Check out Amanda's conversation with Soul Stuf! Christian Perfas is a second generation Filipino-American poet and teaching artist who goes by the moniker, "Soul Stuf." His catalogue of work covers a wide range of material, from the seemingly mundane to the heart-wrenchingly familiar. Raised with a background in theatre, improv, and hip-hop, he has been honing his poetic craft for the past five years and has been blessed with the opportunity to work with some amazing artistic institutions, such ...
Jul 10, 2022•34 min
Our Season 3 opener is starting off with A BANG. We have Titilope Sonuga! Titilope is a poet and performer whose work grasps for moments of tenderness and persistent joy at the intersection of blackness and womanhood. She is the first EVER poet to recite at a Nigerian Presidential Inauguration and is the author of three award-winning collections of poetry, Down to Earth (2011), Abscess (2014), and This Is How We Disappear (2019) and has released two spoken word albums, Mother Tongue (2011) and S...
Jul 03, 2022•38 min
For our Season 2 Finale we are EXCITED to welcome Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa to the podcast! Sukhjit is a spoken word poet, playwright and screenwriter. She has competed in the Australian Poetry Slam Competition (2014) as a finalist, performed on Australia’s Got Talent (2016) as a semi-finalist, and presented at TedxUWA (2017) and TedxNewtown (2019). She has performed with notable artists including Missy Higgins and L-FRESH the Lion, and her poetry and community arts projects have led her to tour globa...
May 22, 2022•45 min
We have Melania Luisa Marte on the podcast this week! Melania is a writer, poet, and speaker from New York living in the Dominican Republic. Her most viral poem “Afro-Latina” was featured by Instagram on their IG TV for National Poetry Month and has garnered over 9 million views. Her work has also been featured by Ain’t I Latina, The Root, Teen Vogue, Facebook, Telemundo, Remezcla, and People En Español. Melania’s won two Audie awards for her most recent voice-over work co-narrating novel-in-ver...
May 15, 2022•50 min
We welcome to the Podcast, Stephen James Smith! Stephen James Smith is a Dublin poet and playwright central to the rise of the Irish spoken word scene. His poetry videos have amassed over 3 million views online, including ‘My Ireland’, a short poetry film commissioned by St. Patrick’s Festival. Stephen has performed extensively at top venues and events such as Electric Picnic, Other Voices, the National Concert Hall, the Abbey Theatre (Noble Call), Vicar Street (alongside Oscar winner Glen Hansa...
May 08, 2022•37 min
We welcome to the podcast, Asantewaa Boykin! Asantewaa is the Daughter of Valerie Boykin, Granddaughter of Bertha Brandy and Gladys Boykin and the Great-Granddaughter of Nonnie Boykin and Drucella Bluford. She is a proud San Diego, CA native that found her voice in Oakland, CA Berthas’ home and Drucellas’ frontier. Her poetry and art combines her love of words, storytelling, and resistance. Exploring topics like; space-travel, black-femme militancy,& motherhood. Which describes her first ful...
May 01, 2022•34 min
Check out Amanda's conversation with Biankah Bailey! Biankah is a writer and educator from Kingston, Jamaica. She has been teaching English in Japan for over a decade and currently resides in Saitama Prefecture with her husband and cat. Some of her written work has been published in Musings, an anthology series by Writers’ Bloc, Tokyo as well as in Tokyo Poetry Journal Volume I. She is one of the editors of Umoja, an anthology of Black poetry, prose and art, published by Tokyo Poetry Journal.
Apr 24, 2022•32 min
On this week's episode Amanda talks to Usolosopher! Molimau Andrew Fatu aka Usolosopher (ooo-so- losopher) is a Samoan poet from Long Beach, California. He has three self-published books. He was also a radio personality on Hotwordz Lyrical Theatre. He has mentored the youth in the inner cities of Los Angeles county. Being part of the CSUDH poetry club F.L.O.W. (For the Love Of Writing) he was president and also competed in slam poetry against other universities in California. Now being a newlywe...
