s4e19 MAS Inspires – From Stutter to Stage, A Spoken Word Journey in Abuja, Nigeria & A Tribute to Sonny Rollins
Muhammed Al-amin Sanusi, Tony Robles, Martha Cinader, Hernan Ramiro, Karla Brundage, Faloguni Shah, Teru Nakamura, Alex Blake, Victor Jones
s4e19
June 11, 2026
Mas Inspires, a a 17-year-old spoken word artist from Abuja, Nigeria, shares his journey from overcoming a stammer to finding purpose through poetry. He highlights the resilience and creativity of young people in Nigeria, who are building opportunities despite challenges. His performances, which often address themes of justice and sustainable development, have led to opportunities such as performing for Nigeria’s former vice president and receiving scholarships for his education. He founded the NextGen Creative Network, a youth-led organization that aims to empower young African creatives and leaders.
Poetry You Won’t Hear Anywhere Else: from Martha Cinader, Tony Robles, Karla Brundage
Music You Won’t Hear Anywhere Else: A Love’s Reflection by Hernan Ramiro, tenor saxophone, flutes, Faloguni Shah, vocals, Teru Nakamura, bass drum. Jay Rodriguez Trio live dedication to Sonny Rollins: That’s All, I Can Only Give You Country Walks in Springtime. Jay Rodriguez, saxophone, Alex Blake, bass and Victor Jones, drums.
FEATURED GUEST
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Muhammed Al-amin Sanusi – AKA MAS Inspires, Spoken Word
Read more: Muhammed Al-amin Sanusi – AKA MAS Inspires, Spoken WordMuhammed Al-amin Sanusi, widely known as MasInspires, is a Nigerian spoken word artist, advocate, and performer. Often referred to as a “poetvocate”, he uses his poetry and platform to campaign for climate change, social justice, and child rights. MasInspires has performed on prominent global and national stages, including pieces for the United Nations, African Union, ECOWAS, and the 68th UN Tourism Regional Commission.
FEATURED BOOKS and RECORDINGS
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Celebrate We Gullah Geechee – by Yvette R. Murray, illustrated by Tonya Engel
Read more: Celebrate We Gullah Geechee – by Yvette R. Murray, illustrated by Tonya EngelWith rhythm and repetition to engage children, five narrators take turns highlighting what they notice in their world, each focusing on one of the five senses. We are there with them:A girl sees a “haint blue door at Grandma’s house / Rocking chairs waiting on the porch.” On special days, we hear the marching band play—ba-da-dum-bum.
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Soup For The Storm – Tony Robles
Read more: Soup For The Storm – Tony Robles“This collection is based on my experiences and observations as someone who witnessed Hurricane Helene and its impact on the community—particularly my mobile home community in Hendersonville,”
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Writers Across Oceans – Writing Workshop
Read more: Writers Across Oceans – Writing WorkshopWriters Across Oceans invites writers to our first ever writers’ retreat “Writers Across Oceans: A Healing Session” in Waimea, Hawai’i. This event offers an opportunity for creation, fellowship, reflection, relaxation, and daydreaming amidst beautiful surroundings.
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Blood Lies Race Traitor By Karla Brundage
Read more: Blood Lies Race Traitor By Karla BrundageKarla Brundage’s Blood Lies: Race Trait(or) is about race. It is about the history of race, about imposed racial definitions like mulatto and quadroon.
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Word Magic – Elizabeth Perlman
Read more: Word Magic – Elizabeth PerlmanWord Magic: The Power of Writing to Reframe Your Story & Reclaim Your Intuition by Elizabeth Perlman is a self-help book that uses writing as a tool for self-discovery, healing, and empowerment, drawing from her “Intuitive Writing Project” for women and girls. It offers practical guidance and over 150 writing prompts to help readers trust themselves, reframe negative narratives, and find their inner wisdom through the act of writing. The book synthesizes Perlman’s experience leading writing classes, presenting writing as an effective way to build self-love and confidence.
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Sista Zock – Zock Solid: Where the Stem Meets the Root
Read more: Sista Zock – Zock Solid: Where the Stem Meets the RootExisting in the liminal space of sound of spoken word and music, Sista Zock introduces a unique Afro Jazz Fusion Sound with a touch of Hip-hop. Her latest project, Zock Solid, Where the Stem Meets the Root, features a collaboration with Abiodun of The Last Poets, adding depth and resonance to her musical journey.
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Dao Strom – Tender Revolutions, Yellow Songs
Read more: Dao Strom – Tender Revolutions, Yellow SongsFifty years after the fall of Saigon, Dao Strom’s Tender Revolutions / Yellow Songs vibrates with the ramifications and ripples of Empire. A hybrid project comprised of writings, music, and visual ephemera, each of the four Yellow Songs books and the Tender Revolutions album reckon with the intimate consequences of the colonial project, reconfiguring them into complex and lucid, literal and figurative songs of selfhood. Embodied, critical, wholehearted, collective, personal, genre-defying—Tender Revolutions / Yellow Songs renders the brute force of history with tender precision.
