In Volume Six: Chapter Six of The Program, we welcome back Chicago-based writer, poet, and blogger Drew Carroll. It’s been over five years since our last conversation, and a lot has changed. Drew has traded powerlifting for building worlds—through poetry, short fiction, and most recently his new digital platform, The Blog of Drew, launched in June.

In our conversation, we discuss his journey from writing poetry during some of the hardest times in his life, to creating his own short fiction universe, to stepping away from social media and eventually returning with new projects. Drew shares his thoughts on the idea of therapy, seeking therapy, vulnerability, and masculinity—especially for Black men—and how those ideas have shaped his creativity.

We also dive into his passions outside of writing, including professional wrestling and the state of the industry today.

Contact Drew:
Instagram: @drewbcarroll
Website: theblogofdrew.com

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Ajanae Dawkins –When Viola Davis Won
Instagram: @moonsatdusk
Website: ajanaedawkins.com

Darius Simpson – Genocide
Instagram: @_dariussimpson
Website: dariussimpson.com

Alysia Harris – In Situations Like This
Instagram: @poppyinthewheat
Website: alysiaharris.com

Taalam Acey – Affirmation For Black Men
Instagram: @taalamacey
Website: taalamacey.com

Prentice Powell – True Love
Instagram: @prenticepowell1908

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No guest this week — instead, it's our Chapter Break episode. For this one, We’ve pulled together six of our favorite live readings and spoken word performances from past guests on the program. Think of it as a chance to pause, revisit, and really sit with the words that have stayed with us — and hopefully with you too. We’ll be back next week with a brand-new conversation.

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Sabrina Ali - I Want You Back (Appearance: Volume Three - Chapter Seventeen)
Instagram: @sabrina_ali
Live Performance: I Want You Back

Nicoli The Poet - Who Hurt You (Appearance: Volume One - Chapter Two)
Instagram: @nicoli_the_poet
TikTok: @nicoli_the_poet

Kennie Sings - I'm Just Sayin' (Appearance: Volume Four - Chapter Two)
Instagram: @kennie_sings

Michael Phillips - Freedom (Appearance: Volume One - Chapter Nine)
Instagram: @dbl.img
Website: apoetsplace.net

Dr. Tara Betts - Stay Lit (Appearance: Volume Four - Chapter Thirteen)
Instagram: @tarabettschitown
Purchase her book: Refuse To Disappear

Bashar Abou Hawili - Good For Me (Appearance: Volume Three - Chapter Nine)
Purchase his book - Words That Might Mean Something Someday to Someone

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In Volume Six: Chapter Five of The Program, we welcomed Story Teller Gordon —a New York-based Community Activist, Poet, Spoken Word Artist, Author of the poetry collection "Don't Speak For Me", and founder of FORM NYC, a nonprofit that blends poetry, public health, and community healing. With a Master of Public Health degree in Health Policy and Management, Gordon is a multidisciplinary creative who uses his art and voice to create spaces for connection, conversation, and care.

In our conversation, we discuss his poetry origins in 2020 during the height of the virtual open mic era, how he discovered poetry as a form of emotional clarity, and why relatability—not just catharsis—is central to his work. Gordon opens up about his unique writing process, the discipline it takes to create with intention rather than emotion, and how performance, for him, is more about conversation than theatrics.

We also explore FORM NYC, the community-centered nonprofit he founded in 2018. From campaigns like "Stop Street Harassment" to "My Brother is Calling" and "Safe Space", Gordon shares the motivations behind creating programs that support the mental, emotional, and spiritual health of young men—especially in a time where masculinity is being redefined and often misrepresented.

Contact Story Teller Gordon:
Instagram: @storytellergordon
Website: storytellergordon.com

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Khalil Saaqiq – Who Am I
Instagram: @khalil_saaqiq

Kelsey Bigelow – A Grandfather's Hands
Instagram: @kelkaybpoetry Website: kelkaybpoetry.com

Shanelle Gabriel – Daddy's Girl
Instagram: @shanellegarbriel Website: shanellegabriel.com

Story Teller Gordon – New Year's Resolution
Story Teller Gordon – Closure

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In Volume Six: Chapter Four of the podcast, we welcome Poet, Spoken Word Artist, and Author Natasha Ria.

Natasha Ria has been writing and performing poetry for three decades. Whether it is performing with live musicians in Jazz, R&B, or Hip Hop or sharing her quieter literary work, her signature voice soothes audiences and brings them closer to themselves. Personal, political, intersectional, Natasha Ria brings her entire self to her performances.

Contact Natasha:
Instagram: @natasharia
Website: natasharia.com

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Anita D – And the Psych Ward Says
Instagram: @anitadpoetry

Jae Nichelle – Friends With Benefits
Instagram: @croptopassassian Website:jaenichelle.com

Rudy Francisco – Scars To The New Boyfriend
Instagram: @rudyfrancisco Website: rudyfrancisco.com

Natasha Ria – Shine
Natasha Ria – The Secret Society of Black Mothers

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In Volume Six: Chapter Three of the podcast, we welcome Poet, Spoken Word Artist, and Author Alyssa Michelle for her third appearance on the program. Alyssa, based in Albany, New York, is a mother, motivational speaker, and creative writing consultant who has authored three poetry collections: Growing Pains, The Awakening, and Blooming Season.

In our conversation, we ease in with her road trip R&B playlist, then dive into a discussion about introversion, energy, growth, and the personal work behind Alyssa’s creative evolution.

