Hosted by Michael Novick
Produced by Marlena Bond
Originally broadcast on KPFK 90.7 FM 11/30/22

Michael Novick is a former KPFK Local Station Board chair and treasurer, a former Pacifica National Board director and treasurer, and became interim General Manager at KPFK in 2022. He is a long-time anti-racist and trade union activist, a movement journalist and published author, editor of Turning The Tide and on the staff of Change Links. He has been a listener-sponsor member of Pacifica stations in NY, the Bay Area and southern California for decades. He is active in Anti-Racist Action, Interfaith Communities United for Justice & Peace, and IfNotNow, as well as around police and prison abolition. He can be reached at antiracistaction_la@yahoo.com

Michael Novick - Poets Cafe KPFK 11/30/22

Hosted by Matt Sedillo
Produced by Marlena Bond
Originally broadcast on KPFK 90.7 FM 12/14/22

Storykeeper, Poet, Performance Artist, and Arts Advocate Linda Ravenswood is a Los Angeles native and 7th generation California schoolteacher (e.g. LAUSD educator family for two centuries, paternal grandmother Elementary School Principal, Baja California Sur)

Linda is a multi award winning, National Performance Poet and Literary advocate. A teacher since her undergraduate program at CalArts (CAP in public schools, Plaza de la Raza) she continues her family legacy of arts outreach, literacy, access, focus on diversity, and accountability to constituents across Southern California and The West. Winner of an Oxford Prize in Poetry (2022) and the current Edwin Markham Prize in Poetry winner from Reed Magazine, the oldest literary magazine in California (selected by Poet Laureate of The United States, Juan Felipe Herrera), Linda has been published in nearly 100 books, anthologies, journals, online periodicals, and collaborative manifestos. 

Linda founded The Los Angeles Press in 2018 with a grant from the Vons Foundation (via Duda Holdings), USC, and The Los Angeles Review of Books — to address the critical need for access to publishing opportunities for all. Her strategic plan includes continuing to place art and literature in unexpected places, to delight and inspire the public, to widen the circle of empathy and inclusion for artists, writers, and storytellers from all walks of life, to continue partnering with local, regional, and national organizations to create accessible, diverse, meaningful arts and literature programming, to publish art and literature of exceptional merit, and to address critical needs for arts advocacy for the constituents of Los Angeles and The West. #wipoc #lgbtq+#blm 

Linda is a Co founding member of Melrose Poetry Bureau, headquartered in West Hollywood, is a founding member of Project 1521, winner of The California Writer’s Grant, and two time Pushcart Prize nominee. Her frequent collaborators include Asylum Arts, Red Light Lit, The Poetry Society of New York, and The City of West Hollywood

Linda Ravenswood - Poets Cafe KPFK 12/14/22

Hosted by Mark Lipman
Produced by Mark Lipman/Marlena Bond
Originally broadcast on KPFK 90.7 FM 7/12/23

Poets Café presents Poetry from Around the World, with your host and foreign correspondent Mark Lipman and his guests, Albanian poets, Ukë and Era Buçpapaj coming to you direct from Tirana, Albania.

Albanian Poets Ukë and Era Buçpapa - Poets Cafe KPFK 07/12/23

Hosted by Lois P. Jones
Produced by Marlena Bond
Originally broadcast on KPFK 90.7 FM 7/19/23

Elena Secota was born in Transylvania, Romania, and graduated from The Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, London. Amongst her favorite roles are: Antigone in Sophocle’s Antigone at Theatre Technis, London; Sophie Oresanu Oreshanu) in the BBC/ Masterpiece Theatre, Fortunes of War with Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh, and the Empress in Lost in Siberia, with Anthony Andrews, filmed on location in Moscow and Uzbekistan. Recently, she played the role of Ioana, in the feature film, Sounds of Silence. 

Elena’s CD, Poems, Songs and the Sea, was released and produced by Steve McCormick. https://www.elenasecota.com  
https://elenasecota.bandcamp.com

Elena Secota - Poets Cafe KPFK 07/19/23

Hosted by Brian Sonia-Wallace
Produced by Marlena Bond

Activist, poet and documentary filmmaker Judy Branfman, Three Hundred Streets of Venice author Tom Laichas, residents and poets Sumaiya Evans and Pat Raphael discuss their experiences and perspectives and share poems on unaffordable housing and how it's affected their community of Venice, CA. Thank you to Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center,  Stephon Litwinczuk and so many others!

Venice Housing Poetry & Discussion - Poets Cafe KPFK 08/02/23

Hosted by Lois P. Jones
Produced by Marlena Bond
Originally broadcast on KPFK 90.7 FM 10/18/23

Music: Sycamore by Tamir Hendelman

Jacob Burda comes from a European family business in media. He is the cofounder of The Alpine Fellowship, which he founded in 2012, an annual symposium centered around aesthetics and ideas that supports, commissions, and showcases artists, writers, academics, and playwrights. Jacob earned his PhD at the University of Oxford, writing his doctoral thesis on the conception of infinity in early German Romanticism. At age 28 he was a professor of philosophy at UCLA where he lectured on German literature and philosophy. He is the co-founder of a conscious community app which he is currently building and spearheads an innovative project in the education space.

