VS

I have deeply missed this podcast in a way that this episode felt like coming home. The tenderness, the talks on vulnerability, ugh. Thank you for your statements at the beginning of this episode and thank you for the starting once over again with us listeners. Much much love 🩶

I am hopeful our new hosts will challenge themselves to go deeper and find the words to interrogate poems and poets, rather than settling for breathlessness and outpouring of affection as they often do. That's great and all, but don't stop there. It doesn't offer much for the listener. Also, I found it a bit odd that the statement on Palestine - which I support - rightfully included a host of other conflicts but left out Ukraine (and if we're talking about it, Myanmar). It felt more like virtue signaling to specific communities than a coherent statement about freedom and sovereignty globally. This narrowness of focus extends to the recent programming of the show, which has felt less diverse than in the past. To be clear, everyone featured is worth featuring and they have done a decent job representing African diaspora poets, but it feels like their conversations are becoming siloed, and that does them a disservice. I say all of this with love as a longtime listener.

Thank you for your statement in solidarity with Palestine. Have always been a big fan of this podcast, and especially appreciate you for this clear and principled stance. Palestine will be free 🇵🇸♥️🇵🇸♥️🇵🇸

I’m a poet myself and one thing I hate is poets acting better than others. That does NOT happen here. This is real discussions with real people with poetry as a reason to talk. Keep on!