59. Poetry is Not A Luxury with Dr. Eve L. Ewing

Introducing… Dr Eve L. Ewing as the newest guest on the Real Ballers Read podcast!! We talked with Dr. Ewing about the power and problems of reading, why the way we frame education matters, and the two Audre Lorde essays that Dr. Ewing is constantly learning from: “Poetry is Not a Luxury” and “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action.” We’ve been dreaming to host Dr. Ewing on our podcast since Day 1 because of her incredible artistry, scholarship and organizing. We look up to her as a Chicago writer (in the traditions of Gwendolyn Brooks and Sandra Cisneros) and could not be more excited to share our interview with you today. 1:37 Eve’s powerful quote from Black Futures 2:29 Eve’s journey with reading 3:21 The fugitive element of children’s inner lives 5:12 The different performances of intelligence 7:36 Black people were forbidden from reading and writing 9:24 The difference between school and education 9:55 The Crazy Story of How Frederick Douglass Learned to Read 13:44 Knowledge Systems… Western and Non-Western 18:02 Eve’s Analysis of U.S. Education in Four Frames 18:38 1. The presumption of competition 21:29 2. Compulsion 22:51 Chicago teachers COVID strike 24:48 Culturally responsive pedagogy 25:19 Eve’s visit to a school on the Yurok Reservation 28:02 One of Eve’s favorite memories teaching 29:30 Ableism and different ways of accessing knowledge 32:59 Audre Lorde’s Sister Outsider 34:07 The importance of rereading and continuous learning 35:17 Read popular quotes in CONTEXT! 36:00 The kind of writer Eve wants to be 37:22 Passage from “Poetry is Not a Luxury” 42:08 Why you should buy books! 43:51 Passage from “Transformation of Silence into Language and Action” --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/realballersread/support