Speaker 1: Hello everyone, it's your host, Amanda Eka, and I have
Speaker 1: some amazing news. Starting this fall, The Poet Speaks is
Speaker 1: coming to your TV screens.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1: After eight amazing seasons as a podcast, poet Speaks with
Speaker 1: Amanda Eka is now a TV show, airing out the
Speaker 1: Archaeology Channel's new streaming service, Heritage. Everyone, get ready for
Speaker 1: a visual feast, spoken word performances, and deep dives into
Speaker 1: the minds of poets from all over the world. Now,
Speaker 1: something extraordinary is coming and you won't want to miss
Speaker 1: a single moment. Stay tuned. Hello everyone, and welcome back
Speaker 1: to the Poet Speaks Podcast. Now, our next guest is
Speaker 1: a spoken word pioneer, having won the Newerkan Poets Cafe
Speaker 1: Grand Slam, Who's a featured poet at the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: two Whitney Biennial and received the two thousand and six
Speaker 1: Writers for Writers Award from Poets and Writers. He's a
Speaker 1: teaching artist at the Kennedy Center for the Arts and
Speaker 1: is one of the inaugural recipients of the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: three James Baldwin Fellowship from the Mason Baldwin Paris, France.
Speaker 1: His work appears in over thirty anthologies, and he has
Speaker 1: shared the stage with Patti Smith, Alan Ginsburg and through
Speaker 1: Howard Zen's Portraits projects, and NYU has performed Stanley Tucci,
Speaker 1: Jesse Eisenberg and Loupe Fiasco. Everybody, please, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: Reggie Cabico, Reggie, how are you?
Speaker 3: I'm great, Hello, Amanda. I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 1: Absolutely now, and I got excited just reading your bio.
Speaker 1: My goodness, you are a legend in the game. I
Speaker 1: mean that is amazing the things you've done and where
Speaker 1: you came from and then where you're at now. So
Speaker 1: first and foremost, tell us where are we speaking up
Speaker 1: to you from today? What beautiful part of this beautiful world?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: I'm coming to you live from Washington, DC, d C,
Speaker 3: d C.
Speaker 1: So, Reggie, tell me were you born and bred in
Speaker 1: d C? Or is there are you a transplant? As
Speaker 1: an don't tell me a little bit about your background.
Speaker 2: Where did you grow up? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Well, I'm the child of Filipino immigrants born in Baltimore, Maryland,
Speaker 3: and my family, you know, moved to southern Maryland, so
Speaker 3: you know, twenty minutes outside of DC.
Speaker 2: Actually where I grew up in Clinton, Maryland.
Speaker 3: Is where after John Wilksbooth assassinated Abraham Lincoln, he hid
Speaker 3: in a tavern in my in my little hometown of Clinton, Maryland.
Speaker 3: So there are lots of gross Cornfield's tobacco, very redneck
Speaker 3: and African American. And then just the beginning of Filipinos,
Speaker 3: you know, that were in Clinton, Maryland. So I did
Speaker 3: not grow up with a lot of Filipino representation growing up,
Speaker 3: and so I think as a poet, I think that
Speaker 3: really informed my writing because I wanted to really talk
Speaker 3: about being the child of immigrants and the Filipino American experience.
Speaker 2: So some of that's in my poetry.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Tell me a bit about that idea. What you know,
Speaker 1: the immigrant story is something that's very It hits home
Speaker 1: for a lot of people, right, And I think even
Speaker 1: as someone I'm a child of immigrants too, I think
Speaker 1: to even be in the field of whether it be
Speaker 1: the arts, writing media, that's usually not the first thing.
Speaker 1: Maybe your parents had an idea for you to grow
Speaker 1: up and this is how you be and this is
Speaker 1: what you choose as a living, right, tell me a
Speaker 1: bit about how was your family very supportive of your
Speaker 1: career as a poet, as a writer.
Speaker 3: It wasn't as a writer. It was really as a performer.
Speaker 3: I was reciting stories when I was three years old.
