Azo Vauguy

Azo Vauguy is the author of Zakwato (2009), a myth adapted from its oral keeping in the Bété language to a book-length poem in written French. Peril Loglèdou: Voyage au pays des yeux perdus (2015) continues the journey of Zakwato. Vauguy is also the author of the novel Le Rire Du Destin (2016). He was a career journalist, focusing on cultural affairs. As a poet, he was considered one of Africa’s eminent neo-oralists by his peers. He died in April 2020.

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from 'Zakwato'

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Every flower a reminder (PoemTalk #202)

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PoemTalk

From left: Laynie Browne, Harryette Mullen, Simone White

LISTEN TO THE SHOW

Simone White, Harryette Mullen, and Laynie Browne joined Al Filreis to talk a six-page section of Harryette’s new book Open Leaves. The book, subtitled “poems from earth,” was published by Black Sunflowers Poetry Press of London in 2023. The section discussed by the group is titled “Chasing Dirt” and consists of two epigraphs, a prose-poem paragraph, a mixed media artwork titled Silent Talks by Tiffanie Delune, and a sequence of three-line poems across four pages of four poems each. Since PennSound’s Harryette Mullen author page did not yet include a recording of Harryette performing poems from Open Leaves, we asked her to read “Chasing Dirt” at the start of the recorded session. The pages from Open Leaves are available HERE.

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Anna de Noailles, translated by Chris Mustazza

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