Poetry

Jaki Shelton Green spent her childhood with her nose in a book knowing there was a great big world that awaited her. A native of Orange County, North Carolina, Green was a fidgety child and her grandmother’s solution was to give her a writing pad. This simple gesture meant to keep her still in church, blossomed into a lifelong journey. 

Critics call Joy Harjo “the first lady of American Indian poetry.” But Harjo is more than a poet. She is also an author, musician and playwright. She is a native of Oklahoma and a member of the Mvskoke (Muscogee) Nation.

With 11 poetry books under his belt, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor Michael McFee is no stranger to the written word. But there are some concepts too wide to grasp in lines and stanzas.

Gabrielle Calvocoressi was born with nystagmus, a visual condition where the eyes are constantly in spasm. It took Calvocoressi a while to learn how to walk and balance, so the young child spent a lot of time sitting on the floor, daydreaming and observing the world. 

For many years U.S. Navy Officer Jerri Bell swallowed the story that when it came to military service, women were only involved in support roles. It was not until she started researching for a book on women’s military history that she realized the common narrative was false: women had been actively involved in combat since the American revolution. 

Poet Gabrielle Calvocoressi has become less and less comfortable viewing the world through the prisms of sex or gender. 

 In Tyree Daye’s debut book of poetry, the young author builds on the stories and superstitions of his mother, as well as his own memories of growing up in two small towns in North Carolina: Youngsville and Rolesville. 

The National Folk Festival returns to Greensboro this weekend with approximately 300 performers showcasing folk traditions from all corners of the world. Performances include everything from cajun music to beatboxing. 

Poet Michael McFee is known for creating rich images of his native Appalachia that are grounded in the simplicity of everyday life and in the unique language used by his family over generations.

In his new collection, "We Were Once Here" (Carnegie Mellon/2017), the cast-iron skillet, chewing tobacco spit, and linguistic peculiarities of the mountains become anchors for stories woven from memories.

North Carolina is one of only two states in the US where 16 and 17 years old kids are routinely charged as adults for even the most minor offenses. This policy has serious consequences for the youth involved. In this bonus podcast episode, poet Kane Smego shares a gripping poem called, “Oh Carolina”  about justice and conflict in North Carolina. 

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Amin Drew Law is a Palestinian-American poet and educator based in Washington D.C. In his poem, "The Secret Weapon of Chubby Boys," Amin taps into a classic schoolyard conflict and provides a hilarious and heartwarming solution. 

On this bonus episode of Stories with a Heartbeat, we reflect on some of the classroom conflicts we covered in season 1 of the podcast. From the first days of elementary to college graduation, we explored the spectrum of friction at school. This week we hear from poet Amin Drew Law with a new, potent, and poetic reminder of school conflict. 

Does a smile help defend against potential police aggression? What is a mother’s role in protecting her child from a dangerous situation? A new collection of poems, “Resisting Arrest Poems to Stretch the Sky” (Jacar Press/2016), explores these questions through the work of more than 70 writers.
 

In two new books, writer and professor Alan Shapiro explores themes of convention, pain and self-expression. “Life Pig” (University of Chicago Press/2016) is his latest book of poetry and “That Self-Forgetful Perfectly Useless Concentration” (University of Chicago Press/2016) is a new collection of essays. Host Frank Stasio speaks with Shapiro, the William R. Kenan Jr.

Rafeef Ziadah is a Palestinian poet and human rights activist living in London. Her poem, “We Teach Life, Sir,” is powerful and poignant reminder of the human condition in conflict. 

On this bonus episode of Stories with a Heartbeat, host Will McInerney reflects on some of the stories from our past episodes covering the Chapel Hill Shooting in season 1. Rafeef's beautiful and moving poetry is emblematic of the legacy and the lasting message of life that Deah Barakat, Yusor Abu Salha, and Razan Abu Salha left behind. Listen to Rafeef's poem with the link below. 

Graduation speeches tend to be predictable and repetitive. They rarely leave a lasting impression. But a couple months ago, Harvard Graduate School of Education student Donovan Livingston's voice echoed around the world as his poetic commencement speech went viral.

As athletes from around the world compete for gold in Rio this summer, poets from across the U.S. are facing off in a different kind of competition. It is called a poetry slam. On this episode of Stories with a Heartbeat, we talk to poetry slam champion Dasan Ahanu to figure out what this poetic conflict is all about, and how to win.