Jacob Burda - Poets Cafe KPFK 10/18/23

Hosted by Richard Modiano
Produced by Marlena Bond
Originally broadcast on KPFK 90.7 FM 11/29/23

Bill Mohr is a professor in the Department of English at California State University, Long Beach. He has a Ph.D. in Literature from the University of California, San Diego, and has taught at CSU Long Beach since 2006. In addition to being an internationally recognized poet, Mohr has worked as an editor and publisher (Momentum Press, 1974-1988) and literary scholar and historian. His poems, prose poems and creative prose have appeared in dozens of magazines in the past 40 years, including 5 AM, Antioch Review, Beyond Baroque, Blue Collar Review, Blue Mesa Review, Caliban (On-line), KYSO (Knock Your Socks Off) Miramar, ONTHEBUS, OR, Santa Monica Review, Skid Row Penthouse, Solo Nolo, Sonora Review, Spot, Upstreet, Wormwood Review, and ZYZZYVA. His poems have also appeared in a dozen anthologies, including all three editions of Charles Harper Webb’s Stand Up Poetry (1989, 1992; 2002); Suzanne Lummis’s Grand Passion and Wide Awake; and Coiled Serpent, from Tia Chuca Press. Mohr is one of less than a half-dozen Los Angeles-based poets to have appeared in all editions of those anthologies.

Mohr’s volumes of poetry include Hidden Proofs (1982); Penetralia (1984); Bittersweet Kaleidscope (2006); and a bilingual volume published in Mexico, Pruebas Ocultas (Bonobos Editores, 2015). A CD and cassette release of spoken word was produced by Harvey Robert Kubernik and released by New Alliance Records in 1993. In October, 2018, What Books/Glass Table Collective will publish a new collection of his poems, The Headwaters of Nirvana / Los Manantiales del Nirvana. Mohr has given readings of his poetry in New York City, San Francisco, and Mexico City, as well as Los Angeles; he was a featured poet at the Idyllwild Poetry Festival five times. His poems have been translated into Croatian, Italian, and Japanese, in addition to Spanish.

Mohr’s honors include an appointment as a visiting scholar at the Getty Research Institute in 1996, during which he began his research for his literary history of Los Angeles poetry, Holdouts: The Los Angeles Poetry Renaissance 1948-1992. Published by the University of Iowa Press in 2011, Holdouts received a half-dozen enthusiastic reviews, and has gone into a second printing. Mohr’s critical essays have appeared in such magazines as the William Carlos Williams Review and the Journal of Beat Studies. His book reviews of contemporary poets can be found in Chicago Review, KYSO, Poetry Flash, Or, New Review of Literature, The Hungry Mind Review, Los Angeles Times, and Beyond Baroque New.

Mohr’s first editorial appointment was as poetry editor of the first two issues (1972-1973) of Bachy magazine, published by Papa Bach Bookstore. From 1974 to 1988, Mohr was the editor and publisher of Momentum Press, which issued books by Jim Krusoe, Alicia Ostriker, Kate Braverman, Leland Hickman, Len Roberts, James Moore, Joseph Hansen, Holly Prado, Harry Northup, Deena Metzler, Michael C. Ford, and many other poets. Its archives can be found in the Special Collections of Geisel Library at UCSD. His most recent anthology of poetry is Cross-Strokes: Poetry between Los Angeles and San Francisco, which he co-edited with Neeli Cherkovski. In 2014, he was given the George Drury Smith Award by Beyond Baroque for his services to poetry. Other winners of this award include David St. John, Wanda Coleman, Eloise Klein Healy, Suzanne Lummis, Holly Prado, and Paul Vangelisti. His blog address is billmohrpoet.com.

Bill Mohr - Poets Cafe KPFK 11/29/23

Hosted by Brian Sonia-Wallace
Produced by Marlena Bond
Originally broadcast on KPFK 90.7 FM 11/06/23

Senator Anthony Portantino represents California’s 25th State Senate District, which stretches along the 210 Freeway from Sunland/Tujunga to Upland.  He proudly represents the Rose Bowl, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Griffith Park, Warner Brothers, Disney, Caltech and the Claremont Colleges.
Supporting public education, mental health, and sensible gun control have been priorities for Senator Portantino during his time in office. His accomplishments include increasing funding for special education and the K-12 Local Control Funding Formula. He has authored legislation that created California’s umbilical cord blood collection program, pushed back school start time for middle and high schools, banned the open carry of handguns on Main Street California, raised the purchase age of firearms to 21, and placed the suicide hotline number on student identification cards.  In addition, his efforts have created a science fellowship in the State Capitol and established a unique partnership between the University of California and Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
He personally negotiated the end of the 710-freeway tunnel with the Brown administration and authored SB 7, which formally ended the threat of the freeway, protected the non-profits in the corridor, and paved the way for Pasadena to develop the dormant freeway stub.
Senator Portantino currently serves as the Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a Select Committee to foster trade between California, Armenia and Artsakh.
Prior to his years as a representative, he spent many years working in film and television production, served on the California Film Commission, and spent nearly eight years on the La Cañada Flintridge City Council, with two terms as Mayor.  In 2019, he was awarded the prestigious Ellis Island Award at a ceremony in the historic island’s great hall.
Senator Portantino grew up in New Jersey, where he attended public schools and graduated from Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania, where he met his future wife, Ellen, a longtime business executive at Warner Brothers and Disney.  They have two daughters.

