Beyond the Spark Podcast with RheaSunshine: Recent Episodes
Beyond the Spark Podcast
For more than 20 years, RheaSunshine has travelled the country performing spoken word and poetry. Constantly looking for ways to inspire, she has created Beyond the Spark Podcast. This podcast is a platform created to inspire artists to persevere through the trials that come with being a creative. Each episode, Rhea speaks with poets and artists about what drives them to succeed and their creative process. Through candid conversations and readings, Rhea gives poets and artists the opportunity to not only inspire artists through their stories.
Dasha Kelly Hamilton is a writer, performance artist, curator and facilitator. Ultimately, she’s a creative change agent, leveraging the creative process toward human and social wellness.
Dasha has written for national, regional and local magazines; produced three books of poetry; recorded four spoken word albums; published two novels and an award-winning collection of micro stories; been included in several anthologies; and performed in the last season of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam. Her nonprofit, Still Waters Collective, initiated literary arts programming for 20 years, creating platforms for thousands of voices to be honored and heard. She has taught at colleges, conferences and classrooms and curated fellowships for emerging leaders.
An Arts Envoy for the U.S. Embassy, Dasha has facilitated community building initiatives in Botswana, Toronto, Mauritius and Beirut. She is a former Artist of the Year and Poet Laureate for the City of Milwaukee and the 2020-2022 Poet Laureate for the State of Wisconsin. Dasha is a national Rubinger Fellow and a National Laureate Fellow with the American Academy of Poets. Touring nationally, her stage production, Makin’ Cake, uniquely engages communities in a forward dialogue on race, class and equity.
Dasha is working on her third novel, a collection of poems with incarcerated writers and a documentary film.
Jon Goode is a multitalented author, poet, and playwright originally from Richmond, Virginia, but currently residing in Atlanta, Georgia. You may recognize him from his appearances on HBO’s Def Poetry, TVOne’s Verses & Flow, and BET’s Lyric Café. His stage play Khalas was even showcased at the 2013 International Festival of Arts and Ideas.
In 2006, Jon’s exceptional work with Nick @ Nite earned him an Emmy nomination and the Promax Gold for the best copyright in North America. His debut collection of poems and short stories, Conduit, was published in 2015 and has received an impressive 47 five-star reviews on Amazon. For 12 weeks, Conduit held the top spot in its category on Amazon.com and was the best-reviewed book of poetry in 2015/16.
Currently, Jon serves as the host of The Moth StorySLAM in Atlanta, GA, and has also hosted and performed with The Moth both domestically and abroad. It’s no wonder why Jon Goode is highly regarded in the literary and performance worlds.
Sekou Andrews is the CEO of SekouWorld, Inc. and one of the most successful spoken word poets in the world. On any given day, this school-teacher turned artist and entrepreneur, who built a 7-figure company on poetry, can be found keynoting at a Fortune 500 company, inspiring thousands at a concert, or performing for Barack Obama in Oprah’s backyard. Sekou is the creator of “poetic voice” – a cutting-edge speaking category that seamlessly fuses inspirational speaking with spoken word poetry, like “Hamilton” meets “TED”. His unique presentations are in high demand from leading associations and global brands like Google, Viacom, Toyota, Nike, and Paypal. He has been featured on ABC World News, CBS, MSNBC, HBO, Showtime, MTV and BET, and Forbes has called him “the de facto poet laureate of corporate America.” Sekou’s accomplishments include two National Poetry Slam championships, two national poetry tours, two Independent Music Awards, three Helen Hayes Awards, the most “Just Plain Folks” music awards in history, the 2020 ABA “Entrepreneur of the Year” award, and the first “Best Spoken Word Album” Grammy nomination for a poet in 30 years. A fearless disruptor of the speaking industry, Sekou also teaches rockstar secrets to public speakers through his Stage Might™ speaker training system that helps leaders become more dynamic communicators. Combining innovation and inspiration, Sekou Andrews is redefining the notion of what a speaker is, and what a poet can be.
