In Volume Six: Chapter Eleven of The Program, we welcome a Hamilton, Ontario–based educator, writer, poet, essayist, composer, and musician Gary Barwin. With a BFA and BA from York University and a PhD in Music Composition from SUNY Buffalo, Barwin has built a career that refuses to stay in one lane. He’s the author of more than thirty books and chapbooks—including Yiddish for Pirates, winner of the 2017 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour and the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Fiction, and shortlisted for both the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Award. His newest collaboration, Muttertongue—co-authored with Toronto Poet Laureate Lillian Allen and friend of the podcast Gregory Betts—is a bold fusion of both poetry and sound.

In our conversation, Gary and I trace the through-lines of a life shaped by movement, music, and story. We talk about his family’s journey—from Lithuania to South Africa, through Northern Ireland, and finally to Canada—and how those histories reflects through his creative work. We discuss his grandfather’s influence, the man who first took him seriously as a writer, and the way family narratives—of exile, resilience, and humor—continue to surface in his art.

We also explore Hamilton’s quiet but powerful role in his creative life, how writing and music speak the same emotional language, and why he believes creativity isn’t something that fades—it deepens. Gary discusses the leap from poetry to prose when writing Yiddish for Pirates, what that process taught him about discipline and discovery, and what it felt like to have that debut novel embraced so widely after decades of writing poetry and composing music.

Finally, we dig into Muttertongue—how the collaboration with Allen and Betts came together, what it means to work at the intersection of sound, text, and visual poetry, and how they hope audiences experience the project as both a book and an album.

Contact Gary
Website: garybarwin.com Instagram: @garybarwin

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

King Yaw – Poetry Service
Instagram: @kingyaw_

Terisa Siagatonu – Note To Self
Instagram: @terisasiagatonu Website: terisasiagatonu.com

Gabrielle Smith – Black Bird
Instagram: @bygabriellesmith

Nelle Divine – Dont Fall In Love With A Healer
Instagram: @iamnelledivine

AkeemJamaal Rollins – Suicide Note
Instagram: @keemyjam

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In Volume Six, Chapter Ten we welcomed Hoboken, New Jersey–based educator, poet, writer, and author Isabella DeSendi.

A 2024 Pushcart Prize nominee, 2024 Ruth Lilly Fellowship finalist, 2024 Best New Poets selection, and 2025 New Jersey Fellowship finalist, Isabella earned her MFA from Columbia University. Her 2020 chapbook Through the New Body won the Poetry Society of America’s Chapbook Fellowship, and her debut full-length collection Someone Else’s Hunger was released September 15th via Four Way Books.

In our conversation, Isabella talks about what it’s been like to live inside the excitement and vulnerability of releasing her first book while touring, and how she navigates the tension between Isabella the writer and Bella the person. We discuss how her understanding of voice, fear, and visibility evolved between Through the New Body and Someone Else’s Hunger, and how she has learned to “call a monster by his name” through the act of writing.

Isabella shares how her family’s stories — her mother’s, her abuela’s — shaped her voice and sense of resilience, and how iconic figures like Eve, Mary, and Medusa stand beside those familial presences in her poems. We talk about the slow, deliberate process that shapes her work, how hunger became both the literal and spiritual thread uniting her collection, and what it means to transform pain into power — to turn the very wound that could have destroyed you into a source of strength.

We also discuss anger’s rightful place in poetry and the complicated beauty of reclamation.

Contact Isabella:
Website: isabelladesendi.com Instagram: @isabellamdesendi

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Ifrah Hussein – Tell Us
Instagram: @ifrahhussein

Lyrical Faith – Black Boy Joy
Instagram: @lyricalfaithpoetry

Masterpiece Poet – Slingshot
Instagram: @masterpiecepoetry Website: masterpiecepoetry.com

Rick Dove – A Poetic Conceit
Instagram: @rickdove Website: rickdove.co.uk

Lionheart– Pretty Hurts
Instagram: @lionheartfelt Website: lionheartonline.com

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In Volume Six: Chapter Nine, we welcome Dr. Irène Mathieu — a Washington, D.C.–born, Virginia-based pediatrician, educator, researcher, and award-winning poet. She earned her BA in International Relations from the College of William & Mary, her MD from Vanderbilt University, and a Master’s in Public Health from Johns Hopkins. Today she serves as Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Virginia, where she also helps lead programs in Health Humanities, and sits on the board of Virginia Clinicians for Climate Action.

