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  • Waialua Volunteers Step Up

    Waialua got hit pretty hard. My father’s place is on high ground, but Waialua is in a valley, and all of that water came down. I could see the water lines on the houses and they were pretty high. The flooding was pretty deep.

  • Anne Myles – Late Epistle

    Unedited video of Tony Robles interviews poet, Anne Myles, in Greensboro, North Carolina. Her debut full-length collection Late Epistle by Headmistress Press was the winner of Sappho’s Prize in Poetry 2022, and her chapbook What Woman That Was: Poems for Mary Dyer was published in 2022 by Final Thursday Press.

  • Bitter Melon Sounds

    My father had an expression. It went: You don’t know your ass from a hole in the ground. This expression did not originate with him. It had been well worn, handed down from generation to generation. It was a handy expression that he carried in his toolbelt of verbal quips and admonishments.

  • Dead Air

    My uncle played piano—jazz piano. He encouraged me to write poetry and I began scribbling thoughts—that I kept to myself. Who would care about them? It would be nothing but silence on a page, I thought. 

  • Rolling Lumpia in Filipino American History Month–North Carolina

    In North Carolina the hush puppies are deep fried as is the fish and the okra comes from deep in the earth with a texture that brushes softly into memory

  • Basketball, Bagoong and Bayanihan in Albany, Georgia

    In Albany the Filipino community is holding a basketball tournament with teams from the local Filipino league competing. The tournament is a fundraiser for children in the Philippines, children in need of school supplies. This is one of several basketball tournaments of the Filipino basketball league in the Southern part of the US that has…

  • John Coltrane Sunday Morning

    Tony Robles recites poem, John Coltrane Sunday Morning in Hamlet, North Carolina, Birthplace of John Coltrane On The Day After His Birthday

  • Pilgrimage to Hamlet, North Carolina, Birthplace of John Coltrane on His Birthday

    Peggy Harris shows Listen & Be Heard Contributor Tony Robles the John Coltrane Mural in Hamlet, North Carolina. Peggy was born and raised in Hamlet and graciously guided Tony to the mural while telling stories of her birthplace and what John Coltrane means to the community.

  • Porch Music all Day in Morganton, NC

    Tony Robles roams Morganton on International Porch Music Day, where it is an all-day event spread out to make it possible to hear almost everyone.

  • Warehouse Punching Bags Don’t Hit Back

    That wasn’t a wrench, it was a screwdriver, the bag laughed.  “So, are you trying to tell me to go back to the wrench from whence I came?” I asked.  “You got a smart mouth,” I said, assuming a boxing stance. The bag hung passively.

  • Every Ounce of Courage

    Unedited video interview with memoir author by Tony Robles.

  • Jose Case

    Tony Robles talks with Jose Case, Main Street celebrity in Hendersonville, NC. In the video they talk about his bikes. In the audio file, Tony reads Jose a poem that he wrote about him, and interviews him WPVM Radio in Asheville, NC.

  • The Ugly Mug Interview

    Unedited video interview with Horror Author Darren Todd by Tony Robles.

  • Three Stripes You’re Out (A 4th of July Story)

    Paul led the marches but the marches were casual—more unlocked step than lock step which caught the eye of a superior officer. “Hey, tell those guys to stop.” the officer said. Paul continued walking in his casual step,

  • July 4th, Hendersonville

    The booming sounds
are patriotic boots stomping
the night sky.

  • Laid to Rest

    On the mattress is an old man whose eyes search my face while my eyes search his How you doin’ pop?” I ask

  • Hendersonville Rally Against GOP abortion ban proposal

    Listen & Be Heard speaks to attendees at abortion rights rally

  • Hope at the End of the Driveway

    Nancy Sloan says that hope is the book’s central message and that she sees her book as a way to help women who find themselves in similar circumstances.

  • Writer Christian Hanz Lozada

    The unedited interview by Tony Robles with Christian Hanz Lozada, author of the forthcoming book He’s A Color Until He’s Not.

