The Chills at Will Podcast

Show Notes: Pete and Grant have a fun conversation about the marriage of writing and sports. They discuss Grant's fandom as a child, as well as his fandom as an adult that has been changed so thoroughly by his job writing about basketball. They also riff on Grant's admiration for Cormac McCarthy, Sports Illustrated for Kids as an writing inspiration (yes, we shout out Buzz Beamer!), how his work in the field of law informs his writing style, the writing life, and the business of sports writing, NBA analytics, why Grant doesn't read website comments about his writing, trends in writing and reading and in the NBA, and the balance between writing for the mainstream and writing for art's sake.

Grant also is put on the spot to predict the winner of Game Five of the Lakers/Heat (the episode was recorded the morning of the game) and the winner of the series. He wraps up the episode with a cool explanation of LeBron James versus Michael Jordan and their respective places in the Pantheon, by way of Chuck Klosterman.

Grant Hughes grew up in San Jose and graduated from Santa Clara University with a BA in English. He went on to earn his law degree from SCU, and worked as Deputy DA before pivoting into sports writing in 2012.

He has written about the NBA for Bleacher Report and other outlets for eight years. He is now a National NBA Featured Columnist with Bleacher Report. 

Selected Articles by Grant:

"EVOLUTION of the STEP-BACK" from 2016  

Trades That Would Unleash Potential NBA Superstars" from October 2020

Ranking the Best NBA Defenders of the 2000s from July 2020

The panel responds to the questions of Pete and Matt and the audience viewing at home.

Questions include "How do you as writers deal with the need or lack thereof to translate languages other than English and/or any cultural references that may be unfamiliar to some readers?"

"Do you write with a target audience in mind?"

"How do you 'armor down?' " in contrast to the ways in which writers and performers need to get the courage up to present their work.

Tongo Eisen-Martin is the author of Someone’s Dead Already (Bootstrap Press, 2015), which was nominated for a California Book Award, and Heaven Is All Goodbyes (City Lights Publishers, 2017), which received the California Book Award and an American Book Award. A poet, movement worker, and educator, his latest curriculum on extrajudicial killing of Black people, We Charge Genocide Again, has been used as an educational and organizing tool throughout the country. He has organized against mass incarceration and extra-judicial killing of Black people throughout the United States, and he has taught in detention centers from New York’s Rikers Island to California county jails. He lives in San Francisco.

2:15-4:30-Myriam introduces and reads (4:30-9:27) a short chapter about her 5th grade experience from her memoir Mean

9:27 on is a cool back-and-forth between Myriam and Matt in discussing the chapter and its impact on both of them

 

Myriam Gurba is a Mexican American writer, story-teller, and visual artist. 

In 2019, O, The Oprah Magazine called Gurba's work Mean (2017) one of the "Best LGBTQ Books of All Time.” The New York Times described Gurba as having a "distinct and infectious" voice.

Gurba is the author of three books: Mean (Coffee House Press, 2017) and Dahlia Season: Stories and a Novella (Manic D Press/Future Tense, 2007), and Painting Their Portraits in Winter: Stories. Her second book, Painting Their Portraits in Winter: Stories, explores Mexican stories and traditions from a feminist lens.

Gurba previously toured with Sister Spit, a "lesbian-feminist spoken-word and performance art collective."

Gurba has also exhibited at the Museum of Latin American Art and The Center Long Beach.

Gurba has won The Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction from Publishing Triangle, and was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award.

6:50-10:29-Allan reads "Area Codes (213), (310), (323), (626), and (818)"

10:32-16:09-Allan discusses backstory of poem and reads "Dreamlog of a Needful Heart"

 

ALLAN AQUINO graduated Cal State Northridge in 1998 as a Special Major in Asian American and Comparative Ethnic Histories. After attaining his Masters in Asian American Studies from UCLA, he began his career as a Lecturer and community organizer at CSUN in the Fall of 2000. He has also lectured at UCLA and Loyola Marymount University. A published poet and writer, Allan is the former president of the Filipino American National Historical Society (Los Angeles chapter) and founding member of the Larry Itliong Foundation through Education. His scholarship focuses upon Asian Pacific American history, media, contemporary issues, pop culture, and literary arts.

3:44-6:29-Karla reads "Wannabe White Girl"

6:37-7:38-Karla reads "She's a Mulatto"

7:44-9:20-Karla reads "Inheritance"

9:43-10:37-Karla reads her poem about Melania Trump

10:45-12:17-Karla reads "Over Pahoehoe" 

 

Karla Brundage is a Bay Area based poet, activist, and educator with a passion for social justice. Born in Berkeley, California in the summer of love to a Black mother and white father, Karla spent most of her childhood in Hawaii where she developed a deep love of nature. She is the founder of West Oakland to West Africa Poetry Exchange (WO2WA), which has facilitated cross-cultural exchange between Oakland and West African poets. Her musical loves include Hawaiian, West African, and Hip Hop sounds. Her work can be found at http://westoaklandtowestafrica.com/ as well as on https://www.karlabrundage.com/

Magali Sanchez-Hall speaks about her inspiring and passionate community organizing, particularly her work to bring out Latinos in the upcoming election and beyond to use their vote to bring about change.

