Check out Amanda's conversation with Shay.thepoet ! Shataysha Byrd was born and raised in the Bronx, New York. Shataysha originally started poetry in fifth grade but did not get the courage to perform in front of an audience until 20 years old. After the first performance, she knew the stage was her home from that moment on. Then the pandemic took a different turn in the world that stopped many different artists from performing and or producing. This did not stop Shay.thepoet, it instead has opened up a new world for her. Since the pandemic, she has performed in Atlanta, Los Angles, Florida, Ohio, and many other states. Shay is the first Poetry Me Please grand slam champion and has many goals and aspirations for the future.  Shay's Links:@shay.thepoet CHECK OUT AMANDA'S NEW TV SHOW: The Poet Speaks with Amanda Eke! Now airing on the Archaeology Channel and Roku! STREAM HERE:https://heritagetac.org/programs/the-poet-speaks-with-amanda-eke-i28z2vn9bsc?category_id=65263 Be sure to check out The Poet Speaks Podcast on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/thepoetspeakspodcast/ And listen to,The Poet Speaks Podcast, on the go on ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS WORLDWIDE! Apple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1cM1rdF... Did you know The Poet Speaks is also Amanda's touring global workshop? She teaches people all about how to make, create and the history of Spoken Word and Indigenous oral traditions! To make a booking for The Poet Speaks Workshop with your organization, apply for mentorships with Amanda, book interviews, as well as writing consultations, please use this link: https://www.amandaeke.com/services Music by: Buzu Buzuhttps://www.instagram.com/bbuzu/

Welcome to Season 9! Check out Amanda's conversation with Brandon Leake! Brandon Leake is the season 15 winner of America’s Got Talent, a 7x Telly Award Winner, 1x SOVAS Award Winner, and 1x Emmy Award Winner. Brandon has been a Poetic Performer, Keynote Speaker, and Workshop leader for over a decade, traveling locations such as: New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, South Africa, and 42 States. Brandon has collaborated with companies such as Meta, CBS, California Hospital Association, Good Morning America, Golden State Warriors, Sacramento Kings, and many others. Brandon’s use of personal narrative with his gifting in poetic prose allows him to speak not merely to crowds, but to their inner being, to connect one soul to another, to connect people to an intrinsic sense of communal humanity that is at times severely lacking in our world. Brandon Leake is a visionary, whos words, but most importantly actions reflect his love of Christ, people, and the world. Brandon's Links:https://brandonleake.com/ CHECK OUT AMANDA'S NEW TV SHOW: The Poet Speaks with Amanda Eke! Now airing on the Archaeology Channel and Roku! STREAM HERE:https://heritagetac.org/programs/the-poet-speaks-with-amanda-eke-i28z2vn9bsc?category_id=65263 Be sure to check out The Poet Speaks Podcast on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/thepoetspeakspodcast/ And listen to,The Poet Speaks Podcast, on the go on ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS WORLDWIDE! Apple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1cM1rdF... Did you know The Poet Speaks is also Amanda's touring global workshop? She teaches people all about how to make, create and the history of Spoken Word and Indigenous oral traditions! To make a booking for The Poet Speaks Workshop with your organization, apply for mentorships with Amanda, book interviews, as well as writing consultations, please use this link: https://www.amandaeke.com/services Music by: Buzu Buzuhttps://www.instagram.com/bbuzu/

Join Amanda as she gives her globally touring workshop, The Poet Speaks, in Fez Morocco! Did you know The Poet Speaks is also Amanda's touring global workshop? She teaches people all about how to make, create and the history of Spoken Word and Indigenous oral traditions! To make a booking for The Poet Speaks Workshop with your organization, apply for mentorships with Amanda, book interviews, as well as writing consultations, please use this link: https://www.amandaeke.com/services CHECK OUT AMANDA'S NEW TV SHOW: The Poet Speaks with Amanda Eke! Now airing on the Archaeology Channel and Roku! SUBSCRIBE AND STREAM HERE:https://heritagetac.org/programs/the-poet-speaks-with-amanda-eke-i28z2vn9bsc?category_id=65263 Be sure to check out The Poet Speaks Podcast on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/thepoetspeakspodcast/ And listen to,The Poet Speaks Podcast, on the go on ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS WORLDWIDE! Apple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1cM1rdF...

Join Amanda on her Moroccan adventure as she was invited by the Kingdom of Morocco as 1 of 100 Storytellers worldwide to be apart of the Marrakech International Storytelling Festival! Delve deep as she explores the streets of the medina and gives her globally touring workshop, The Poet Speaks, in the heart of Marrakech! And to top it off, watch as she participates in breaking the Guinness World Record for the Longest Storytelling Session in humanity! Did you know The Poet Speaks is also Amanda's touring global workshop? She teaches people all about how to make, create and the history of Spoken Word and Indigenous oral traditions! To make a booking for The Poet Speaks Workshop with your organization, apply for mentorships with Amanda, book interviews, as well as writing consultations, please use this link: https://www.amandaeke.com/services CHECK OUT AMANDA'S NEW TV SHOW: The Poet Speaks with Amanda Eke! Now airing on the Archaeology Channel and Roku! SUBSCRIBE AND STREAM HERE:https://heritagetac.org/programs/the-poet-speaks-with-amanda-eke-i28z2vn9bsc?category_id=65263 Be sure to check out The Poet Speaks Podcast on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/thepoetspeakspodcast/ And listen to,The Poet Speaks Podcast, on the go on ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS WORLDWIDE! Apple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1cM1rdF...

