Season Two opens not with answers but with an invocation—an exploration of poetry as an act of liberation and remembrance.

What happens when language becomes both mirror and machete? When the poem insists that freedom is more than the absence of chains?

Honoring the legacy of the late Haitian poet Danielle Legros Georges and her haunting poem Makak, this episode journeys into the heart of what it means to reclaim space, preserve memory, and insist on being seen.

Joined by the luminous Dr. Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie, we move through the intersections of history, memory, and creative resistance, tracing how poetry becomes both refuge and reckoning—a place where freedom is not a destination, but an ongoing demand.

Together, we ask how art helps us wrestle with what lingers after liberation. What does it mean to be free when the ghosts of empire, displacement, and erasure still haunt the margins of our stories? And what might it look like to imagine a freedom spacious enough to hold joy, tenderness, and transformation?

This conversation is as much an offering as it is an inquiry—a call to those living poetically, consciously, courageously. It reminds us that poetry is not only written on the page, but lived in the choices we make, the silences we break, and the worlds we dare to rebuild.

🎧 Featuring music by [insert composer/producer if applicable]

✨ Follow the journey at enzothepoet.substack.com and listen to more episodes of It’s a Poetic Life

Season One closes with a craft meditation on authorship, cadence, and the art of the intentional dive. From Elton John’s impossible-to-mimic phrasing to August Wilson’s dialogues with characters, Enzo maps the “fumble & tumble” of process—writing with the work (not at it), and composing a life that is unmistakably yours.

Along the way: the tree that keeps returning across his books and what it teaches about witness, endurance, and breath. This finale lingers on the deeper work of process—trusting the dive, embracing discovery, and allowing creation to change us.

Stay for a heartfelt wrap-up and a glimpse at what’s ahead: a guest-rich Season Two, opening with poet & artist Dr. Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie, and continuing the practice of holding clarity, courage, and presence. Two.

🎙 Season 1- Episode 9: Art Official — Writing Authentic Stories in a Market-Driven World

Guest: Daphne Santana Strassmann

What if the bravest thing you could do as a writer wasn’t just to write—but to write like no one’s watching?

In this intimate and layered conversation, Enzo sits down with memoirist and educator Daphne Santana Strassmann for what feels like a master class on writing from the inside out.

Together, they explore the quiet—but powerful—ways we’re taught to question the validity of our own stories. Not just by the outside world, but by the expectations we internalize. Whether it’s the pressure to fit into a narrative that makes sense to others, or the fear that our truth is too complicated, too specific, too much—this episode is a reminder that honoring your voice is a radical act.

💬 Inside this episode:

– How to trust the shape of your story before it’s “market-ready”

– Memoir as a way of returning to yourself

– The danger of leaving stories untold

– And how writing with honesty—on your own terms—is its own form of liberation

Daphne’s wisdom, warmth, and lived experience offer an invitation to all of us: to claim our stories not because they’re easy to tell—but because they’re ours to tell

What if poetry isn’t just about art—but about survival, clarity, and connection?

In this solo National Poetry Month reflection, Enzo the Poet invites listeners into the quiet laboratory of the poetic life. Drawing parallels between poets and scientists, he explores how language—like any evolving experiment—holds both implication and application. From the politics of translation to the sacred work of interpretation, this episode dives into what it really means to write, to witness, and to wonder aloud in a world that often demands silence.

Whether you’re a writer, a thinker, or simply someone trying to make sense of the noise, The Language of Infinity offers an intimate meditation on how poetry helps us live, remember, and begin again. With stories that span from cultural silencing to contemporary book bans, Enzo reflects on the emotional labor of language, the risks of being misunderstood, and the courage it takes to tell the truth anyway.

This isn’t just an episode about poems—it’s about why words still matter.

Subscribe to It’s a Poetic Life and join a growing community of listeners engaging with art, voice, and meaning—one reflection at a time.

In the final segment of this three-part episode, It’s a Poetic Life turns to the transformative power of art and curation in bridging cultural, geographic, and ideological divides. Curator Amy Rosenblum-Martín joins host Enzo Silon Surin for a compelling conversation on how exhibitions become spaces of resistance, reclamation, and relationship-building. From her work on Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration to Swagger and Tenderness, Amy reflects on the curatorial responsibility to amplify underrepresented voices while navigating institutional tensions and public resistance.

Together, they explore how art unsettles comfort, disrupts dominant narratives, and serves as a poetic force for connection in fragmented times. This segment asks: How do museums and curators hold space for authenticity amid systemic resistance to equity? What happens when storytelling becomes a collective bridge rather than an individual expression?

Listen in for a resonant close to a conversation rooted in the everyday work of creating true community.

In one of the most intimate and resonant conversations of It’s a Poetic Life, Addie Tsai and I explore the complexities of identity, belonging, and the myth of inclusion. Moving beyond the structural challenges of diversity and representation, this episode delves into the deeply personal—how we navigate the ever-shifting landscape of selfhood in a world that often demands we define ourselves in rigid terms.

Addie, a writer, poet, professor, and creative force, shares how their experiences as a mirror twin, biracial individual, and nonbinary person have shaped their perspective on fluidity—not just in identity, but in creativity, community, and survival. We discuss the tension between assimilation and authenticity, the pressure to conform even within marginalized spaces, and the ways in which true belonging often resists easy categorization.

From Audre Lorde’s challenge to define ourselves before the world does it for us to James Baldwin’s insistence that true community must allow for critique, this episode asks: What does it mean to live at the intersections of multiple identities? How do we navigate spaces where we are simultaneously insiders and outsiders? And ultimately, how do we create spaces where multiplicity is not just tolerated, but celebrated?

Join us for this thought-provoking and life affirming discussion.

Across histories and cultures, people have grappled with the meaning of belonging. Who gets to be part of a community? Who decides? And how do we navigate the spaces we call home when definitions of inclusion shift?

This episode was conceived last summer, but its relevance couldn’t be more timely. In this first installment of a three-part conversation, I sit down with Danielle Marshall, founder and principal consultant at Culture Principles, to explore the evolving nature of community, identity, and access.

We examine how labels shape perception, why flattening identities can erase individual experience, and how storytelling fosters real connection. We also address why diversity as a word often provokes fear, why equity is frequently misunderstood, and how these misconceptions can lead people to self-exclude from conversations that directly impact them. Whether in workplaces, neighborhoods, or cultural spaces, we often navigate unspoken boundaries that define who is welcomed and who remains on the margins.

As we dive into this three-part discussion, we explore the stories and structures that determine who is embraced and who is pushed to the edges. What defines true belonging, and who gets to set the terms? Tune in to this first segment as we begin unraveling these essential questions.

How do we carry grief through the places that shape us, and how do we find a way forward when it feels like everything has changed? In this heartfelt episode of It’s a Poetic Life, I reflect on the quiet weight of loss through the works of Elizabeth Bishop’s One Art and Marie Howe’s What the Living Do, exploring how their poetry offers ways to hold onto what matters and create meaning in uncertain times.

Joining me is the brilliant January Gill O’Neil, whose latest collection, Glitter Road, takes us on a journey through loss, love, and resilience. Together, we delve into how poetry helps us process both the small, everyday losses and the monumental moments that reshape who we are. January shares her stunning poem Begin Again, offering a powerful meditation on how grief transforms us and opens the door to rediscovery and connection.

This episode is about more than grief—it’s about the stories that tether us to life and how poetry becomes a bridge to something new, even in the hardest of times.