On today’s episode, Brittany and Ajanae chat with Amanda Johnston; join them as they discuss choosing joy, intentional literary citizenship, the history of Torch Literary Arts, recurring selves in the work, and existing in the here and now.

Here is some media to accompany your experience of the episode and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again!

• Lucille Clifton - i am accused of tending to the past by Lucille Clifton
• Krista Franklin - ARTIST FEATURE: KRISTA FRANKLIN - EP2
• Wura-Natasha Ogunji - Interview with Wura-Natasha Ogunji | "Alpha Crucis – Contemporary African Art"
• Beyonce - The Business of Being Beyoncé Knowles-Carter | GQ

In the spirit of Amanda’s Praisesong project, choose a member of your community and write a praisesong or ode to them.

Welcome to Season 9! On today’s episode of VS, Brittany and Ajanae chat with Chet’la Sebree about love, the origin of words and theory, chronic illness, vulnerability, and using language to explore our curiosities. 

Here is some media to accompany your experience of the episode and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again!

• Natasha Tretheway: Natasha Trethewey’s Poems Take Wing on Intimate Details - The New York Times
• Shara McCallum FIELD STUDY: CHET'LA SEBREE IN CONVERSATION WITH SHARA MCCALLUM
• Allison Saar : #5WomenArtists Spotlight: Alison Saar - English with Audio Description

Research the etymology of a word and write a poem tracing its origin and evolution.

During this episode of VS, Brittany and Ajanae interview poet and novelist Phillip B. Williams. Join them as they talk about the process of writing an epic novel, embracing character’s autonomy, Morrisonian poems, and the responsibility of freedom. 

• Nina Simone: To Be Free
• Gabriel García Márquez: What To Know About The Master Of Magical Realism & Nobel Prize Winner | TIME
• Love Song by Henry Dumas | Poetry Foundation
• What does it mean to be human? | Sonia Sanchez | TEDxPhiladelphia

Who is your favorite writer? Write 3 rules that seem to guide their writing. Write a poem following those rules.

Get your hands in the dirt on this wonderful episode with Aimee Nezhukumatathil. The brilliant poet and Ole Miss professor gives a status update on her garden, her son’s sock budget, writing without a veil, and literary friendships. Plus, a tattoo callback to an earlier episode!

NOTE: Make sure you rate us on Apple Podcasts and write us a review!

On our next dispatch from our visit to Oxford, Missisippi, our fearless hosts get into it with poet Julian Randall. Julian talks about wrestling with forgiveness, searching for records of his family in the nearby town of Water Valley, and how a workshop prompt got him to come out to his parents.

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Franny and Danez kick it with Derrick Harriell, poet and Director of the MFA program at the University of Mississippi, where this episode was recorded. They talk remaking masculinity, flipping timelines through quantum theory, the anxiety of millennial writers, and much more. Plus, some good strip club recommendations from the good folks at VS.

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The VS Podcast squad pops down south to Oxford, MS for a handful of episodes featuring students and professors in the MFA program at the University of Mississippi. First up is hero Joshua Nguyen, who talks about bringing his hometown of Houston to the page, stickiness in his poems, connecting with his dad over poetic form, and the most comprehensive sports analysis this here podcast has ever included. Franny was flummoxed. Enjoy!

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Daniel Borzutzky isn’t afraid of the fire–he’s determined to call it what it is. The poet, professor, and translator talks about the links between Chicago and Chile, the desert as a site of incarceration, how translating shapes his poetry, and facing the violence of our moment head-on.

If you don’t fall head over heels with Tasha by the time you finish this episode, run this pod back and give it another shot because she is to die for. The singer, guitarist, songwriter, poet, and organizer stops by to talk nest-building, badass moms, and more with our fearless, kvelling hosts. Plus TWO in-studio musical performances from Tasha!

Make sure you get cozy with her album Alone At Last!

