees it in conversation with her own work. We get a peek at some of her poetry comics recently published in Poetry Magazine and on The Poetry Foundation’s website (link below), hear her read her poem, “Lesson,” and hear her breaking down beginnings and ends of single lines effectively. More on Gabby -- Gabrielle Bates is the Social Media Manager of Open Books: A Poem Emporium, managing editor of the Seattle Review, an editorial assistant and contributing editor for Poetry Northwest, the official voice of Broadsided Press on Twitter, and a contributing editor for Bull City Press. Her poems and poetry comics appear or are forthcoming in the New Yorker, Poetry, New England Review, and Gulf Coast, and others. ● 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's flash briefing is a preview of special Guest Interlocutor Gabrielle Bates. Here she reads "Judas Goat." Gabby has a rich reading voice and I am looking forward to posting our longer, upcoming episode! More on Gabby -- Gabrielle Bates is the Social Media Manager of Open Books: A Poem Emporium, managing editor of the Seattle Review, an editorial assistant and contributing editor for Poetry Northwest, the official voice of Broadsided Press on Twitter, and a contributing editor for Bull City Press. Her poems and poetry comics appear or are forthcoming in the New Yorker, Poetry, New England Review, and Gulf Coast, among other journals, and she is the recipient of support from the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, Hugo House, and Artist Trust. She is originally from Birmingham, Alabama. // (www.gabriellebat.es) // Twitter: @GabrielleBates // Poetry Comics via Poetry: (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/91320/-582211e3b89ad) ● 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).

For more on The Poetry Vlog, check out ChelseaGrimmer.com. Today's quick reading is from a book that influenced my work like no other: "The Master Letters," by Lucie Brock-Broido. I read her poem, "Asylum" from the larger collection, briefly touching on how this book and her life-work influenced my own. Hear her read her own work: (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/podcasts/76656/extreme-wisteria) ● 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's flash briefing poetry reading is from Julia Bloch's collection of poems, "Valley Fever." I read the very first poem, "Welcome Abroad." Part of what I love about this piece is how the tone has a distinct swerve to it, so that just as the reader might be tempted to settle into the steady cadence of all of the "wa" words, there are these jolts into dissatisfaction. It is a poem of "a feeling wanting to protect my joint." Or, as Laura Wetherington has written of Valley Fever: “Bloch’s poetry foregrounds the unexpected with a sonic nod to the word we thought would be there. Her poetry’s asking us to attend to our ears and listen beyond the surface of words.” Plus, feminism! For more on Julia Bloch: (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/julia-bloch) ● 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 read the second poem in a book I love by Kazi Ali, "The Far Mosque." The poem is "Renunciation," and I encourage you to listen to Kazim read his own work here: (https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/drone). About Kazim Ali via The Poetry Foundation: "Kazim Ali is the author of several poetry collections, including Inquisition (Wesleyan University Press, 2018), All One’s Blue: New and Selected Poems (HarperCollins India, 2015), and Sky Ward (Wesleyan University Press, 2013), winner of the 2014 Ohioana Book Award in Poetry." ● 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).

The Flash Briefing readings are back! Along with some snazzy website and image updates: thepoetryvlog.com. Today, I thought it apropos to read the best boxing poetry book I know, Joseph Rios' "Shadowboxing." I strongly encourage you to purchase it, *especially* if you are newer to poetry. I say apropos because, of course, that amazing fight on Saturday between the greats: GGG and Canelo. Enjoy and as always, find me, follow me, and hit me up with comments, questions, or ideas. ● 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).

Welcome to Part 2 of my chat with Lucia Lorenzi. As artist, scholar, public speaker, and activist, Lucia picks up where we left off by speaking to academia's pitfalls, the importance of silence as meaning-making for anti-racist and historically critically work, and more. This is my favorite part of our conversation, where we talk about needing to account for ableism in academia, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed chatting with her. More on Lucia -- (www.empathywarrior.ca) // (twitter.com/empathywarrior) // Lucia is a postdoctoral fellow in English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University. Trained as a Canadianist, she studies the representation of sexual violence in literature and other media, with a particular focus on perpetrator narratives and the strategic uses of silence. Her other research interests include Black Canadian literature and autobiography studies. Lucia is also a painter, songwriter, and Internet loudmouth. ● 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).

This Bonus Episode gets goes into the underbelly of queer world-building & what we do with language! I explain the difference between sex, gender, and sexuality, then break down the problem by assuming someone is “bi-sexual” instead of “non-binary sexual.” This is for the curious and for my friends that rant with me about this all of the time. If you’re a queerdo like me, this is an idea about how we can better care for our queer folx. If you’re not, it's a great way to dip into issues we face in queer studies, language studies, & queer communities. Ping me with questions, disagreements, and agreements -- I’ll take all three kinds of feedback here :). Have fun and feel free to ID with me as a melting ice cream cone on a hot summer day by a lake in Michigan! Next time: how is romantic interest an additional, non-sexual layer to add onto the already over-represented trifecta? For more on me: thepoetryvlog.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).

In today's episode, teacher and poet Rachel Edelman explains how writing poetry is akin to The Great British Bake Off. Then, she reads a love poem and we discuss her own work. This is a 40 minute episode, so clearly I am not keeping my 20 minutes or under promise. Stay tuned for updates on the project! More on Rachel -- Raised in a Jewish family in Memphis, TN, Rachel Edelman's poems examine how humans confront and evade the destruction we have wrought. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Beloit Poetry Journal, The Threepenny Review, Poetry Northwest, and elsewhere. She has received fellowships and residencies from Crosstown Arts, Mineral School, the Academy of American Poets, and the University of Washington. She holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Washington and a BA in English and geology from Amherst College. She works as an Upper School English teacher at Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences. ● 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).