Breaking Form: A Poetry And Culture podcast

#Arts #Aaron Smith and James Allen Hall #Aaron Smith #James Allen Hall #Books #Poetry #Gay #Literary #Culture #Comedy #Theater #LGBTQ

28:39

For centuries, members of the B’doul Bedouin tribe lived in the caves around the ancient city of Petra, Jordan. Then, in the 1980s, the government forced the tribe to move in the name of preserving the geological site for tourists. But if the residents are forced to leave, and if their heritage has been permanently changed, then what exactly is being preserved? SHOW NOTES: Meet The Man Living in The Lost City Carved in Stone Jordan: Petra's tourism authority cracks down on Bedouin cave dwellers The tribes paying the brutal price of conservation “There is no future for Umm Sayhoun” Jordan’s Young Bedouins Are Documenting Their Traditions on TikTok Check out Sami's company Jordan Inspiration Tours Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices…

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James Allen Hall and Aaron Smith talk about their favorite poems and poets, interview amazing writers, laugh a lot, gossip, and get real about life and art.

187 episoade

Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast

Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast explicit

updated acum 21 ore

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James Allen Hall and Aaron Smith talk about their favorite poems and poets, interview amazing writers, laugh a lot, gossip, and get real about life and art.

187 episoade

#Arts #Aaron Smith and James Allen Hall #Aaron Smith #James Allen Hall #Books #Poetry #Gay #Literary #Culture #Comedy #Theater #LGBTQ

All episodes

Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast

1
Leather Bar 29:10

acum 21 hours29:10

29:10

Get in, gurl, we're reading poetry at your unfriendly neighborhood leather bar. Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. NOTES: Learn more about Tom of Finland , the artist name of Finnish Touko Laaksonen who signed his erotic work "Tom." Follow messygayspod on Instagram, or @messygays.bsky.social on Blue Sky, or on FB at MessyGaysPod Read Heather McHugh's " The Amenities " (care warning: sexual assault) Read sam sax's " On PrEP or on Prayer [“when i say pre-exposure prophylaxis”] Read Elizabeth Bishop's " The Moose " Read Diane Wakoski's " Uneasy Rider " Here's an excerpt from Mark Bibbins's 13th Balloon Read this poem by Tyehimba Jess Check out Robin Coste Lewis's page on The Elders Project here . TEP captures and celebrates untold and underrepresented stories of activists, storytellers, and community builders who have witnessed and shaped great change in American public life. Read this consideration/critique of Cruising Read this interview of Mary Jo Bang. Stephen King addresses rumors about Musk insults here . Read this great review of Bianca Stone's fabulous The Mobius Strip Club of Grief. If you haven't seen the 20th anniversary edition of Richard Siken's Crush , check it out here . Check out Nighboat's Rob Halpern's Music for Porn Read Jenny Johnson's essay " Butch Blow Job " in Bomb.…

Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast

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Super Gay Poems w/ Guest Stephanie Burt 1:00:17

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The queens super-gay it up with Stephanie Burt, the editor of the new poetry anthology, SUPER GAY POEMS. Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. NOTES: Check out SUPER GAY POEMS: LGBTQIA+ Poetry after Stonewall , edited by Stephanie Burt, out on April 1, 2025. Read Hera Lindsay Bird's " Bisexuality " Check out Best New Zealand Poets and 20 Contemporary New Zealand Poets . Read JD McClatchy's " My Mammogram " The article we reference by the founders of AALR is " The World Doesn't Stop for Derek Walcott, or: An Exchange between Coeditors ." Gerald Maa and Lawrence-Minh Bùi Davis. Here's a link, if you haven't listened to our episode " We Can Shift the Canon " Vendler's final book is called Inhabit the Poem: Last Essays , out from Penguin on September 2, 2025. Read " Breakfast with Miss Bishop "--Helen Vendler on Elizabeth Bishop. Read here for more about Essex Hemphill. Stephanie wrote about teaching the Taylor Swift course at Harvard for Vanity Fair. Read Stephanie's " Taylor's Version: The Poetic and Musical Genius of Taylor Swift " The Tay Learning Podcast that Stephanie mentions can be found here . Read Christina Rossetti's " Goblin Market "…

Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast

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Brenda's Resistance Playlist (w/ Brenda Shaughnessy) 53:19

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We're talking resistance, joy, and queer communities with Brenda Shaughnessy! Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. NOTES: Click here for Brenda’s Queer Resistance Playlist 2025 (Spotify). Check out Brenda's poem " Panopticon " from Interior with Sudden Joy . Visit Brenda Shaughnessy’s website . And hear her read from her newest book, Tanya here . Read more about UC Santa Cruz closing the Feminist Studies Dept here . Read more about Maria Ressa For more about Roland Barthes’s contribution to literary criticism, read here . While dated, here’s a list of creative writing programs that are LGBTQ+ friendly. Read more about Bettina Aptheker Read more about Donna J. Haraway Read on for more about the clubs Brenda mentions: Meow Mix , Clit Club , Henrietta Hudson (still open!), Pandora's Box , and more . Read more about Angela Davis's work here . For more about Wendy Brown, read her Guggenheim citation here . You can learn more about Allan Bérubé here . Learn more about the incredible Urvashi Vaid here . Watch/listen to Cécile McLorin Salvant's "Until" here . Read more about Kate Clinton on her website here . For more about Teresa de Lauretis, click here .…

Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast

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Erase-Him Poems 29:04

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29:04

The queens get to the poetic essence with the help of erasure and re-envisioning. Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. NOTES: The Nicole Sealey poem we read at the end of the episode comes from the first four pages of her book The Ferguson Report: An Erasure We revise poems by: Robert Bly, " The Beauty of Women " George Herbet, " Death " Dean Young, " Belief in Magic " William Stafford, " Accountability " Billy Collins, " Design " The video we mention posted by The New Yorker was posted in April 2023 to FaceBook: " How a New Yorker Poetry Editor Selects Poems " Watch John Travolta introduce Idina Menzel as "the wickedly talented Adele Dazeem" and then Menzel getting her good-natured revenge. For more about the feminist practice of erasure poetry, we can recommend Erase the Patriarchy: An Anthology of Erasure Poetry .…

Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast

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Her Kind: Anne Sexton 30:38

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Join the thirsty queens for a gin & Sextonic, in this tribute to the iconic work of Anne Sexton. Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. NOTES: Click here for a pdf from the Poetry Society that includes a folio of essays about Sexton's life and work by David Trinidad, Lois Ames, and Maggie Nelson. (Originally published in Crossroads, fall 2001.) Trinidad talks about Anne Sexton on the podcast here . And, lastly, we'd be remiss if we did not link to this dishy, well-researched article --again by the fabulous David Trinidad--about the palace intrigue behind Sexton's winning the Pulitzer for Live or Die. Want to read more about Sexton, faith, and love? Your wait is over. Curious about Anne Sexton's houses? Click here! Here's an hour of Sexton reading some of her most iconic poems. Anne Sexton gave her last public reading at Goucher College in October 1974, three days before she completed suicide. You can find the reading here . Here are links to some of the poems we mention: "The Ballad of the Lonely Masturbator" "Menstruation at Forty" "Her Kind" "Sylvia's Death" "The Fury of Cocks" "Cigarettes and Whiskey and Wild, Wild Women"…

Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast

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The Loves of My Life (with Special Guest Edmund White) 1:08:27

