Vita Poetica Journal Vita Poetica

Assistant Interviews Editor Darby Brown speaks with dancers and choreographers Hope Blackburn and Jacob Shoup of Ekklesia Contemporary Ballet. A transcript of the interview is available here.



Hope Blackburn and Jacob Shoup are dancers and choreographers with Ekklesia Contemporary Ballet, a professional dance company of artist-theologians whose goal is to create spaces where art and faith can flourish. Ekklesia’s diverse repertory utilizes a full spectrum of emotional and physical vocabulary while addressing issues such as poverty, inequality, and human suffering.


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Rachel shares about her contemplative practice of journaling in "A Journal of Many Colors."

Rachel Berry resides in Richmond, Virginia with her sweet dog Phin. She spends her free time journaling, dancing on her treadmill, and spending time with friends and family.


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Cheryl Sadowski reads her essay, "Teachers, Sages, and Serpents," a review of the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art's ongoing exhibit, The Art of Knowing in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas, which is on view in Washington, DC.

Cheryl Sadowski writes about art, books, landscape, and nature. Her essays, reviews, and short fiction have been published in Vita Poetica, The Ekphrastic Review, After the Art, and other publications. She is a 2023 Pushcart nominee and winner of a Grantchester Award by The Orchards Poetry Journal. Cheryl holds a Master of Liberal Arts from Johns Hopkins University and lives in Northern Virginia.


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Ping Yi Yee reads his poem, "Fortune Center," and Isabel Chenot reads her poem, "pain is not an ark."

Ping Yi Yee writes poetry, travelogues and fiction, and is in public service. His work has appeared in Litro, London Grip, Meniscus, La Piccioletta Barca, and Sideways, among others, and is forthcoming in Poetry Breakfast and Harbor Review. Ping Yi is from Singapore, and has also lived in Boston, MA, and Cambridge, UK.

Isabel Chenot has loved and practiced poetry for as long as she can remember. Some of her poems are collected in The Joseph Tree, available from Wiseblood books.


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Artist Alexis Eke shares about her digital artwork featured in our Spring 2024 issue, including on the cover. View her art can be viewed here.

Alexis Eke is an artist based in Toronto, Ontario. She illustrates surrealism portraits and comic illustrations using vibrant colors, to communicate the truth of Gods Word and increase the representation of black women in the creative industry.




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Bart Edelman reads his poem, "Crazy Eights," and K.D. Battle reads his poem, "Self-Help Sonnet I," from the Spring 2024 issue.

Bart Edelman’s poetry collections include Crossing the Hackensack (Prometheus Press), Under Damaris’ Dress (Lightning Publications), The Alphabet of Love (Ren Hen Press), The Gentle Man (Ren Hen Press), The Last Mojito (Ren Hen Press), The Geographer’s Wife (Ren Hen Press), Whistling to Trick the Wind (Meadowlark Press), and This Body Is Never at Rest: New and Selected Poems 1993 – 2023 (Meadowlark Press). He has taught at Glendale College, where he edited Eclipse, a literary journal, and, most recently, in the MFA program at Antioch University, Los Angeles. His work has been widely anthologized in textbooks published by City Lights Books, Etruscan Press, Fountainhead Press, Harcourt Brace, Longman, McGraw-Hill, Prentice Hall, Simon & Schuster, Thomson/Heinle, the University of Iowa Press, Wadsworth, and others.

K.D. Battle is an ex-nuclear submarine mechanic, ex-lead singer, and an instructor of writing for all. He has taught for acclaimed institutions such as the Telling Room and is currently pursuing an MFA at Western Michigan University, where he is the Assistant Director of First Year Writing. He hopes you live a life of wonder and compassion.


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