Speaker 3: I would memorize them and like sort of live in
Speaker 3: the trance of speaking. So even if they weren't supportive,
Speaker 3: they really couldn't stop me anyway, because I was all ways,
Speaker 3: you know, memorizing stories and reciting them. And you know,
Speaker 3: I think that that was the beginning.
Speaker 2: Of spoken word.
Speaker 3: Listening to records, record players, Yeah, that's how long ago.
Speaker 3: It was little forty five, forty five records that told
Speaker 3: you fairy tales and Disney stories and reciting that all
Speaker 3: of that is poetry. Listening to the Wizard of Oz,
Speaker 3: all of that just has hyperbole and imagery and creatures.
Speaker 3: So I think that that was my introduction to spoken words.
Speaker 3: So in answer to the question, I think my family
Speaker 3: knew that that that's what I was going to be.
Speaker 2: An entertainer actually a performer.
Speaker 3: And then I would probably say an entertainer as well,
Speaker 3: because you know.
Speaker 2: I look at poetry.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I look at poetry as a way of entertaining
Speaker 3: and finding that that poe try is theatrical and it
Speaker 3: can be funny, and it can be serious and so
Speaker 3: I sort of look at poems from that perspective.
Speaker 2: But you know, I write poems in.
Speaker 3: Order to perform, so I think that that is the
Speaker 3: vehicle for me. I don't write songs, I don't play
Speaker 3: the guitar, but I have my poems and that's like
Speaker 3: a pocket full of stories if you will.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, What tell me when did the kind of a
Speaker 1: poetry bug? When did that actually hit you though? Was
Speaker 1: it did it find you or did you find it?
Speaker 1: Was it in childhood, young adulthood? When did you actually
Speaker 1: kind of lift it up and take it?
Speaker 3: That's a good question, thanks, Amanda. I found poetry after college.
Speaker 3: Like truthfully, you were looking at the nineteen nineties and
Speaker 3: the term multiculturalism, which is I think such a nineties
Speaker 3: dated word. That was the beginning of multicultural So by that,
Speaker 3: I mean if you walked into a bookstore, you would
Speaker 3: see Asian and American anthologies, LATINX anthologies, African American anthologies,
Speaker 3: Erotic Asian anthologies.
Speaker 2: And so in the very beginning of.
Speaker 3: The nineties, as a poet, there was a space for me.
Speaker 2: And I remember one of the.
Speaker 3: Books I was anthologizing is an Asian American Erotica anthology
Speaker 3: called on a Bed of Rice.
Speaker 4: You believe that title On a bed of rice that
Speaker 4: would not float today, on a bed of rice, And
Speaker 4: there was like a half naked Asian woman and you
Speaker 4: could see like a nippo outline, and.
Speaker 2: I'm just like, I'm a bed of rice.
Speaker 3: Really, back to the nineties, things weren't as triggering. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and you were just happy to have a book. I
Speaker 3: was happy to be in a book. Right, I'm just
Speaker 3: happy to be seen or heard as Filipinos because we're
Speaker 3: not on the mainstream. And so going back to being
Speaker 3: a child of immigrant, you have parents that are like,
Speaker 3: you have to make succeed, you have to do this,
Speaker 3: you know, stay in school. You're going to be like
Speaker 3: a doctor or a lawyer or something like that. Right,
Speaker 3: it's not going to be like yes, and you're going
Speaker 3: to be a poet ranchie.
Speaker 2: So yeah, going.
Speaker 3: Back to that, I think people are afraid of poetry,
Speaker 3: and certainly in the Philippines, poetry is such a antiquated
Speaker 3: oral tradition. It's more like debate, debate and rhythmic skills
Speaker 3: called balik tassan. So that's the kind of oral performance.
