The Story Talks Back

Preview: Bayo Akomolafe tells of "meeting" Yoruba stories for the first time

Born into a Yoruba family in Nigeria, Bayo Akomolafe is a philosopher, advocate, teacher, and deep observer of our world. After graduating summa cum laude in psychology at Covenant University, he was invited to take up a lecturing position. Instead, Bayo embarked on doctoral research into Yoruba indigenous healing systems, struggling to regain a sense of rootedness to his community. In this excerpt from our forthcoming interview with Bayo, he describes discovering the stories of his people and culture as an adult -- after growing up in a post-colonial world shaped by Western values and ideas.  #stories #storytelling #africanstories #africanstorytelling #yoruba #nigeria #nigerianculture #alternativehealing #colonialsm #postcolonialculture #bayoakomolafe  #westernculture 

Paul Muldoon: From anapests to "Eleanor Rigby" -- stories from a restless poetic mind

In this wide-ranging interview, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon shares stories of his childhood in Northern Ireland, describes his "hunch by hunch" approach to writing, and reflects on his passion for rock music -- including his friendship and collaboration with the late Warren Zevon.

Hailed by the Times Literary Supplement as “the most significant English-language poet” born since World War II, Muldoon has won a Pulitzer Prize and dozens of other honors.  His 30-plus verse collections include Quoof; Moy Sand and Gravel; Madoc: A Mystery; and 2019’s Frolic and Detour. For 10 years, beginning in 2007, he was the poetry editor of The New Yorker. Since 1987, Muldoon has been a professor at Princeton University, where he teaches poetry and songwriting. His next collection of verse, Howdie-Skelp, will be published in November 2021.

Preview: Paul Muldoon on ghost stories, Westerns, and "telling pictures"

In this excerpt from his forthcoming interview with The Story Talks Back, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon looks back to the stories of his childhood in Northern Ireland. He tells how storytelling was a way of life among the farmers he grew up with -- and how a fellow altar boy kept Muldoon up to speed on the latest American movies while they waited for the "Big Show" (high mass) to begin ...  #irishpoetry #irishstorytelling #paulmuldoon #pulitzerprize 

Joan Jeanrenaud: A story of musical transformation

An interview with Joan Jeanrenaud -- cellist with Kronos Quartet for over 20 years. From 1978 to 1999, she participated in the development and premieres of hundreds of original works -- by Philip Glass, Terry Riley, John Cage, Hamza El Din, John Zorn, Frank Zappa, and many others. She took part in the quartet’s meteoric rise and its maturing into a central player in the new music scene,. When Jeanrenaud left the quartet -- after discovering that she had early-stage Multiple Sclerosis -- she began a new journey as a composer and solo performer. Her 2008 album, Strange Toys, was nominated for a Grammy Award, and she has collaborated with a variety of performers and writers, including Fred Frith, and PC Munoz. In 2016, Jeanrenaud contributed a piece, “Knock,” to Kronos’s “50 for the Future” series. #stories #storytelling #storytellers #frankzappa #johnzorn #johncage #terryriley #hamzaeldin #overcomingdisability #multiplesclerosis #kronosquartet #cellists #inspiringstories #avantgardemusic #composers #performers

Preview: Joan Jeanrenaud on helping Terry Riley shape early minimalist classics

In this excerpt from her forthcoming conversation with TSTB, Joan Jeanrenaud -- longtime cellist with Kronos Quartet -- recalls working with Terry Riley in the 1970s, when he was just beginning his career as a formal composer. As Riley transitioned from a purely improvised, non-written style, Kronos played a pivotal role in shaping such classic works as "G Song" and "Sunrise of the Planetary Dream Collector" -- both discussed in this fasacinating clip. #@minimalism #minimalistmusic #terryriley #philipglass #experimentalmusic #stringquartet #composers #cellists #stories #storytelling #storytellers #kronosquartet 

 