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Camonghne Felix is our president, a damn good poet, and a wonderful human. She sits down with Franny and Danez to talk about romance, heartbreak, flowers and phalanges, and her BRAND NEW collection Build Yourself a Boat, which is in stores now!

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Pat Frazier is the National Youth Poet Laureate of these here United States, and alone. Franny and Danez talk with Pat about the fertile soil of solitude, falling in love with horror movies, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and more. Plus, a poem about titties!

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Don Share is the editor of Poetry Magazine, a poet and translator, and a gem of a human. He chats with Danez and Franny about the mechanics and ethos of his job, Allen Ginsberg editing his first poem, what to do when reading a poem harms someone, and much more. Plus, he reads a poem by Spanish poet Miguel Hernández that is so damn beautiful!

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We back and we back and we back with Season 3! We start off a whole new season of the same ole shindig with the brilliant poet Paul Tran. They talk about learning history to ask the questions they had about their family, creating new a new poetic form, and the gawd Toni Morrison.

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For this episode, Ajanae and Brittany interview poet Jubi Arriola-Headley; join them as they discuss the role of humor and play in their poetics, the straightforwardness of erotic writing and kink, and navigating their tensions with masculinity.

Here are some pieces of media to accompany your experience of the episode and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again!

• Prince: FLASHBACK: Prince Talks About the Meaning of Life in Rare '97 Interview
• Black gay writers of 70’s/80’s: Our Black Gay Creatives of the 1980s | Medium
• James Baldwin: I Am Not Your Negro | James Baldwin on the Dick Cavett Show | Netflix

Write a hermit crab poem that functions as a schedule. Make everything on this schedule an appointment for a kind of pleasure.

Happy new year y’all! VS returns with a special bonus episode to tide you over until Season 3 drops in February. In the meantime, savor and enjoy this live episode with the squad Fatimah Asghar, José Olivarez, and Paul Tran, recorded as part of the Chicago Podcast Festival. Season 3, on the way!!!

Can we fanperson out for a goshdarn second? We have the one and only Jamila Woods in the building! She talks about her family’s penchant for healing, sampling loopholes, lactose tolerance, bad interviews, and more.

This episode’s guest Kara Jackson is a poet, and she’s got the honorary prefix to prove it. She talks with Danez and Franny about being Chicago’s third Youth Poet Laureate, family nicknames in the South, introversion, and JONI MITCHELL. OH YES, JONI MITCHELL!

Hop in the wayback machine with us for our very first ReVS episode, in which we return to an already-released VS conversation and catch up with the ideas and themes that were discussed. On this ReVS, we jump back to our first episode ever, with the brilliant Eve Ewing–Franny and Danez discuss how we’ve survived and thrived through the last two years of apocalypse, what’s staying in their apocalypse knapsacks, and much more!

Need a transcript of this episode? Request a transcript here.

Jonathan Mendoza is a poet, performer, and organizer who’s just getting his feet under him here in Chicago. He previously did his organizing thang in Boston and San Antonio, and now works as a housing rights organizer with Pilsen Alliance, a nonprofit advocacy organization based in the primarily Mexican and Mexican-American neighborhood. He’s also a real smartie and a real cutie.

Kimiko Hahn joins Danez and Franny as they go down some rabbit holes, and maybe even through a few portals. They talk her tenth book, poetic auntie status, Japanese poetry as inspiration, and closure. Follow VS on twitter: http://twitter.com/vsthepodcast!

VS hits the block with Jacob Saenz, whose APR/Honickman Prize-winning collection Throwing the Crown just dropped on Copper Canyon Press. He chats with Franny and Danez about writing back to his childhood street in Cicero, IL, the fantasy series he wrote as a kid, care as craft, and more. Make sure to cop Throwing the Crown from your local bookseller!

H. Melt comes through the VS studio for a wonderful conversation about their work, how they build trans futures through rereading their past, and the paths they’re taking on their way to liberation. Plus, our first Chaco shoe reference. Which is exciting. Also, write us a review to gas up our egos and help VS reach new ears!

