For this episode, Brittany and Ajanae had the privilege of talking with Yona Harvey and Mahogany Browne LIVE at Furious Flower 2024! Join them as they discuss the importance of community spaces, what they’ve learned from sistering and being sistered, finding affirmation in each other’s poetry, the process of shifting genres, navigating the tension between public personas and interior lives, and the misperception of being mean.

Until Next Time:

Here are some pieces of media to accompany your experience of the episode and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again!

Mahogany
Fannie Lou Hamer: Fannie Lou Hamer's Powerful Testimony | Freedom Summer
Sonia Sanchez: A Word with Sister Sonia Sanchez | Wildest Dreams
June Jordan: I Must Become a Menace to My Enemies by June Jordan - Poems | Academy of American Poets

Yona
Sister: sisters | The Poetry Foundation 
Mary Lou Williams: Introducing...Mary Lou Williams
Sonia Sanchez: Sonia Sanchez - Poem for Some Women - live @ Def Poetry

Writing Prompt:

Write a poem in response to a poem that affirms you. 

On today’s episode of VS, Brittany and Ajanae speak with Alexa Patrick about all things nostalgic. Join them as they discuss playfulness as a craft tool, memory as a poetic foundation, the harms of being the only, prom season, desire, and having a crush on everything!

Until Next Time: 

Here are some pieces of media to accompany your experience of the episode and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again!

• Morgan Parker: Award-winning poet Morgan Parker talks motivation behind new essay book
• Toi Derricotte: Toi Derricotte: Creativity in Isolation, part 1 of 3
• Hilary Duff: Metamorphosis

Writing Prompt: 

Write an ode to your favorite coming of age ritual.

During today’s episode, Brittany and Ajanae talk with Ayokunle Falomo, author of the poetry collection Autobiomythography Of. Join them as they discuss the intertwining of mythology, time, and history, as well as the responsibilities of parenthood, keeping secrets, and navigating the multiplicity of the self. 

Until Next Time: 

Here are some pieces of media to accompany your experience of the episode and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again!

• Lucille Clifton - Lucille Clifton, The Killing of the Trees
• James Baldwin- Where To Start With James Baldwin | The New York Public Library
• Aṣa - Aṣa - Good Thing (Official Video)
• Ai Ogawa - Ai | The Poetry Foundation

Writing Prompt: 

Write a contrapuntal with two different origin stories for yourself or someone else. 

During today’s interview, Brittany and Ajanae sit down with Sarah Ghazal Ali. Listen in as they discuss writing as a spiritual practice, honoring matrilineage, the importance of disbelief, the failed project of purity, and the generative force of fixed forms.

Note: this episode was originally recorded in fall of 2024. 

Until Next Time: 

Here are some pieces of media to accompany your experience of the episode and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again!

• Mary Szybist: Mary Szybist Accepts the 2013 National Book Award
• AGHA SHAHID ALI: Remembering Agha Shahid Ali
• Farida Khanum: Farida Khanum in concert : Malika-e-Ghazal in India

Writing Prompt: 

Write a litany of doubts or disbeliefs.

In today’s episode, Brittany and Ajanae have the pleasure of talking to poets and artists Tank (from Tank and the Bangas) and Jamila Woods. Tank and Jamila take time before their tour to talk with our VS hosts about their entryways into poetry, how place influences their sound, the questions they hold in their minds while creating, and of course, how poetry intersects with the rest of their creative practice.

Until Next Time:

Here’s a writing prompt to accompany your experience of the episode to tide you over until we meet again!

Writing prompt:

Revisit one of the earliest poems of yours that you can find. Write a poem in response to it.

During this episode of VS, Brittany and Ajanae are joined by poet and advocate Daad Sharfi. In this episode, they discuss the reconstruction of memory, boundary setting, real and imagined borders, and the absurdity of the legal system. 

Until Next Time: 

Here are some pieces of media to accompany your experience of the episode and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again!

