Arts & Letters Radio is presenting the first episode of a limited series, AR Poetica, created by Arts & Letters' senior producer Mary Ellen Kubit and hosted by both Kubit and Arts & Letters executive producer J. Bradley Minnick. We hope you enjoy the episode.
The Poetry Academy of America explains that an “ars poetica poem is a poem examining the role of poets themselves as subjects, their relationships to the poem, and the act of writing.”
This limited series, AR Poetica, is where Arkansas poets discuss their work, their writing, and the connections both have with their lives.
In this episode, we feature Arkansas poet Kai Coggin. She is the inaugural poet Laureate of Hot Springs and author of Mining for Stardust and several other poetry collections, including Mother of Other Kingdoms.
Join us as we hear Kai's poetry and chat about speaking up and speaking out against injustice, the joy of being married to her wife, Joann, the love of her Pekingese dogs and being saved by the natural world.
Coggin writes in the poem "Mining For Stardust:"
there are stars in our eyes
like all of the constellations are convening
in the clearing our winter trees window to the universe
I want to see the rings tonight
the rings of Saturn rounding all my sharp corners
but I can't see them with my naked eyes
so human and blurred
blue stars
appear over the horizon
before they fall
behind the evergreen tree line
and the indigo engulfs the moment
...
I shine
the brightest flashlight I have
(my heart)
into the night sky
shout I am the Milky Way!
to anyone that will hear me
I am cosmos
cosmic beauty
something of the firelight shooting into the sky
smoke rising from my mouth
fire glinting in my teeth
I look for a sign and I am the sign...
Kai Coggin has won many awards for her work: an INTERCHANGE Grant Fellow with the Mid-America Arts Alliance, a 2024 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship, the 2023 Don Munro Leadership in the Arts Award for Visionary Service, the 2021 Arkansas Governor’s Arts Award for Arts in Education, and has twice been named “Best Poet in Arkansas” by the Arkansas Times.
Ten of Coggin's poems are going to the moon with the Lunar Codex project, and on earth they have appeared in POETRY, Prairie Schooner, Best of the Net, Cultural Weekly, SOLSTICE, The Night Heron Barks, Bellevue Literary Review, TAB, Pirene’s Fountain, About Place Journal, Sinister Wisdom, Lavender Review, Tupelo Press, and elsewhere.
A certified Master Naturalist, Coggin lives with her wife Joann and two small fluffy dogs in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Heartfelt thanks to Emmy Award-winning musician and producer, Silas Hite, who produced, mixed and mastered the episode and composed all of the music.
As a freelance composer, Hite's music appears in a wide variety of films and television shows from around the world, including programming for Pixar, Disney, the BBC, Netflix, and HBO.
He has scored hundreds of commercials for clients such as Apple, McDonalds, and Chevy and has contributed memorable music to top selling video games including The Sims 2, Skate 3, and The Simpsons.
In the podcast world, Silas Hite has had roles as varied as producer, story editor, sound designer, and composer.
Thank you, Silas, for all of your hard work and dedication to this series.
Generous funding for AR Poetica was provided by UA Little Rock’s Summer Research and Creative Activities Fellowship from the College of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences, and Education.
An extra special thank you to poet Kai Coggin for sharing her peace, her perspectives and her poetry.
For AR Poetica, we are Mary Ellen Kubit and J. Bradley Minnick. And don’t forget to support local poets in your community. Poetry books change lives!
Executive Producer and Host: Mary Ellen Kubit
Senior Producer and Host: J. Bradley Minnick
Episode Producer/Story Editor: Silas Hite
Sound Design and Music: Silas Hite
Mix and Mastering: Silas Hite
Recorded by: J. Bradley Minnick
AR Poetica is a production of LTD Media, Inc.
The AR Poetica team can be reached through Arts & Letters Radio.
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