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.
Featured Poetry: “Bluebirds” by Grace Cavalieri
Other Voices, Other Lives was my introduction to Grace. Her book sits now on my shelf between The Waves and Duino Elegies, the pages are worn from thumbing-thru, it is dog-eared, destroyed in certain ways well-loved books are destroyed, aged by the eyes, like good denim, but here the creases are black underlines, and the fading is from yellow highlighter and coffee stains. So in honor of, well, my deep admiration for Grace, I’ve picked one of her poems from Other Voices, Other Lives to share. If this is the first encounter with her poetry, welcome, hello, the books page is just yonder up the screen under “books”! If you’ve long been a fan, I think “Bluebirds” is a great poem to share with those who might not yet have been introduced to Grace’s work.
Featured Audio: “Letter from Sligo Creek” a poem by Rose Solari
Like the cover photo, the poems in Difficult Weather are timeless and—unlike the poems in many first books—extraordinarily mature. Although the narrative voice is generally that of a young woman in her late twenties and early thirties whose subject matter sometimes ranges back to early childhood, these are poems of adulthood: the discovery and endlessly painful rediscovery of human frailty, sexual and emotional betrayal, bad love in all its familial and romantic varieties, memory, and elegy…
Listen to Grace Cavalieri Interview fmr. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky
Grace Cavalieri is known widely for her stirring and empathic poetry, collected in her Legacy work Other Voices, Other Lives, but did you know that she is also an impressive interviewer? On her NPR show, The Poet and The Poem, she interviews significant poets from the US and around the world, with an aim of interpreting their lives through their poetry. In her tenure on the program, she has interviewed 9 US Poets Laureate (you can find a list with these archived interviews HERE), including the incomparable Robert Pinsky.