7 APR 2024 · It's the Season 6 Finale! Check out Amanda's conversation with Oombi Solis Flores! Oombi Solis Flores (b. 1988) is a queer/non-binary immigrant, poet, and licensed clinical social worker. They were born in Zacatecas, México and reside in the Northeast San Fernando Valley. Their work has previously been featured in Razorcake Issue #102, Sister Spit: QTPOC Cruising the West Tour, Altadena Literary Review 2020, innateDIVINITYBooks' A Case for the Personhood of Trees Anthology of Poetry, and in the upcoming short film, Shadows at Night. They are an alum of the Community Literature Initiative, and their debut full length collection of poetry, (BE)LONGING, is out now on World Stage Press. Oombi's links: https://www.instagram.com/jotitadeamor/ Be sure to check out The Poet Speaks Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepoetspeakspodcast/ And listen to,The Poet Speaks Podcast, on the go on ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS WORLDWIDE! Apple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1cM1rdF... Did you know The Poet Speaks is also Amanda's touring global workshop? She teaches people all about how to make, create and the history of Spoken Word and Indigenous oral traditions! To make a booking for The Poet Speaks Workshop with your organization, apply for mentorships with Amanda, book interviews, as well as writing consultations, please use this link: https://www.amandaeke.com/services Music by: Buzu Buzu https://www.instagram.com/bbuzu/ 

31 MAR 2024 · Check out Amanda's conversation with Alexander James! Alexander James is a man of many talents and accomplishments. He was born and raised in South LA and has used his experiences to become a successful poet, father, pastor, truth teller, and professional in his field. As an 2022 Addy and Webby Award-winning poet, Alexander has made a name for himself in the creative world. He has also become a respected Poetry Coach, helping aspiring poets to develop their skills and share their unique voices. From camps, conferences to San Diego comicon Alexander’s gift is taking him from stages from Inglewood to Israel. One central principal has guided Alexander James‘s work. If the truth will set you free, then lies build presents. Alexander uses his work to free people from the prisons lies have built. Alexander links: https://iamalexanderjames.com/ Be sure to check out The Poet Speaks Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepoetspeakspodcast/ And listen to,The Poet Speaks Podcast, on the go on ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS WORLDWIDE! Apple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1cM1rdF... Did you know The Poet Speaks is also Amanda's touring global workshop? She teaches people all about how to make, create and the history of Spoken Word and Indigenous oral traditions! To make a booking for The Poet Speaks Workshop with your organization, apply for mentorships with Amanda, book interviews, as well as writing consultations, please use this link: https://www.amandaeke.com/services Music by: Buzu Buzu https://www.instagram.com/bbuzu/

24 MAR 2024 · Check out Amanda's conversation with Neeta Rare! Spoken Word Artiste, Voice Actor, Social Worker, Public Presentation Trainer, And Multi In Many Ways. Neeta Rare Was Finalist For The UBA Africa Poetry Day Contest, 2018. She Was Nominated For The Illustrious African Writers Awards As Outstanding Spoken Word Artiste Of The Year, By BEWA Africa In 2021. She Is A Semifinalist And Notable Mention At The SprinNG Poetry Contest, 2022. She Is Winner Of The World Bank Poetry Contest, 2022, And Second- Place Winner Of The African Day Poetry Competition By Afreximbank, 2023. She Was A Nominee For The 2023 APVA Awards, Spoken Word Category, And A Finalist For The Vweta Chadwick 2023 Poetry Prize. When She Isn't Performing Or Creating Soul-stirring Poetry, She's Taking Care Of Street Children Through Her Organisation, Street Mentors Network. Aneeta Rare's links:  https://www.instagram.com/neeta_rare?igsh=MXJrbml2NWRxMGtmMw== Be sure to check out The Poet Speaks Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepoetspeakspodcast/ And listen to,The Poet Speaks Podcast, on the go on ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS WORLDWIDE! Apple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1cM1rdF... Did you know The Poet Speaks is also Amanda's touring global workshop? She teaches people all about how to make, create and the history of Spoken Word and Indigenous oral traditions! To make a booking for The Poet Speaks Workshop with your organization, apply for mentorships with Amanda, book interviews, as well as writing consultations, please use this link: https://www.amandaeke.com/services Music by: Buzu Buzu https://www.instagram.com/bbuzu/

