55. Watering Whole with Jan Ellis Menafee

Y’all – Jan’s first book is coming out this weekend!! It’s a Happy Birthday Pub Day for my bro!! Watering Whole is a chapbook of poems that are inspired by Jan’s personal and cultural relationship with water. Jan has studied water through the lens of Black art and history, environmental justice, technology and spirituality, and his insights all come to the surface in this incredible collection. You will come away from this book with a newfound perspective and appreciation for the all-life-giving source that is water! In this week’s podcast episode, Jan details his story with water, the challenges and lessons learned from writing, and why he’s excited about publishing the book. He also reads three of his poems!! You can order your copy of Watering Whole below starting tomorrow Saturday, December 17th. Buy Watering Whole Here

1:46 How Jan’s describes his new book Watering Whole

3:59 A Site of Trauma, a Site of Transcendence

4:59 Jan’s first real memory with water

7:10 “Blessing from the Big Blue Bay” – poetry reading

8:20 Music’s influence on Jan’s poetry

9:10 Meeting Jacqueline Woodson

10:57 Toni Morrison’s Beloved

12:08 “The Way of My Beloved”- poetry reading

14:53 Water hollows the stone

15:30 Bruce Lee

18:55 The consequence of changing our relationship to water

19:36 Objectifying water

22:14 “Our Choice”- poetry reading

24:35 “For the Mountains On My Shoulders”

25:55 The story of how the book came together

31:45 Publishing is a team sport

33:27 How you can get a copy

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