Senator Anthony Portantino - Poets Cafe KPFK 12/06/23

Hosted by Mark Lipman
Produced by Mark Lipman/Marlena Bond
Originally broadcast on KPFK 90.7 FM 12/13/23

Poets Café presents:
Poetry from Around the World: From Istanbul to Palestine
With your host and foreign correspondent, Mark Lipman and his special guest, Palestinian-Refugee poet, Ramy Al-Banna with poetry by Mahmoud Darwish, Rafeef Ziadah, MC Abdul & Guido Corleone.

From Istanbul to Palestine w/Ramy Al-Banna - Poets Cafe KPFK 12/13/23

Hosted by Mark Lipman
Produced by Mark Lipman/Marlena Bond
Originally broadcast on KPFK 90.7 FM 03/13/24

Poets Café presents: Poetry from Around the World
with host Mark Lipman and his special guest Dr. Cornel West, in discussion on the Role of Poets in Society, with poetry by Annahita Mahdavi West.

Cornel West/Mark Lipman - Poets Cafe KPFK 03/13/24

Hosted by Brian Sonia-Wallace
Produced by Marlena Bond
Originally broadcast on KPFK 90.7 FM 03/20/24

Wendy Van Camp is the Poet Laureate for the City of Anaheim, California. Her work is influenced by cutting edge technology, astronomy, and daydreams. She is a nominated finalist for the Elgin Award, a Pushcart Prize, and for a Dwarf Stars Award. Her poems, stories, and articles have appeared in: “Star*Line”, “Scifaikuest”, and “Indy Author Magazine”, among many others. She is the editor of two annual poetry anthologies “Eccentric Orbits” and “Anaheim Poetry Review”, and a guest editor for the SFPA’s “Eye To The Telescope”. She is a graduate of the Ad Astra Speculative Fiction Workshop and a member of SFWA, Codex, SFPA, and IBPA. Find her books on all major online retailers.

Anaheim Poet Laureate Wendy Van Camp 03/20/24

Hosted by Mark Lipman
Produced by Mark Lipman/Marlena Bond
Originally broadcast on KPFK 90.7 FM 04/10/24

Poetry from Around the World with your host and foreign correspondent Mark Lipman and his special guest, Nigerian poet, Amarachi Attamah, featuring Igbo Chant Poetry and music by Flavour.

Amarachi Attamah - Poets Cafe KPFK 04/10/24

Hosted by Alex Frankel
Produced by Marlena Bond
Originally broadcast on KPFK 90.7 FM 09/04/24

Gail Wronsky is the author, coauthor, or translator of seventeen books of poetry and prose, including Some Disenfranchised Evening (Swan Scythe Press, 2024), Under the Capsized Boat We Fly: New & Selected Poems (White Pine Press, 2021) and the poetry collections Imperfect Pastorals; Poems for Infidels; and Dying for Beauty, a finalist for the Western Arts Federation Poetry Prize. She is the translator of Argentinean poet Alicia Partnoy’s book Fuegos Florales/Flowering Fires, winner of the American Poetry Prize from Settlement House Press. Her poems have appeared in many journals, including Poetry, Boston Review, Antioch Review, Denver Quarterly, Poetry International, Guesthouse, and Volt.  

Gail is the recipient of an Artists Fellowship from the California Arts Council. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, including Pratik, the LA Issue; Poets Against War; The Black Body; In Possession of Shakespeare; The Poet’s Child; Wide Awake: The Poetry of Los Angeles and Beyond, and Coiled Serpent:  Poets Arising from the Cultural Quakes and Shifts of Los Angeles. The Moose in the Moon, her book of poetry for children, was published by Tsehai Publishers. Gail is coeditor of the anthology What Falls Away is Always: Writers Over 60 on Writing & Death (What Books Press, 2021).  She taught creative writing and women’s literature at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles where she was awarded the Harry M. Daum Professorship.  

Born and raised in eastern Pennsylvania, Gail attended high school outside Detroit, Michigan, then went to Kalamazoo College. After two years, she transferred to the University of Virginia, She received a BA in English with High Distinction there, then continued on for an MFA in Creative Writing:  Poetry. After teaching English for a year at Foxcroft School in Middleburg, VA, she attended the PhD program at the University of Utah, receiving her doctorate in English and American Literature in 1982.  Since then Gail has been teaching at LMU. She is married to the novelist Chuck Rosenthal.  Their daughter Marlena Dalí is a performance artist in Sydney, Australia.

Gail is a founding member of the Glass Table Collective, a former member of the Board of Directors of Beyond Baroque, and a member of the Advisory Board of Anaphora Arts. She curates the Clockwork Chapbook Series for Tebot Bach Press and is a member of the permanent faculty of the Prague Summer Program.