17 MAR 2024 · Check out Amanda's conversation with Mister Motivation! Mister Motivation (Shaun Murphy) is an Army Veteran, and motivational EDU-tainer; A hip hop spoken word artist, Motivational Speaker, and musician.  When he takes the stage, you get high level energy and stylish presentations where he uniquely combines his own original music and spoken word with motivational speaking.  He uses his story, words, and music to provide purpose, direction, and motivation to ultimately spread positivity. Mister Motivation's links:  https://mistermotivationmusic.com/ Be sure to check out The Poet Speaks Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepoetspeakspodcast/ And listen to,The Poet Speaks Podcast, on the go on ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS WORLDWIDE! Apple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1cM1rdF... Did you know The Poet Speaks is also Amanda's touring global workshop? She teaches people all about how to make, create and the history of Spoken Word and Indigenous oral traditions! To make a booking for The Poet Speaks Workshop with your organization, apply for mentorships with Amanda, book interviews, as well as writing consultations, please use this link: https://www.amandaeke.com/services Music by: Buzu Buzu https://www.instagram.com/bbuzu/

10 MAR 2024 · Check out Amanda's conversation with IB! Abu Ibrahim popularly known as "IB" is a socially conscious poet whose work has caused tremendous influence and change both locally. He sees poetry as a powerful tool to cause positive change and redefine society. In 2021, he was part of a group of poets who advocated that the Recording Academy make spoken word poetry at the Grammys and this led to the birth of the  “Best Spoken Word Poetry Album” category in 2022. His debut poetry album “Music Has Failed Us” got a Grammy acceptance. This body of work is available on all major streaming platforms. Some of his works have also been published in literary outfits in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. He has performed at the Lagos International Poetry Festival, Say It Out, Lagos Talks Town Hall Meetings, Nigeria National Chess Championship, Global Poetry Meet organized by Poets of Bangalore, India, and more.  IB's links:  https://www.instagram.com/_therealib?igsh=eXBrc3F2OWc4cmw= Be sure to check out The Poet Speaks Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepoetspeakspodcast/ And listen to,The Poet Speaks Podcast, on the go on ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS WORLDWIDE! Apple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1cM1rdF... Did you know The Poet Speaks is also Amanda's touring global workshop? She teaches people all about how to make, create and the history of Spoken Word and Indigenous oral traditions! To make a booking for The Poet Speaks Workshop with your organization, apply for mentorships with Amanda, book interviews, as well as writing consultations, please use this link: https://www.amandaeke.com/services Music by: Buzu Buzu https://www.instagram.com/bbuzu/

3 MAR 2024 · Check out Amanda's conversation with Emily Lee Luan! Emily Lee Luan is the author of 回 / Return, a winner of the Nightboat Poetry Prize, and I Watch the Boughs, selected by Gabrielle Calvocoressi for a Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship. A former Margins Fellow at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop and the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, her work has appeared in The Best American Poetry 2021, Best New Poets 2019, American Poetry Review, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from Rutgers University–Newark. Emily's links: https://www.emilyluan.com/ Be sure to check out The Poet Speaks Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepoetspeakspodcast/ And listen to,The Poet Speaks Podcast, on the go on ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS WORLDWIDE! Apple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1cM1rdF... Did you know The Poet Speaks is also Amanda's touring global workshop? She teaches people all about how to make, create and the history of Spoken Word and Indigenous oral traditions! To make a booking for The Poet Speaks Workshop with your organization, apply for mentorships with Amanda, book interviews, as well as writing consultations, please use this link: https://www.amandaeke.com/services Music by: Buzu Buzu https://www.instagram.com/bbuzu/