 

Magali Sanchez-Hall is President of the Chicano Democratic party and a member of Communities for a Better Environment in California. Her Public Policy Master's degree allows her  to further analyze important factors when working in projects, research or work in general. She is very involved in her community, and considered an activist on social economic justice and environmental justice. Her stated goal is to bring some relief to her community by pointing out core issues affecting children and women with the intention to bring quality of life.

Magali Sanchez-Hall speaks about her inspiring and passionate community organizing, particularly her work to bring out Latinos in the upcoming election and beyond to use their vote to bring about change.

 

Magali Sanchez-Hall is President of the Chicano Democratic party and a member of Communities for a Better Environment in California. Her Public Policy Master's degree allows her  to further analyze important factors when working in projects, research or work in general. She is very involved in her community, and considered an activist on social economic justice and environmental justice. Her stated goal is to bring some relief to her community by pointing out core issues affecting children and women with the intention to bring quality of life.

Huda Al-Marashi reads from "An Index of Small Stings":  1:15-10:41

 

Huda Al-Marashi is the Iraqi-American author of First Comes Marriage: My Not-So-Typical American Love Story, a book the Washington Post called "a charming, funny, heartbreaking memoir of faith, family, and the journey to love. If Jane Austen had grown up as a first-gen daughter of Iraqi parents in the 1990s, she might have written this.”

Excerpts from this memoir have also been anthologized in Love Inshallah: The Secret Love Lives of Muslim American Women, Becoming: What Makes a Woman, and Beyond Belief: The Secret Lives of Women and Extreme Religion.

Her other writing has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, al Jazeera, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of a Cuyahoga County Creative Workforce Fellowship and an Aspen Summer Words Emerging Writer Fellowship. First Comes Marriage was longlisted for the Chautauqua Prize and a finalist for the Southern California Independent Booksellers’ Award.

Huda currently resides in California with her husband and three children.

Luis Rodriguez and Helena share some interesting stories about their writing groups from decades ago and their continued belief that community and the written word are transformative.

4:45-9:15: Helena Maria Viramontes reads "The Moths"

Helena Maria Viramontes was born in East Los Angeles, one of eight siblings in a working-class family. Her career began with her work for the avant-garde Chicano magazine ChismeArte. Assigned as literary editor, she began to develop a style that reflected her understanding and upbringing in the streets of East Los Angeles. 

She is the author of The Moths and Other Stories and two novels Under the Feet of Jesus and Their Dogs Came With Them.  She has also co-edited with Maria Herrera Sobek, two collections: Chicana (W) rites: On Word and Film and Chicana Creativity and Criticism. A recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the John Dos Passos Award for Literature, and a United States Artist Fellowship, her short stories and essays have been widely anthologized and her writings have been adopted for classroom use and university study. Her work is the subject of a critical reader titled Rebozos De Palabras edited by Gabrielle Gutierrez y Muhs and published by the University of Arizona Press.  A community organizer and former coordinator of the Los Angeles Latino Writers Association, she is a frequent reader and lecturer in the U.S. and internationally.  Currently she is completing a draft of her third novel, The Cemetery Boys.

Her works have been canonized in some of the most important textbooks and anthologies, including those used by academia. Viramontes is a professor of English at Cornell University. She received the Luis Leal Literary Award in 2006.

Reviewers have written of her: “Her groundbreaking narrative strategies, combined with her sociopolitical focus, situate her at the forefront of an emerging Chicana literary tradition that redefines Chicano literature and feminist theory.” 

AND “Viramontes’s stories convey the impact of repression on women’s lives and graphically depict the price paid by women who dare to challenge a misogynist social system that moves rapidly to squelch their every attempt toward self-definition… The result is a rich, challenging narrative that rewards the reader with insight to the passions and torments that drive the characters.”

3:04-4:32-Mike reads an excerpt from "THE MURAL MILE ~ A HISTORY OF PACOIMA TOLD THROUGH THE TAPESTRY OF STREET ART"

 

5:30-10:34-Mike reads "The Ode to LA Writers"

 

 

Mike Sonksen aka Mike the PoeT is a 3rd-generation Los Angeles native. Poet, professor, journalist, historian and tour-guide, his latest book Letters to My City was published by Writ Large Press. His poetry’s been featured on Public Radio Stations KCRW, KPCC & KPFK & TV programs like Spectrum News. Sonksen taught high school for five years and now teaches at Woodbury University. Find more info here.