Gail Wronsky w/Alex Frankel 09/04/24

Hosted by Alex Frankel
Produced by Marlena Bond
Originally broadcast on KPFK 90.7 FM 09/18/24

Ann lived in Uganda until she was fourteen then came to a farming community near Kings Lynn Norfolk. She studied at London University and worked mainly in London as a Psychiatric Social worker. Then had a family and lived in Raynes Park for many years. Her poetry arises from these transitions. The Lines We Trace is her first full collection since Warming The Stones published in 1994 in the period when she was teaching Creative Writing in Merton, Kingston and Richmond. She co-runs a weekly writing group in Raynes Park Library She is married to Reinalt and her children are Robin and Alys. She was an editor of the Long Poem Magazine for five years and has co-edited anthologies for Merton Poets.

Anne Vaughan-Williams w/Alex Frankel 09/18/24

Hosted by Alex Frankel
Produced by Marlena Bond
Originally broadcast on KPFK 90.7 FM 10/02/24

Radomir Vojtech Luza was born in Vienna, Austria in 1963 to prominent Czech parents.  The Pushcart Prize nominated poet (2012) has been The Poet Laureate of North Hollywood, CA since 2012 and the author of 37 books (33 collections of poetry) since 1991. In 2021, Luza won the San Gabriel Valley Poetry Festival Book Contest with LOSING ME: POEMS FROM BED 23C and finished Sixth in the Broadside Contest.

In 2022, the freelance writer and former college disc jockey placed Fourth in the SGVPF Book Contest with TIN TULIP, his meditation on pornography, and tied for First in the Broadside Contest. In 2020, the Third-Place finisher in the 1983 New Orleans Catholic Youth Organization Man of the Year Contest, placed Second in The SGVPF Chapbook Contest.  The Catholic of over 50 years had his One Act Play CURIOUS TUMOR produced and staged by The American Naturalistic Theatre (Off Broadway) and a One Act Play festival in New York City in 2005.

The Tulane University and Jesuit High School (New Orleans, LA) graduate produced and staged his play THE BISHOP HAS LANDED at the Riant Theatre’s Strawberry One Act Play Festival and The Producers Club in NYC in 2004. Luza, who has written, recorded and produced nine spoken word CD’s set to music (Eight of them engineered by the late Barry Schwam) garnered The Irwin Award (Book Publicists of Southern California) for Most Creative Collection of Poetry for 2016’s EROS OF ANGELS which is a Tribute to Los Angeles highlighting one man’s journey from skid row to literary row.

Luza also had his One Act Play, WHITE MAN, BLACK MAN produced and staged at The Riant Theatre’s One Act Play Festival during its stint in Los Angeles in 2008. Lastly, the editor and publisher of the literary journal VOICES IN THE LIBRARY, published by Red Doubloon Publishing, the literary arm of Radman Productions, produced and staged IN HELL, the one person show he wrote and performed, in The One Person Show Series at The White Fire Theatre in Los Angeles in 2008.

Radomir Luza w/Alex Frankel 10/02/24

Hosted by Mark Lipman
Produced by Mark Lipman/Marlena Bond
Originally broadcast on KPFK 90.7 FM 10/09/24

Mayor London N. Breed and City Librarian Michael Lambert on September 6, 2024 announced that Genny Lim has been named San Francisco’s Poet Laureate, the ninth artist in City history to hold the title. Lim was appointed by Mayor Breed after being nominated by an eight-member Selection Committee comprised of past Poets Laureate, City officials, and members of the Bay Area poetry and literary community. She will succeed Tongo Eisen-Martin. “I am honored to appoint Genny as San Francico's first Chinese American Poet Laureate, who is paving the way for future generations to follow in her footsteps,” said Mayor London Breed. “I applaud her vision to bring people together through her poetry and work and look forward to watching Genny grow into this role that undoubtedly will help uplift our City. She is a shining example of the richness of San Francisco's heritage, and I know Genny will leave so many hearts and minds changed for the better during her tenure.” Genny (Genevieve) Lim, born and raised in Chinatown, is the second-generation daughter of Chinese immigrants. A graduate of San Fracisco State and Columbia University, she has been widely awarded and published. Among her notable achievements is being named the SF Jazz Poet Laureate in 2017-2018. She was also recently honored by the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation for the Spirit of Angel Island award.  “It is truly a great honor to have been selected as the first Chinese American to serve as San Francisco Poet Laureate. My appointment comes with a sense of profound pride. Growing up in postwar San Francisco Chinatown, as the seventh child of Chinese immigrants once detained at the Angel Island Immigration Detention Center, I have an acute awareness of city residents who function dually as both insiders and outsiders,” said Poet Laureate Genny Lim. “This is the city where people, such as my immigrant parents, come to dream, explore and reinvent themselves. My vision is to help reinvigorate the city through the healing vehicle of poetry. Poetry is a way to better understand the world.”  Lim is the first Chinese American woman appointed to the position and noted her inspiration as an activist for social justice from the late Janice Mirikitani, the City’s first Asian American Poet Laureate. She is the author of the poetry collections Winter Place (1989), Child of War (2003) and Paper Gods and Rebels (2013); the children’s book Wings for Lai-Ho (1982); and the plays Paper Angels (1978) and Bitter Cane (1989), among others. Her play, Paper Angels, about Chinese immigrants detained on Angel Island, premiered at the Asian American Theater Company in 1980 and was presented on PBS’s American Playhouse in 1985, garnering the James Wong Howe Award by AAPAA, Los Angeles and Best Site Specific Production at the SF Fringe Festival at Portsmouth Square, Chinatown in 2010.  Her work appears in The Politics of Life: Four Plays by Asian American Women (1993), the Oxford Book of Women’s Writing in the United States (1995), and Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island (1980). Lim is the winner of the 1981 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. In 1982, she founded a theater company, Paper Angels Productions, now known as Theatre XX, a company that performs experimental theater. Lim has taught at the New College of California, and her papers are held at UC Santa Barbara. “To read Genny Lim’s poetry is to become steeped in the history of San Francisco,” said City Librarian Michael Lambert. “In her verse, she gives voice to immigrants who came ashore here and established essential communities yet lived silent lives. Her passion for building meaningful connections and deeper understanding through poetry today is contagious. I’m excited to see her vision come to fruition in the next three years as Poet Laureate.”