Speaker 3: But I don't even think my parents knew any of
Speaker 3: that anyway, or even what poetry was, or even if
Speaker 3: they even read books, right, or even if they read
Speaker 3: a newspaper. Right. My parents were busy trying to trying
Speaker 3: to work. And I have a mom he's a Filipino nurse,
Speaker 3: and dads from the Navy. So but certainly getting my
Speaker 3: experience out there is probably the reason why I am
Speaker 3: a poet. I think because being a child of immigrants,
Speaker 3: you're always invisible in the background, and you're having to translate,
Speaker 3: and you live in two worlds. You're never fully Filipino,
Speaker 3: you're never fully American, you're only Filipino American. Yes, it's
Speaker 3: you know, you could look at that as a power,
Speaker 3: or you could look at that as being an outcast.
Speaker 3: And sometimes there's a power in being the outsider, and
Speaker 3: there's a power, there's a power by being able to
Speaker 3: move as a float back and forth sometimes between worlds.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, now I completely agree with you the idea of
Speaker 1: the in between generation.
Speaker 2: Almost.
Speaker 1: I feel like, like I remember there was some research
Speaker 1: I did. It's like called generation one point five. You're
Speaker 1: not quite fully American, but you're also not quite from
Speaker 1: your motherland, right, so you being Filipino American, you're kind
Speaker 1: of a dual, dual reality that you've been living in
Speaker 1: or at home, you're probably one way, then outside you
Speaker 1: act a different way, but you still have those kind
Speaker 1: of thoughts. How much, like you said, like that you
Speaker 1: feel like that's a superpower for your writing, especially could
Speaker 1: you maybe expand more on that.
Speaker 3: It's a superpower because you are taking your experience and
Speaker 3: you're sending it out and really depicting what that other
Speaker 3: world is like and what those and you're reporting on
Speaker 3: those stories, and it's not the same old little house
Speaker 3: of the prairie shit that you're going to be hearing
Speaker 3: or that you've heard all the time. So I think
Speaker 3: that it is a superpower. And it's also that I'm
Speaker 3: sure childhood immigrants might even share my stories, and that
Speaker 3: you're also disconnected from your parents' homelands and disconnected culturally
Speaker 3: and sometimes to the language. So there is that disconnect.
Speaker 3: And it's also that the ancestors that you have, like
Speaker 3: we don't even have the like some of us do
Speaker 3: not have the privilege of ancestry, right, And then people
Speaker 3: could say, well, I'm related to so and so, and
Speaker 3: I can't really say that I'm related to Queen Elizabeth, Right,
Speaker 3: but I'm like, well, I'm descended from indigenous farm workers, right.
Speaker 2: Like, who is that?
Speaker 3: Right? So you really do feel disconnected, not just from
Speaker 3: that outside American or other world, also disconnected from lineage
Speaker 3: and history, and so there is a disconnect. And so
Speaker 3: I think your whole life, you're just trying to connect.
Speaker 3: And so poetry becomes this vital vehicle in order to
Speaker 3: connect with other people.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, absolutely, you know, now kind of you know, we've
Speaker 1: heard a little bit about your just background, your head.
Speaker 1: Now let's kind of dive into your illustrious career. I
Speaker 1: want to ask you. I'm going to make you blush
Speaker 1: a little bit. But you're described as a spoken word pioneer.
Speaker 1: I mean, those are such fighting words, those are such
Speaker 1: heavy words. The gravity of being able having that said
Speaker 1: about you, I mean, what is it meant to you?
Speaker 1: I mean, just being given this title as people describe
Speaker 1: you as a pioneer in your field.
Speaker 3: Wow, thank you for that question. Being a pioneer means
Speaker 3: that I started. I was at the very beginning of
Speaker 3: the movement, which is the poetry Slam.
Speaker 2: So my first.
Speaker 3: Time reading around at the Eurekan Poet's Cafe was around
Speaker 3: nineteen ninety three, and so at that point, the poetry slam,
Speaker 3: which is an American art form. It's the competitive art
Speaker 3: of performance poetry. A poet reads a poem without costume,
Speaker 3: music or perhaps and you get scored zero to ten,
Speaker 3: like the Olympics. So in this form, you're creating a
Speaker 3: three minute texts poetic texts, monologue stories within three minutes,
Speaker 3: and you're really trying to captivate an audience with just
Speaker 3: words and your voice and your physicality and your stage presence.
