The Walking Nerve-Ending Poetic Podcast: Recent Episodes
Mai Perkins
The Walking Nerve-Ending Poetic Podcast takes a deep and meaningful look at the work of poet Mai Perkins, and the collection of poems found in her debut poetry book “The Walking Nerve-Ending: Poems & Reflections.” Each episode will share a performance reading of one poem, and the inspiration or fascinating experiences that led to Mai writing it. If you love poetry about family, romance, globetrotting or delicious food then this is the podcast for you!
This episode of The Walking Nerve-Ending Poetic Podcast features a new #BlackLivesMatter poem entitled “Daffodils” that is dedicated to the Black victims of police brutality, and raises the question: “Where are the daffodils of hope for the Black bodies slain?” Learn the history of why daffodil flowers are planted across New York City each spring since 2001, and meditate on why it may be time to plant 🌱🌹✊🏿living memorials to the Black lives we have continued to lose to police violence. Later in the podcast, FlyMai dedicates a version of Oscar Brown Jr.’s “Brown Baby” to the next generation of young activists, advocates, creatives, educators and leaders.
This episode of The Walking Nerve-Ending Poetic Podcast shares a reading of FlyMai’s poem, “This Song, It Holds Our Youth”, written in 2011 for the students of Kabala Secondary School in Sierra Leone.
This episode of The Walking Nerve-Ending Poetic Podcast recounts FlyMai’s first trip to the Motherland during her 2012 Christmas and New Year’s Eve trip to South Africa via Rwanda, and an empowering conversation she shared with her friend, Lady T, which inspired a poem in TWNE!
On this debut episode of The Walking Nerve-Ending Poetic Podcast, host Mai Perkins’ performs her favorite poem from TWNE, “My Grandma’s Hands”, and shares her two inspirations for writing the poem.