San Francisco Poet Laureate Genny Lim w/Mark Lipman 10/09/24

Hosted by Michael C. Ford
Produced by Marlena Bond
Originally broadcast on KPFK 90.7 FM 10/16/24

JAMES CUSHING, born 1953 in Palo Alto CA, holds a doctorate in English from UC Irvine. In the early 1980s, he hosted a live poetry radio program on KPFK-FM in Los Angeles which gave early exposure to Dennis Cooper, David Trinidad, Amy Gerstler, Wanda Coleman, Leland Hickman, and many others. From 1989-2020, he taught literature and creative writing at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and served as the community’s Poet Laureate for 2008 – 2010. Cushing’s poems have appeared in many journals. His daughter is the New York-based poet Iris Cushing. 

Cushing was California Faculty Association Distinguished Lecturer for 2004-’05 and Poet Laureate of San Luis Obispo for 2008-2010. Winner of Renegade Magazine’s 1994 “Warlord of the Subculture” Award, Cushing has published four full-length collections of his poetry with Cahuenga Press of Los Angeles: Pinocchio’s Revolution (2010), Undercurrent Blues (2005), The Length of an Afternoon (1999), and You and the Night and the Music (1991). His poems and essays have appeared in such publications as Antioch Review, California Quarterly, Denver Quarterly, RATTLE, Massachusetts Review, and Yabolusha Review, as well as in The Second Set, a jazz-poetry anthology edited by Yusef Komunyakaa (Indiana UP, 1996). He joined the faculty in 1989. Since 1997, Cushing has hosted a jazz program on Cal Poly’s radio station, KCPR.

James Cushing w/Michael C. Ford 10/16/24

Hosted by Richard Modiano
Produced by Marlena Bond
Originally broadcast on KPFK 90.7 FM 10/30/24

Poet, publisher, and Pushcart nominee Amélie Frank has authored five poetry collections and one spoken word CD. Her work has appeared in Art/Life, Lummox, Covid, Isolation & Hope: Artists Respond to the Pandemic, So Luminous the Wildflowers, Poeticdiversity, Sparring with Beatnik Ghosts, Levure Litérraire, Poetry Superhighway, Cultural Weekly, Wide Awake, 1001 Knights, Al-Khemia Poetrica, Don't Blame The Ugly Mug, Blue Arc West, Spectrum, Edgar Allan Poet, A Month of Sundays, Pacific Coast Poetry Series, Truck, Spectrum, 51%, fts, Dance of the Iguana, Scream When You Burn, Beat Not Beat, and Voices From Leimert Park Redux, Dear Bela, Beyond Baroque, and more. She has featured in such reading events as Poetry in Motion, BackStory, Sparring with Beatnik Ghosts, the NoHo Literary Crawl, Library Girl, Inspiration House, The Frank O'Hara Reading at MOMA, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and even Hooters Café. Beyond Baroque Literary/Arts Center and the cities of Venice and Los Angeles have honored her for her activism and leadership in the Southern California poetry community. She is a third-generation native of Los Angeles.

Amélie Frank w/Richard Modiano 10/30/24

Hosted by Richard Modiano
Produced by Marlena Bond
Originally broadcast on KPFK 90.7 FM 11/06/24

Iris Berry is the co-founder of Punk Hostage Press. She is the author and editor of several books and has a vast fan base for her unique voice and formidable writing style. She’s an L.A. Pop culture historian, actress, and musician. She’s appeared in numerous films, TV commercials, documentaries, and iconic rock videos. In the 1980s & 90s, she sang, performed, wrote songs and recorded with the Lame Flames, the Ringling Sisters, the Dickies, the Flesh Eaters, and Pink Sabbath. She served four years on the Board of Directors for Beyond Baroque Literary/Arts Center. In 2009 she received her 2nd Certificate of Merit Award from the city of Los Angeles for her contribution as a Los Angeles writer, and for her extensive charity work. Iris continues to champion and advocate for original voices.

