The Poets

Chef, poet, human.

Follow Tariq on IG @tarooksalem

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The Poets took a bit of a holiday break, but we're back today with the lovely and talented Ash Avery. Thanks for listening, and more to come!

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Ash’s writing is inspired by their (mis)adventures in fringe living, efforts to balance disparate identities, and compulsion to psychoanalyze uniquely human experiences (for better and worse). Ash has been a social worker, circus artist, amateur skateboarder, competitive rock climber, professional route setter, avid letter-writer, open-mic regular, and that crazy person who finishes their runs by cold-plunging in the Northern Pacific. Born and raised in Berkeley, the open road is now Ash's closest approximation to home. They believe that living intentionally, adventurously, unconventionally and vulnerably is one of the best things they’ve done and will always do for their art.

Ash's prose has appeared in Cipher Magazine, Psychoanalytic Inquiry, and Boulder Poetry Scene. Their first audio-literary album was released through Hello America Stereo Cassette. They do original pen and watercolor illustrations by commission.

You can find Ash at ashaverywriting.com or reach out to them at [email protected].  

Ash encourages you to keep an eye out for the upcoming Bad Victims Zine. The BVZ is an anti-sexual violence publication centered on the experiences of survivors/victims who are genderqueer, BIPOC, sex workers, formerly incarcerated, living with disability, and/or occupying other identities that don’t fit into the dominant narrative of what a victim looks and acts like. If you're interested in submitting your poetry or short-form prose, please reach out to [email protected] for submission guidelines.

In this episode:

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Aerik Francis is a Queer Black & Latinx poet based in Denver, CO. They are the author of the poetry chapbook MISEDUCATION (NDR 2023), named the winner of the 2022 New Delta Review Chapbook Prize, and poetry chapbook BODYELECTRONIC (Trouble Department 2022) which is available also in audiobook form on all streaming platforms under their artist pseudonym phaentompoet. Check out their website phaentompoet.com for more fun poetry stuff & things.

Questions? Comments? Want to be featured? Email [email protected]

JohnnyOsi is a fuzzy ball of lint, tickling the belly button of a collapsing galactic lotus, that smells like death. He is also a National Poetry Slam Finalist, an Individual World Poetry Slam Finalist, a Slaughterhouse Slam Champion, whose work has been featured on Button Poetry, Write About Now, and All Def Poetry.

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Ellie Dawson-Moore is a poet, soon-to-be novelist, and model based in Boulder, Colorado. Originally from Minneapolis, she moved to Colorado to attend the University of Colorado Boulder, where she studies creative writing with a minor in education. On this episode we discuss some of her inspirations—the morbid and the sappy—along with gothic horror, Greek mythology, and selling organs to make ends meet. You can follow Ellie on IG @therealelliedm

1. The Great War (0:37) 2. Yearning Heart for Sale (2:22) 3. The Monster (3:34) 4. The Girl in Seasons (5:30) 5. All Lovers' Eve (6:26) 6. Pepsi Cola (8:32) 7. Curves (9:58) 8. Questions for the Explorer (11:47) 9. Lady of the Lake (16:52) 10. On the Run (18:56)

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I began sharing spoken word poetry in Aug 2022. It began as journal entries and took more structure when I started doing open mics. This exploration of myself happened when I realized the many categories I exist in. Viewing myself as the runner Renée, the academic Renée, the friend Renée, the employee Renée, etc—and the writer Renée.
Most of the categories are defined by how others view me, but the ‘writer Renée’ is how I view myself. I decided to share a journal entry with a friend who was struggling with a similar problem, and she hyped me up about my writing.
Since then my writing has become a concept bigger than myself—a way to connect to the collective consciousness. Taking inspiration from different types of relationships as well as social, economic, and environmental issues to expand my understanding of the world.

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Former features Sleepy and Andrew Bryson return to the show for a discussion of the occult, death, the collective unconscious, poetic inspirations, and some bald guy.

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Sleepy is a dreamer the spirit world has decided to keep wide awake. With no other options to escape reality, he’s infiltrated the poet community in Denver to talk shit, build community, and help create a world that doesn’t need escaping from.

You can hear Sleepy and your host on another podcast, where they interview cool folks about all sorts of things, here.

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Andrew graduated from CU Denver with a MA in Counseling. Andrew works from an integrative lens and mixes evidence-based practices with a humanistic appreciation of our innate capacity for wisdom and healing.

Before working as a counselor, Andrew studied philosophy and psychology in undergrad, worked as a recruiter, and spent time training in the Zen Buddhist tradition. His journey has been motivated by a deep desire to bring healing and balance to himself and his communities. 

In his free time, Andrew spends as much time as possible on the tennis court. He is a writer and poet who enjoys sharing his work with the local creative community. He is sustained by love for his friends and fellow counselors, his family, and his cat, Kaya.

Andrew’s poetry collection, Gentle Poems for Sad Millennials, is available on Amazon

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Find more of Jacob's work at his website and see more from his publishing company, Static Publishing, on IG @staticpublishing.

Additionally, Jacob has shows an interest in knowledge specifically as its transmitted through the written form. As part of his method, Jacob continues to explore new, and sometimes rare and unusual sections of literary, philosophical, religious, and scientific thought. From contemporary philosophy and mathematical proofs, to romantic poetry, Sanskrit Sutras and Medieval mysticism, Cuneiform tablets, and biblical commentary. Written texts which contain something worth preserving, for him, possess a significant value and a mysterious element not yet fully known to him. 

In Jacob S. Friedman’s poetic works, minimalism is functionally employed to a variety of ends. Primarily, minimalism is able, simultaneously, to demonstrate a mastery of the art, while serving to elevate the concept above words, and to accentuate feelings of serenity and liberation through the visually manifest forms of simplicity and perfection.  Minimalism is further employed for its ability to reach a contemporary audience accustomed to internet age quips and shares. As well as to startle, into appreciation, a public who have rarely had any moving experience with a poem. Writing for such a public, an effect in which the reader has been fooled into comprehending the piece through sheer simplicity and sincerity, or a kind of carefully tailored direct approach, is necessary to revive what has become, in the minds of the average consumer, a dead art form.

The works written of Jacob S. Friedman do just that, giving form to a distinctly contemporary experience of the poet and the world, while constructing a rigorously developed representation of the Sacred in Nature.

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Questions? Comments? Want to be featured? Email [email protected]