All Write in Sin City

On March 19, 2022, a virtual launch was held for a wonderful project called the Community Anthology, published by A Beautiful Place Publishing House, a part of Gertrude’s Writing Room owned by our friend Vanessa Shields.
With poetry from 65 contributors from three continents, eight countries, four Canadian provinces, and four American states, the Community Anthology is a great celebration of what we mean by community today. It was compiled and edited by Vanessa Shields and our own Irene Moore Davis.
You’ll hear selections from:

Colin Morton
Derrick Carl Biso
C.M. Gadapee
Sarah Morris
Judith Kambia Obatusa
Peter Hrastovec and
Karen Rockwell

All of whom read at the launch and allowed us to record their performance.
The original recording was edited for length.
https://gertrudeswritingroom.com/submissions/

Karl Jirgens, Professor Emeritus, former English Department Head and former Chair of the Creative Writing Program (University of Windsor), is author of three books of fiction and two scholarly books (Coach House, Mercury, ECW and The Porcupine’s Quill Presses). He edited two books (on painter Jack Bush, and poet Christopher Dewdney), plus the “Collaborations” issue of Open Letter magazine with Beatriz Hausner. His scholarly and creative works are published globally. Jirgens edited and published Rampike, an international journal of art, writing, and theory from 1979 to 2016, now digitally archived (free) on the University of Windsor Leddy Library scholars’ portal. Rampike contributors have been ground-breaking artists, writers, and theorists, including nominees and winners of awards such as the Booker, Commonwealth, Orange, Pulitzer, Dublin Impac, Giller, Trillium, Writer’s Trust, and Governor General’s Award, among other prizes. Jirgens serves on the Editorial Board of ellipse magazine. He is a long-time practitioner and grand-master (8th Degree Black Belt) of the martial art of Tae Kwon Do. He recently had a chapbook published by Above Ground Press featuring three stories, titled, Eco Blues: A Tale in 3 Parts, and it has recently been announced that his work will be featured in the 2023 edition of Best Canadian Poetry, published by Biblioasis. His short fiction collection, The Razor’s Edge, was recently released by The Porcupine’s Quill Press in 2022. Karl lives in Windsor, Ontario.
(https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/rampike/about.html)

https://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2022/02/new-from-aboveground-press-eco-blues.html?fbclid=IwAR1sY-1Pyr6EPUGSV1aqK2XqBK5RpZpOfcKYeP6Dwi_K69FzQWk-p2oBnjA

https://porcupinesquill.ca//bookinfo6.php?index=369
About Gas of Tank: A Canadian Law Enforcement Odyssey 1979 – 2019:
Todd Ternovan believed in keeping things simple: Marrying his college sweetheart, studying Early Childhood Education at Ryerson University, spending his professional life as a daycare teacher. It was a tidy plan. Except for one thing: Man plans and the gods laugh.
To fund his life and education in Toronto, Todd worked a part-time job—as a corrections officer at the infamous Don Jail.
Although he spent a few years working with kids, Todd’s experience in corrections propelled him into a 33-year career within Canadian law enforcement.
Small-town policing isn’t just rescuing cats from trees and performing wellness checks. The concession roads and rural routes of southwestern Ontario are home to some incredibly kind, resilient people, and scene to some strange, tragic and heinous events. Todd dealt with them all, from the naked machete-wielding man who claimed to be Jesus Christ, to armed American fugitives, decades-old sexual assaults, harrowing traffic accidents, violent home invasions, and even a year spent “Uncle Charlie” (undercover) investigating drug traffickers.
The title comes from a phrase uttered by a motorcycle gang member who demonstrated his disdain for police by pulling a “wheelie” on his motorcycle following a traffic stop. The biker was charged with stunt driving. In his defense in court, the biker said, in a thick French accent: “It was not possible for me to a pull a ‘wheelie,’ Your Worship. I had a full gas of tank!”
“Gas of Tank” embodies, for Todd, all the surreal, upside-down, unbelievable, description-defying experiences police face daily.
Written by Matt St Amand
Freelance writer: Writer / Videographer. Father and husband with a slowly improving track record. Fan of Ultraman (Hayata series), Aphex Twin and