Speaker 3: So for me, that was the art form that I
Speaker 3: became someone who defined what that would be. And so
Speaker 3: when I was ready to hit the New Rekan poet's cafe,
Speaker 3: there were a few people who memorized their poems, but
Speaker 3: I did not have a literary background. So when I
Speaker 3: was performing my poems, I would memorize the poems and
Speaker 3: I would look at them as you know, little short
Speaker 3: monologues that you would audition for for as an actor
Speaker 3: or even a Broadway showstopper without music. So I really
Speaker 3: when I started to perform, I was the first openly
Speaker 3: queer and Filipino a poet who really.
Speaker 2: Succeeded in the forum.
Speaker 3: And so I later won the ne Eurekan Poet's Cafe
Speaker 3: Grand Slam Champion and at that.
Speaker 2: Point MTV what they were recording thirty.
Speaker 3: Minute poetry videos that I was able to have that recorded,
Speaker 3: and then I was on tour with Lallapalooza with the
Speaker 3: Beastie Boys and Smashing Pumpkins and George Clinton. Immediately I
Speaker 3: was thrown into a spotlight, not knowing what this world was,
Speaker 3: of what spoken word poetry, performance poetry, slam poetry was,
Speaker 3: but I was actually doing it and I was succeeding
Speaker 3: in that art form. So I just think it's important
Speaker 3: because spoken word poetry is ephemeral, and when I was performing,
Speaker 3: there was no YouTube at the time, and so there
Speaker 3: was no way to record footage from nineteen ninety three
Speaker 3: in the way that you have it. And if you
Speaker 3: don't put yourself out there, every young twenty year old
Speaker 3: is going to say they invented it, they started it.
Speaker 3: I do think it's important for especially the slam poets
Speaker 3: in the nineties to really archive and to remember where
Speaker 3: this all evolved and where this came from. And it's
Speaker 3: hard to say whether slam poetry is going to have
Speaker 3: its own literary are name like you have beats, the beats,
Speaker 3: And then I remember when I was, you know, reading
Speaker 3: at the Eurekan Poet's Cafe, New York Magazine said the
Speaker 3: beats are back, and I think all of us that
Speaker 3: we're performing at the time just really hated the comparison, like,
Speaker 3: we are not the beats, We're not white people in
Speaker 3: a cafe with Bob Dylan. It's just not that. And
Speaker 3: slam poets, like beat poetry would be really long and elongated,
Speaker 3: and slam poets are very terse and it's only three minutes.
Speaker 3: So a lot of differences. But really they should say
Speaker 3: that indigenous people are back, or people of color are back,
Speaker 3: or queer people are back, because the people who succeeded
Speaker 3: in the poetry slam were bipoc poets and queer poets
Speaker 3: because they were speaking a kind of truth that is
Speaker 3: not heard. And to be openly clear in the nineties
Speaker 3: was a heroic, courageous act because there are a lot
Speaker 3: of poets who were closeted, and so to say that
Speaker 3: you're openly queer about them was a huge deal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, absolutely, I'm so curious. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: being able to spread the word, like you said, as
Speaker 1: openly queer that that in itself is such an act
Speaker 1: of bravery, especially at that time period. But I also
Speaker 1: kind of want to dig into what does that even
Speaker 1: feel like? You know, did you how old were you
Speaker 1: when kind of that MTV the really thing started going
Speaker 1: into a whirlwind for your career?
Speaker 2: How old were you?
Speaker 1: I mean? And at that point these things are all
Speaker 1: happening at once. I mean, where is your mind even
Speaker 1: at Can you even process fully what was going on?
Speaker 3: I could not process what the fuck was going on.
Speaker 3: I had no idea because it was just I read
Speaker 3: a poem and then I get a standing ovation, and
Speaker 3: then I win something, and then I'm going on tour
Speaker 3: and I'm.
