We’re celebrating Pride Month and the Tony Awards by revisiting my interview with playwright, composer, lyricist Michael R. Jackson. A Strange Loop, his play about a Black queer musical theater writer who is writing a play about a Black queer musical theater writer who is writing a play about a Black queer theater writer…, has wowed audiences and critics. Capturing some of … [Read more...] about Revisiting Tony Award Winner Michael R. Jackson
Meet the Co-creators of Modern Warrior LIVE–US Army Veteran Jaymes Poling and Musician Dominick Farinacci
Modern Warrior LIVE is a unique and moving theatrical experience that mixes first-person narrative with music and multimedia to chronicle US Army Veteran Jaymes Poling’s story of his three deployments to Afghanistan and subsequent transition back home. In today’s podcast, I speak with its co-creators, Jaymes Poling and jazz trumpeter Dominick Farinacci about the conception of … [Read more...] about Meet the Co-creators of Modern Warrior LIVE–US Army Veteran Jaymes Poling and Musician Dominick Farinacci
Meet Novelist & NEA Literature Fellow Peng Shepherd
Novelist and NEA Literature Fellow Peng Shepherd latest book is the speculative mystery The Cartographers. Those of us who love maps think they are magical. In Shepherd’s book, this magic isn’t metaphorical; The Cartographers has, at its heart, not only the wonder and possibilities of map-making, but a map that is actually magical and becomes a dangerous obsession for a … [Read more...] about Meet Novelist & NEA Literature Fellow Peng Shepherd
Meet the Poet Laureate of Kansas Huascar Medina
This week, we're speaking with the first Latino and non-academic Poet Laureate of Kansas Huascar Medina. Medina, who is a member of the National Council on the Arts, brings a strong and vibrant voice to poetry with work that explore home, separation, place, and inclusion, and with his advocacy for grassroots artists. In this podcast, Medina reads from his recent … [Read more...] about Meet the Poet Laureate of Kansas Huascar Medina
Meet Musician and Composer Terence Blanchard
We celebrating Jazz Appreciation month with an in-depth conversation with composer and jazz musician Terence Blanchard. Terence Blanchard has a long list of exceptional jazz credentials, but he’s most recently found acclaim as the first Black composer to compose an opera presented by the Metropolitan Opera. In this podcast, he discusses how he came to write the opera (which … [Read more...] about Meet Musician and Composer Terence Blanchard