• Family whatsapp: Types of People on Family WhatsApp Groups | MostlySane
• June Jordan: June Jordan -- "Poem about My Rights"
• The work of her friends: You Can't Create Alone: On Fostering Literary Community - The Millions
• To All My Friends by May Yang - Poems | Academy of American Poets

Writing prompt:

For this poem, choose a memory. Assign it a color. How does this color tint or shift the memory? Make it more or less true?

During this episode of VS, poet and multidisciplinary artist Farah Chamma joins Brittany and Ajanae. Listen in as they discuss the importance of trusting your intuition, the nuances of language, suffering and passion, as well as the necessity of defining oneself as an artist and a person. 

Until Next Time:

Here are some pieces of media to accompany your experience of the episode and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again!

• Hussein Barghouthi: POETRY IN DIALOGUE THE POET HUSSEIN BARGHOUTHI part 1
• Hanane Hajj Ali: AMERICAN THEATRE | Hanane Hajj Ali, ‘Jogging’ for Survival in Beirut
• El Rass: My Battle
• Berimbau: The Berimbau: Musical Instrument Or Icon Of Resistance Against Oppression?

Writing prompt:

Write a contrapuntal evaluating a habit or activity in your life by the ways it contributes to and relieves suffering.

On today’s episode, Brittany and Ajanae spend time in conversation with Bettina Judd, who is an amazing poet, scholar, and Professor of African American Studies at Emory University. Join them as they discuss the validity of symbols, living out the tarot, how interior concerns shape research and experimentation, and the importance of Black, queer women seeing themselves reflected in theoretical practices.

Until Next Time

Here are some pieces of media to accompany your experience of the episode and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again!

• Lucille Clifton: Lucille Clifton: A Poet's Life and Legacy
• Beverly Guy-Sheftall: Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought
• Clark Sisters: Karen Clark Sheard - Finally Karen Live (Full DVD)

Writing Prompt: 

Write a research question for a part of speech. Conduct your experiment for this question through a series of poems.

During this episode of VS, Brittany and Ajanae interview poet and novelist Phillip B. Williams. Join them as they talk about the process of writing an epic novel, embracing character’s autonomy, Morrisonian poems, and the responsibility of freedom. 

Until Next Time: 

• Nina Simone: To Be Free
• Gabriel García Márquez: What To Know About The Master Of Magical Realism & Nobel Prize Winner | TIME
• Love Song by Henry Dumas | Poetry Foundation
• What does it mean to be human? | Sonia Sanchez | TEDxPhiladelphia

Writing Prompt:

Who is your favorite writer? Write 3 rules that seem to guide their writing. Write a poem following those rules.

For this episode, Ajanae and Brittany interview poet Jubi Arriola-Headley; join them as they discuss the role of humor and play in their poetics, the straightforwardness of erotic writing and kink, and navigating their tensions with masculinity.

Until Next Time: 

Here are some pieces of media to accompany your experience of the episode and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again!

• Prince: FLASHBACK: Prince Talks About the Meaning of Life in Rare '97 Interview
• Black gay writers of 70’s/80’s: Our Black Gay Creatives of the 1980s | Medium
• James Baldwin: I Am Not Your Negro | James Baldwin on the Dick Cavett Show | Netflix

Writing Prompt:

Write a hermit crab poem that functions as a schedule. Make everything on this schedule an appointment for a kind of pleasure.

Season 8 kicks off with Brittany and Ajanae talking with Sarah Lubala, Congolese poet, and author of A History of Disappearance. In this interview, the trio discuss navigating political history and conflict, the role of matriarchal figures in her work, hope as an exercise, and writing about love without leaning into sentimentality. 

Edit: In our conversation, Safia Elhillo was said to be Somali; Safia Elhillo is Sudanese- American.

Until Next Time:

Here are some pieces of media to accompany your experience of the episode and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again!

• Toni Morrison's 'Good' Ghosts : NPR
• The Fight & The Fiddle: Safia Elhillo on Language
• Warsan Shire’s Portraits of Somalis in Exile | The New Yorker

Writing Prompt: Write a portrait poem, imagining a place as a matriarch.