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Po’azz Yo’azz – Living It!
Read more: Po’azz Yo’azz – Living It!Living It! is Martha Cinader’s debut as the producer of her own album, and features an eclectic array of arrangements and musical styles. It was recorded in part in a studio in New York City, part in a studio in Hamburg, and part live at the Mojo Club in Hamburg, throw in some bonus tracks recorded live at WBAI Radio in New York, and a superb mastering session with Ralph “Pinguin” Kessler in Hamburg, and you get fourteen tracks! Cinader brings together the collective talents of Sabine Worthmann, who uses here sfx pedals generously with her accoustic bass and an…
ALSO FEATURED
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Karla Brundage – Author, Poet
Read more: Karla Brundage – Author, PoetKarla Brundage is founder West Oakland to West Africa Poetry Exchange and author of three books of poetry, including award winning, Blood Lies: Race Trait(or), Swallowing Watermelons, and co-author of Mulatta–Not so Tragic. Her work as editor and publisher for Pacific Raven Press has and Tar Baby Quarterly included authors in the Bay Area, Hawaii, Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya.
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Zakiyyah Modeste
Read more: Zakiyyah ModesteZakiyyah’s creative journey began as a child when, at the age of three, she won her school’s Valentine’s Day Poetry Contest. Early exposure to the arts through Mount Vernon’s Creative Arts Program allowed her to act in plays alongside talented peers, including saxophonist Michael Philips. Outside the program, she trained under Tina Satin—who also taught Sidney Poitier and Denzel Washington
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Simone “Azúcar” Nikkole
Read more: Simone “Azúcar” NikkoleSimone “Azúcar” Nikkole is a songwriter, screenwriter, author, Spoken Word poet, and Sí.Nik Productions and L.A. Sugar Factory founder. Her work is featured in Silver Tongue Devil Anthology (Amazon), Poets Without Limits IncarNATION Anthology, Mo’ Joe Anthology along with The Voices Project, Learn to Love and Enhance Online Magazines.
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Dao Strom – poet, musician, writer, interdisciplinary artist
Read more: Dao Strom – poet, musician, writer, interdisciplinary artistDao Strom is a poet, musician, writer, and interdisciplinary artist who works with three “voices”—written, sung, visual—to explore hybridity and the intersection of personal and collective histories. She is the author/composer of several hybrid-literary works, including including the poetry-art collection, INSTRUMENT, and its musical companion of song-poems, TRAVELER’S ODE, and the forthcoming TENDER REVOLUTIONS/YELLOW SONGS (2025).
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Yvette Murray, Poet
Read more: Yvette Murray, PoetYvette R. Murray is an award-winning poet and writer. She has been published in Chestnut Review, Emrys Journal, Litmosphere, A Gathering Together, and others. She is the 2022 Susan Laughter Meyers Poetry Fellow, a 2021 Best New Poet selection, a Watering Hole Fellow, and a Pushcart Prize nominee. She is a board member of the South Carolina Writer’s Association and the Poetry Society of South Carolina, and a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators. Find her on Twitter @MissYvettewrites.
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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 industry.
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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 on the Pacifica Affiliate Network.
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Tony Robles – Poet, Author
Read more: Tony Robles – Poet, AuthorTony Robles, “The People’s Poet” was born in San Francisco and is the nephew of Filipino-American poet, historian and social justice activist Al Robles. He was a shortlist nominee for poet laureate of San Francisco in 2017 and the recipient of the San Francisco Art Commission individual literary artist grant in 2018. His two books of poetry and short stories, Cool Don’t Live Here No More – A letter to San Francisco and Fingerprints of a Hunger Strike (both published by Ithuriel’s Spear Press) take on the issues of eviction, gentrification and police violence in communities of color. He is…
CREDITS– CO-HOSTS & PRODUCERS: Martha Cinader, Hernán Ramiro Rodriguez Sierra, Tony Robles. FEATURED GUESTS: Muhammed Al-amin Sanusi POETRY: Karla Brundage, Martha Cinader, Tony Robles MUSIC: A Love’s Reflection by Hernan Ramiro, tenor saxophone, flutes, Faloguni Shah, vocals, Teru Nakamura, bass drum. Jay Rodriguez Trio live dedication to Sonny Rollins: That’s All, I Can Only Give You Country Walks in Springtime. Jay Rodriguez, saxophone, Alex Blake, bass and Victor Jones, drums. SOUNDTRACK, MIXING, MASTERING, SOUND DESIGN: Hernán Ramiro Rodriguez Sierra. Executive Producer, Martha Cinader.
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