Poetry

On this edition of ST, we speak once again with Michael Chaiken, the curator of the Tulsa-based Bob Dylan Archive, which is currently located at the University of Tulsa's Helmerich Center for American Research at Gilcrease Museum, and which houses some 6,000 items related to Dylan's life and career in music -- nearly six decades of writings, recordings, memorabilia, film, and more. This facility is meant for researchers and scholars; it is not open to the public.

We learn about a striking show on view at the Gilcrease Museum here in Tulsa; "T.C. Cannon: At the Edge of America" will run through October 7th of this year. It is, per the Gilcrease website, "the first major traveling exhibition of Cannon's work since 1990 and explores the dynamic creative range and legacy of an artist whose life was cut short at age 31.

On this edition of ST, we learn about the first-ever Tulsa Lit.Fest, an impressive array of free-to-the-public events that will happen here in our community from tomorrow (the 19th) through Sunday (the 22nd).

On this edition of StudioTulsa, we offer a recently posted edition of the Museum Confidential podcast, which is co-created every other week by Jeff Martin (of Philbrook Museum) and Scott Gregory (of Public Radio Tulsa; Scott is also StudioTulsa's longtime editor and producer). On this particular podcast, we explore the bookish side of museum-going in a revealing conversation with the NYC-based poet Kenneth Goldsmith, who in 2013 was the first and only Poet Laureate at the Museum of Modern Art.

On this edition of ST, we speak with the locally based poet, poetry teacher, and literary activist, Victoria McArtor. She tells us about her new book, "Reverse Selfie," which is a collection of poems written in response to -- or in conversation with, or in tribute to -- various Tulsa landmarks. This book, which actually began as a write-one-poem-every-day-for-a-month project back in 2015, also features striking photographs by Matthew Phipps, thereby capturing in both words and images the vitality, beauty, wonder, and strangeness of the City of Tulsa.

On this edition of our show, we learn about the next concert to be staged by the Signature Symphony at TCC, "Yevtushenko and Shostakovich," which will happen on Saturday night, the 4th, at 7:30pm (at the Van Trease PACE on East 81st Street). This concert will honor the life and work of Yevgeny Yevtushenko, the late poet and author who died earlier this year, and who taught at the University of Tulsa and contributed to our city's cultural life over the last 30 years.

On this edition of our program, we chat with Eilis O'Neal, the editor-in-chief of TU's long-running literary publication, Nimrod International Journal. Nimrod will soon host its 2017 Write Night (tomorrow night, the 20th) at the Tulsa Garden Center, which will be followed (on the 21st) by the day-long Conference for Readers and Writers at the Allen Chapman Student Union. As we learn from Ms.

This edition of ST features a discussion with José Torres-Tama, the New Orleans-based performance artist who will soon present his Taco Truck Theater / Teatro Sin Fronteras project at Living Arts of Tulsa. This production will be staged on Thursday and Friday, the 18th and 19th, with both shows starting at 8pm. Also on our program is the local poet Amairani Perez, who will be one of the Tulsa-based artists participating in this project.

On this edition of ST, we welcome Billy Collins back to our show. He is the winner of the Tulsa Library Trust's 2016 Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award, and he'll be reading from his work at an event here in Tulsa on Saturday the 3rd at the downtown Central Library. (This event begins at 10:30am and is free to the public.) Known and loved by readers everywhere for his accessible, conversational, clearly rendered, and often witty poems, Collins has been called "the most popular poet in America" by The New York Times.

On this installment of StudioTulsa, we're talking about the Bob Dylan Archive, that widely-reported-on treasure trove of 6,000+ items documenting the entirety of the legendary singer-songwriter's still-active career. This archive was purchased earlier this year by the George Kaiser Family Foundation and The University of Tulsa; it will be housed at TU's Helmerich Center for American Research (which is located within the Gilcrease Museum).

On today's ST, we learn about a new musical -- a "bro-mantic" comedy, no less -- loosely based on the thousand-year-old epic poem, "Beowulf." It's the still-in-development "Beowulf, Lord of the Bros," and it will be workshopped at a pair of free-to-the-public performances on Friday and Saturday, the 30th and 31st, at the Theatre Two space in Kendall Hall on the TU campus, with both shows starting at 7pm.

On this installment of ST, we speak with the poet and performance/conceptual artist, Kenneth Goldsmith, who has appeared on The Colbert Report, held a poetry reading in the White House, and published more than ten books. He's also the first-ever poet laureate to be selected by The Museum of Modern Art -- and he'll offer a free-to-the-public poetry reading tonight, Tuesday the 22nd, at 9pm in Tyrell Hall on the TU campus.

