FRANCESA LIA BLOCK on Finding Rhythm Through Word /323

02/15/23 • 60 min

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This week, Ayana is joined by Francesca Lia Block in a heartfelt conversation recognizing the search for self and love through magic, literature, and deeply-felt presence. Francesca brings listeners into her writing practices as she navigates centering beauty in a world of intensity. Moving through the depths of empathy, pleasure, and presence, Francesca considers passion as a practice of gratitude to the world around us. As she discusses her most recent book House of Hearts , with Ayana, she emphasizes the healing and growth that comes from examining ourselves and our passions deeply. As we journey through life, what mentors, books, and practices give us the inspiration we need to keep moving forward?

Francesca Lia Block, M.F.A., is the author of more than twenty-five books of fiction, non-fiction, short stories and poetry, and has written screenplay adaptations of her work. She received the Spectrum Award, the Phoenix Award, the ALA Rainbow Award and the 2005 Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as other citations from the American Library Association and from the New York Times Book Review, School Library Journal and Publisher’s Weekly.

Music by 40 Million Feet, India Blue, and Ariana Saraha & Flight Behavior. Visit our website at forthewild.world for the full episode description, references, and action points.

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Music by 40 Million Feet, India Blue, and Ariana Saraha & Flight Behavior. Visit our website at forthewild.world for the full episode description, references, and action points.

Support the show

Previous Episode

Episode Swap: HOW TO SURVIVE THE END OF THE WORLD / All About Love

For The Wild is honored to be “episode swapping” with the How to Survive the End of the World podcast, hosted by adrienne maree brown and Autumn Brown this week! Known for “learning from the apocalypse with grace, rigor, and curiosity” this episode, initially released in May 2022 is all about love.

“What is it? Why does it happen? Why does it hurt so bad? Why does it feel so good? And how might it help us survive as a species? All these questions and more get introduced, and some of them start to get answers.”

Autumn Brown and adrienne maree brown are two sisters who share many identities, as writers, activists, facilitators, and inheritors of multiracial diasporic lineages, as well as a particular interest in the question of survival. Together, they embark on a podcast that delves into the practices we need as a community, to move through endings and to come out whole on the other side, whatever that might be.

To learn more about How to Survive the End of the World or listen to their full season on love, visit endoftheworldshow.org.

Produced by Zak Rosen, music from Tunede Olaniran and Mother Cyborg.

For The Wild will be back next week February 15, 2023.

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Next Episode

MALCOLM HARRIS on The Globalization of Forgetfulness /324

Giving listeners a glimpse into his new book, Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World , guest Malcolm Harris joins Ayana in a vast conversation dealing with the shape and form of Palo Alto’s specific place alongside overarching systems of capital. Cutting through the romanticization and myth that surrounds much of the allure around California as place and as metaphor, Malcolm offers well-rooted thought touching on the history of Stanford University, the internet, Palo Alto’s military connections, and more. This conversation reveals the values of understanding our material realities and the structures that support society as it stands. When we understand these intricacies, how might knowledge allow us to subvert domination?

Offering his critical thought to this conversation, Malcolm reminds us that this permutation of society was not inevitable, and neither is any particular future. As examples, the practices of Land Back movements, student resistance, and collective organizing spaces, offer hope for alternatives. If specific visions of justice are impossible within this system, how do we steward a future in which they are?

Malcolm Harris is a freelance writer and the author of Kids These Days, Shit is Fucked Up and Bullshit , and the new book Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World .

Music by Little Foster Music (Harry Foster), Harrison Basch, and Ian George. Visit our website at forthewild.world for the full episode description, references, and action points.

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For The Wild - FRANCESA LIA BLOCK on Finding Rhythm Through Word /323

Transcript

FRANCESCA LIA BLOCK on Finding Rhythm Through Word /323 Transcript

Ayana Young Hello and welcome to For The Wild podcast, I'm Ayana Young. Today I'm speaking with Francesca Lia Block.

Francesca Lia Block Magic, like love, you know, it is a practice, they're all one thing to me, frankly, but it is a practice and it takes a lot of work and daily diligence to commit to them. And we're being pulled, I mean, I'm constantly being pulled