Tony Robles interviews Karen Luke Jackson and Elsa Valmidiano. A spoken word set including Pedro Pietri, Tracie Morris, Latasha Natasha Diggs and poets from the Hendersonville open mic in NC. More from Martha’s Kitchen Garden at the end…
Memoir in Poetry, Memoir in Essays
KAREN LUKE JACKSON
A moving tribute to a sister’s life and legacy, Karen Luke Jackson’s Grit allows a community to love and grieve a woman whose laughter and silliness charmed children and unprepared adults, from school cafeterias to state conventions to the White House lawn. In the voices of friends, family, and Janis/Clancy herself, these impressive poems share the passion and challenges of a performer who confesses “I needed a clown’s heart / to hold this worlds’ despair and ecstasy.”–Dr. Kenneth Chamlee, Professor Emeritus, Brevard College, author of Absolute Faith and Logic of the Lost
ELSA VALMIDIANO
In this stunning tour de force, Elsa Valmidiano takes us on a magical, travel-filled journey and mining of the self, spanning decades, continents, and generations. It is an excavation filled with reconciliation, grief, epiphanies, and longing, touching on Filipino culture and displacement, reproduction, colonialism, and generational trauma, along with the joys of family. Her book bears witness to the personal and political implications of digging deep. Valmidiano implores us to “stop to listen to inhale it in.” Her prose and poetry shimmer with intensity and brilliance, like a mythical lullaby, urging us to lean in.—Juanita E. Mantz, author of Tales of an Inland Empire Girl and Portrait of a Deputy Public Defender, or how I became a punk rock lawyer
Theme Music, Living It!, Original soundtracks, Jay Rodriguez Sierra
Music and Spoken Word Credits: Martha Cinader – Living It
Pedro Pietri – Loose Joints, Tracie Morris, Elliot Sharp – Duality, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Latasha Natasha Diggs – Moving On, David Cameron, Tabitha