Speaker 2: Just not used to that.
Speaker 3: And like, I knew that after that, I'd have to
Speaker 3: get better as a writer.
Speaker 2: I knew that.
Speaker 3: I just I had to back it up right and
Speaker 3: I had to develop. I had to learn, and I
Speaker 3: had to be a better writer. But it did open
Speaker 3: the doors for me to also do theater work and
Speaker 3: performance work and solo shows at the same time. So
Speaker 3: I really developed a lot during that time, and I
Speaker 3: was you know, it was right after college, and it
Speaker 3: came at a good time because I just wanted to
Speaker 3: give up as an actor because I wasn't Asian enough
Speaker 3: or the type of I have, the look that was
Speaker 3: not quite what casting directors were thinking of for ahent
Speaker 3: let alone. There were no Filipino parts. So having poetry
Speaker 3: there meant that I had artistic control and I wasn't
Speaker 3: dependent upon a casting director to cast me to do something.
Speaker 1: So no, absolutely speak a little bit more on that.
Speaker 1: How kind of especially as a writer as a poet,
Speaker 1: like you said, you weren't dependent on that casting agent.
Speaker 1: You're kind of the captain of your own ship in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways. How important do you think that
Speaker 1: is as a poet. You know, a lot of people
Speaker 1: question getting with a publisher. You know, obviously you know
Speaker 1: you've gotten such a marry out of ways with media
Speaker 1: like MTV going on tour, people Beastie Boys performing with
Speaker 1: you know, Lupe Fiasco, kind of those very unique collaborations.
Speaker 1: What do you think as a poet, what is your
Speaker 1: advice to other people that listen to this show kind
Speaker 1: of you know, casting their net why, but also still
Speaker 1: remaining control of where their art lives. What is your
Speaker 1: opinion on that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that is a great question, because nobody is going
Speaker 3: to make you a poet. You make yourself a poet, right,
Speaker 3: And what I would say to young, young poets who
Speaker 3: are starting is that if you're a poet, everyone should know.
Speaker 2: That you're a poet.
Speaker 3: Yeah, everyone in your building should know. Hi, I'm Reggie,
Speaker 3: I'm your neighbor. I'm a poet. I'm doing a reading
Speaker 3: down here.
Speaker 2: I think if you.
Speaker 3: Are a poet, start your own reading series. You can
Speaker 3: start your own online publication, you could start your own
Speaker 3: podcast or series. I think things have changed. You can
Speaker 3: be a poet.
Speaker 2: On Instagram, Like, that's just it right.
Speaker 3: I want to go back because I've been thinking Amanda
Speaker 3: about you know, the term street poetry street poets, because
Speaker 3: it also seems like dated title, but street poetry and
Speaker 3: it's now getting another resurgence.
Speaker 2: And if you're looking up street.
Speaker 3: Poetry, that is like people in Australia putting stickers of
Speaker 3: poems on the street. It could also mean people on
Speaker 3: the street reading poems. I'm selling books on the street,
Speaker 3: So what does that really mean. I think street poetry
Speaker 3: is a way of how do you get yourself out there?
Speaker 3: And I think, you know, street poetry might be with
Speaker 3: like I am a social media poet, and I don't
Speaker 3: think that makes you any less of a poet. I
Speaker 3: think that, you know, people who publish poetry actively are
Speaker 3: going to look at the content or the craft or
Speaker 3: the skill of the poement say this is not quite there,
Speaker 3: but it doesn't really matter because poetry has no rules.
Speaker 3: And so you know, people think that you have to
Speaker 3: get an MFA and to be a poet, but the
Speaker 3: MFA doesn't make you a poet.
Speaker 2: MFA just means.
Speaker 3: That you sat around a table cutting up and reading
Speaker 3: everyone else's poems and you connected with a few mentors
Speaker 3: who are you know, who are hopefully positive of your work.