2:25-Luis describes the background of and inspiration for the "Tia Chucha" poem

4:20-6:16-Luis reads the poem "Tia Chucha"

9:22 to 10:40- Luis reads "Make a Poem Cry"

10:40-12:23-Luis reads "Heroin's Soundtrack"

Matthew's poem ends at 2:38

 

Matthew Mejia is the publisher of Nervous Ghost Press, a poet, and a professor at East LA College.

Pete introduces the show, discusses his love of literature, and reads his piece "The Death of Humility, An Elegy in Six Parts."

 

The reading of the prose starts at 2:33 and ends at 7:58.

 

Allusions Used:

Trump Brings Up "Pocahontas" at Event Honoring Navajo Code Talkers

On Episode 19, Pete talks with Mike “The Poet” Sonksen, a brilliant writer, educator, spoken-word performer and Los Angeles raconteur. Mike has an encyclopedic knowledge of LA's history and its present, and his subject matter and genuine love for all of LA show through in his rhythmic and soulful poetry and prose.

An exciting event is coming up this Friday, October 2, at 6pm, on Nervous Ghost Live on YouTube. "Voices of California" is a virtual open mic held in support of the  Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural in Sylmar, and it features Mike The Poet, Luis Rodriguez, Myriam Gurba, Tongo Eisen-Martin, Allan Aquino, Helena Maria Viramontes, and Karla Brundage, among others. The event is cosponsored by the dynamic members of Nervous Ghost Press and The Chills at Will Podcast.

 

You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave a five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, find the pod on Spotify, and, as of last week, on Amazon Music as well! Follow Pete on IG, where he's @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where he's @chillsatwillpo1.

This is a passion project, a DIY operation, and Pete would love for your help in promoting what he's convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form.

The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and this song is used through ArchesAudio.com.

Writers Mentioned, Allusions, and Texts Referenced (with links) During the Episode:

Quetzal

Reyner_Banham

Audrey Lorde: “Poetry is Not a Luxury” 

Rebecca Solnit

Episode Highlights and References/Links

6:56- Mike talks about his connection to hip-hop group The Visionaries, featuring 2Mex, Key-Kool & Rhettmatic (The Beat Junkies), among others, and their influence on his life and his writing

13:40-Horace Tapscott and the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra and Steve Isoardi and Kamou Daoud

32:00-Mikes shares a cool story about “magical performance” from Saul Williams and BESSKEPP

33:00-Mike Davis is discussed as a source of inspiration 

33:50-Mike lauds Lynell George and her outsized influence on his work

34:20-Mike talks about Dolores Hayden’s The Power of Place and its influence on his writing and world view

36:45-Brian Taylor and how he introduced Mike to Biddy Mason and her incredible story

40:20-Mike describes the “magic” of Huell Howser

42:06-Mike describes the origin of ‘Mike the Poet”

43:43-Mike reads, freestyling the dulcet words of “I am Alive in Los Angeles!”

47:00-Chick Hearn and Vin Scully and their influence on Mike

48:12-The Unfortunate History of Chavez Ravine

48:30-The sinister “Santa Ana Winds” and Raymond Chandler’s famous quote

50:00-Chuck D and his rap style and cadence influenced by Marv Albert

51:50-Mike cites examples of short texts he reads with his college classes, as a way to lead them to other interesting texts; Chapter 1: “COLUMBUS, THE INDIANS, AND HUMAN PROGRESS” from A People’s History of the United States and Luis Rodriguez’s piece in LAtitudes: An Angeleno's Atlas

53:12-Mike shouts out the excellent poet/DJ F. Douglas Brown and talented artist Umar Rashid

54:11-Mike talks about Peter Elbow, a big proponent of freewriting, and Julia Cameron’s “Morning Pages,” and how they inform Mike’s writing and teaching

58:15-Author Sandro Meallet’s quote, “Writing is Thinking” provider fodder for Pete and Mike to discuss its implications in the classroom

59:16-Mike discusses his future works, including a manuscript of poems, and a book of essays about Nina Revoyr, Wanda Coleman, and Naomi Hirahara, among others

1:01:44-Mike discusses his piece in Writing for Life from Nervous Ghost Press and its inspiration from Judy Baca’s mural-the poem is “WHOSE STORY DO WE TELL?”

1:02:42- Mike provides information on his writing and performance and where to buy his book, Letters to My City!

1:05:25-Pete gives information about this Friday, October 2, and “Voices of California” virtual open mic to be held at Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural (donate to this great bookstore and community center here!), livestreamed at Nervous Ghost Live-featuring, among others, Myriam Gurba, Tongo Eisen-Martin, Allan Aquino, Helena Maria Viramontes, Karla Brundage, Mike The Poet!