A former Chicago social worker, Peter Kahn has been an English teacher since 1994 and a Spoken Word Educator since 2003 at Oak Park/River Forest High School. His students can be seen in Louder Than a Bomb and America to Me. A founding member of the London poetry collective Malika’s Kitchen, he co-founded the London Teenage Poetry Slam and, as a Visiting Fellow at Goldsmiths-University of London, created the Spoken Word Education Training Programme. He earned his MA in English Education from The Ohio State University, student taught at Columbus East High School and taught for the Young Scholars Program. Peter was a featured speaker at the National Council of Teachers of English’s annual convention and runner-up in the NCTE and Penguin Random House Maya Angelou Teacher Award for Poetry. Along with Patricia Smith and Ravi Shankar, he edited The Golden Shovel Anthology: New Poems Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks reviewed in The New York Times by Claudia Rankine. Along with Hanif Abdurraqib, Franny Choi, and former student Dan “Sully” Sullivan, he edited Respect the Mic: Celebrating 20 Years of Poetry from a Chicagoland High School, deemed “Electric and Expansive” by Kirkus Reviews. Peter’s 2020 poetry collection, Little Kings has poems featured in The London Guardian and The Forward Book of Poetry.
Semaj Brown is a Thought Leader who navigates outside the line. Semaj sees the invisible beat. Flint, Michigan’s First Poet Laureate is a 21st century innovator in the areas of the literary arts, health/ science education, and theater. Semaj moves about town with microscope in one hand, poems in the other as she draws correlations between sentence structure and math equations. She is a science driven Bleeding Fire social critic, an author, an essayist, Afro-Futuristic performer, director of elaborate theatrical poetry productions, and a builder of integrated curriculum. Cofounder along with her husband James Brown, MD of The Planted Kingdom™ and Health Collectors™ LLC, Semaj is a sought after Broadside Lotus Press poet who has read and performed her work nationally. Semaj is recognized by the Academy of American poets in New York, New York. You can find her column at The Flint Courier News. Semaj is the author and creator of Black Dandelion: Convergent Voice. Black Dandelion: Convergent Voice is a multimedia youth literacy arts/science civic platform for middle and high school students. Creative thinkers respond to the poem Black Dandelion through literary expression, exploration of an artform, or by delving into the disciplines of science and ecology. We ask youth to find their inner dandelions and grow like weeds!
Roscoe Burnems, also known as Douglas Powell, is an author, spoken-word artist, educator, and Richmond, Virginia’s first poet laureate. He is the author of the collections God, Love, Death and Other Synonyms (310 Brown Street, 2019), Chrysalis Under Fire (The Writer’s Den, LLC, 2018), and Fighting Demons (Prysmatic Dreams Publishing, 2014). In his time as a slam poet, he has been a two-time southern regional team finalist, National Poetry Slam Champion, and Season 1 Screen Time Slam Champion. As a poetry slam coach, he has been a NPS Group Piece finalist and taken VCU’s poetry team to rank 3rd internationally. He is a TEDx speaker and founder of the poetry based art collective The Writer’s Den. In 2021, he received an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship.
Talaam Acey is an international spoken word artist who has received accolades from Amiri Baraka, Stevie Wonder, Berry Gordy, and Essence Magazine Editor Emeritus - Susan Taylor. His poetry has been featured in film and television. Acey has won spoken word awards in the US, the UK and Germany, and his work has been associated with Sundance Film Festival prizes.
Boris “Bluz” Rogers has risen through the ranks of spoken word entertainment. He is an Emmy Award winner, honored with a recognition in Excellence in Leadership from the NAACP, the Director of Creative Engagement for Blumenthal Performing Arts, and is the slam master and coach of SlamCharlotte. The competitive team of poets whom he led to back to back National Poetry Slam victories in 2007 and 2008 and a historic 3rd win in 2018.
He has featured and hosted at the LA Poetry festival as well as the National Poetry slam and the Individual World Poetry Slam . Bluz also served as a delegate and writer at the All-America City awards where he helped Charlotte win the very sought-after award of All-America City.
