Enoch Pratt Free Library Podcast

Join us for a reading by Lori Jakiela, who won the 2021 Wicked Woman Poetry Prize for her manuscript, How Do You Like It Now, Gentlemen?, and the contest judge, Nancy Naomi Carlson. Lori Jakiela is the author of the memoir Belief Is Its Own Kind of Truth, Maybe (2016), which received the 2016 Saroyan Prize from Stanford University. She is also the author of the memoirs Miss New York Has Everything, The Bridge to Take When Things Get Serious, and Portrait of the Artist as a Bingo Worker, as well as the poetry collections Spot the Terrorist! and How Do You Like It Now, Gentlemen? Her work has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and more. Recently, actress Kristen Bell chose Jakiela's New York Times' Modern Love essay, "The Plain Unmarked Box Arrived," to perform on the Times' Modern Love podcast. Jakiela writes a monthly column, Stories of Our Neighbors, for Pittsburgh Magazine and directs the undergraduate Creative and Professional Writing Program at The University of Pittsburgh's Greensburg campus. She lives in her hometown of Trafford, PA, with her husband, the author Dave Newman, and their children. For more, visit her author website at http://lorijakiela.net. Nancy Naomi Carlson, twice an NEA literature translation grant recipient, has published eleven titles (seven translated). An Infusion of Violets (Seagull, 2019) was called “new & noteworthy” by The New York Times. An associate editor for Tupelo Press, her work has appeared in such journals as The American Poetry Review, The Georgia Review, The Paris Review, and Poetry. Learn more at www.nancynaomicarlson.com. Doritt Carroll, BrickHouse Books Poetry Editor, and Clarinda Harriss, BrickHouse Books Director and Editor-in-Chief, hosts this event. Read "Former 90s Supermodel Cindy Crawford Says People Shouldn’t Worry About Aging" by Lori Jakiela. Read "Sequoia" by Nancy Naomi Carlson. Learn more about the Wicked Woman Poetry Prize. Recorded On: Thursday, October 14, 2021

Poets Sylvia Dianne “Ladi Di” Beverly, Patrick Washington, Diane Wilbon Parks, and Hiram Larew with Cliff Bernier on harmonica present and discuss poems, music, and artwork about America’s history of slavery. This powerful, all-too-timely 60-minute program reimagines the voices and legacy of those enslaved at the historic Woodlawn Plantation Estate in Fairfax, VA. Sylvia Dianne Beverly is an internationally acclaimed poet, presenting poetry in London, England, at the Lewisham Theatre. A collection of her work is housed at George Washington University's Gelman Library. She is a member of A Splendid Wake, Gelman Library, George Washington University. Also, she has been featured at the Smithsonian National Museum of History, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum, and other Smithsonians. Ladi Di as she is affectionally called is a founding member of the poetry ensemble "Collective Voices." She is a proud member of Writers on the Green Line, Poetry X Hunger, Poetry Poster Project, and Voices of Woodlawn. Ladi Di celebrated the 40th anniversary of host Grace Cavalieri, reading on her show, The Poet and the Poem, at the Library of Congress. Also, she is a founding member of the Anointed PENS (Poets Empowered to Nurture Souls) Poetry Ministry, out of Ebenezer AME Church, an alum of Poet-In-Progress with Poet Laureate of the District of Columbia, the late Dolores Kendrick. She is author of two books (Forever In Your Eyes and Cooking Up South), both on Amazon. Recently her poetry appears in several international anthologies, the Moonstone Press Anthology, and as part of Mike Maggio's 30 for 30 series for National Poetry Month 2021. Ladi Di is also called "Love Poet." The late Dr. Maya Angelou is her hero. She is the proud matriarch of her family. Celebrating Black History 2018, she and her family received posthumously for her Dad a Congressional Gold Medal from the United States Marines. She is a Poet of Excellence in Prince Georges County 2020. Poetry is her passion. Contact her at [email protected] or on Facebook. Patrick Washington has spent over two decades performing, conducting interactive workshops, and spreading love for the spoken, the written, and the rhythmic word across this country. His engaging have taken him across the country and back, from Washington's storied U Street circuit, to television and off-Broadway theater performances. Patrick was commissioned to create a poem dedicating the monument to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King which he performed at the unveiling on the National Mall on October 16th, 2011. A teaching artist at heart, he has launched his own arts education company, Dialect of Prince George's, and with it created the Youth Poet Laureate program, giving young people the opportunity to collaborate with city officials and serve as poetic ambassadors for their community. Diane Wilbon Parks is a visual poet and artist; she has written two poetry collections and a children’s book. Diane is the founder of The Write Blend, a culturally diverse poetry circle, and was recognized as a 2020 Prince George’s County Poet of Excellence. She celebrated the permanent installation of one of her poems and artwork as a permanent sign at the Patuxent Research Refuge - North Tract. Diane’s poetry has been widely featured and highlighted throughout the DMV through the Poetry Poster Project which was exhibited throughout Maryland and at the House of Delegates in Annapolis. Diane has been a long-standing literary advocate and leader in the poetry community. Her poetry has been featured in newsletters, online magazines, and anthologies, and recently included in the international anthology Singing in the Dark and international magazine Wexford Women; locally in the Annapolis Westfield Magazine. Her interviews are included in the 43rd and 44th anniversaries of Grace Cavalieri’s The Poet and the Poem at the Library of Congress. Diane is a USAF Veteran and Senior IT Program Manager. She resides in Maryland with husband, two children, and dog, Cooper. Hiram Larew’s next collection of poems will be published by Atmosphere Press. He has organized the Poetry Poster Project, Poetry X Hunger, and Voices of Woodlawn. He lives in Churchton, MD. Clifford Bernier is the author of three poetry collections; he has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes and his The Silent Art won the 2010 Gival Press Poetry Award. He appears on harmonica in the Accumulated Dust world music series and is featured on the EP Post-Columbian America. A member of the Washington Writers Collection, he has featured on NPR’s The Poet and the Poem from the Library of Congress and lives in Northern Virginia. Pictured: (top row) Clifford Bernier, Sylvia Dianne Beverly, (bottom row) Hiram Larew, Diane Wilbon Parks, Patrick Washington. Recorded On: Wednesday, August 11, 2021