Books by Iris Berry: All That Shines Under The Hollywood Sign, The Daughters of Bastards, The Trouble with Palm Trees and Gas Station Etiquette

Iris Berry w/Richard Modiano 11/06/24

Hosted by Mark Lipman
Produced by Mark Lipman/Marlena Bond
Originally broadcast on KPFK 90.7 FM 11/13/24

Poets Café presents: Poetry from Around the World With your host and foreign correspondent, Mark Lipman coming to you from Aberdeen, Scotland, in conversation with
the new International Beat Poet Laureate, Fin Hall.

Fin Hall, the New Pitsligo-based poet and artistic organizer extraordinaire. Fin is the host of Like A Blot From The Blue, a poetry and spoken-word event transcending the boundaries of the physical and digital welcoming in hundreds of creatives from across the globe as well as a semi regular open mic night at various venues in Aberdeen, Scotland. ..Fin is a profoundly experienced poet with a career spanning decades. On-stage, Fin performs with a beautiful sensitivity. He isn't afraid to broach upon themes of old age, hope, love, and loss but reserves a potent and fiery attitude against injustice. Fin is also a filmmaker, collaborative writer, performance poet and, publisher. He now co-produces Poetry In The Park, Aberdeen’s only monthly outdoor spoken word event, with Birgit Itse. 

He has 2 solo collections published , Once Upon A Time There Was, Now There Isn’t and Over 1880 years in the Making. Solidarity ( a short collection of  political poems ) and Headspace, which contains work by his daughter and granddaughter are also available.. 3 Collaborative books, which is one long poem, Joined Up Writing 1 and 2, and  3 where over a 200 writers from around the globe are part of it, and has well over 50 poems and short stories published both online and in books from Australia, China, India USA, Canada and U.K. He has also published, via publishers Like A Blot From The Blue, four anthologies, I Ache In The places I Used To Play, Blotter’s Jotters, Poems For The End Of The World and Unite The States of America. For several years prior to Covid, he produced and ran Everybody Has A Story, a real life, live storytelling event where ordinary people told extraordinary stories. Stories of their real lives.

International Beat Poet Laureate Fin Hall w/Mark Lipman 11/13/24

Hosted by Wendy Van Camp
Produced by Marlena Bond
Originally broadcast on KPFK 90.7 FM 11/20/24

Steven Reigns is a Los Angeles poet and educator and was appointed the first Poet Laureate of West Hollywood. Alongside over a dozen chapbooks, he has published the collections Inheritance and Your Dead Body is My Welcome Mat. Reigns holds a BA in Creative Writing from the University of South Florida, a Master of Clinical Psychology from Antioch University, and is a sixteen-time recipient of The Los Angeles County’s Department of Cultural Affairs’ Artist in Residency Grant. He edited My Life is Poetry, showcasing his students’ work from the first-ever autobiographical poetry workshop for LGBT seniors. Reigns has lectured and taught writing workshops around the country to LGBT youth and people living with HIV. Currently he is touring The Gay Rub, an exhibition of rubbings from LGBT landmarks, facilitates the monthly Lambda Lit Book Club. His newest collection A Quilt for David was published by City Lights and is the product of over ten years of research regarding dentist David Acer’s life.   

Steven Reigns w/Wendy Van Camp 11/20/24

Hosted by Mark Lipman
Produced by Mark Lipman/Marlena Bond
Originally broadcast on KPFK 90.7 FM 12/04/24

Poets Café presents:
Poetry from Around the World with your host and foreign correspondent, Mark Lipman coming to you from Lowell, Massachusetts in a very special conversation with the co-founder of Beat Poetry, David Amram.

David Amram w/Mark Lipman 12/04/24

Hosted by Richard Modiano
Produced by Marlena Bond
Originally broadcast on KPFK 90.7 FM 12/09/24

Kat Georges is an internationally known poet and playwright, who cofounded San Francisco’s Marilyn Monroe Memorial Theater in 1992, where she served as co-artistic director for eight years. Her previous books include the poetry collections Our Lady of the Hunger, Punk Rock Journal, and Slow Dance at 120 Beats Per Minute. Her work has appeared in journals worldwide, including The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry (Thunder’s Mouth Press), The Verdict Is In (as editor; Manic D Press), and Ladyland: Anthologie de Littérature Féminine Américaine (13E Note Editions). Her nonfiction prose has been published in San Francisco Examiner, Orange County Register, La Habra Daily Journal, and more. She was born and raised in Southern California, where she co-founded The Eye Magazine, which covered the SoCal punk scene in the early 80s, following her graduation from California State University, Fullerton. She is cofounder and codirector of Three Rooms Press and currently lives in New York City

Peter Carlaftes is a New York-based performance artist, playwright, fiction author, actor, and poet. He is the author of twelve plays, including a noir treatment of Knut Hamsun’s “Hunger” and his original celebrity rehab center spoof, “Spin-Dry.” He has appeared in numerous Off-Broadway productions, including his comic solo performance piece, “Lenny Bruce: Dead & Well,” as well as “Barefoot in the Park” and Stephen Adly Guirgis’  “Den of Thieves.” Carlaftes books include A YEAR ON FACEBOOK (humor), DRUNKYARD DOG and I FOLD WITH THE HAND I WAS DEALT (poetry), TRIUMPH FOR RENT (3 Plays) and TEATROPHY (3 More Plays). He is co-editor of the annual Dada writing and art journal, MAINTENANT and the annual New York-based short story collection, HAVE A NYC. He is co-director of Three Rooms Press, a fierce, New York-based independent publisher inspired by Dada, punk and passion. He lives in New York City.