  • Home of Dr. Nina Simone

    Tony Robles visits Tryon, NC, birthplace of Nina Simone, and reads a poem…

  • Good Morning Truck

    Tony Robles speaks to Stanley, owner of a new food truck ahead of The Acoustic Trail Trolley in Hendersonville, which raises money for the PTSD Fund.

  • Poet Christopher D. Sims

    The unedited interview by Tony Robles with Christopher D. Sims , from Rockford, IL, a poet, activist, and spoken work performer, in anticipation of a Juneteenth event in Hendersonville. The event was ultimately canceled, but Listen & Be Heard gained a new contributor.

  • Cool People

    Calvin is one of the cool one’s. He’s what I call an all-weather kind of guy. If you need him, he’s there regardless of the forecast—and you don’t have to call him. He seems to have a sort of internal barometer that can take the temperature of your mood and hence, the predicament you might…

  • Flo Mayberry the Book Doula

    Tony Robles speaks with Flo Mayberry, in Hendersonville, NC, about her life as a writing coach.

  • Flute Busking

    Tony Robles talks with Diana Flores, who plays flute on Main Street in Hendersonville. She describes the freedom that it affords her in her choices of music, including themes to her favorite video games. She also plays in a community band, The Blue Ridge Ringers, which is a handbell choir, and a flute choir called…

  • From Bamboo Comes Life:

    Edwin Lozada, Executive Director of Philippine American Writers and Artists (PAWA), who explains the Philippine creation story of the first man and woman. Malakas is the first man who was created, and Maganda, the first woman.

  • wildflowers by Beverly Parayno

    The uncut video interview by Tony Robles in Hendersonville, NC who speaks with Beverly Parayno in Cameron Park, CA, about her book of short stories: wildflowers.

  • Gun Talk

    And here, 3000 miles away in the warehouse where I work, they are talking guns

  • Reebee dedoo dada

    The uncut video interview by Tony Robles, who speaks with multi-media artist Filey Matias, author of Reebee dedoo dada, Redhawk Publications, a story of song and the freedom to be oneself! Reebee, dedoo, dada is a book about bullying and how it takes a village to beat one.

  • Appalachian Memoir

    Tony Robles interviews Jennifer McGaha about her memoir Flat Broke with Two Goats.

  • Fiction Twined with Memory

    Tony Robles speaks with Ann Davila Cardinal, author of several young adult books, from her home in Vermont about her latest book, this one for adults: The Storyteller’s Death.

  • Las Flores

    In Hendersonville a community comes out early Sunday morning to honor the earth, the soil; a place to plant songs and poetry and a vision of sharing and depending on one another. Our sustenence is the dream that is shared, a dream that is not owned by one person but collectively conceived.

  • Student Art on Display

    The Arts Council of Henderson County showcased student artists grades 3 through 12 in its yearly contest on April 14th. The art showcase and contest was held at the Blue Ridge Mall in Hendersonville, North Carolina

  • Healing Love is What it’s About

    Tony Robles speaks with Robert Zachary of the Healing Love Institute who shares life experience and poetry too.

  • Cardboard Poem Written on a Warehouse Wall

    Why not get into this box? it said, there’s enough room for you to get away, to hide I thought about it as I held a box cutter in my handsWhy not get into this box? it said, there’s enough room for you to get away, to hide I thought about it as I held…

  • Overheated Heart

    I see the smoke in your car for a long time, the younger one says They get ouf of the truck and tell me to pop the hood

  • Review: A Gathering of the Tribes–The Black Lives Matter Issue

    Memory is honored, the names of those slain by police held up in a light of poetry, the fire of strength raging from our streets to the page…

  • Warehouse

    A poem by Tony Robles

  • Assembling a Wheelchair

    And somewhere a wheel chair
is being put together while a
world tilts on its axis trying to
find its bearings

  • Open Heart

    I just had open heart, he says We take the wheelchair from the bed of his  pickup and the man’s wife sits in the truck On the dashboard is a red pillow in the shape of a heart