Channeling human experience into gifts of metaphors and similes, Bluz has published “Articulate Slang” and produced three audio releases. His poetry is universal, dismantling social, economic, and ethnic barriers reaching into the heart of the community where he is an active member. Along with his stage and writing capability Bluz is also an incredible Voice over Talent. Using his words, writing and voice to work with several organizations such as the Carolina Panthers, Charlotte Hornets, Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, The National Museum of African American Music, Junior Achievement, Wachovia, CBS Radio, Radio Disney, Raycom Sports, ESPN and SPEED TV, where he wrote and performed several intros for the nationally televised showed NASCAR. Today, Bluz’ voice is a progressive tool used to foster transformation. Nowhere has Bluz’ impact been more apparent than when he performed at the 2010 induction ceremony for the NASCAR Hall of Fame, a symbolic culmination of the city of Charlotte’s passion for winning the bid for the NASCAR Hall of Fame, and Bluz’ passion to communicate his human-centric prose to audiences who have yet to enjoy slam poetry as an art form. The Hall of Fame opening and Bluz being, not only the first performer, but also the first African-American performer, is an historic event.
Bluz has shared the stage with many distinguished poets and international recording artists ranging from Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, and Gil Scott Heron to Outkast, John Legend, and Pink Floyd, he devotes his time to his family, his wife and three children.
Erin Elizabeth Smith is the Executive Director for Sundress Publications and the Sundress Academy of the Arts. She is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, most recently DOWN (SFASU 2020), and her work has appeared in Guernica, Ecotone, Crab Orchard, and Mid-American, among others. Smith is a Distinguished Lecturer in the English Department at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and the Poet Laureate of Oak Ridge, TN.
Ed Mabrey is the greatest poet in the history of Poetry Slam—4 World Championships, 6 Regional Championships, and over 500 wins. An NAACP Image Award Nominee, Ed's been on TV One, as well as ABC, FOX, HBO, CNN. Ed has performed at over 350 colleges. A Watering Hole graduate fellow, Ed is a Pushcart nominee and was commissioned to craft a speech encompassing the Freedom Award recipients for 2017-2021.
David Judah Oliver is an accomplished Poet and Author of two Published Books of original Poetry. He is the Co-Host and Founder of LionLike MindState Poetry and Art Series at the Pomona Fairplex. As an Entrepreneur, he Owned and Operated the now Legendary Machine Pomona Art Gallery in the Pomona Arts Colony, 2011-2014. He is an Art Consultant for the Ontario Montclair School District 2012 to Present. David Judah 1 has taught Poetry at every level of Education spanning Kindergarten to College and University Workshops, even beyond bars and barriers as an Art Instructor for the Prison Education Program, He is…the Inaugural Poet Laureate of Pomona!
CORNELIUS EADY is the author of eight books of poetry, including Hardheaded Weather: New and Selected Poems (Putnam, April 2008). His second book, Victims of the Latest Dance Craze, won the Lamont Prize from the Academy of American Poets in 1985; in 2001 Brutal Imagination was a finalist for the National Book Award. His work in theater includes the libretto for an opera, “Running Man,” which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 1999. His play, “Brutal Imagination,” won Newsday’s Oppenheimer award in 2002.
In 1996 Eady co-founded, with writer Toi Derricotte, the Cave Canem summer workshop/retreat for African American poets. More than a decade later, Cave Canem is a thriving national network of black poets, as well as an institution offering regional workshops, readings, a first book prize, and the summer retreat.
Shane Manier is a Creative Coach, Artist, Live Event Painter, Tedx and Key Note Speaker, Trauma Informed Care Instructor, Poetry Mentor and National Spoken Word Poet based in the Charlotte Metro Region of NC. She is the founder of The National Poetry Month Summit, an online summit that connects and supports poets across the US, and the founder of Guerilla Poets, a nonprofit art collective with branches in the US and UK.
As a poet and artist, she has been featured at many shows and venues all across the US while completing many outreach programs as an activist and is a published author with three books, two spoken word albums and has poems published in numerous anthologies.
She is currently the Spoken Word and Arts Teaching Instructor for The Harvey B. Gantt Center, Henderson High School and Playing for Others as well as Center for Faith in the Arts Visual Artist in Residence. In 2011 she was the youngest poet to ever be inducted in the Poetry Council of North Carolina, has served on board of CCAG Arts Collective of Cornelius North Carolina in 2017, and was honored as a finalist for Poet Laureate of Charlotte NC in 2022. She has been recognized as a National Poet performing with Respect Da Mic Slam Team from 2017-2020, and Secret City Slam in 2022.