Peter Carlaftes and Kat Georges w/Richard Modiano 12/09/24

Guest Host: Richard Modiano
Guest: Gerald Nicosia

Gerald Nicosia, who wrote the ultimate Jack Kerouac biography, “Memory Babe” (1994), has just completed an insightful book, Kerouac: The Last Quarter Century, that examines the sad final years of Kerouac’s life and the brutal fight over his estate following his death at 47 of a hemorrhage due to cirrhosis. The main antagonist is Jack Kerouac’s brother-in-law, John Sampas, who inherited the literary rights to Kerouac’s work. Challenges to Mr. Sampas’ authority over the estate came from Kerouac’s blood descendants, including his only daughter from an earlier marriage, Jan Kerouac, who died in 1996, and a nephew, Paul Blake.

Nicosia’s personal account reads like a movie of the week, involving warring family members. Sampas helped put Nicosia’s biography of Kerouac out of print at Penguin and tried to cut off royalties from the Kerouac estate to Jan Kerouac, herself a writer and in failing health. When she sued, Nicosia suggests that Sampas knew she wouldn’t live to see the end of the trial. Kerouac denied she was his daughter until a blood test indicated she was. Even after a will by Kerouac’s mother was ruled a forgery, John Sampas remained in control of the Kerouac estate until he died at 84; his adopted son and nephew took over. Gerald Nicosia chronicles the trial, including a legal loophole that allowed the Sampas family to keep a “stolen literary estate.”

Gerald Nicosia/Kerouac: The Last Quarter Century Poets Cafe/KPFK

Host: Lois P. Jones
Producer: Marlena Bond

United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo's name carries an astounding history of literary, musical and social activism, deeply informed by the spirit, her Creek Nation ancestry and drawn from the natural world. Joy has said that "every event has a place of power located somewhere within it." What is the power within our current chaotic events? How does an event like Standing Rock engage us into further action and awareness? In this half-hour program Joy Harjo shares several poems from "Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings," a "marvelous instrument that veins through a dark lode of American History" (Yusef Komunyaka), calling the spirit back to its true path on this earth.
World Literature Today says "This is not merely a book of poetry. These are instructions for the soul, a song to lead the reader home... [Harjo is] the first lady of American Indian Poetry."
Joy Harjo is an internationally known performer and writer of the Mvskoke /Creek Nation, the author of ten books of poetry and a memoir, Crazy Brave. A critically acclaimed poet, her many honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Josephine Miles Poetry Award, the William Carlos Williams Award, and the American Indian Distinguished Achievement in the Arts Award. She lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Joy Harjo - Poets Cafe KPFK 3/7/17

Hosted by Lois P. Jones
Produced by Marlena Bond

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson was born and raised in New York City where he was educated in the public schools clear through his graduation from the Bronx High School of Science. Tyson went on to earn his BA in Physics from Harvard and his PhD in Astrophysics from Columbia. Tyson’s professional research interests are broad, but include star formation, exploding stars, dwarf galaxies, and the structure of our Milky Way. In 2001, Tyson was appointed by President Bush to serve on a 12-member commission that studied the Future of the US Aerospace Industry. The final report was published in 2002 and contained recommendations (for Congress and for the major agencies of the government) that would promote a thriving future of transportation, space exploration, and national security. In 2004, Tyson was once again appointed by President Bush to serve on a 9-member commission on the Implementation of the United States Space Exploration Policy, dubbed the Moon, Mars, and Beyond commission. This group navigated a path by which the new space vision can become a successful part of the American agenda. And in 2006, the head of NASA appointed Tyson to serve on its prestigious Advisory Council, which will help guide NASA through its perennial need to fit its ambitious vision into its restricted budget. In addition to dozens of professional publications, Dr. Tyson has written, and continues to write for the public. From 1995 to 2005, Tyson was a monthly essayist for Natural History magazine under the title Universe. And among Tyson’s ten books is his memoir The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist; and Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution, co-written with Donald Goldsmith. Origins is the companion book to the PBS-NOVA 4-part mini-series Origins, in which Tyson served as on-camera host. The program premiered on September 28 and 29, 2004. Two of Tyson’s recent books are the playful and informative Death By Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries, which was a New York Times bestseller, and The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet, chronicling his experience at the center of the controversy over Pluto’s planetary status. The PBS/NOVA documentary “The Pluto Files”, based on the book, premiered in March 2010. For five seasons, beginning in the fall of 2006, Tyson appeared as the on-camera host of PBS-NOVA’s spinoff program NOVA ScienceNOW, which is an accessible look at the frontier of all the science that shapes the understanding of our place in the universe. During the summer of 2009 Tyson identified a stable of professional standup comedians to assist his effort in bringing science to commercial radio with the NSF-funded pilot program StarTalk. Now also a podcast, StarTalk Radio combines celebrity guests with informative yet playful banter. The target audience is all those people who never thought they would, or could, like science. Tyson is the recipient of fourteen honorary doctorates and the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest award given by NASA to a non-government citizen. His contributions to the public appreciation of the cosmos have been recognized by the International Astronomical Union in their official naming of asteroid 13123 Tyson. On the lighter side, Tyson was voted Sexiest Astrophysicist Alive by People Magazine in 2000. In February 2012, Tyson releases his tenth book, this one exclusive devoted to space exploration: Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier, and he is currently working on a 21st century reboot of Carl Sagan’s landmark television series COSMOS, to air in 13 episodes on the FOX network in 2013. Tyson is the first occupant of the Frederick P. Rose Directorship of the Hayden Planetarium. Tyson lives in New York City with his wife and two children.

Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson - Poets Cafe KPFK 2014

A special Christmas Day Poets Cafe program with guest host Alice Pero and poet Yun Wang, with poems in Chinese and English and flute accompaniment.

Su Dong-Po (1036-1101 A.D.) is one of the most celebrated and beloved poets in Chinese history. Yun Wang will read a set of these timeless poems in the original Chinese and her English translation from her new book Dreaming of Fallen Blossoms: Tune Poems of Su Dong-Po (White Pine Press, 2019), with music by flutist and poet Alice Pero. 

Yun Wang is an award-winning poet and a leading cosmologist at California Institute of Technology. She is the author of poetry books "The Book of Totality" (Salmon Poetry Press, 2015) and "The Book of Jade" (Story Line Press, 2002), as well as a cosmology graduate textbook, "Dark Energy" (Wiley, 2010).

Alice Pero is an accomplished flutist, the founder and artistic director of the Windsong Players Chamber Ensemble, as well as a widely published poet and author of the poetry book "Thawed Stars".

Yun Wang: Dreaming of Fallen Blossoms: Ancient Chinese Poetry with Music

Brendan Constantine w/Thea Constantine Poets Cafe KPFK 2017

Hosted by Lois P. Jones
Produced by Marlena Bond

Music: Goldberg Variations by Glenn Gould

Cathy Colman’s first book, Borrowed Dress, won the Felix Pollak Prize for Poetry from The University of Wisconsin Press and was on the The Los Angeles Times Bestseller List the first week of its release. Her second collection, Beauty’s Tattoo, was published by Tebot Bach Publications (2009). Her third collection, Time Crunch, was published by What Books Press (2019). Her poetry has appeared in The Colorado Review, Ploughshares, The Huffington Post, The Gettysburg Review, Prairie Schooner, The Journal, The Southern Review, Barrow Street, The Los Angeles Review, Pool, Chance of a Ghost Anthology (Putnam/Tarcher), Writers on Writing (Putnam), LE Poetry, Pratik and elsewhere. She has won The Browning Award for Poetry, The Ascher Montandon Award, judged by Campbell McGrath, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize eight times. She has been a free-lance reviewer for The New York Times Book Review. She has also been a free-lance lecturer/reader at St. Stephens College, Cambridge University, UK, The University of Southern California, The Oakland College of Arts and Crafts, The Oakland Museum, University of California, Los Angeles, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Museum of Contemporary Art, The Getty Museum and many other venues. Her poetry has been translated into Italian, Croatian and Russian.

Cathy Colman - Poets Cafe KPFK 4/12/20

Hosted by Lois P. Jones
Produced by Marlena Bond

Katrina Naomi received an Authors’ Foundation award from the Society of Authors for work on her third collection, Wild Persistence. She has a PhD in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths College. Katrina’s recent work has been broadcast on Radio 4’s Front Row, Poetry Please, BBC TV Spotlight and on Poems on the Underground. Her second poetry collection, The Way the Crocodile Taught Me, published by Seren, was chosen by Foyles Bookshop as one of its Foyles’ Five for Poetry. She was the first writer-in-residence at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, W Yorks. Her most recent pamphlet, following an Arts Council-funded trip to Japan, was published by Verve Poetry Press, entitled Typhoon Etiquette. She was highly commended in the 2017 Forward Prize for Poetry. Katrina has been writer-in-residence at Gladstone’s Library in North Wales where she wrote a sequence on the Suffragettes, published by Rack Press as Hooligans. Her debut collection The Girl with the Cactus Handshake received an Arts Council Award and was shortlisted for the London New Poetry Award. Her pamphlet Lunch at the Elephant & Castle won the 2008 Templar Poetry Pamphlet Competition and her pamphlet Charlotte Brontë’s Corset was published to acclaim by the Brontë Society. She is a Hawthornden Fellow, a tutor for Arvon and Ty Newydd, and runs Poetry Surgeries for the Poetry Society. She is published by The TLS, The Spectator, The Poetry Review and Poetry Wales. She received an award from the Royal Literary Fund in 2014 for her writing. She enjoys performing her poetry and collaborating with visual artists, musicians and film-makers. She recently had an exhibition at London’s Poetry Café entitled ‘The Argument: Art V Poetry’, following a collaboration with the visual artist, Tim Ridley. She is originally from Margate and lives in Cornwall.

Katrina Naomi - Poets Cafe KPFK 9/20/2020

New episodes of Poets Café available here and at https://www.kpfk.org/archives on Wednesdays 
Produced by Marlena Bond

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