Show Notes
David Turner is in Walthamstow, east London talking to Vanessa Onwuemezi. The pair discuss how Vanessa came to be pursuing a life in writing and how she judges the quality of her writing.
This episode includes a short tribute to friend and poet Mishi 'Dulwich Hamlet' Morath who sadly passed away before Christmas.
Download a full transcript of this conversation here: https://lunarpoetrypodcasts.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/ep123-vanessa-onwuemezi-transcript.pdf
For more about Vanessa: https://twitter.com/onwuemezi http://www.thewhitereview.org/fiction/at-the-heart-of-things/ http://mironline.org/swim-by-vanessa-onwuemezi/
Buy my book Contained, £10 for the book, £4 for the PDF, here: https://www.blurb.co.uk/b/9771405-contained
Info about Contained book launches: London, 8th February - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/contained-london-launch-tickets-87610614707 Cardiff, 15th February - Flute and Tankard Pub, free entry. Bristol, 14th March -https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/contained-bristol-launch-tickets-85104699447
More about Mishi Morath: https://soundcloud.com/lunar-poetry-podcasts/mishi-morath https://soundcloud.com/lunar-poetry-podcasts/national-poetry-day-2016 https://soundcloud.com/lunar-poetry-podcasts/christmas-2015 http://footballpoets.org/poets/dulwich-poet/
For more from us: lunarpoetrypodcasts.com/ www.facebook.com/LunarPoetryPodcasts/ twitter.com/Silent_Tongue
Order 'Why Poetry?': The Lunar Poetry Podcasts Anthology here: vervepoetrypress.com/product/why-poetry/
Episode music is an original composition by Snazzy Rat. You can find more from Snazzy here: snazzyrat.bandcamp.com/ www.facebook.com/snazzyrat/
More from Lunar Poetry Podcasts
This week Repeat Beat Poet is in conversation with poet, author, broadcaster, activist, and longstanding rabble-rousing doyenne of UK poetry, Salena Goddena. The pair reflect on Salena's career in poetry and literature, the inspirations behind her debut novel Mrs Death Misses Death, and have a good chat about the complications and joys of writing to and through an embodiment of Death; like how facing loss and grief can teach us how to live, love, survive, and fight for a better world. There's also chat about being a flaneuse, and writing while walking around mystical East London.
Cece's Speakeasy (30th June-3rd July 2021) - https://applesandsnakes.org/project/ceces-speakeasy/
The terms hard-working and “jack of all trades” get thrown around a lot, but Sarah Callaghan really embodies the two. She’s been a comedian for over ten years with shows across the world from Australia to Austria, and she made the move into poetry when she used it as a tool to work through a difficult period of her life. Poetry was a space that allowed for what comedy didn’t; a space where messages didn’t necessarily have to be funny to be let out and to be seriously received by an audience. It gave her a space to speak more openly about mental health. We also discuss the importance of creative collaboration, share some performance stories, and the difficulties of navigating the trappings of social media.
This week Peter deGraft-Johnson (The Repeat Beat Poet) speaks to poet , educator, and writer Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan. The pair start by speaking about overcoming the fears of speaking your truth publicly, learning to trust readers and publishers outside of immediate live audiences, and Suhaiymah's journey discovering poetry. Next, we jump into the thick fogs of British colonialism, spend some time naming and shaming it and discussing the legacy of inequality it leaves in how histories are held and taught in our libraries, archives, and museums. Across an hour that felt like a minute, Suhaiymah also squeezes in some self-care tips, and gives another beautiful answer to the perennial ultimate question - why poetry?
“A lot of the ethos that I learned from the punk scene – D.I.Y politics, inclusivity, that kind of thing – I brought with me into Burning Eye Books” - Bridget Hart