Douglas Kearney: “There’s no ‘sass’ in “...

Recorded by Chet’la Sebree for Poem-a-Day, a series produced by the Academy of American Poets. Published on July 9, 2025. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.poets.org 

Recorded by Lillian-Yvonne Bertram for Poem-a-Day, a series produced by the Academy of American Poets. Published on July 8, 2025. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.poets.org 

Recorded by Antoinette Brim-Bell for Poem-a-Day, a series produced by the Academy of American Poets. Published on July 7, 2025. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.poets.org 

Karima K. Jeffrey-Legette's book Speculative Film and Moving Images by or about Black Women and Girls (Lexington Books, 2022) examines depictions of African-descended women and girls in twentieth and twenty-first century filmmaking. Topics include a discursive analysis of stereot ... Show More

Today’s poem is The Gardener 85 by Rabindranath Tagore. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Poetry has a way of collapsing time, and by working the senses, having us experience an era. In the blues rhythms of Langston Hughes’ poetry, I hear e ... Show More

This week, we're asking whether Black authors are being held back in the UK through marketing.Also, we're questioning why debut authors are struggling with their book. Email us: mostlylit@gmail.comTwitter: @mostlylitTikTok: @mostlylitpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for ... Show More

Today’s poem is Dry Spell by Lisa Sewell. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Like so much of what our teachers share as advice about our writing, today’s poem can also be applied to our life off the page.” Celebrate the power of poems with a ... Show More

Nijla Mu'min is a writer and filmmaker from the East Bay Area. Her work is informed by poetry, photography, fiction, and dance. Named one of 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine in 2017, she tells stories about Black girls and women who find themselves between w ... Show More

Black vaudevillians and entertainers joked that T.O.B.A. stood for "tough on black artists." But the Theater Owner's Booking Association (T.O.B.A.) played a foundational role in the African American entertainment industry. T.O.B.A. Time: Black Vaudeville and the Theater Owners’ B ... Show More

Named one of TIME magazine’s “100 Innovators for the Next New Wave,” Suzan-Lori Parks is the first African American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Topdog/Underdog. She joins to discuss her long and illustrious career as a playwright, musician, and novelist. Hos ... Show More

Today’s poem is from "Elegy for the Times" by Adonis, translated by Robyn Creswell. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “For stateless people, writing poems, taking pictures, composing songs is precarious, but making art happens, nonetheless. ... Show More

Forrest Gander joins Kevin Young to read “Privacy,” by Ada Limón, and his own poem “Post-Fire Forest.” Gander is a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the winner of a Pulitzer Prize for his collection “Be With.” 

Award-winning TV writer/producer turned novelist Georgia Jeffries spoke with me about why Cagney and Lacey was her film school, teaching screenwriting at USC, and the ghosts, grief, and grievance in her debut novel THE YOUNGER GIRL. Georgia Jeffries is the Emmy-nominated TV write ... Show More