Artspeak Radio celebrates National Poetry Month with Miguel M. Morales and Abby Bland

Artspeak Radio, Wednesday, April 13, 2022, noon – 1pm CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live audio www. kkfi.org
Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd welcomes poets for National Poetry Month; poet/writer/community acitivist Miguel M. Morales and Director Poetic Underground KC, Abby Bland.

National Poetry Month www.poets.org
Launched by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996, National Poetry Month reminds the public that poets have an integral role to play in our culture and that poetry matters. Over the years, it has become the largest literary celebration in the world, with tens of millions of readers, students, K–12 teachers, librarians, booksellers, literary events curators, publishers, families, and—of course—poets, marking poetry’s important place in our lives. 
Thanks in part to our National Poetry Month partners and sponsors, each April the Academy is able to offer activities, initiatives, and resources so that anyone can join the celebration:
• Order (for free) and display the official 2022 National Poetry Month poster
• Read about 30 ways to celebrate National Poetry Month online and at home
• Read about 30 ways to celebrate National Poetry Month in the classroom
• Join the Academy of American Poets for its virtual Poetry & the Creative Mind gala on April 28
• Find online poetry readings and events on our Poetry Near You calendar, and add your own
• Encourage students in grades five through twelve to participate in the 2022 Dear Poet Project
• Sign up for Poem-a-Day and enjoy a free daily poem in your inbox, in April 2022 curated by award-winning poet Naomi Shihab Nye
• Follow the thousands of celebrations taking place on social media with the official hashtag #NationalPoetryMonth and follow the Academy of American Poets on Twitter and Instagram @POETSorg
• Share a #PocketPoem on Poem in Your Pocket Day on April 29
• Make a gift to the Academy of American Poets

MIGUEL M. MORALES grew up in Texas working as a migrant/seasonal farmworker. He is a Lambda Literary Fellow and an alum of VONA/Voices and the Macondo Writers Workshops. Miguel’s work that centers on fatness and queerness appears in From Macho to Mariposa: New Gay Latino Fiction, Hibernation and Other Poems by Bear Bards, Imaniman: Poets Writing in the Anzaldúan Borderlands, and The (Other) F Word: A Celebration of the Fat & Fierce. He is the co-editor of Pulse/Pulso: In Remembrance of Orlando and of Fat and Queer: An Anthology of Queer and Trans Bodies and Lives. Follow him on social media as @TrustMiguel.

ABBY BLAND is the current program director for Poetic Underground KC. Her work has appeared in Ghost City Review, What Are Birds? and elsewhere. She is a multi time finalist on the Kansas City Slam stage and has competed both regionally and nationally with her work. Her debut chapbook The Odds Against a Starry Cosmos was published in November 2020 with Perennial Press. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter @applestoabby.
Poetic Underground is an open mic that meets weekly on Wednesday evenings at Blip Roasters in the West Bottoms. First Wednesday of the month is home to the Kansas City Poetry Slam competition. Poetic Underground is dedicated to using poetry as a healing and community building tool to create a safe space where artists can gather in Kansas City.

#artspeakradio
#kkficommunityradio

Share This Episode