Ben Irwin: Slam Poetry Winner Interview

"Puma" Paul has been a local Fort Collins poet and activist with a powerful political stance against  nuclear proliferation for many years in our community. Since his time as a veteran more than 20 years ago, has used his poetry to discuss the worlds political situation. Paul has published poetry and haiku, and continues to use his work to draw crowds around peace events. "Puma" is a spirit-anima channeling character that speaks about the natural world rubbing up against our 'civilized" world in his "Puma" poetry..

The Windsor Arts & Heritage Center is a community space that is more than just an art gallery, it's a space where pomes are on the walls too! Members of the northern Colorado creative community came in to the KRFC studio to talk about what it takes to make a live event happen. Chris Bates, museum curator, Lorrie Wolfe, poet and community organizer, and Nina Kentwortz, local poet who won 2nd in the competition, all sat down with Thomas, Lip Chicken co-host, having fun and even presenting a spontaneous poem -- with improvised music!

Poetry and visual art are featured on the museum walls of the Windsor Art & Heritage Center for their 12th Annual Community Show; all celebrating the theme "Trifecta." Chris Bates, gallery curator, emceed along with the sound art trio, Opposite of Blink, entertaining throughout the night. An open-mic of community voices followed.

You can use artificial intelligence in more ways than just as a fancy "search engine." You can play with AI through poetry! Poets and AI prompt-engineers Lee Frankel-Goldwater and Eric Raanan Fischman experimented with this new technology, and not only learned more about AI but also more about poetry itself. They join Thomas at the KRFC studio to discuss their research laid out in their book Lily In A Codebox: The Search for AI's Poetic Voice.

Cortney Collins and Doc Martin are interviewed by Booger about their experiences as the most winning male and female local poets. They have become partners and live the spoken-word performance lifestyle in northern Colorado. This interview includes explicit language and they may let the f-bomb fly. They speak of their experiences in becoming poets, artists and musicians in the Northern Colorado community.

Kathleen Willard joins co-host Christine Hogg in the studio to talk about her new book, A World On Fire:  Poems of Women's Desire, the power of the poetry community, and the importance of connection and speaking directly with kindness. Kathleen reads selected works, shares experiences about building relationships locally and abroad, and describes the role of poetry and artists from her perspective.

Black Market Translation packed into the KRFC podcast studio with all their musical instruments for an in-studio showing of Punketry. Matt Clifford on bass, Chris Eason on guitar, Dipper on Drums, and Sarah Rodriguez as emcee and poet all brought their improvised musical creativity to Fort Collins. Thomas and Booger also each performed a poem with the band.

Booger interviews local Fort Collins slam poet Briana Aragon, about her academic literary background and her more-current winning performances as a slam poet. Briana brings a hip hop feel to her work and enjoys bringing her political and eco-poetry poetry, to life on stage. Live audiences inspire her to speak loudly and proudly and she can compel an audience to applause.

For the next two years, Fort Collins is lucky to have two poet laureates: Erica Reid and Jake Friedman. They join Thomas in the KRFC studios to discuss their goals and aspirations for their laureate tenure. Lively banter ensued as poetic possibilities kept percolating over the brim.

Booger interviews a new poet to the area who has swept up accolades and won the local poetry slam. Ben Irwin tells us about his background, his family and shares his rich brand of playful, and political works. Ben and Booger discuss the competitive nature of slam poetry and the rewards of winning amongst the local poetry community in Fort Collins.