It's our Season 8 Finale! Check out Amanda's conversation with Regie Cabico! Regie Cabico is a spoken word pioneer having won The Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam. Mr. Cabico was a featured poet at the 2022 Whitney Biennial and received the 2006 Writers for Writers Award from Poets & Writers. Television credits include HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, TEDx & NPR’s Snap Judgement.  He is a teaching artist at the Kennedy Center for the Arts and is one of the inaugural recipients of the 2023 James Baldwin Fellowship from La Maison Baldwin, Paris France. His work appears in over 30 anthologies including Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. He has shared the stage with Patti Smith, and Allen Ginsberg, and through Howard Zinn's Portraits Project at NYU, has performed with Stanley Tucci, Jesse Eisenberg & Lupe Fiasco.  Cabico is a recipient of a 2008 Future Aesthetics Arts Award from The Ford Foundation, three New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships for Poetry and Performance, the Larry Neal Award for Poetry, and several DC Commission for the Arts Poetry Fellowships. He has served as faculty at Banff's Spoken Word Program and Kundiman. He received three New York Innovative Theater Award Nominations for his work in Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind.  The Kenyon Review named Regie Cabico the "Lady Gaga of Poetry" and was listed in BUST magazine's 100 Men We Love. He has served several artist in residencies for New York University's Asian American Studies, and is a founding Board member for Split This Rock Poetry Festival. His latest book of poetry is A Rabbit In Search of a Rolex (Day Eight, 2023). Regie's Links: @regieguy CHECK OUT AMANDA'S NEW TV SHOW: The Poet Speaks with Amanda Eke! Now airing on the Archaeology Channel and Roku! SUBSCRIBE AND STREAM HERE:https://heritagetac.org/programs/the-poet-speaks-with-amanda-eke-i28z2vn9bsc?category_id=65263 Be sure to check out The Poet Speaks Podcast on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/thepoetspeakspodcast/ And listen to,The Poet Speaks Podcast, on the go on ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS WORLDWIDE! Apple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1cM1rdF... Did you know The Poet Speaks is also Amanda's touring global workshop? She teaches people all about how to make, create and the history of Spoken Word and Indigenous oral traditions! To make a booking for The Poet Speaks Workshop with your organization, apply for mentorships with Amanda, book interviews, as well as writing consultations, please use this link: https://www.amandaeke.com/services Music by: Buzu Buzuhttps://www.instagram.com/bbuzu/

NEW EPISODE, STREAMING EVERYWHERE! (LINK IN BIO) Check out Amanda's conversation with Thomas Fucaloro! The winner of numerous grants from the Staten Island Council of the Arts, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, NYC Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes and NYC Commission of Human Rights to name a few. Thomas Fucaloro has been on six national slam teams. He holds an MFA in creative writing from the New School and is a co-founding editor of Great Weather for Media and NYSAI press. He is an adjunct professor at Wagner College, BMCC and CSI where he teaches various poetry and literature courses. Thomas is cofounder of Poetry in the Park, WORDPLAY, Creating Space, Poetry in Motion and Creativity Meets Geek. Thomas has released 2 full lengths: It Starts From the Belly and Blooms and Inheriting Craziness is a Soft Halo of Light by Three Rooms Press. He also has 4 chapbooks: Mistakes Disguised as Stars (Tired Hearts Press), Depression Cupcakes (Yes, Poetry), There is Always Tomorrow (Mad Gleam Press) and The Only Gardening I Do is When I Give Up by Finishing Line Press. His new chapbook LE(t)GO is out by Neuronautic Press. Thomas's Links: @thomasfucaloro CHECK OUT AMANDA'S NEW TV SHOW: The Poet Speaks with Amanda Eke! Now airing on the Archaeology Channel and Roku! SUBSCRIBE AND STREAM HERE: https://heritagetac.org/programs/the-poet-speaks-with-amanda-eke-i28z2vn9bsc?category_id=65263 Be sure to check out The Poet Speaks Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepoetspeakspodcast/ And listen to,The Poet Speaks Podcast, on the go on ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS WORLDWIDE! Apple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1cM1rdF... Did you know The Poet Speaks is also Amanda's touring global workshop? She teaches people all about how to make, create and the history of Spoken Word and Indigenous oral traditions! To make a booking for The Poet Speaks Workshop with your organization, apply for mentorships with Amanda, book interviews, as well as writing consultations, please use this link: https://www.amandaeke.com/services Music by: Buzu Buzu https://www.instagram.com/bbuzu/

