s3e15 A Gloomy Girl Memoir, Spoken Word and New Music
Freda Epum, Jocelyn Grover, Jennifer Owen, Albert DiLorenzo, Mary Tallmountain
s3e15
May 22, 2025
Our featured guest is Freda Epum, author of the memoir The Gloomy Girl Variety Show. We feature spoken word from Albert DiLorenzo, Judy Talaugon reading Mary TallMountain, and note poems by Martha Cinader recorded live at the Flood Gallery Monday night open mic in Asheville, NC. We also feature Jocelyn Grover for Transformative Power of Writing, and Jennifer Owen, children’s author published by Redhawk Publications, and a new arrangement of Let’s Just Kiss and Say Goodbye by The Manhattans, with Jay Rodriguez Sierra on baritone saxophone.
“I was writing this book for a 10 -year period. It was largely a healing journey that I was really trying to focus on. And so I wanted it to have an easy way for other people to identify themselves with it. So now my press has printed some gloomy girl buttons so people can walk around branded as a gloomy girl, which I think is the really wonderful way to bring this community together of people that are just trying to process their own selves and their own way they’re fitting into the world through art.”
Freda Epum author of The Gloomy Girl Variety Show
CREDITS– HOSTS: Martha Cinader, Elizabeth Perlman. FEATURED SPOKEN WORD: Albert. DiLorenzo, Judy Talaugon, Martha Cinader, Freda Epum, Jocelyn Grover, Jennifer Owen, Barbara Tran. GUESTS: Freda Epum, Jocelyn Grover, Jennifer Owen. MUSIC: “Let’s Just Kiss and Say Goodbye” by the Manhattan’s arranged by and featuring Jay Rodriguez Sierra – baritone saxophone, and organ, DJ Logic – turntables, Spaceman Billy Paterson – guitar, Jonathan Moran – bass, Swiss Chris – drums. ORIGNAL SOUNDTRACK, MIXING, MASTERING, SOUND DESIGN: Jay Rodriguez Sierra. BANNED BOOK THEME VOICE & WORDS: Yvette Murray.
FEATURED GUESTS
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Freda Epum- The Gloomy Girl Variety Show
Read more: Freda Epum- The Gloomy Girl Variety ShowFreda Ndidi Epum (Free-duh Nn-dee-dee Ay-poom) is a Nigerian-American writer, artist, and consultant from Tucson, AZ. Her work has been published in The Rumpus, Electric Literature, Vol 1. Brooklyn, Entropy, Bending Genres, Cosmonauts Avenue, Heavy Feather Review, Nat.Brut, Third Coast, Atticus Review, Rogue Agent, and the 2020 Bending Genres Anthology. She received her MFA from Miami University…
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Elizabeth Perlman – Writing Teacher
Read more: Elizabeth Perlman – Writing TeacherElizabeth has a BA in Media Arts and a Masters in Transformative Arts, the study of creative expression for healing, connection, and growth. She is also a certified Group Leader in The Amherst Writing Method. Before launching TIWP in 2013, Elizabeth worked for over a decade as a graphic designer and art director in the advertising…
FEATURED SPOKEN WORD
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Barbara Tran – Author, Editor
Read more: Barbara Tran – Author, EditorBarbara Tran is an immigrant. And a settler. She writes in multiple genres. Her debut poetry book, Precedented Parroting, is a Finalist for the 2024 Governor General’s Literary Award. She is currently at work in collaboration with Jacqueline Hoàng Nguyễn on the screenplay for Nguyễn’s debut feature film.
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Judy Talaugon -Land Protector, Storyteller
Read more: Judy Talaugon -Land Protector, StorytellerJudy Talaugon is a Chumash and Filipina Land Protector from the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. She is the daughter of farmworkers and immigrant leaders. Growing up among Mexican and Filipina communities in California, she has been a long-time activist in numerous struggles, ranging from human rights to housing, land rights, and the fight…
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Martha Cinader, Author, Performance Artist
Read more: Martha Cinader, Author, Performance ArtistMartha Cinader is a poet and author living in Harlem, NY. Her young adult novel, Marq and the Queen Fish, is forthcoming in 2026 from Atmosphere Press. Cinader is the founder and Director of the Listen & Be Heard Network, where she hosts and produces The Listen & Be Heard Hour, and Beyond Borders, both non-commercial podcasts and syndicated radio shows…
FEATURED BOOKS
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Freda Epum – The Gloomy Girl Variety Show
Read more: Freda Epum – The Gloomy Girl Variety ShowIn The Gloomy Girl Variety Show, Freda Epum explores the opposing forces of her “no-place, no-where” identity as a Nigerian American daughter, diasporically displaced, who spent years in and out of institutions seeking treatment for life-threatening mental illness, revealing what it takes to find refuge in love, and reimagine home.
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Mary TallMountain – Listen to the night
Read more: Mary TallMountain – Listen to the nightListen to the night poems for the animal spirits of mother earth Publisher Freedom Voices Publications
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Mary TallMountain – The Light on The Tent Wall: A Bridging
Read more: Mary TallMountain – The Light on The Tent Wall: A BridgingPoetry. American Indian Studies. Illustrated by Claire Fejes. THE LIGHT ON THE TENT WALL: A BRIDGING is a collection of poetry from the late American Indian poet Mary TallMountain
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Jennifer Owen – Prince Kindness
Read more: Jennifer Owen – Prince KindnessTravel with Prince Charming as he wakes to the fact that charm isn’t the most important asset a person can have.
VIDEOS
SUBMISSIONS
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BANNED BOOKS
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in schools and libraries in the USA.
PEN America reported ‘While the movement to ban books is driven by a vocal minority demanding censorship, a 2022 poll conducted by The American Library Association found that over 70% of parents oppose book banning leaving many public school districts in a bind. We invite you to share your voice on the banning of books in schools and libraries in the USA.
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