Poet and translator Emily Jungmin Yoon comes through the studio for a deep dive into her work translating contemporary and modern Korean poetry, her new collection A Cruelty Special to Our Species, and a beautiful conversation reimagining femininity in poetry. Plus, a truly diasporic This vs. That! Her new book is available September 18th.

VS hosts Danez and Franny chop it up with poet, editor, professor, and bald-headed cutie Nate Marshall. They discuss the terror of a new book, white supremacist Nate Marshall, masculinity and hero narratives, Voldemort vs. the Joker, and much more. Be sure to subscribe to VS, and leave us a wonderful review on iTunes to help the show grow!

Season 8 kicks off with Brittany and Ajanae talking with Sarah Lubala, Congolese poet, and author of A History of Disappearance. In this interview, the trio discuss navigating political history and conflict, the role of matriarchal figures in her work, hope as an exercise, and writing about love without leaning into sentimentality. 

Edit: In our conversation, Safia Elhillo was said to be Somali; Safia Elhillo is Sudanese- American.

Here are some pieces of media to accompany your experience of the episode and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again!

• Toni Morrison's 'Good' Ghosts : NPR
• The Fight & The Fiddle: Safia Elhillo on Language
• Warsan Shire’s Portraits of Somalis in Exile | The New Yorker

Angel Nafis is paying attention. She talks with Danez and Franny about learning to rescale her sight, getting through grad school with some new skills in her pocket, activated charcoal, and her two Franks (Ocean and O’Hara).

Safia Elhillo is a goshdarn timespace-suspending poet. She’s also this week’s guest. Danez, Franny, and Safia talk unraveling shame, opening the door to a queer Muslim literary community, caesuras and contrapunctals, and much much more!

Danez and Franny dive deep with Divedapper creator, poet, professor, and voracious reader Kaveh Akhbar. The squad talks Twitter, trees, memorizing poems while in love, and the Milwaukee Bucks, plus much more.

Britteney Black Rose Kapri joins Danez and Franny for a hoot of a podcast, in which the squad breaks down Hoe Poetics, the joys and challenges of mentorship, and much, much more. Britteney’s upcoming book Black Queer Hoe, featuring a foreword by Danez, is dropping September 4th, and is available for preorder now.

Jamaal May blasts off into hyperspace on this episode of VS. Danez and Franny run with the poet, MC, professor, and thinker as they talk waves, matter, neurology, future, and even a few poems.

VS gets live at AWP, where Danez and Franny hosted a packed show featuring the magnificent Hanif Abdurraqib and Angel Nafis. Hear some poems, some nipple-related discussion, and some rooftop giggles on this episode, recorded in front of a live audience on March 8th, 2018.

Need a transcript of this episode? Request a transcript here.

We’re back, baby! We kick off season 2 of VS with brilliant poet Tarfia Faizullah for a helluva convo about balancing the beautiful and the grotesque, finding silliness, and much more! Listen and subscribe now for a whole upcoming season of goodness!

Just because the podcast was in between seasons doesn't mean that Franny and Danez stopped being wrecked by the words and ideas around them. Peep some art that's been knocking them out, and subscribe to VS now. Season 2 premiere on the way next Tuesday March 6th

Need a transcript of this episode? Request a transcript here.

With Season 2 of VS on the way, Danez and Franny think back to some of their top Season 1 moments. Subscribe now, and listen to VS Season 2 when it premieres on March 6th!

Need a transcript of this episode? Request a transcript here.

Franny and Danez get ready for Season 2 of VS, the podcast where poets confront the ideas that move them! Get familiar, and subscribe so that you get the Season 2 premiere when it drops on March 6th!

Need a transcript of this episode? Request a transcript here.

A short statement from Brittany and Ajanaé regarding current events.

