Grace Cavalieri Interviews Slam Poet Star, Mecca Verdell
The Maryland Poet Laureate talks youth, fearlessness, and colorism with slam poet, Mecca Verdell
In this new episode of Grace Cavalieri's The Poet and the Poem, the Poet Laureate sits down with 23 year-old Baltimore slam poet, Mecca Verdell, who just recently published her first collection of poems.
Grace and Mecca talk colorism, youth, and fearlessness in this 30-minute long interview which includes a handful of poems which Mecca delivers in a slam performance style. Grace, awed by Mecca's delivery and poetic voice, pronounces that, after 60 years of reading poetry, she is still learning.
Listen to the entire interview here.
Make sure you pick up Grace's book, Other Voices, Other Lives which traces here own journey in poetry and includes several interviews with poets like Rita Dove.
PANK Publishes Early Review of “Scattered Clouds” by Reuben Jackson
Poet Risa Denenberg’s glowing review of Scattered Clouds is up on the PANK Magazine website. Her review details the jazz and political influences in Reuben’s work as well as the specters of “racism, suicide, and brutality,” which give some of his poetry a more menacing aspect.
ASP Travel Writers Celebrate Anthony Bourdain
ASP writers celebrate the life of Anthony Bourdain on the inaugural “Anthony Bourdain Day.”
Author, Branka Cubrilo, Talks New Novel, “Dethroned” with James J. Patterson
James J. Patterson sits down with Croatian-born novelist, Branka Cubrilo to talk about her recent geopolitical thriller novel, “Dethroned.” In the course of conversation they touch on feminism in Eastern Europe, the lives of young women, translation, and the merits of different languages for carrying prose.