25 FEB 2024 · Check out Amanda's conversation with Matt Sedillo! Matt Sedillo has been described as the "best political poet in America" as well as "the poet laureate of the struggle". His work has drawn comparisons in print to Bertolt Brecht, Roque Dalton, Amiri Baraka, Alan Ginsberg, Carl Sandburg and various other legends of the past. Sedillo was the recipient of the 2017 Joe Hill Labor Poetry award, a panelist at the 2020 Texas book festival, a participant in the 2012 San Francisco International Poetry Festival, the 2022 Elba Poetry Festival, and the recipient of the 2022 Dante's Laurel. Sedillo has appeared on CSPAN and has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Axios, the Associated Press, La Jornada among other publications. Sedillo has spoken at Casa de las Americas in Havana, Cuba, at numerous conferences and forums such as the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, the National Conference on Race & Ethnicity in American Higher Education, the National Association of Chicana/Chicano Studies, the Left Forum, the US Social Forum, and at over a hundred universities and colleges, including the University of Cambridge, Stanford, UNAM and many others. Matt Sedillo is the author of Mowing Leaves of Grass (FlowerSong Press, 2019) and City on the Second Floor (FlowerSong Press, 2022). Both of which are taught at universities throughout the country. Sedillo is the current literary director of The Mexican Cultural Institute of Los Angeles. Matt's links: https://www.instagram.com/matt_sedillo/ Be sure to check out The Poet Speaks Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepoetspeakspodcast/ And listen to,The Poet Speaks Podcast, on the go on ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS WORLDWIDE! Apple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1cM1rdF... Did you know The Poet Speaks is also Amanda's touring global workshop? She teaches people all about how to make, create and the history of Spoken Word and Indigenous oral traditions! To make a booking for The Poet Speaks Workshop with your organization, apply for mentorships with Amanda, book interviews, as well as writing consultations, please use this link: https://www.amandaeke.com/services Music by: Buzu Buzu https://www.instagram.com/bbuzu/

18 FEB 2024 · Welcome to Season 6 of The Poet Speaks Podcast! For our season opener, we have Major Jackson! Major Jackson is the author of six books of poetry, including Razzle Dazzle: New & Selected Poems (2023), The Absurd Man (2020), Roll Deep (2015), Holding Company (2010), Hoops (2006), and Leaving Saturn (2002), which won a Cave Canem Poetry Prize for a first book of poems. His edited volumes include: Best American Poetry 2019, Renga for Obama, and Library of America’s Countee Cullen: Collected Poems. He is also the author of A Beat Beyond: The Selected Prose of Major Jackson edited by Amor Kohli and the host of celebrated poetry podcast The Slowdown, which can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all other podcast platforms. Jackson is a recipient of fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. He has been awarded a Pushcart Prize, a Whiting Writers’ Award, and has been honored by the Pew Fellowship in the Arts and the Witter Bynner Foundation in conjunction with the Library of Congress. Jackson’s poems and essays have been published in American Poetry Review, The New Yorker, Orion Magazine, Paris Review, Ploughshares, Poetry London and many distinguished journals. He currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee where he is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities at Vanderbilt University. He also serves as the Poetry Editor of The Harvard Review. Major's links: https://www.majorjackson.com/ Be sure to check out The Poet Speaks Podcast on Instagram: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqa3hJTzRNWVMxS2tlWV9vQ1ZKcklYaUNNZ3JqUXxBQ3Jtc0tsNEZXX1pVUGw5ZzJrR29GNlhKbkVCRkN6UUFrY3c2dGFmNENSS2RqRXZyVUZmQjZHWkVzNVpIQjFGU21zT1F4WElJX0NITjc0NzFtSTRNNGpaSmpMUzZSeDI2REJ2bXlfNGxNRVZCZkpDdTkzQ0hqSQ&q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%2Fthepoetspea..&v=wjcamJIZkQs. And listen to , The Poet Speaks Podcast, on the go on ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS WORLDWIDE! Apple:https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbmUzWWxJcXAwZ1VwNFNpaFIwNFEtQjU4RGZDZ3xBQ3Jtc0tsRHRvckpJMGE2ZGo1VFMySFFuX2xrRzVWeU0tcURLNzU0bUh2RjV3LVlqVVhVOWR4VkI5UE9ySzNBTDFGVW9Kd3I3NW9lTW84bnR3bHluRFBoSjlhZ2dHandnOW9GcGpXX01qM1dJbWRlQ0VsZEdmaw&q=https%3A%2F%2Fpodcasts.apple.com%2Fus%2Fpodcast..&v=wjcamJIZkQs. Spotify:https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbFJVZS1QNFcxZUtFN1ZZNmFVaXpycFJfMFhfZ3xBQ3Jtc0ttSUlpWE52dk0yS3VIU2hGRkVKZUpQWThDVHk4NW9PV1pQN0hoOW1MSEdNSnlGejQyWnFGNzNFNUZna1dtMmVFdnBaR0I5ZzJNd2VXVUozci1ON3JqT2pxQmRhMGNpYWJXV3U2cmZWUUdyTWhMUlpCZw&q=https%3A%2F%2Fopen.spotify.com%2Fshow%2F1cM1rdF..&v=wjcamJIZkQs. Did you know The Poet Speaks is also Amanda's touring global workshop? She teaches people all about how to make, create and the history of Spoken Word and Indigenous oral traditions! To make a booking for The Poet Speaks Workshop with your organization, apply for mentorships with Amanda, book interviews, as well as writing consultations, please use this link: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqa280UU04SEVhWURJNXprWmlFSHQ3OEczTmttZ3xBQ3Jtc0tuaXEwXzU4blVMYU5obGlXdTRqM1F6ZDRXN0pqQzVoQTBodGJtSGQ4YnZQRHJtMzNaSWczX01ja1BXaTlvRTlyWnNib2JOU3FzdUZDdV9QanpSbk9PMVp3cWhKU21EQklpbWY3NU8zTU9HeDBIMllYZw&q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amandaeke.com%2Fservices&v=wjcamJIZkQs

