The Painted Word Poetry Series

Quraysh Ali Lansana was working in broadcast journalism until his transition into poetry was ignited by the works of acclaimed poet Gwendolyn Brooks. In this interview Quraysh explains the difference between sonics and musicality, and helps his readers understand the way his background in performance and spoken word plays into the way he develops his words for the page. At the end of the interview  Quraysh reads the haunting and beautiful poem, “blur” which alludes to the memory of Karen Silkwood’s tragic murder.

You can read “blur” here:

https://www.aprweb.org/poem/blur

And find out more on Quraysh here:

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/quraysh-ali-lansana

In this interview I spoke with Deborah Landau about her book’s Orchidilerium, and The Last Usable Hour. It was an exciting moment for me because Deborah and Megan O’Rourke were the creators of The Open Book Series, which was an inspiration for this project, and is sadly now defunct. Besides conversing on the current state of literature in the media, Deborah talked of the sleepless nights in NYC the shaped the poems in The Last Usable Hour. Watch the interview to learn more about this wonderful poet read her own work, and talk about all the awesome stuff going on at NYU!

5 months ago - 1

If you’ve been looking to link up with other creative people, and don’t have a blog by now, January Gill O’neil will tell you why its time to sign up and sign in. In this month’s episode of The Painted Word Poetry Series readings and interviews, I was lucky to have spoken with January about how to artfully divide a book into sections. In her first book Underlife (CavanKerry Press, 2009) she moves through a stream of memories, first only touching the lighter surfaces, then in later sections delving into the constant and darker under currents of what is going on beneath the surface of life, and memory. To learn more about January’s poetry go to her blog PoetMom, and watch this interview!

This was the first interview I have ever conducted on camera for this series , and we sure covered a lot of ground! Starting from the crib, Marie Howe’s life has been immersed in connecting images with their textual counterparts. In the interview Marie guides us through a life shaped by childhood memorization of poetry, to catholic school, to the tub where she read the gruesome book The Lives of the Saint’s over and over again, to her established career in the field of creative writing. In her work she speaks through he voice of Eve, and Issac, and then through the lens of her brother’s life as the victim of the AIDS epidemic.