Apr 17, 2022•39 min
This episode we have, Anouk Yeh! Anouk is a spoken word poet, journalist and organizer from San Jose, California. She is Santa Clara County’s 2021 Inaugural Youth Poet Laureate, a 2020 National Student Poet Program semifinalist and a U.S. delegate to the International Congress of Youth Voices. A firm believer that "the role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible," Yeh is always actively looking for inventive ways to tackle current events in her poetry. Her poetry has been featured ...
Apr 10, 2022•41 min
On this week's episode we have Tyrone Lewis! Tyrone is a pop-culture powerhouse of a poet. He is a UK Poetry Slam Champion for 2020, former Roundhouse Poetry Slam Champion and author of his very own debut poetry collection, ‘Blackish’. Tyrone has worked across England with poetry in a variety of ways, including performing, teaching and peer mentoring. He was nominated as the editor’s choice for Best Spoken Word Performer for the 2018 Saboteur Awards and was a semi-finalist in the 2020 World Cup ...
Apr 03, 2022•41 min
This episode, Amanda talks to Jennifer Alicia! Jennifer is a queer, mixed Mi'kmaw and settler (german/Irish/Scottish) multidisciplinary artist originally from Elmastukwek, Ktaqmkuk (Bay of Islands, Newfoundland), now residing in Toronto, Ontario. She is a two-time national poetry slam champion and recently published her chapbook titled "Mixed Emotions." Jennifer Alicia was published in Issue 09 of Canthius Magazine and NOW Magazine in 2021. They are currently working on a play titled Restor(y)in...
Mar 27, 2022•34 min
This week we welcome to the Podcast, Ryan Buynak! Ryan is a self proclaimed word nerd, poet, and creative force. He can’t quit writing even if he tries; it’s a part of him that he can’t turn off. Orphaned at age 12, Ryan has always been an observer with a lot to say. He has published 13 books of poetry, is the host of the “Bothering the Band” podcast, serves as an active member of storytelling workshops in New York and Florida and is a proud father of a beautiful daughter. His first novel 'Eatin...
Mar 20, 2022•35 min
We welcome to the podcast, Deesoul! Darnell “DeeSoul” Carson (He/They) is a Black queer poet, performer, and educator from San Diego, CA. A The Watering Hole Writing Workshop Fellow, his work has been featured by Button Poetry, Write About Now Poetry, The Adroit Journal, & elsewhere. He graduated with a degree in Cultural/Social Psychology and a minor in Creative Writing from Stanford University and is a Writer in the Public Schools Fellow in the NYU M.F.A program. Check out him and Amanda's...
Mar 13, 2022•38 min
Angelyric is a South African born Spoken Word Artist. After being awarded the bronze prize in the Caxton writing competition of 2015 she co-found Johannesburg based, multidisciplinary Art collective PG_13 with its focus being the culmination of poetry and music. She has performed at Port Elizabeth Opera house, Grahamstown Art Festival, Fete De La Musique and together with her band, made it to the finals of the first ever Afropunk Africa battle of the bands. She has performed at the Alliance Fran...
Mar 06, 2022•33 min
BONUS EPISODE! While waiting for Season 2, check out this bonus episode of The Poet Speaks Podcast! We welcome to the podcast, Marcellus Nealy, co-editor of Umoja: ToPoJo Excursions - Black diaspora Edition. The FIRST poetry collection written by all black poets and writers to ever be produced in Japan! Marcellus found his poetic voice in the mid-1990s on a small stage in Tokyo, at the popular British Pub, What the Dickens. From there, he dove full-on into the world of spoken word. He is the win...
Feb 05, 2022•45 min
Born in Chennai, India, Shivram Gopinath is a poet who has called Singapore a home since 2002. His work has been heard at Singapore Writers Festival, Borobudur Cultural and Writers Festival, Jaipur Literary Festival and more. He has taught workshops structured around poetic identity at the Haque Centre of Acting and Creativity, and is a twice-winning Singapore National Poetry Slam champion. He is currently the creative director of UltraSuperNew Singapore, an advertising agency and art gallery. T...
