The Prickly Pear Podcast Blue Cactus Press

Take a break from worrying about the CODIV-19 heath crisis, work, the state of our economy, online meetings, and well, everything, and just enjoy some damn-good music. This month, after a long podcast hiatus, we're back with a brand new podcast episode featuring nothing but homegrown, badass music by DJ Smokey Wonder.

Yeah. It really is a whole podcast episode of nothin' but music by one of our favorite, Tacoma-based musicians. Smokey Wonder is a DJ, artist, and music producer living in Tacoma, Wa who specializes in community events with Tropical and Latin music, Hip Hop, and more. He’s from New Mexico but has been doing his thing in the Northwest for over almost 10 years. The City of Tacoma and the communities have been instrumental in helping him grow his craft and he is forever grateful to Tacoma and the many people who have supported his music.

To learn more about DJ Smokey Wonder, head to bluecactuspress.com and check out our blog, where we posted an exclusive Q&A with the musician.

Listen to more of DJ Smokey Wonder's music on his soundcloud profile: https://soundcloud.com/smokeywonder

Now sit your butt down and relax, grab your headphones, and listen to some music, friends. We'll see you down the road.

We've been having trouble keeping up with all the cool arts events happening around town for Tacoma Arts Month, so naturally, we retreated to the great garage to catch our breath and *settle down.* We convinced Lucien Vedego, a multi-disciplinary artist with work in the fields of music, painting, writing, acting, and modeling, to join us while we did so. This podcast episode is the very silly but also heartfelt result of that. This episode is also all about you, Tacoma, and what keeps cool kids like Lucien walking through your streets. We deep dived into conversation about honesty, "facebooking it" in real life, friendship and the artistic process. We hope you enjoy it.

LUCIEN VEDEGO is a multi-disciplinary artist with work spanning the fields of music, painting, writing, acting, and modeling. All of his work stems from his mission to spread the messages of unity, vulnerability, and innate power. He is also active within the field of metaphysics, sharing esoteric teachings by holding space, as well as working as a Reiki practitioner. Most recently, he founded decriminalize nature tacoma, a branch of the larger decriminalize nature effort.

It's been a contemplative spring, friends, one as heavy with emotional processing as the branches of a flowering peony bush (you know, the ones near Chinese Reconciliation Park in Tacoma, with milky-white flowers larger than our fists and a melancholy that drags at the bush). We've been absorbed with emotional processing all year, it seems, and our latest podcast interview with Robert Lashley, an exceptionally lyrical and honest poet, was no different.

Originally from Hilltop, Tacoma, Robert is a Jack Straw Fellow, Artist Trust Fellow, and nominee for a Stranger Genius Award. His poems have been published in literary journals including Feminete, Seattle Review of Books, NAILED, Gramma, Drunk in a Midnight Choir, and The Cascadia Review. His work was also featured in Many Trails to the Summit, an anthology of Northwest form and lyric poetry, and It Was Written, an anthology of poetry inspired by hip hop.

Robert joined us for a cathartic and open conversation about honesty and authenticity in art, the manifestation of grief, and the weight of public shaming. We also dived into respectability politics, gentrification, and heritage, and were fortunate that Robert shared his poetry with us throughout the conversation. We hope you enjoy this one, folks, or at the very least, come away with a deeper appreciation for how our complex array of emotion and personal experience inform our art, whether intentional or not. Now grab those headphones, head to Chinese Reconciliation Park, and every now or then, look up from the flowers to watch the fog drift over the water. Drift with it.

**This episode of Prickly Pear Podcast was recorded at Hugo House, a resource and education center for writers, in Seattle. Thank you again to Hugo House for graciously allowing us to record our podcast in one of their cozy workshop spaces. Learn about upcoming writing workshops, readings, and opportunities to utilize writing spaces at HugoHouse.org.