Poetry has a weird reputation in literature. I cannot think of a time when it felt cool to like poetry. All sorts of other genres and styles of writing have had their heyday - seriously who would've thought that "dinosaur smut" would bring in such big bucks? - but poetry seems continually relegated to being that thing you had to get through back in school.

Taylor Mali has been on a mission to transform the way we think about, read, listen to, and consider poetry. He has been featured in Russell Simmons' Def Poetry, as well as the documentaries SlamNation and Slam Planet. He has shared stages with Billy Collins and Allen Ginsberg. He's published several books and been featured in even more anthologies, and he took time out of all that to have a conversation with me about bad poetry, good poetry, and all the poetry you aren't reading but should be.

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