Celebrate the finalists in the 2021 Poetry Contest with the Enoch Pratt Free Library and Little Patuxent Review! The three finalists, another contributor to the summer issue, and LPR’s head editor read. Steven Hollies, the winner of the 2021 Poetry Contest, is a Rockville native living mostly inside his head, a 2019 graduate of Howard Community College, and a drop-out from many other times and places. He enjoys playing volleyball, guitar, hooky, jokes, games, with words, around, along, it cool, hard to get, with fire, and the fool. Read "Body/language," the poem that won the 2021 Poetry Contest. Virginia Crawford, a 2021 Poetry Contest finalist, is a long-time teaching artist with the Maryland State Arts Council. She has co-edited two anthologies: Poetry Baltimore, poems about a city and Voices Fly, An Anthology of Exercises and Poems from the Maryland State Arts Council Artist-in-Residence Program from CityLit Press. She earned degrees in Creative Writing from Emerson College, Boston, and The University of St. Andrews, Scotland. Her book Touch appeared in 2013 from Finishing Line Press. Apprentice House Press published questions for water in April 2021. She writes and lives in Baltimore. Learn more at virginiacrawford.com. Rosemary Hutzler, a 2021 Poetry Contest finalist, teaches, writes, and mothers in northwest Baltimore. Growing up on an island near Seattle, she was imprinted by natural beauty, quirky houses, and iconoclastic personalities. She also lived in Maine, Connecticut, France, and Brooklyn before settling into Baltimore and its Jewish community. Her teachers have included John Hollander, Michael Collier, Mark Strand, and Gerald Stern. Her work has appeared in the Texas Observer, the Baltimore Sun, the Baltimore City Paper, the Forward, Nimrod, and elsewhere. Read her translation of R.M. Rilke's "Grown Woman" and her review of a republication of Ellen La Motte's Backwash of War. .chisaraokwu. (she/her), a contributor to LPR's summer 2021 issue, is an Igbo American actor, poet, and healthcare futurist. Her poetry and essays have appeared in many journals, including Berkeley Poetry Review, Cutthroat, Obsidian, and Tinderbox Poetry. Named a Cave Canem Fellow in 2020, she looks forward to post-pandemic travel. Read her poem "The Suicide Bomber Climbs A Mountain & Leaves A Note." Chelsea Lemon Fetzer, a contest judge, holds an MFA in Fiction from Syracuse University. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in journals such as Callaloo, Tin House, Mississippi Review, and Minnesota Review. Her essay “Speck” appears in The Beiging of America: Personal Narratives about being Mixed Race in the 21st Century. She is a 2019 Rubys recipient for the Literary Arts. Fetzer currently teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Baltimore. She serves on the board of CityLit Project and as head editor of Little Patuxent Review, a literary and arts journal that publishes creative work from the Mid-Atlantic region and beyond. Read her poem "flare." Pictured: (top row) Virginia Crawford, Steven Hollies, Rosemary Hutzler, (bottom row) .chisaraokwu., Chelsea Lemon Fetzer. Recorded On: Wednesday, July 21, 2021

Leslie Gray Streeter is in conversation with Melanie Hood-Wilson about her book, Black Widow. Looking at widowhood through the prism of race, mixed marriage, and aging, Black Widow: A Sad-Funny Journey Through Grief for People Who Normally Avoid Books with Words Like "Journey" in the Title redefines the stages of grief, from coffin shopping to day-drinking, to being a grown-ass woman crying for your mommy, to breaking up and making up with God, to facing the fact that life goes on even after the death of the person you were supposed to live it with. While she stumbles toward an uncertain future as a single mother raising a baby with her own widowed mother (plot twist!), Leslie looks back on her love story with Scott, recounting their journey through racism, religious differences, and persistent confusion about what kugel is. Will she find the strength to finish the most important thing that she and Scottd? Tender, true, and endearingly hilarious, Black Widow is a story about the power of love, and how the only guide book for recovery is the one you write yourself. Leslie Gray Streeter is an author, veteran journalist and speaker. whose memoir Black Widow, was published in March 2020 by Little, Brown and Company. Until recently, she was the longtime entertainment and lifestyle columnist and writer for the Palm Beach Post. A native of Baltimore, MD and a University of Maryland graduate, she and her work have been featured in The Miami Herald, the Washington Post, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Atlantic, the Today show, SiriusXM, O, The Oprah Magazine and more. She lives with her son Brooks and her mother Tina in her hometown of Baltimore, which she moved back to last summer. She’s a slow runner, an amateur vegan cook and a true crime and “Law and Order” enthusiast, as well as a proud former regular at the Northwood branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library! After receiving her BA in ‘93 and MSEd in ’94 from Sarah Lawrence College, Melanie Hood-Wilson returned to Baltimore to teach. In 2001, she was hired to lead the Single Step Program at CCBC, growing the program from eight students to over 300 and winning five local and statewide awards. In 2019, she launched Melanie Hood-Wilson and Associates which provides trainings and accountability planning in diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as academic and disabilities support. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Tuesday, July 13, 2021