CJ Suitt is a young black poet living in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. And he has a simple and frightening question, "Would I be shot if I called the police?"

CJ uses his poetry to combat stereotypes and to build bridges of understanding. But he admits, in the wake of yet another series of high profile killings of black men by the police, something has changed. CJ no longer feels safe walking at night.

In a month filled with tragedy, how do we make sense of it all? This week on the podcast, we use a poetic lens to try and find meaning within conflict.

Some scholars are criticized for staying within the ‘ivory tower,’ and creating work that’s only accessible to a highly-academic audience. Alexis Pauline Gumbs does not receive that criticism.

She identifies as a community-accountable scholar and puts that identity into practice by intentionally bringing scholarly ideas into non-academic settings. This manifests in online educational projects like ‘Eternal Summer of The Black Feminist Mind,’ which creates accessible curricula from black feminist work.

School is full of conflict. This week we explore three conflicts in the classroom. Students and teachers use poetry and stories to reflect on moments of friction at school and help us understand why they matter. 

Stories with a Heartbeat is a new podcast from WUNC hosted by poet Will McIneney that uses poetry and storytelling to explore the complexity of conflict. 

George Yamazawa uses spoken word poetry to address personal conflicts and inner struggles. Yamazawa is a National Poetry Slam Champion and his writing is deeply tied to his Japanese-American heritage.

Lenard Moore's bus ride to his segregated school in Jacksonville, North Carolina, was long, and often boring, but he quickly found that books could fill the void.

At first it was just "Green Eggs and Ham"  and "The Gingerbread Man." But those turned out to be the simple beginnings of a love for literature that blossomed into a career as a poet.

When Lenard joined the Army, poetry became his outlet. By the time he got out, he was writing an average of four poems a day, and started exploring a centuries-old form of poetry, the haiku.

In this first week of 2016, many people are reflecting on the good and bad moments of the past year and what resolutions they have for the coming months. For poet Maureen Sherbondy this meditation on change is an important and ongoing process that served as the inspiration for her latest collection of poetry, “The Art of Departure.”

In the first half of the collection, she explores the many ways one deals with losses like death, divorce, and children leaving the home. And in the second half, she looks at how people come to terms with their new lives after drastic change.

Raleigh-based poet Gibbons Ruark has been traveling to Ireland for more than 35 years. Along the way, he has walked the same paths as the country's literary greats like W.B. Yeats and Seamus Heaney.

In his new book, The Road to Ballyvaughan (Jacar Press/2015), Ruark assembles decades of his poetry that reflects the country's rich culture.

In the mid-20th century, Henry Beam was a promising young poet from Cleveland County. On a trip to Paris, he returned with poems he claimed were saved from a Nazi death camp. This became his undoing as allegations of plagiarism cost him his job and career.

Three decades later, Beam broke his silence and told his life story to a UNC graduate student. What she discovers is a complex experience in France: Beam’s love affair, his sketchy situation with a right-wing politician and his encounter with a mysterious man who supposedly gave him the poems.

Historian and author Mary Kratt grew up in the countryside surrounded by trees, the occasional quail hunter and not much else. As a little girl she spent a lot of time on her own and became a keen observer of her surroundings and other people, and she says that’s exactly why she is a successful poet today. 

Kratt has authored six poetry books and a number of books and essays on Charlotte history.

Amber Flora Thomas was in many ways destined to be an artist. Her mother is a painter, her father was a sculptor, and they valued creativity more than almost anything else.

She spent most of her childhood in cars, tents and trailers as they traveled from art show to art show. And though she tried to stray from a creative career and pursue a degree in political science so that she could become a lawyer, she found that she was continually drawn back to writing.

Poet Nathaniel Mackey is one of the most respected experimental writers in the country today. In recent years, the Duke professor has received many honors including the Poetry Foundation’s Ruth Lilly Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Book Award and, most recently, Yale University’s Bollingen Prize.

The characters of Pam Durban’s short stories face a variety of challenges on different fronts - grief, identity, interpersonal relationships.

But the common thread that binds them all is storytelling. Durban’s latest collection of short stories is Soon (University of South Carolina Press/2015).  

Host Frank Stasio talks with Durban, professor of creative writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.