Photo by Marion Ettinger, circa 1998

Carolyn Forché: Bearing witness through the power of poetry

An interview with Carolyn Forché, who upset the polite norms of the poetic establishment in 1981 with her breakthrough poetry collection, The Country Between Us. Centered on a cycle of poems inspired by Forché’s months reporting in war-torn El Salvador, the book was named the 1981 Lamont Poetry Selection and became a bestseller among poetry collections. Almost 40 years later, Forché was a National Book Award finalist for her first full-length book of prose, a memoir of her time in El Salvador titled What You Have Heard Is True. Forché has also published three other books of poetry -- including The Angel of History, which the Los Angeles Times named the best poetry book of 1994, and In the Lateness of the World, which was published earlier this year to high acclaim. She teaches at Georgetown University, where she directs the Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice. #poetry #poems #poetrylovers #poetinterviews #politicalpoetry #poetryfans #elsalvador #oscarromero #saintoscarromero #revolutionaryuprisings #dictatorships #carolynforche #margaretatwood #thehandmaidstale #mountsainthelens #indigenouswriters #littlewomen #femalepoets

Preview: Carolyn Forché tells how Margaret Atwood and the Mt. St. Helens eruption conspired to reshape her poetry career

Even before Carolyn Forché published her breakthrough poetry collection The Country Between Us, the book caused controversy. Featuring stark, sometimes graphic depictions of war-torn El Salvador, where Forché had traveled in the late 1970s, the manuscript seemed destined to remain in a drawer -- until the poet took a fateful all-night car ride with legendary novelist Margaret Atwood. #poetry #poems #elsalvador #margaretatwood #carolynforche #thecountrybetweenus #thehandmaidstale #politicalpoetry #oscarromero  

Thomas Avino: Storyteller of the avant-garde

An interview with Thomas Avino -- composer, poet, and painter with roots in the avant-garde New York City music and art worlds of the 1970s. While others were standing in line outside Studio 54, Avino was haunting the tiny clubs and lofts where Eugene Chadbourne, Arto Lindsay, and others were playing high-energy improvisational music -- an idiom that has since been absorbed into strains of mainstream classical, rock, and jazz. Avino studied saxophone with the legendary John Zorn and composition with Philip Johnston of the Microscopic Septet. In 1999, he released a beautifully crafted CD, Heart of Hearts, which is now available on Bandcamp. And, more recently, he has been creating richly evocative “story paintings” on his Instagram account, A Cool Breeze on the Chain Gang. #johnzorn #avantgardemusic #eugenechadbourne #sohoarts #greenwichvillagemusic #johncage #OCD #OCDstories #OCDprofiles #thekitchen #earinn

Preview: Thomas Avino on learning sax from John Zorn

In his early twenties, composer and painter Thomas Avino took lessons in saxophone -- and life -- from the legendary John Zorn. A pivotal figure in New York's downtown music scene of the 1970s and '80s, Zorn was intimidating to some -- but to Avino, he offered $10 lessons that transcended music and continue to shape him today.

 

Zorn photo by Nick Ruechel

David Cay Johnston: The story behind the scoop

David Cay Johnston is a best-selling author, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and founder of DCreport.org. In a career of 50 years (and counting), Johnston has exposed corrupt LA police officers (including the city’s police chief), tracked down murderers, revealed hidden inequities in the tax code, and become a recurring thorn in the side of the 45th president. In 2001, Johnston won a Pulitzer for his probing New York Times stories on tax loopholes. His 2016 book, The Making of Donald Trump, became a national best seller. Johnston is a frequent commentator on MSNBC, CNN, and other outlets, and founded DCreport.org -- a nonprofit news service that doggedly tracks and analyzes the doings of the President and Congress. His latest book is It’s Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America. #donaldjtrump #trumpfraud #themakingofdonaldtrump #taxcode #taxloopholes #taxcheats #muckrakers #pulitzerprize @LATimes @NYTimes @DCreport