Let's Have a Renaissance: The DateKeepers Podcast with Itto and Mekiya Outini

The DateKeepers
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Welcome to Let’s Have a Renaissance, a podcast about literature and the arts, where authors, editors, publishers, and creative professionals from all walks of life discuss what it takes to thrive in the arts and sustain a creative career. We're always ready to welcome new guests! To join the conversation, drop us a line through our contact form: https://www.thedatekeepers.com

  1. 1d ago

    95: Can AI Write Your Poetry for You? – A Conversation with Peter Kline

    In this episode, we speak with poet and educator Peter Kline about the psychological and social functions of poetry, compare strategies for dealing with writer’s block, and discuss which sorts of literature AI can produce and why. Peter is the author of two poetry collections, Deviants (Stephen F. Austin State University Press, 2013) and Mirrorforms (Parlor Press/Free Verse Editions, 2020). His poems have placed first in contests run by River Styx, The Southwest Review, and The Columbia Review and have been anthologized by Random House, Tin House Books, and Persea Books. He teaches at the University of San Francisco, and in 2012, he founded the San Francisco literary series Bazaar Writers Salon, which he still directs today.

    21 min

  2. 3d ago

    94: The Church of Inconvenience – A Conversation with Helen O’Leary

    In this episode, we speak with our friend and fellow MacDowell alumna, Helen O’Leary, about growing up on the margins, surviving disaster, the role of absurdity in the creative life, and the importance of self-love. Helen spent her childhood on a farm in rural Ireland, where she learned self-sufficiency and how to work with her hands. She’s been a practicing visual artist since the late 1980s and has won many awards in the last 30 years, including a few that she’s given to herself.

    19 min

  3. 6d ago

    93: The Secret Lives of Puppeteers – A Conversation with Nami Yamamoto

    In this episode, we speak with choreographer Nami Yamamoto about making and dancing with puppets, what it means to lose a future memory, and how her creative practice has evolved as she’s aged. Nami has received support from the Jim Henson Foundation, City Artist Corps, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Movement Research, the New Dance Alliance, the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, and others, and her show Headless Wolf won the Bessie Award in 2017. She currently teaches at Lehman College and in New York City’s public schools.

    17 min

  4. May 27

    92: What Would Camus Do (with Emojis)? – A Conversation with Steve Chang

    In this episode, we speak with our friend and fellow MacDowell alumnus Steve Chang about writing, thinking, masking, code-switching, genre-bending, emojis, and Camus. Enjoy!

    18 min

  5. May 25

    91: Is Writing a Waste of Time? – A Conversation with Alexia Nader

    In this episode, we speak with author Alexia Nader about the challenges of writing a first novel, techniques to sustain reader engagement across sections of a multigenerational novel, and how to overcome the fear that writing is a waste of time. Alexia’s debut, The Meaning of Daughter, is due out from the University of Iowa Press in 2026.

    13 min

  6. May 22

    90: Is AI Taking Music Jobs? – A Conversation with Ben Krause

    In this episode, we speak with pianist and composer Ben Krause about where and how to find opportunities as an aspiring composer, the productive tension between composers and performers, and whether music industry jobs are vulnerable to AI automation. Ben holds degrees in composition from Rice University and the University of Oregon, and he’s received awards, residencies, and commissions from the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Atlantic Chamber Players, Copeland House, Network for New Music, the American Conservatory in Fontainbleau, France, and elsewhere. Ben lives with his wife, pianist Christina Giuca Krause, in Michigan and teaches at Hope College.

    18 min

  7. May 20

    89: Will Plastic Surgery Make You Beautiful? – A Conversation with Anne Harris

    Anne Harris’s drawings and paintings have been exhibited at The New York Public Library, The Yale University Art Gallery, The Fogg Museum, The DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Garden, and elsewhere. She’s also the originator of The Mind’s I, a collaborative drawing project that’s been exhibited at venues around the world, from Los Angeles, California to Santiago, Chile. In this episode, we talk about beauty: what it is, who defines it, what to do when you don’t possess it, and why a supposedly positive attribute so often causes harm.

    15 min

  8. May 18

    88: How to Be a Grownup When You’re a Bit of a Mess – A Conversation with Thea Chacamaty

    Thea Chacamaty holds an MFA in fiction from the University of Michigan and has received support from the Steinbeck Fellowship, Writing by Writers, the Tin House Workshop, and others. In this episode, we discuss her affinity for short fiction, the novel upon which she’s tentatively embarked, and how to find your way in life after growing up broke in California.

    16 min
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About

Welcome to Let’s Have a Renaissance, a podcast about literature and the arts, where authors, editors, publishers, and creative professionals from all walks of life discuss what it takes to thrive in the arts and sustain a creative career. We're always ready to welcome new guests! To join the conversation, drop us a line through our contact form: https://www.thedatekeepers.com

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