Poetry Medicine for the Soul is a podcast inviting poets to share, explore, and celebrate poetry, hosted by John Gillespie. This episode shares another wonderful poetry podcast called Melody or Witchcraft: Poets on Emily Dickinson & Today’s Issues. Melody or Witchcraft is hosted and produced by Kathryn Petrucelli. Her podcast features poets reading a work of their own and an Emily Dickinson poem of their choosing. Kathryn is a poet and workshop leader, as well as a good friend and contributor to Poetry Medicine for the Soul. In this episode, Kathryn talks with poet Kemi Alabi, author of Against Heaven and co-editor of The Echoing Ida Collection. Kemi was a guest on Melody or Witchcraft’s most recent season, which also included poets like Pádraig Ó Tuama and Diane Seuss. Full show notes and bonus content for Melody or Witchcraft are available on Kathryn's Substack: Ask The Poet. You can find Melody or Witchcraft wherever you listen to podcasts and on YouTube. Poetry Medicine for the Soul Season 7 is in the works and will air this fall. Subscribe to Poetry Medicine for the Soul in Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts so you don’t miss an episode. Kathryn Petrucelli holds an M.A. in teaching English language learners and a love of the stage. She’s passionate about getting contemporary poetry, particularly that of Poets of Color, in front of youth. Among the journals her work has appeared in are The Southern Review, The Massachusetts Review, New Ohio Review, RHINO, Rattle, Poet Lore, SWWIM, and Literary Mama. Nominated for a Pushcart 2024 & 2025, Best Small Fictions in 2024, & Best of the Net 2020, Kathryn is a past winner of San Francisco’s LitQuake essay contest and a finalist for the Omnidawn Broadside Poetry Prize. She writes the Ask the Poet Substack and hosts the Melody or Witchcraft podcast. Kathryn lives with her family in the west of Ireland. Learn more at poetsroar.com. Kemi Alabi (they/them) was born in Wisconsin on a Sunday in July and is now a Chicago-based poet, essayist, cultural strategist, and teaching artist informed by the Black surrealist tradition. They’re author of Against Heaven (Graywolf Press, 2022), selected by Claudia Rankine as winner of the Academy of American Poets First Book Award. The collection was a Kate Tufts Discovery and Leslie Feinberg Award finalist, Chicago Review of Books Award winner, and one of New York Public Library’s Best Books of 2022. Kemi’s poems have appeared in The Atlantic, The Nation, Poetry, Boston Review, the Grammy-nominated album Difficult Grace, and elsewhere. Kemi is co-editor of The Echoing Ida Collection (Feminist Press, 2021), an anthology of Black reproductive justice writing. They've spent over a decade building narrative power for trans and queer bodily autonomy, most recently as the 2024-2025 Feminist in Residence at Northwestern University, where they developed the MELONCHOLIA audio collage and ritual. They’ve received fellowships and grants from MacDowell, Sewanee, Berlin’s Junge Akademie, Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, and Beloit Poetry Journal, where they were the inaugural Iron Mouth Curatorial Fellow. Kemi is working on their second poetry collection and can be contacted here for readings, workshops, classroom visits, and manuscript consultations. Learn more at kemialabi.com.
Poetry Medicine for the Soul is a podcast inviting poets to share, explore, and celebrate poetry, hosted by John Gillespie. This episode shares another wonderful poetry podcast called Melody or Witchcraft: Poets on Emily Dickinson & Today’s Issues.
Melody or Witchcraft is hosted and produced by Kathryn Petrucelli. Her podcast features poets reading a work of their own and an Emily Dickinson poem of their choosing. Kathryn is a poet and workshop leader, as well as a good friend and contributor to Poetry Medicine for the Soul.
In this episode, Kathryn talks with poet Kemi Alabi, author of Against Heaven and co-editor of The Echoing Ida Collection. Kemi was a guest on Melody or Witchcraft’s most recent season, which also included poets like Pádraig Ó Tuama and Diane Seuss.
Full show notes and bonus content for Melody or Witchcraft are available on Kathryn's Substack: Ask The Poet. You can find Melody or Witchcraft wherever you listen to podcasts and on YouTube.
Poetry Medicine for the Soul Season 7 is in the works and will air this fall. Subscribe to Poetry Medicine for the Soul in Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts so you don’t miss an episode.
Kathryn Petrucelli holds an M.A. in teaching English language learners and a love of the stage. She’s passionate about getting contemporary poetry, particularly that of Poets of Color, in front of youth. Among the journals her work has appeared in are The Southern Review, The Massachusetts Review, New Ohio Review, RHINO, Rattle, Poet Lore, SWWIM, and Literary Mama. Nominated for a Pushcart 2024 & 2025, Best Small Fictions in 2024, & Best of the Net 2020, Kathryn is a past winner of San Francisco’s LitQuake essay contest and a finalist for the Omnidawn Broadside Poetry Prize. She writes the Ask the Poet Substack and hosts the Melody or Witchcraft podcast. Kathryn lives with her family in the west of Ireland. Learn more at poetsroar.com.
Kemi Alabi (they/them) was born in Wisconsin on a Sunday in July and is now a Chicago-based poet, essayist, cultural strategist, and teaching artist informed by the Black surrealist tradition. They’re author of Against Heaven (Graywolf Press, 2022), selected by Claudia Rankine as winner of the Academy of American Poets First Book Award. The collection was a Kate Tufts Discovery and Leslie Feinberg Award finalist, Chicago Review of Books Award winner, and one of New York Public Library’s Best Books of 2022. Kemi’s poems have appeared in The Atlantic, The Nation, Poetry, Boston Review, the Grammy-nominated album Difficult Grace, and elsewhere.
Kemi is co-editor of The Echoing Ida Collection (Feminist Press, 2021), an anthology of Black reproductive justice writing. They've spent over a decade building narrative power for trans and queer bodily autonomy, most recently as the 2024-2025 Feminist in Residence at Northwestern University, where they developed the MELONCHOLIA audio collage and ritual. They’ve received fellowships and grants from MacDowell, Sewanee, Berlin’s Junge Akademie, Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, and Beloit Poetry Journal, where they were the inaugural Iron Mouth Curatorial Fellow. Kemi is working on their second poetry collection and can be contacted here for readings, workshops, classroom visits, and manuscript consultations. Learn more at kemialabi.com.