Herb Colling has an abiding interest in, and respect for, local history. His first two books deal with the auto industry in Windsor. He cut his teeth in 1993 on Pioneering the Auto Age, about Windsor as an automotive capital of Canada, and went on to write 99 Days: The Ford Strike In Windsor, 1945, in 1995, and Turning Points: The Detroit Riot of 1967, a Canadian Perspective. His most recent book is Radio Transcriptions: Historical Vignettes of Essex County, which was edited for the Essex County Historical Society. He is a retired CBC radio Windsor broadcaster.
http://biblioasis.com/brand/colling-herb/

https://www.dundurn.com/books/Turning-Points

New this year, the All Access Café is a unique series of readings and performances that features differently-abled artists and is ASL-accessible through Deaf Can, Inc. It's sponsored by the Detroit Writer's Guild, the Knight Foundation, Poets & Writers, the Detroit Public Library, Wayne State University and Third Man Records. In this episode, you'll hear performances from several artists:

• Ali McManus, a singer, songwriter and motivational speaker
• Mark Levin, a poet, musician and production assistant who is deaf. Mark has long been a prolific Slam poet and disabilities activist in his native Chicago and more recently in Detroit
• Diane DeCillis, a poet. Her collection, Strings Attached, has been honored as a Michigan Notable Book for 2015, won The 2015 Next Generation Indie Book Award for poetry, and was a finalist for the Forward Indie Fab Book Award for poetry
• Mona Jean Cedar, a poet, ASL Slam Interpreter, and Disabilities Activist. Her organization Pas d’ASL was designed for one being’s adventure in the evolution and expression of self through dance, sign language and poetry
• Jan Krist an American singer-songwriter from Detroit, a former New Folk Finalist at the Kerville Music Festival, and a founding member of the Yellow Room Gang, a songwriting collective in South-East Michigan

For more information on the artists or the All Access Café, check out the following links:
https://www.alimcmanus.com
https://dianedecillis.com/
http://circuitryandpoetry.com/aboutus/AboutUsMonaBio.html
https://www.facebook.com/Jan-Krist-Music-and-Art-200018087253052/

This podcast is a little different than our usual programs. Dr. Naomi Long Madgett, the Detroit Poet Laureate, had been on our interview “wish list” for some time. Last fall, we tried to interview her here on the podcast about her latest book, You Are My Joy and Pain. That did not work out, and sadly, a few weeks later, she passed away. Today, we’ll be paying tribute to Madgett’s career as a poet, publisher and Poet Laureate from 2001 to 2020. We’re talking with two people in the Detroit literary community about her work, her legacy and how they will remember her. Our featured guests today are:

• Leisia Duskin, a graphic designer, artist and instructor who is a Board Member of Broadside Lotus Press and a longtime collaborator with Dr. Madgett
• And M.L. Liebler, an internationally known Detroit poet, university professor, literary arts activist and arts organizer and also the Poet Laureate for St. Clair Shores, Michigan

Listeners who would like to know more about Dr. Naomi Long Madgett’s career can find biographies on broadsidelotuspress.org, at poets.org, and also a more recent version at this link: https://naomilongmadgett.wixsite.com/naomi-long-madgett/biography)

Biography M.L. Liebler: www.mlliebler.com

Biography of Leisia Duskin, Graphic Designer, Educator, and Writer
Leisia Duskin is an artist, graphic designer, and educator. A graduate of the College for Creative Studies, Ms. Duskin is a Special Instructor teaching graphic design, varied format and apparel printing in the Printing and Graphics Program at Cornelius Golightly Career and Technical Center, Detroit Public Schools Community District.

In 1983, she received a grant from the Michigan Council for the Arts for her book of poems entitled Lights Out in Ten (edited by poet Stella Crews). Leisia Duskin’s poems have been published in the South End Newspaper (Wayne State University) and in the Broadside Press anthology, Hipology: Horizons in Poetry, edited by Ron Allen and Stella Crews, Detroit Perspectives: Crossroads and Turning Points (Great Lakes Books Series) 1991..

Ms. Duskin joined Dr. Madgett to support the writing efforts of others published by Lotus Press. Their teamwork led to a life-long friendship. Dr. Madgett commissioned Ms. Duskin to create two illustrations for her acclaimed book, Octavia - And Other Poems (1988), reprinted as Octavia - Beyond Guthrie (1992). Over the years, Leisia Duskin would win the Lotus Press Graphic Design Excellence Award in 2008 for outstanding book design, and inclusion in the Henry Ford College Faculty Graphic Design and Photography Exhibition in 2014, for the 2012 Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award book cover design Three Birds Deep by poet Sheila Carter-Jones. Her most recent book layout and cover design was for the Naomi Long Madgett (NLM) Poetry Award is Blues Legacy by poet Jacquese Armstrong, 2019.

Ms. Duskin joined the Board of Directors of Lotus Press in 2000, and served as Board President from 2005 to 2015.