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The queens talk with gay literary icon Edmund White about his new book, The Loves of My Life: A Sex Memoir. (Miguel Murphy joins in the fun, too!) Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. Miguel's SHORE DITCH is available from Barrow Street. You can purchase Edmund White's new book, The Loves of My Life: A Sex Memoir , at BookWoman here. Bookwoman was founded to increase access to queer and feminist literature in Texas nearly fifty years ago. Read Colm Tóibín's essay, " On the Casual Brilliance of Edmund White " Read a tribute to Gary Indiana in The Guardian here . Need a quick definition refresher of auto fiction? Here you go! Miguel mentions that composer Arnold Schoenberg's archive destroyed in LA fires, and you can read more about that here . Here's a dishy roundup of Nabokov's insults of Dostoevsky For a bit more about Larry Kramer's objections to The Farewell Symphony, read on. Learn more about Richard Howard and his poetry here . Edmund White and Michael Carroll talk about their relationship, and their experiences writing gay fiction here . And here's the Interview Magazine article we mention in the episode, in which gay writers ask Edmund White a question: “ Tall Blonde With a Big Dick”: 18 Men Ask Edmund White Some Sexy Questions " Finally, check out the fabulous Garth Greenwell's website: https://www.garthgreenwell.com…

Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast

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Shorties 29:44

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29:44

The queens prove that it's not the size of the ship but the motion etc etc in this episode devoted to short poems. Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Pretty Please with Aaron's cherry on top..... Buy our books: Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. Poems we mention in the show include: A.R. Ammons's " Their Sex Life " Rae Armantrout's " Anti-Short Story " and " Custom " Mahogany L. Browne's " Marigold ." Listen to it read here . Andrea Cohen's " After " and " Matinee " and " Flight Pattern " and " Ghosting " Robert Creeley, " The Answer " Jim Harrison's " Another Country " and " Barking " Jane Hirshfield's "Like Others" and to " The Woman, The Tiger ." You can hear her read that poem here (at the 18:12 mark). Sandra Lim, " Just Disaster " and " At the Other End of the Wire " and " Endings " Listen to Sandra Lim read her poems (~40 minutes) with many short poems at the end. Samuel Menashe's " Adam Means Earth " and " Apotheosis " Harryette Mullen's " Way Opposite" Kay Ryan's " Winter Fear " Listen/watch the music video for Gilette's "Short, Short Man" here .…

Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast

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Fusion 29:50

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29:50

Get out your UV lights & swabs--the queens play a game that fuses poems, then guess the poetic DNA samples. Then we spark up a fusion of a different strain! Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Pretty Please..... Buy our books: Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. SHOW NOTES: Watch Jools Lebron get mindful and demure here , diva Don't soak tampons in vodka. Poems we discuss in the episode include: Philip Levine's " Bitterness " Laura Kasischke's " Champagne " Kay Ryan's " Shark's Teeth " Kenneth Koch's " One Train May Hide Another " Annie Finch's " Wild Yeasts " Dorothea Lasky's " Toast to my friend or why Friendship is the best kind of Love " Danusha Laméris's " Bonfire Opera " Marie Ponsot's " Among Women " Tina Chang's " God Country " Campbell McGrath's " Sunset, Route 90, Brewster County, Texas " Elizabeth Bishop's "The Fish" W.B. Yeats's " Leda and the Swan " Gerard Manley Hopkins's " The Windhover " Anne Sexton's " Jesus Awake " & " Wanting to Die " Langston Hughes's " The Negro Speaks of Rivers " & " I, Too " Philip Larkin's " Sad Steps " And Beyonce's " You Won't Break My Soul [Queens Remix] ," in which she sampled Madonna's song "Vogue," returning it to the culture where it rightly belongs.…

Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast

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Sissy 31:40

acum 8 weeks31:40

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The queens get sassy and sissify toxic cisheteronormative gender ideas about poetry. Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Pretty Please..... Buy our books: Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. The site in such desperate need of sissification (and better poets) can be found here. Or just skip to a queer critique here and/or to Esther Wang's super smart deep-dive takedown " My Brief Hero's Journey into the 'Art of Manliness,' Which Unfortunately Did Not Teach Me to Chop Wood " (on Jezebel, so you know that shit's good). Bill Waterson is the creator and writer of Calvin and Hobbes , which also includes poems over the years. Sam Elliott chews the scenery with Cher in Mask -- watch a great scene here. For some terrifically sissy poems, read on: " Sissy " by Aaron Smith " Hypothesis " by Paul Tran " Sissy Aqueducts" by Brandon Menke " LISP " by sam sax…

Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast

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Male Nipples (with Special Guest Brenda Hillman) 54:13

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54:13

The queens discuss gay icon status with Brenda Hillman--and then launch in to a revisit of several of her poems, including her fabulous "Male Nipples." Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Pretty Please..... Buy our books: Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. You can see readings by Brenda Hillman here (one poem, ~4 min, 2020), here (20min, 2012), and here (2024, poetry and conversation with Jesse Nathan). For a review and discussion of Hillman's new book, Three Talks , check out this episode of The Only Property. (~30 min). (Re)read Wallace Stevens's " Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird " Learn more about Kathleen Fraser here . Discover more about Barbara Guest and her 9 collections of poetry here. If you'd like to know more about Kelsey Street Press's mission and history, it's a fascinating journey that you can start here. A basic introduction to gnosticism can be had here . Learn more about the Black Mountain Poets here . Read about Objectivist Poetics here .…

Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast

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Sex Lives of Poets: Langston Hughes 32:31

acum 10 weeks32:31

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Candle-extinguishing butts, 3am afterparties, collections of seamen (and semen)--this dishy tour of Langston Hughes's love life will leave you gagging with the gays. Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Pretty Please..... Buy our books: Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. SHOW NOTES: Watch Hughes recite his poem, " The Weary Blues " to jazz accompaniment on tv in 1958. You can check out troves of Hughes's poetry here , here , and here . Read Langston Hughes's poem " Café: 3AM " Listen to Hughes read " Harlem ." Langston Hughes's first memoir, The Big Sea , about his seafaring travels--including upon the West Hesseltine where he said he had that fateful encounter with a sailor-- can be found here. It includes the essay " Spectacles in Color " in which Hughes describes queer ballroom scene and Countee Cullen's wedding to Yolanda Du Bois (with Harold Jackson, his boyfriend, serving as best man). Faith Berry's biography of Hughes is Before and Beyond Harlem . Her papers are at the Library of Congress. Read more about Arnold Ampersad's biography of Hughes: Volume 1 (which covers 1902-1940 and does have a snazzy subtitle: I, Too, Sing America). Volume 2 (which covers 1941-death and also has a snazzy subtitle: I Dream a World). Other receipts for the episode can be found in the following essays and scholarship: Hilton Als, " The Elusive Langston Hughes " ( The New Yorker , 2015) Juda Bennett, " Multiple Passings and the Double Death of Langston Hughes " ( Biography , vol 23.4, 2000).Link through Project Muse. Andrew Donnelly, " Langston Hughes on the DL " ( College Literature, Volume 44, Number 1, Winter 2017). Link through Project Muse. Mason Stokes, " Strange Fruits: Rethinking the Gay Twenties" (Transition , 2002, No. 92). Link through JSTOR. Shane Vogel, " Closing Time: Langston Hughes and the Poetics of Harlem Nightlife ," in Criticism (Vol 48.3, 2006). Link through Project Muse. Jennifer Wilson, " Queer Harlem, Queer Tashkent " ( Slavic Review , FALL 2017). Link through JSTOR. Finally, visit Ann Patchett's bookstore online here: https://www.parnassusbooks.net/…

Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast

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Half a Poem 29:18

acum 11 weeks29:18

29:18

Whet your appetite with half a poem from 3 fabulous poets and choose your own poetic fulfillment! Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Pretty Please..... Buy our books: Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. SHOW NOTES: Read Catherine Bowman's poem "1-800-Hot-Ribs." Read Catherine Barnett's poem "' Have You Ever Written a Poem About Death?' My Mother Asks. " Read Catherine Pierce's poem " The Curator of the Earth Museum Speaks of People ." Watch Catherine Bowman’s read her poem " Makeshift " (~1.5 mins) from Can I Finish, Please (Four Way Books, 2016). Bowman's title poem from 1-800-HOT-RIBS which we read on the show can be found on the blog “Read Good Poetry,” which was updated through 2022. Watch Nicole Sealey read Catherine Barnett's poem " Apophasis at the All-Night Rite Aid " (1 min). You can catch Catherine reading (about 7 min) here . Click here to read another Barnett poem in APR called “Envoy” (also from Solutions for the Problem of Bodies in Space ). Visit Barnett's website here . Catherine Pierce reads four poems from Danger Days here (~20 mins) and talks craft on the Wednesday Night Sessions show. Visit Pierce's website here , and check out episodes of Mississippi Poetry Podcast (which Pierce hosts) here .…

Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast

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In & Out (2025) 30:28

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The queens go in (and out) on poetry trends for 2025, all while doing their Kegel exercises. Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Pretty Please..... Buy our books: Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. SHOW NOTES: Watch Marie Howe in conversation with poet and friend of the show, Nicole Tallman (18 mins), for South Florida Poetry Journal. You can catch a reading of some poets included in Invisible Strings: 113 Poets Respond to the Songs of Taylor Swift here . Read Carol Frost's poem " Gross Clinic " from her book I Will Say Beauty (mentioned in the show). When we mention "the Sharon Olds stanza," here’s a representative of what we mean: " After Making Love in Winter " (Poetry Magazine, May 1987) A bit more about The Vivienne, a drag superstar and winner of Season 1 of Drag Race UK, can be found here . More about Ada Limon's historic appointment as Poet Laureate can be accessed here . A few Game Shows poems: Jennifer L. Knox, “ The New Let’s Make a Deal ” Julie Marie Wade, " From the Jeopardy! Category Spoiler Alerts "…

Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast

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World AIDS Day (Encore Presentation) 17:12

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A special encore presentation of our World AIDS Day episode from last year, featuring work by writers we've lost to AIDS. Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Pretty Please..... Buy our books: Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. SHOW NOTES: According to the website for World AIDS Day, more than 38 million people are currently living with HIV. And, since 1984, more than 35 million people have died of HIV or AIDS-related illnesses, making it one of the most destructive pandemics in history. Donate here . Please consider buying the books of the poets we honor! We recommend Loyalty Bookstores, a DC-area Black-owned bookshop. We dedicated a Breaking Form Episode ("The Invisible Embrace") to Paul Monette (October 16, 1945--February 10, 1995). Monette was the author of 4 novels, 3 books of nonfiction, and 4 books of poems, including a New and Selected Poems called West of Yesterday, East of Summer (1994). He died of complications due to AIDS on February 10, 1995. Read more about Essex Hemphill here , and "American Wedding" (the poem Aaron reads during the show) here . He published 2 chapbooks and 2 books of poetry, and edited the anthology Brother to Brother: New Writing by Black Gay Men , winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Hemphill died of complications from AIDS in 1995. Watch a short film written and performed by Hemphill called "From the Anacostia to the Potomac" here (~15 min) Dorothy Karen "Cookie" Mueller (March 2, 1949 – November 10, 1989) was an American actress and writer who starred in many of filmmaker John Waters's early films, including Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble. Mueller wrote columns and criticism for magazines and papers, and released several books as well, including a memoir, Garden of Ashes . A short film of remembrances about Mueller can be seen here . In April 2022, Semiotext(e) released Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black: Collected Stories. Iris de la Cruz inspired the foundation Iris House. You can read more about Iris and the foundation here . De la Cruz died in 1991, leaving a 15-year legacy of fighting for health rights for women/femmes living with HIV. Hear the entire essay James reads ("Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll, and AIDS”) in this video here . (TW for anachronistic language regarding sex work.) David Michael Wojnarowicz (September 14, 1954 – July 22, 1992) was an American painter, photographer, writer, filmmaker, performance artist, songwriter/recording artist, and AIDS activist. He died in 1992, having written more than 10 books (including Close to the Knives , from which Aaron reads), exhibited his visual art all over the world, and directed at least two films. Melvin Dixon was born on May 29, 1950 and died October 26, 1992. He authored two poetry collections: Change of Territory and the posthumous Love's Instruments . His novels were Vanishin…

Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast

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Step Your Poetry Up 38:08

acum 19 weeks38:08