Dr. Mathieu is the author of four books of poetry — The Galaxy of Origins, Orogeny (winner of the Bob Kaufman Book Prize), Grand Marronage (Editor’s Choice for the Gatewood Prize and runner-up for the Cave Canem/Northwestern Book Prize), and her most recent, Milk Tongue (2023). Her work has earned Pushcart Prize nominations, national contest honors, and features in outlets including The Washington Post, NPR, The Los Angeles Times, and more.

Contact Irène:
Website: irenemathieu.com

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Alyesha Wise – Trauma
Instagram: @alyeshawise Website: alyeshawise.com

Joseph Capehart – Bad Habits
Instagram: @oksolaris

Javon Johnson – Black and Happy
Instagram: @javonism

Denice Frohman – Accents
Instagram: @denicefrohman Website: denicefrohman.com

Jay Ward – Gentrification
Instagram: @jward2030 Website: jwardpoetry.com

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In Volume Six: Chapter Eight of The Program, we sit down with Shreveport-born Writer, Poet, Essayist, and Author Destiny Birdsong,

In our conversation, we trace Destiny’s creative journey from her childhood love of storytelling to the spark that ignited her lifelong devotion to poetry. We talk about how her early awareness of difference shaped her imagination, and how writing became a way to transform both beauty and pain into art.

Destiny reflects on her university years, when writing full-time felt impractical, and how she eventually committed fully to the literary path. We explore the influence of Cave Canem, a transformative community for Black poets, and the pivotal advice from writer Chris Abani that pushed her toward a deeper honesty in her work—an honesty that shaped her acclaimed poetry collection Negotiations. She opens up about the vulnerability of writing for others versus writing for herself, and the revelations that came with seeing her first book in print a decade after completing her MFA.

We also dig into her award-winning debut novel Nobody’s Magic, a powerful triptych that follows the lives of three Black women with albinism in Shreveport, Louisiana. Destiny shares insights into character building, the emotional complexities of writing characters she loved—and even some she initially hated—and why she chose to tell three distinct but interconnected stories.

This is a thoughtful, vulnerable, and inspiring conversation with a Creative which I really enjoyed.

Contact Destiny:
Instagram: @bird_songoftheyear
Website: destinybirdsong.com

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Ephraim Nehemiah – Inheritance of a Broken Home
Instagram: @ephraimnehemiah Website: ephraimnehemiah.com

Porsha O. – Trigger
Instagram: @porshaolayiwola Website: porshaolayiwola.com

William Evans – For My Wife Who Fell In Love With a Ship Buried at Sea
Instagram: @williamevanswrites Website: williamthe3rd.com

Destiny Birdsong – Killing White (working title)
Destiny Birdsong – Mythicana

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In Volume Six: Chapter Seven, we are joined by Vancouver-born poet, writer, educator, and editor Gregory Betts. A professor of English at Brock University and Literary Arts Residency Lead at the SETI Institute, Greg has authored or edited more than 25 books, including his most recent collaboration Muttertongue: What is Word In Utter Space, co-written with Lillian Allen and Gary Barwin.

In our conversation, we trace Greg’s creative journey—from his earliest poems being published without his knowledge, to discovering the power of poetry in community through a George Bowering book and an Al Purdy reading that changed how he saw writing. We talk about his commitment to literary communities, his take on experimental versus avant-garde writing, and why he believes the difference between the two matters.

Contact Gregory::
Website: gregorybetts.wordpress.com
Purchase Muttertongue: here

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Ebony Stewart – Mental Health Barz
Instagram: @gulleyprincess Website: ebpoetry.com

Jus Marvin – My Depression
Instagram: @jusmarvinpoetry

Natasha Miller – The Difference Between a Girlfriend and a Woman
Instagram: @natashatmiller

Elizabeth Acevedo – Afro Latina
Instagram: @acevedowrites Website: acevedowrites.com

Asia Samson – As I Am
Instagram: @theasiaproject Website: theasiaproject.com

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In Volume Six: Chapter Six of The Program, we welcome back Chicago-based writer, poet, and blogger Drew Carroll. It’s been over five years since our last conversation, and a lot has changed. Drew has traded powerlifting for building worlds—through poetry, short fiction, and most recently his new digital platform, The Blog of Drew, launched in June.