VS wraps up its wonderful first season with the gawd Krista Franklin. The squad hops through time, collapses the continuum, shares some laughs, and ends the first season in style. Plus a very special treat at the end of the episode…

VS gets communal with Jacinda Bullie and Darius Parker of Kuumba Lynx, a youth-focused radical arts organization based in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. The squad talks transformative spaces, becoming an institution, writing joyful poetry, and much more. Four voices in effect!

Chicago legend avery r. young comes through the VS studio and takes poetry off the page with Franny and Danez. The discussion bounces from writing in an enclave, to pain and survival, to holding his mule. Plus, a very special performance.

Raych Jackson swings through the VS studio to talk her win at NUPIC (The National Poetry Individual Competition), the brilliant kidlets in the third grade class she teaches, and remixing biblical tales in her first book, which is in the works. Plus, a new segment makes its debut, with a poem from a VS alum!

Erka L. Sánchez stops by the show around the release of not one, but two new books–her poetry collection Lessons on Expulsion and her Young Adult novel I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter. She talks finding her rituals, teenage Erika, and more.

Natalie Diaz joins Danez and Franny to talk the talk on love, language, and words creating worlds on episode 5 of VS.

Danez and Franny head to Motown and talk with poet, artist, playwright, and self-described sea witch Casey Rocheteau. Together, they write themselves into myth, learn some hidden history, shuffle some cards, and even talk some poetry.

Fatimah Asghar is a poet and creator of the hit web series Brown Girls, which received a development deal from HBO. She talks about the show's evolution, finding her people, and loving her mediocrity.

Poet, educator, and Young Chicago Authors Marketing Director José Olivarez explores adulting and gives some podcast-veteran advice to Danez and Franny.

Poet, scholar, and community builder Eve Ewing joins cohosts Danez Smith and Franny Choi to talk survival, Samurai Jack, desire-based thinking, and more on the first episode of VS.

In today’s episode, Brittany and Ajanae have the pleasure of interviewing Safiya Sinclair. Join them as they discuss the craft of switching to memoir, maintaining self-confidence while navigating academia, what their teenage selves would think of them, and the influence Jamaica has on Safiya’s writing.

Until Next Time:
Here are some pieces of media to accompany your experience of the episode and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again!
Audre Lorde: AUDRE LORDE | Poetry is Not a Luxury
Frida Kahlo: Frida Kahlo: The woman behind the legend - Iseult Gillespie
Derek Walcott: Derek Walcott discusses his painting and poetry

Writing Prompt: Who are you writing for? Who is coming after you that you hope your work makes a difference for? Write them a letter.

Check out a preview of the new VS podcast.

Need a transcript of this episode? Request a transcript here.

On today’s episode of VS, Brittany and Ajanae interview Courtney Faye Taylor about their award winning collection Concentrate. Listen in as they discuss writing with an ethic of care, studying oneself as a writer, the nuances of Black girlhood, and the construction of Concentrate.

Until Next Time: 
Here are some pieces of media to accompany your experience of the episode and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again!

Toni Cade Bombara: Toni Cade Bambara
Black women’s dialogue: For Our Girls: A Conversation with Black Women | The Conversation Remix
A24 Movies: Moonlight | Official Trailer HD | A24

Writing Prompt: What research is vital to the art you are making? Add journal entries to research documents you are collecting.

Today Brittany and Ajanae interview Willie Lee Kinard III, author of Orders of Service. During this episode, they discuss Willie’s history with music, doublespeak as maximalism, queerness as a foundation for craft choices, and developing a love for the land. 

Until Next Time:
Here are some pieces of media to accompany your experience of the episode and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again!

Lynn Harris: E. Lynn Harris's Biography
Mariah Carey: It’s Mariah Carey Season, Darling
Kirk Franklin: How Kirk Franklin Revolutionized Gospel And Made Hip-Hop A More Spiritual Place | The FADER
Andre 3000: Andre 3000 Says He NEEDS To Create In Rare Interview

Writing Prompt: Make a playlist of music that scores your poems. Listen to it while revising a poem.