Given the name KaNikki, being interpreted as “great writer” at birth, KaNikki is living up to her name. KaNikki Jakarta is the First Black Poet Laureate of Alexandria, Virginia. With three decades of writing and performing and over twenty-five years on the poetry scene, she has opened for Jill Scott, Raheem DeVaughn, and Lyfe Jennings.
Ms. Jakarta has been interviewed and featured in newspapers and magazines to include Alexandria Times, Alexandria Gazette, Patch, and Northern Virginia Magazines. She’s been featured on podcasts, radio stations and TV stations to include WUSA9, Comcast and NBC.
Her poems have been featured on the trolleys and buses in Alexandria, Virginia. She has toured the US and the UK and as a result, KaNikki’s spoken word performances, hosting talents, and facilitating skills are sought after by fans all over the country.
KaNikki Jakarta is the First African American Poet Laureate of Alexandria, Virginia. She is an Award Winning Performance Poet; author of three novels, two poetry collections, a memoir and a short story, poetry collection entitled ALABAMA GIRL, VIRGINIA WOMAN.
www.kanikkij.com
Henry L. Jones is an award-winning African American artist, writer and performance artist whose work deals with the struggles of cultural and social issues. From those struggles, he discovered a healing power from his ability to create artwork. His art delves into the forces, which shape things whether social causes, spiritual connections, or community affairs. In his art, he blends experiences and images with references to African heritage and culture. His paintings are an exploration of the family ties and historical memories of the Black community. This is where he obtains his inspiration to create his art. Henry is the Inaugural Poet Laureate of Hendersonville, TN.
Christian J. Collier is a Black, Southern writer, arts organizer, and teaching artist who resides in Chattanooga, TN. He is the author of the chapbook The Gleaming of the Blade from Bull City Press. His works have appeared or are forthcoming in North American Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, The Michigan Quarterly Review, Atlanta Review, and elsewhere. A 2015 Loft Spoken Word Immersion Fellow, he is also the winner of the 2020 ProForma Contest and the 2019-2020 Seven Hills Review Poetry Contest.
Dr. Marilyn Kallet was the 2nd Poet Laureate for Knoxville, TN, serving from June 2018 - June 2020. She is the author of 19 books, including Even When We Sleep, 2022 and How Our Bodies Learned, 2018, poetry from Black Widow Press. She has translated Paul Eluard’s Last Love Poems and Benjamin Péret’s The Big Game, among others. Dr. Kallet is Professor Emerita at the University of Tennessee, where she taught for 37 years. She also hosted poetry workshops and residencies for the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, in Auvillar, France, from 2009-2018. She has performed her poems across the United States as well as in France and Poland, as a guest of the U.S. Embassy’s “America Presents” program. Her poetry appeared recently in Still: The Journal of Appalachia, Plume and 101 Jewish Poems for the Third Millennium, among others. She is the author of two children’s books, Jack the Healing Cat and One For Each Night: Chanukah Tales and Recipes, Celtic Cat Publishing.
Christopher Massenburg, better known as Dasan Ahanu, is a public speaker, organizer, curator, educator, poet, spoken word artist, educator, songwriter, and emcee, and loyal Hip Hop head born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina. He is co-founder and managing director of Black Poetry Theatre, a Durham based theatre company that creates and produces original poetry and spoken word based productions. As an active participant in poetry slam, Dasan has competed regionally and nationally as a founding member and coach of Durham, NC’s own Bull City Slam Team. In 2010 and 2014, Ahanu led the Bull City Slam Team in winning the Southern Fried Southeastern Regional Poetry Slam, the largest regional poetry slam in the country. He also led the team to a 3rd place finish at the 2010 National Poetry Slam and a 2nd place finish in Group Piece Finals at the 2012 National Poetry Slam.
Dasan is also an alumni Nasir Jones Fellowship with the Hip Hop Archive at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African & African American Research. He scholarly work is focused on art interventions, creative expression, Hip Hop and popular culture. Currently, Dasan is a visiting professor at UNC-Chapel Hill in Chapel Hill and a consultant working with organizations on art-based strategies.
This podcast is a platform created to inspire artists to persevere through the trials that come with being a creative. Tune in to each episode as Rhea "RheaSunshine" Carmon speaks with poets and artists about what drives them to succeed and their creative process.New episodes of Beyond the Spark Podcast will be available every 1st and 3rd Saturday.