Street Poets Podcast
Real-life stories & interviews – laced with original poetry & music – produced by the creative team at Street Poets Inc. – a Los Angeles-based non-profit organization transforming our world one rhyme at a time. ••••••• Born in an L.A. County juvenile detention camp in 1995, Street Poets works behind bars and beyond, from inner-city high school classrooms to Native American reservations, from local streets and projects to countries as far away as Belize, Sweden, Northern Ireland and South Africa. Whether reciting from our "Poetry in Motion" van, rapping in our recording studio, or singing in a sweat lodge, we create in the knowledge that we carry the seeds of solutions to our world's most intractable problems within us. Our mission is to liberate those solutions, that medicine, our gifts – so that we all can experience together what it feels like to be free. ••••••• For more on Street Poets visit streetpoetsinc.com, or follow us on Instagram: @streetpoetsinc @streetpoetspodcast #metaphorsbewithyou
Episodes
13 episodes
GOOD SEEDS: Chris Henrikson & the Street Poets Origin Story
In our season-ending cross-over episode which first aired on the podcast “I’m No Hero,” Street Poets Founder and former Executive Director Chris Henrikson shares some of the challenges, joys and hard-won wisdom from Street Poets’ early days - i...
OF POETRY & PRAYER: The Barbara Fant Story
This episode illuminates the inspiring origin story of Street Poets' former Artistic Director, poet/author and Minister of Metaphor, Barbara Fant. Since her early days growing up in Youngstown, Ohio, Barbara has followed her calling – the...
"THE BURNING RIVER" (Bonus Story Episode)
"THE BURNING RIVER," an origin story for aspiring adults, was conceived as a narrative prayer for transformation & peace. Inspired by the many traditional stories and songs from around the world that have helped us to remember who we ...
TRUE NATURE: The David Sanchez Story
In this inspiring episode, veteran Street Poet David Sanchez remembers his epic journey from the streets of South Central L.A. to the confines of Central Juvenile Hall to the wilderness of the Rocky Mountains and California backcountry to the o...
IMMIGRANT SONG: The Chee Malabar Story
In this insightful, music-infused origin story, rapper and current Street Poets board member Chirag Menon a.k.a. CHEE MALABAR breaks down his journey from India to inner-city America at the age of 12, and the role that hip-hop played in his hea...
SISTERS IN RHYME
Street Poets has been blessed to have many powerful female leaders, healers, writers and teaching artists steward our creative community forward over the past 25 years. Inspired by the saying "each one, teach one," SISTERS IN RHYME amplif...
FIRESIDE with Luis J. Rodriguez
If Street Poets had a Hall of Fame, LUIS J. RODRIGUEZ would be one of the very first writers our community would choose to honor with enshrinement. Luis is the former Poet Laureate of Los Angeles and the acclaimed author of 16 books, incl...
SAVED BY A STORY: The World According to Busstop Prophet
In this inspiring, wisdom-infused episode, poet/storyteller/author/educator FRANK “BUSSTOP PROPHET" ESCAMILLA, our beloved Director of School Programs, is joined by Street Poet Jaylen Poole for a heart-warming, soul-stirring conversation about ...
HARD WAY HOME: The Taylor Code Story
Street Poets founding member TAYLOR CODE MAXIE Jr. reflects back on his redemptive journey through gangs, gunshot wounds and prison to the kind of poetic power and hard-won wisdom that saves lives – one rhyme at a time. Laced with Taylor'...
METAPHORIA: A Slam Poetic Love Story
Some people on the poetry performance scene are quick to say "Poets should never date poets." Award-winning spoken-word flame-throwers ALYESHA WISE and MATTHEW CUBAN HERNANDEZ put that maxim to the test every day as partners in rhyme, and...
FACING OUR DEMONS: A Multidimensional Mentoring Story
"Love takes off the masks that you know you cannot live within and fear you cannot live without." -James Baldwin Some relationships not only inspire change, they demand it. When 14-year-old Street Poet Jason Quezada and 34-year-o...
RESTORATIVE JUSTICE: Beyond Punishment
Join Street Poets and Restorative Justice advocate JAVIER STAURING, the former Catholic chaplain in Los Angeles' Central Juvenile Hall and now the Executive Director of Healing Dialogue & Action, as we imagine a justice system that helps to...
GIFTS & WOUNDS: The Jorge Nunez Story
Our premiere episode amplifies and illuminates the redemptive, healing journey of original Street Poet JORGE NUNEZ – one of our community's most inspiring and resilient creative beings. Through childhood trauma, gangs, prison and exile, J...
