55 - Dante's Old South Radio Show (November 2023)

November 2023 Dante’s Old South Richard Blanco Selected by President Obama as the fifth Presidential Inaugural Poet in U.S. history, Richard Blanco was the youngest, the first Latinx, immigrant, and gay person to serve in that role. In 2023, Blanco was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Biden from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Born in Madrid to Cuban exile parents and raised in Miami in a working-class family, Blanco’s personal negotiation of cultural identity and the universal themes of place and belonging characterize Blanco’s many collections of poetry, including his most recent, Homeland of My Body, which reassesses traditional notions of home as strictly a geographical, tangible place that merely exists outside us, but rather, within us. He has also authored the memoirs FOR ALL OF US, ONE TODAY: AN INAUGURAL POET’S JOURNEY and THE PRINCE OF LOS COCUYOS: A MIAMI CHILDHOOD. Blanco has received numerous awards, including the Agnes Starrett Poetry Prize, the PEN American Beyond Margins Award, the Patterson Prize, and a Lambda Prize for memoir. He was Woodrow Wilson Fellow and has received numerous honorary degrees. Currently, he serves as Education Ambassador for The Academy of American Poets and is an Associate Professor at Florida International University. In April 2022, Blanco was appointed the first-ever Poet Laureate of Miami-Dade County. FB: @RichardBlancoPoetry IG: @poetrichardblanco Twitter: @rblancopoet  Website: https://richard-blanco.com/ Christa Wells is a singer-songwriter based in Nashville, Tennessee, with 20+ years of experience in the music industry.  As an independent artist, Christa has released seven solo albums plus several collaborations, developing a signature alt-pop sound that is fresh, soulful and enduring. Her recent albums Velveteen, Pacific, and Redwood chronicle her healing journey through suffering into awakening and aliveness. She has self-published two collections of poetry and prose (Beloved and Before It Gets Lighter) with a third on the way. Wells is also co-founder of ARTIST AND, a creative community which seeks to empower artists through a variety of workshops, retreats and a nine-month creative mastermind program. An award-winning songwriter, Christa has written hit songs for and with Nashville artists such as Natalie Grant, Plumb, and Ellie Holcomb. WEBSITE: https://www.christawellsmusic.com/ ARTIST AND: https://www.artistand.org/ PATREON PAGE: https://www.patreon.com/christawells MUSIC: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/christa-wells/419222522 Meet Misty Ann, the powerhouse behind Wild Honey Tees, a Southern mama-owned t-shirt haven. With a heart as warm as a Georgia summer and a keen sense of Southern charm, she infuses her designs with a touch of hospitality. From sweet tea sippin' to front porch rockin', Misty's tees capture the essence of Southern living, making her business a true reflection of mama's love and grace. www.wildhoneytees.com Anders Carlson-Wee is the author of Disease of Kings (W.W. Norton, 2023), The Low Passions (W.W. Norton, 2019), a New York Public Library Book Group Selection, and Dynamite (Bull City Press, 2015), winner of the Frost Place Chapbook Prize. He is represented by Massie & McQuilkin Literary Agents and lives in Los Angeles. Special Thanks Goes to: Wild Honey Tees: www.wildhoneytees.com Lucid House Press: www.lucidhousepublishing.com UCLA Extension Writing Program: www.uclaextension.edu The Crown: www.thecrownbrasstown.com Mercer University Press: www.mupress.org The Red Phone Booth: www.redphonebooth.com The host, Clifford Brooks’ , The Draw of Broken Eyes & Whirling Metaphysics, Athena Departs, and Old Gods are available everywhere books are sold. His chapbook, Exiles of Eden, is only available through his website: www.cliffbrooks.com/how-to-order Check out his Teachable courses on thriving with autism and creative writing as a profession here: brooks-sessions.teachable.com/p/the-working-writer