We revisit her start as a young writer who turned to poetry for safe expression and trace how her writing has shifted from chronicling trauma to embodying confidence, healing, and self-empowerment. She opens up about the importance of honoring her past without staying bound to it — particularly in her performance work, where she now feels called to reflect joy, strength, and renewal on stage.

We also discuss her latest book, Blooming Season, a personal collection of 22 poems that represents, essentially, both a closing of one chapter and the quiet beginning of another. Plus, Alyssa shares her experience participating in the LA Times Festival of Books and offers insight into her new role as a creative writing consultant, supporting writers across a wide range of genres.

Alyssa brings honesty, warmth, and a quiet wisdom that makes this conversation both comforting and energizing, and is why she is one of our favorite guests to converse with.

Contact Alyssa:
Instagram: @poetress_alyssa
TikTok: @poetress_alyssa

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Maya Mayor – Perfect
Instegram: @mayamayor

Lyrical Faith – Lay My Edges
Instagram: @lyricalfaithpoetry Website: lyricalfaithpoetry Our Conversations with Lyrical Faith: First and Second

Shawn William – Tired
Instagram: @iamshawnwilliam

Alyssa Michelle – Solitude Thoughts
Alyssa Michelle – Mis-Education of the Introvert

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This week on the program, we welcomed Poet, Scholar, Educator, and Author of the poetry collection "What Had Happened Was" - Dr. Therí Pickens . Dr. Pickens is a Professor of English at Bates College, where she teaches courses in African American and Arab American literature, disability studies, philosophy, and literary theory. In our conversation, we explore the intersections of Blackness, disability, poetry, and presence — and how she weaves these into both her creative and academic work.

We begin with a fun round of word association that touches on everything from “Mad Blackness” to ‘90s R&B and Uno (yes, the card game), before diving into her creative history — from being the “young nerd” with a backpack full of books to her early dreams of publishing poetry.

Dr. Pickens shares how she began seriously honing her craft as a poet in 2017, using poetic forms to guide and discipline her creativity. We discuss how her scholarly work in disability studies, particularly Black Disability Studies, informs her poetry — and how she challenges dominant frameworks like “mutual constitution” in understanding Blackness and disability. She offers insightful distinctions between impairment and disability, and how structural barriers—not bodies—create inaccessibility.

Contact Dr. Pickens:
Instagram: @tapphd2010
Website: tpickens.org

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Ariana Brown – Supremacy
Instagram: @arianapbrown Website: arianabrown.com

Yaw – Ancestral Ghosts
Instagram: @kingyaw_

Dasan Ahanu – Conversation With God
Instagram: @dasanahanu Website: dasanahanu.com

Ayanna Florence – Boy Calls Me Pretty
Instagram: @poetnextdoor

Ifrah Hussein – Tell Us
Instagram: @ifrahhussein

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In the premiere Chapter of Volume Six, we welcomed Chicago-born and based Educator, Poet, Writer, Spoken Word Artist, and Dancer, Sunshine Lombré .

From her early start in ballet at the age of three to her decision to pursue dance and poetry professionally, Sunshine walks us through her artistic evolution—how physics gave way to poetry, how Craigslist led to one of her first choreography gigs, and how an unexpected injury became a spiritual and creative turning point.

We talk about the interplay between poetry and movement—how dance, especially fem-centered forms like burlesque and belly dancing, can carry memory and emotion in ways language sometimes can't. Sunshine opens up about how embracing her sensuality and femininity transformed not only her art but her relationship to herself.

She also shares her passion for healing through art, both personally and in community. From her work with Poetry for Personal Power to teaching in libraries and arts councils, Sunshine is deeply invested in using creativity to empower others—especially those who might not see themselves as “artistic.”

Toward the end of our conversation, we discuss her advocacy and activism, including the emotional weight and responsibility of poems like "For Gaza" and "Living in Portable Caskets". We explore what it means to create art that holds both sensuality and sorrow, joy and justice—and how those things can coexist.

Contact Sunshine:
Instagram:@ladylombre
Youtube: @sunshinelombre

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Kyla Janee Lacey– Pulled Out A Knife On Him
Instagram: @kylajlacey

Zach Goldberg – Blackout
Instagram: @gach_zoldberg Website: zach-goldberg.com Book: I'd Rather Be Destroyed

Javon Johnson – The Shotgun
Instagram: @javonism Book: Aint Never Not Been Black

Sunshine Lombré – For Gaza
Sunshine Lombré – Daydream

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In Volume Five: Chapter Twenty, we welcomed Ajanae Dawkins.

Ajanaé is a poet, conceptual artist and theologian. She works through poetry, visual art, performance, and audio to explore the politics of faith, grief, and intimate relationships between Black women. As a theologian, she blends cultural criticism, memoir, and theology as autotheory to consider the relationship between Black church history, spirituality, and creation. Her work has appeared in the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, The Rumpus, Prairie Schooner, the Indiana Review, Frontier Poetry, The BreakBeat Poets Black Girl Magic Anthology and more. Her solo-exhibition, No One Teaches Us How To Be Daughters, debuted at Urban Arts Space in 2024. Her chapbook, BLOOD-FLEX, won the New Delta Review’s Chapbook prize and is forthcoming in Spring 2025.

Contact Ajanae:
Instagram: @moonsatdusk
Website: ajanaedawkins.com

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

FreeQuency – The Seven Deadly American Sins
Instagram: @freequencyspeaks Website: freequencyspeaks.com

Ya Ya Poet– Ling Ling
Instagram: @yayazhangpoet

Black Chakra – Pass
Instagram: @blackchakra88

Ajanaé Dawkins – When Viola Davis Won
Ajanaé Dawkins – For The Blonde Girl and the Classroom of Ghosts

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