Jan 23, 2022•41 min
Remember the time when your grandparents used to tell you stories about "back in their day", or even about places, and festivals they went to? On this week's podcast we are ecstatic to bring to you, Baakhan Nyane waa. Baakhan Nyane waa are a group of volunteers in Nepal that is giving oral traditions back to younger generations by bringing out elders of the community to story tell to the people. The community gathers as they recite their tales of heritage, rich tradition and ritual everywhere fr...
Jan 16, 2022•32 min
Welcome to the podcast, Jordan Smith! Jordan has been in the Japanese poetry community on various projects, serving as Editor-in-Chief for Tokyo Poetry Journal and co-founder of KOTOBA, the national poetry slam of Japan. He produces programs for BBC Radio 4 on Japanese poetry and culture, with some of the projects turning into book projects (Sea of Trees: Poetic Gateways to Aokigahara). Author of poetry and art-dialogue volume Syzygy (Awai Books, 2020) and translator of many of Japan’s leading p...
Jan 09, 2022•34 min
Smriti Shrestha is a Nepali poet, writer and student. Listen to this brand new episode as Amanda and her talk about everything from taking your power on stage as you perform your poetry, to how to let your emotions out as a Spoken Word Artist!
Jan 02, 2022•26 min
We welcome Stephanie Dogfoot to the podcast! Stephanie, (they/she) is a poet, performer and producer. A former Singapore and UK national slam champion, their first poetry collection, Roadkill for Beginners explores placemaking, found family, growing up and generally just really good times in abandoned buildings and around bonfires. Their poetry has been featured at literary and music festivals around the world, including the Edinburgh Free Fringe, Glastonbury Festival and the Melbourne Spoken Wo...
Dec 26, 2021•37 min
On this week's podcast we have Nigerian born and bred poet, Oyereyi! Oyereyi is a new age griot , her passion for poetry and the art of spoken word goes way back to her latter years in secondary school. A closet page poet for years; Oyereyi only began performing her poems in 2015 and has since been described as a revolutionary poet with a style branded as audacious, evocative and electrifying. As a diversified artist, her themes cut across different spheres of life ranging from politics, love, m...
Dec 19, 2021•26 min
We welcome to the podcast Saras Chari! Saras is a poet, writer, translator and poetry instructor based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He is often found flaunting his T-shirt that says, "Poet, but paid.", and performs with a black scarf around his head, two things that he believes works as an artistic statement. He tries out different experiments with poetry along with his close friends at Kavindrapur, an experimental poetry band he co-founded. He is also a Core Member at Word Warriors, Nepal's leading spo...
Dec 12, 2021•41 min
We welcome to the podcast Anne Marie Wells! (She | They) is a queer poet, playwright, and storyteller navigating the world with a chronic illness. She is a faculty member of the Community Literature Initiative poetry publishing program through the Sims Library of Poetry. Her prose and poems have been published in many places including the Santa Fe Writers Project, Brain Mill Press, The Dallas Review, and others. Listen as her and Amanda discuss depression and writing, finding your voice and EVER...
Dec 05, 2021•38 min
We welcome to the podcast, Toluwanimi Obiwole! Nigerian born, Colorado- raised multidisciplinary artist, and scholar. Toluwanimi is Denver's very first Youth Poet Laureate as well as a two time TEDx Mile High speaker along with being an author of numerous published international anthologies and poetry books. Her poetry is a reflection of her ancestry, the rituals of healing in her present, and the shape of her dreams of the future. Come listen as Amanda and her discuss everything from art, writi...
Nov 29, 2021•27 min
Welcome to the very first episode of, The Poet Speaks Podcast. Get to know host, Amanda Eke. Amanda is a Nigerian American Artist, Spoken Word Artist, Poet, Film-Maker, and Scholar. A Fulbright and UN Award winner and author, she uses both her love for poetry, film, writing and music to address socio- political issues, and contemporary culture prevalent in society today. Her globally touring workshop series, "The Poet Speaks" is an engaging experience into the culture of Spoken word, rhyme and t...
Nov 14, 2021•21 min
