Poetry is many things to many people. It can be a rallying cry or a soothing balm in times of crisis—and in 2020, we could use plenty of both.

Today, Wednesday host Ali Muldrow discusses the radical possibilities of art and poetry with Xandria Phillips, author of the new collection HULL. Among other things, they talk about what it means to write about Blackness and queerness for a Black audience, the importance of openly discussing mental health, and why we need art along with direct action in moments of social and political change.

Xandria Phillips is a writer, educator, and visual artist from rural Ohio. They were a 2019–2020 First Wave Poetry Fellow at the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing. Their first book, HULL (Nightboat Books, 2019), is the winner of the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for Trans Poetry.