Shakespeare's Shorts: Ayokunle Falomo, poet
In this episode, we get to chat (and giggle and lose all sense of time) with an old friend, Ayokunle Falomo, whose first incendiary chapbook entitled African, American has been published. He has promised us that it will be available for purchase from New Delta Review as soon as COVID insanity ends! We talk with Ayo about the many steps of working on a decade-long project, and we tackle the age old question of writing between the personal and the political, the body of a nation and the body of an individual. Not to mention that he gives us chills with his reading. Now, please excuse us, as we take Ayo’s ultimate quarantine advice to just go and take a nap.
Keep an eye out on the New Delta Review website for the availability of African, American. In the meantime, be sure to check out his other short collections, kin.DREAD and thread, this wordweaver must!
Honorable Mentions:
Solmaz Sharif / check out her first full collection, Look: Poems.
Layli Long Soldier / check out her first full collection, Whereas: Poems.
Marwa Helal / check out her most recent collection, Invasive Species.
Selah Saterstrom / check out her novel Slab and Ideal Suggestions: Essays in Divinatory Poetics.
Loyce Gayo / explore her work here.
Ariana Brown / check out her collection of spoken word poetry put on the page, Sana Sana.
Mwende “FreeQuency” Katwiwa / check out their collected, Becoming//Black.
Ayokunle Falomo is: a Nigerian, a poet who uses his pen as a shovel to unearth those things that make us human, a TEDx speaker, an American, and the author of kin.DREAD & thread, this wordweaver must! He and his work have been featured a number of publications in print (Local Houston magazine, Glass Mountain) and online (The New York Times, Houston Chronicle, Hive Society, Squawk Back, Pressure Gauge Press). His work has also led to venues and stages around & outside of Texas. He enjoys walking & talking to himself (a lot) and sometimes, he is fortunate enough to have other people there to listen.
Learn more about Ayo’s author site for more of his his work.
Adding an extra photo of our bud because we really love this one :)
