PoemTalk
Our language is loaded (PoemTalk #200)
200! This 200th episode of the monthly podcast PoemTalk was a special event in several ways. First, obviously, we want to find the perfect group to help us put on a celebratory event — to mark the milestone (well, back in 2007 PoemTalk was one of the few earliest podcasts about poetry) by inviting 
people who have been with us most of the way. William J. (Billy Joe) Harris, Tyrone Williams, and Aldon Nielsen, along with host/organizer Al Filreis, had been convening nearly every year (minus two pandemic years) for a long while, each time inviting a poet the group admired to join us. This gathering will be the penultimate session. Not long after these people spent a day and night at the Writers House — sharing meals, recording an interview in the studio, holding impromptu seminars — our friend Tyrone Williams passed away. The episode, now released to keep in sequence for the 200th, serves as a memorializing of sorts. It was the last of Tyrone’s many, many visits to the Writers House. Penultimate, because — the group will gather again one last time not long after this episode is published, to record a PoemTalk on Tyrone’s poem “Charon on the Potomac.” After the recording of the new PoemTalk, the Kelly Writers House will present a poetry reading in his memory.
Now back to this 200th episode. It celebrates Evie Shockley and was informally dubbed “Evie Day.” Before a live audience in the Arts Café of KWH we talk about two of Evie’s poems: “My last modernist poem, #4 (or, re-re-birth of a nation)” from The New Black; and “studies in antebellum literature (or, topsy-turvy),” from Semi-automatic. Evie’s expansive PennSound page happens to include recordings of her performing both of these poems, but since we were feeling the honor of having Evie there with us in person, we asked her if she wouldn’t mind reading these poems. She did, and you'll be hearing them as part of the PoemTalk discussion after the introductions.
We also livestreamed that discussion, after which it was posted as an unedited video recording. You can view that by clicking HERE, or can watch the embedded video below. We are grateful to Zach Carduner and Magda Andrews-Hoke and their Writers House team for expert handling of sound and video tech, Zach as always for his remarkable editing of the audio, and Aaron Randi and his staff at the bistro Illata for putting on a lovely feast to round out the evening after a memorable day of poetry.
A video recording of the evening reading — featuring Evie Shockley and Simone White — can be viewed HERE.
Click the text-image below to read the poems.