On this installment of StudioTulsa, we learn about Poetic Justice, an ongoing writing project for incarcerated women at the David L. Moss Criminal Justice Center in Tulsa. This writing-workshop program began about 18 months ago and has been very popular from the outset. Our guest is Ellen Stackable, a high school English and World Studies teacher at the Tulsa School of Arts and Sciences, who directs the program and serves as one of its educators.

On this installment of ST, getting to know -- as best we can -- the rather mysterious figure (a/k/a "the father of English literature") who wrote "The Canterbury Tales." Our guest is Paul Strohm, who has taught medieval literature at Columbia University, was the J. R. R. Tolkien Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford University, and remains a noted scholar of the life and work of Geoffrey Chaucer.

On this penultimate day of Black History Month, we're talking about the life and work of one of our greatest African American writers, Langston Hughes (1902-1967), the prolific and influential poet, activist, novelist, memoirist, playwright, and newspaper columnist. Our guest on ST is David Roessel, one of the editors of the recently published "Selected Letters of Langston Hughes" (Knopf).

The day-long Nimrod Conference for Readers and Writers -- presented each autumn by Nimrod International Journal here at the University of Tulsa -- will happen tomorrow, Saturday the 25th, in the Allen Chapman Activity Center on the TU campus. This conference offers workshops in fiction, poetry, memoir, and young adult fantasy, and "tips of the trade" from editors, literary agents, and the like.

Today, we welcome Quraysh Ali Lansana back to StudioTulsa. Lansana was born Ron Myles in Enid, Oklahoma, and originally worked in broadcast journalism here in our state before studying poetry and literature in New York and Chicago. He's written several books of poetry, edited or co-edited several anthologies, and works as an Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at Chicago State University. He also teaches at writing workshops and literary events all over the country.

On this installment of ST, we are pleased to welcome Ron Padgett back to our show. This Tulsa-born, New York-based poet, translator, and editor published his "Collected Poems" last fall, and he'll be reading from that book at 7pm tonight (Tuesday the 1st) at the AHHA / Hardesty Arts Center in downtown Tulsa; this event is co-presented by Book Smart Tulsa, Louder Than A Bomb: Tulsa, and This Land Press, and it's free to the public.

Nimrod International Journal, founded in 1956 here at TU, is a well-respected, twice-a-year literary publication that's been dedicated to printing work by writers both emerging and established for more than half a century. Our guest is Francine Ringold, editor-in-chief of Nimrod, who describes the latest issue, which is just out now. This issue's theme is "Lasting Matters: Writers 57 and Over" --- and as Fran adds, there will be a special, free-to-the-public reading from this issue tonight (Thursday the 27th) at 7:30pm in the Meinig Recital Hall at TU's Lorton Performing Arts Center.

On this installment of ST, we're pleased to welcome Joy Harjo, the prolific and widely acclaimed poet, musician, and author. Harjo is a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She's won a great many awards and accolades for her writing over the years, and has recorded five CDs thus far in her thriving musical career.

(Note: This program originally aired back in April.) We speak by phone with the noted performance poet, former middle-school teacher, and current teachers' advocate Taylor Mali. His new book --- "What Teachers Make: In Praise of the Greatest Job in the World" --- is based on a poem that he wrote several years ago, a spirited and encouraging defense of the teaching profession that has, by now, been seen and forwarded millions of times on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and elsewhere.

On this edition of ST, guest host Scott Gregory speaks with the widely acclaimed American poet, John Brehm, who grew up in Nebraska, lived for many years in New York City (and then Colorado), and is now based in Portland, Oregon. Brehm has just published his second book of poems, "Help Is On the Way," which won the 2012 Four Lakes Prize in Poetry; his first poetry collection, "Sea of Faith," won the 2004 Brittingham Prize in Poetry.

On today's show, we speak by phone with the noted performance poet, former middle-school teacher, and current teachers' advocate Taylor Mali. His new book --- "What Teachers Make: In Praise of the Greatest Job in the World" --- is based on a poem that he wrote several years ago, a spirited and encouraging defense of the teaching profession that has, by now, been seen and forwarded millions of times on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and elsewhere. It's a poem that gave heart to an entire movement --- and in this book we get the story of what drove Mali to compose that poem in the first place.

[Aired Tuesday, March 6th.] On today's show, we speak with the New York-based poet Erica Hunt, who'll give a free-to-the-public reading of her poetry tonight on the TU campus. Her reading is presented by the TU Department of English / Creative Writing; it takes place in the Faculty Study of McFarlin Library, beginning at 7:30pm. As we learn on today's show, Hunt has also worked as a housing organizer, radio producer, poetry teacher, and social justice advocate.