26 MAR 2023 · It's the Season 5 Finale of The Poet Speaks Podcast!For our last episode of Season 5 we have Jack Dawkins! Jack Dawkins is a storyteller, a rapper, and a poet. But before all of that, he honed his entrepreneurial skillsets across various industries, including hospitality, consulting, and fitness. His use of the English language has been compared to Michael Phelps’ performance on Saturday Night Live: Wildly entertaining for none of the reasons you would expect. He is, at his core, and in his music, deeply human, and a lover of excessive comma use. Jack's links: https://jackdawkinsraps.com/ Be sure to check out The Poet Speaks Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepoetspea... And listen to , The Poet Speaks Podcast, on the go on ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS WORLDWIDE! Apple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1cM1rdF... Did you know The Poet Speaks is also Amanda's touring global workshop? She teaches people all about how to make, create and the history of Spoken Word and Indigenous oral traditions! To make a booking for The Poet Speaks Workshop with your organization, apply for mentorships with Amanda, book interviews, as well as writing consultations, please use this link: https://www.amandaeke.com/services

19 MAR 2023 · Check out Amanda's conversation with Justin Patton! Justin is a spoken word artist based out of Atlanta by way of Chattanooga, TN. He is an author of his collection of poems entitled Poetry for the Hopefully. He is the curator of his monthly show ‘Soul Therapy’, brand ambassador for Urban Grind Coffee House located in Atlanta, creator of The Poet’s Perspective Podcast, and blogger where he has written over 200 articles. Justin's Links: @iamjustinpatton Be sure to check out The Poet Speaks Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepoetspea... And listen to , The Poet Speaks Podcast, on the go on ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS WORLDWIDE! Apple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1cM1rdF... Did you know The Poet Speaks is also Amanda's touring global workshop? She teaches people all about how to make, create and the history of Spoken Word and Indigenous oral traditions! To make a booking for The Poet Speaks Workshop with your organization, apply for mentorships with Amanda, book interviews, as well as writing consultations, please use this link: https://www.amandaeke.com/services