Check out Amanda's conversation with LaTasha Diggs! A writer, vocalist and performance/sound artist, LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs is the author of Village (Coffee House Press 2023), TwERK (Belladonna, 2013) as well as the co-editor of Coon Bidness.  Diggs has presented and performed at California Institute of the Arts, El Museo del Barrio, The Museum of Modern Art, and Walker Art Center and at festivals including: Explore the North Festival, Leeuwarden, Netherlands; Hekayeh Festival, Abu Dhabi; International Poetry Festival of Copenhagen; Ocean Space, Venice; International Poetry Festival of Romania; Question of Will, Slovakia; Poesiefestival, Berlin; and the 2015 Venice Biennale.  As an independent curator, artistic director, and producer, Diggs has presented events for BAMCafé, Black Rock Coalition, El Museo del Barrio, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, and the David Rubenstein Atrium.  Diggs has received a 2020 C.D. Wright Award for Poetry from the Foundation of Contemporary Art, a Whiting Award (2016) and a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship (2015), as well as grants and fellowships from Cave Canem, Creative Capital, New York Foundation for the Arts, and the U.S.-Japan Friendship Commission, among others. She lives in Harlem and teaches part-time at Brooklyn College. LaTasha's Links: @latasha.diggs CHECK OUT AMANDA'S NEW TV SHOW: The Poet Speaks with Amanda Eke! Now airing on the Archaeology Channel and Roku! SUBSCRIBE AND STREAM HERE:https://heritagetac.org/programs/the-poet-speaks-with-amanda-eke-i28z2vn9bsc?category_id=65263 Be sure to check out The Poet Speaks Podcast on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/thepoetspeakspodcast/ And listen to,The Poet Speaks Podcast, on the go on ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS WORLDWIDE! Apple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1cM1rdF... Did you know The Poet Speaks is also Amanda's touring global workshop? She teaches people all about how to make, create and the history of Spoken Word and Indigenous oral traditions! To make a booking for The Poet Speaks Workshop with your organization, apply for mentorships with Amanda, book interviews, as well as writing consultations, please use this link: https://www.amandaeke.com/services Music by: Buzu Buzuhttps://www.instagram.com/bbuzu/

Check out Amanda's conversation with Ralonda Simmons! Ralonda Simmons is a speaker, published author, educator, and singer born in California but residing in the Denver metro area. She received her BA from Metropolitan State University of Denver, and her MS from Boise State University. She’s also a proud graduate of two seasons of the Community Literature Initiative out of Los Angeles. As an artist and wanderer, her mission is to be an example of authentic expression and hard-won wisdom in the face of the status quo. Ralonda’s first full-length publication, Whispers & Conversations, was published in June of 2024 by World Stage Press. Ralonda's Links:@ralondathepoet CHECK OUT AMANDA'S NEW TV SHOW: The Poet Speaks with Amanda Eke! Now airing on the Archaeology Channel and Roku! SUBSCRIBE AND STREAM HERE: https://heritagetac.org/programs/the-poet-speaks-with-amanda-eke-i28z2vn9bsc?category_id=65263 Be sure to check out The Poet Speaks Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepoetspeakspodcast/ And listen to,The Poet Speaks Podcast, on the go on ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS WORLDWIDE! Apple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1cM1rdF... Did you know The Poet Speaks is also Amanda's touring global workshop? She teaches people all about how to make, create and the history of Spoken Word and Indigenous oral traditions! To make a booking for The Poet Speaks Workshop with your organization, apply for mentorships with Amanda, book interviews, as well as writing consultations, please use this link: https://www.amandaeke.com/services Music by: Buzu Buzu https://www.instagram.com/bbuzu/

Check out Amanda's conversation with Miguel Martin Perez! Miguel Martin Perez (he/they) is a queer Afro-Dominican poet raised in Harlem and the South Bronx. He is a Cave Canem Fellow, a 2022 Langston Hughes Fellow at the Palm Beach Poetry Festival, and an alum of the Tin House Winter Workshop. His work has received the Leslie McGrath Poetry Prize in 2023, the Pacific Spirit Poetry Prize in 2021, and was a finalist for the 2022 Mississippi Review Poetry Prize. His poems appear or are forthcoming in Narrative, Colorado Review, Raleigh Review, Acentos Review, and Santa Fe Writers Project Quarterly among others. He holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of California – Riverside and currently resides in the Bronx. Miguel's Links:@mmppoetry CHECK OUT AMANDA'S NEW TV SHOW: The Poet Speaks with Amanda Eke! Now airing on the Archaeology Channel and Roku! SUBSCRIBE AND STREAM HERE: https://heritagetac.org/programs/the-poet-speaks-with-amanda-eke-i28z2vn9bsc?category_id=65263 Be sure to check out The Poet Speaks Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepoetspeakspodcast/ And listen to,The Poet Speaks Podcast, on the go on ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS WORLDWIDE! Apple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1cM1rdF... Did you know The Poet Speaks is also Amanda's touring global workshop? She teaches people all about how to make, create and the history of Spoken Word and Indigenous oral traditions! To make a booking for The Poet Speaks Workshop with your organization, apply for mentorships with Amanda, book interviews, as well as writing consultations, please use this link: https://www.amandaeke.com/services Music by: Buzu Buzu https://www.instagram.com/bbuzu/