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.
Saida Agostini Publishes Poem in Perugia
Saida Agostini’s “An Incomplete Legend on Love” first appears in her debut poetry collection let the dead in. Perugia Press, who is doing a feature on exceptional, emerging BIWOC poets and artists, have republished “An Incomplete Legend on Love” on their website, featuring a bio of Agostini and information on let the dead in.
“for duke ellington” Republished in HillRag
Reuben Jackson’s classic poem from his second collection scattered clouds is republished by Karen Lyon of HillRag.
A Ukrainian Poem of War Translated by Katherine E. Young
Ukraine’s Iya Kiva (b. 1984) is no stranger to war. In 2014, the Maidan Revolution in Ukraine saw a Russian-backed incumbent ousted from Ukraine’s presidency; soon after, Russia forcibly annexed Crimea.