In our conversation, we discuss his journey from writing poetry during some of the hardest times in his life, to creating his own short fiction universe, to stepping away from social media and eventually returning with new projects. Drew shares his thoughts on the idea of therapy, seeking therapy, vulnerability, and masculinity—especially for Black men—and how those ideas have shaped his creativity.

We also dive into his passions outside of writing, including professional wrestling and the state of the industry today.

Contact Drew:
Instagram: @drewbcarroll
Website: theblogofdrew.com

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Ajanae Dawkins –When Viola Davis Won
Instagram: @moonsatdusk
Website: ajanaedawkins.com

Darius Simpson – Genocide
Instagram: @_dariussimpson
Website: dariussimpson.com

Alysia Harris – In Situations Like This
Instagram: @poppyinthewheat
Website: alysiaharris.com

Taalam Acey – Affirmation For Black Men
Instagram: @taalamacey
Website: taalamacey.com

Prentice Powell – True Love
Instagram: @prenticepowell1908

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No guest this week — instead, it's our Chapter Break episode. For this one, We’ve pulled together six of our favorite live readings and spoken word performances from past guests on the program. Think of it as a chance to pause, revisit, and really sit with the words that have stayed with us — and hopefully with you too. We’ll be back next week with a brand-new conversation.

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Sabrina Ali - I Want You Back (Appearance: Volume Three - Chapter Seventeen)
Instagram: @sabrina_ali
Live Performance: I Want You Back

Nicoli The Poet - Who Hurt You (Appearance: Volume One - Chapter Two)
Instagram: @nicoli_the_poet
TikTok: @nicoli_the_poet

Kennie Sings - I'm Just Sayin' (Appearance: Volume Four - Chapter Two)
Instagram: @kennie_sings

Michael Phillips - Freedom (Appearance: Volume One - Chapter Nine)
Instagram: @dbl.img
Website: apoetsplace.net

Dr. Tara Betts - Stay Lit (Appearance: Volume Four - Chapter Thirteen)
Instagram: @tarabettschitown
Purchase her book: Refuse To Disappear

Bashar Abou Hawili - Good For Me (Appearance: Volume Three - Chapter Nine)
Purchase his book - Words That Might Mean Something Someday to Someone

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In Volume Six: Chapter Five of The Program, we welcomed Story Teller Gordon —a New York-based Community Activist, Poet, Spoken Word Artist, Author of the poetry collection "Don't Speak For Me", and founder of FORM NYC, a nonprofit that blends poetry, public health, and community healing. With a Master of Public Health degree in Health Policy and Management, Gordon is a multidisciplinary creative who uses his art and voice to create spaces for connection, conversation, and care.

In our conversation, we discuss his poetry origins in 2020 during the height of the virtual open mic era, how he discovered poetry as a form of emotional clarity, and why relatability—not just catharsis—is central to his work. Gordon opens up about his unique writing process, the discipline it takes to create with intention rather than emotion, and how performance, for him, is more about conversation than theatrics.

We also explore FORM NYC, the community-centered nonprofit he founded in 2018. From campaigns like "Stop Street Harassment" to "My Brother is Calling" and "Safe Space", Gordon shares the motivations behind creating programs that support the mental, emotional, and spiritual health of young men—especially in a time where masculinity is being redefined and often misrepresented.

Contact Story Teller Gordon:
Instagram: @storytellergordon
Website: storytellergordon.com

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Khalil Saaqiq – Who Am I
Instagram: @khalil_saaqiq

Kelsey Bigelow – A Grandfather's Hands
Instagram: @kelkaybpoetry Website: kelkaybpoetry.com

Shanelle Gabriel – Daddy's Girl
Instagram: @shanellegarbriel Website: shanellegabriel.com

Story Teller Gordon – New Year's Resolution
Story Teller Gordon – Closure

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