Speaker 3: I also know a lot of teachers who just want
Speaker 3: to destroy students, and as an educator, because I am
Speaker 3: an educator, also, I really don't believe in destroying people
Speaker 3: are making people feel bad. Like if you're if you're
Speaker 3: going to mentor or teach poetry, people should leave your class,
Speaker 3: your workshop wanting to write poetry, not feeling bad. You
Speaker 3: take a singing class, you should leave singing, and you
Speaker 3: know singing high notes.
Speaker 2: Properly, right. So I think.
Speaker 3: That's something that I learned later in life, is that
Speaker 3: everyone has a poem. And I also have this passion
Speaker 3: and gift for making sure that people can write their
Speaker 3: poem and share it. And I think that it goes
Speaker 3: back to my childhood immigrant roots because things were never
Speaker 3: said and I want I want truth in a space
Speaker 3: When I do poetry. It should be truth in a
Speaker 3: space and people listening and people dreaming together when they
Speaker 3: listen to a poem. That there's a dreaming that happens.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, now, that's beautiful, and dreaming that happens when people
Speaker 1: listen to poetry, absolutely, you know, And again I kind
Speaker 1: of want to reckon back to this idea, the gravity
Speaker 1: of you know, the effect that you've had as a
Speaker 1: you know, you've published what more than thirty anthologies again,
Speaker 1: you know you've sort of pioneer, right, a trailblazer one
Speaker 1: multiple Grand slams. What kind of you know, looking back
Speaker 1: from your career from where it started in poetry to
Speaker 1: where it is now, I mean, did you ever imagine
Speaker 1: that you'd be at this breath of really just absolutely
Speaker 1: top of your class, right, one of the best in
Speaker 1: your field. Did you ever imagine that this would be
Speaker 1: your trajectory as a poet?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 3: Absolutely not, absolutely not. You have no idea where poetry
Speaker 3: is going to take you. And that's sort of the
Speaker 3: beauty of being a poet. Like the next thing in
Speaker 3: the email, you might get a text from Amanda. You
Speaker 3: can say, hey, will you do this podcast or will
Speaker 3: you be able to do this?
Speaker 2: So like you don't know.
Speaker 3: Who you're going to connect with, right, Yeah, you have
Speaker 3: no idea, you know. I think as a poet, you
Speaker 3: write a poem, it gets published, people will read it
Speaker 3: or they'll see your performance, and you don't know who's
Speaker 3: reading it. Yeah, It's almost like putting a message in
Speaker 3: a bottle, throwing it into the ocean, and you have
Speaker 3: no idea who is a much bread, who is teaching
Speaker 3: your poem? And I think in everything that you're saying,
Speaker 3: being the top of a genre or a field is
Speaker 3: not really what I'm proud most proud about. I think
Speaker 3: I'm most proud about doing it since doing it for
Speaker 3: at least thirty one years, right, and sticking to something
Speaker 3: for thirty one years and trying to get better at
Speaker 3: it and discovering more. And I think I'm more proud
Speaker 3: of being an active poet and growing more than the
Speaker 3: whole than the title.
Speaker 2: I think that that.
Speaker 3: To be able to make discoveries and to keep writing
Speaker 3: poems for three years, writing and performing poems for thirty
Speaker 3: one years actively, I think, I think that for anyone.
Speaker 2: That's a commitment.
Speaker 3: And I know that there are poets who who may
Speaker 3: not have been as published enough or may not have
Speaker 3: received the kind of accolades I have. But anyone who
Speaker 3: sticks with something for so long is just it deserves,
Speaker 3: like living alone for thirty years doing poetry and making
Speaker 3: your money off of it. Now, even that, like you know,
Speaker 3: it's it's the business that finds you to give up.
Speaker 3: And there are times where I'm like, well, I am
Speaker 3: not going to pay the rents, so I'm going to
Speaker 3: apply it.
Speaker 2: To be I'm going to apply to work at this bakery.
Speaker 3: Right, So I come close to applying, something else happens
Speaker 3: and I am able to survive.
Speaker 2: So yeah, thank you for asking. And I'm just.
Speaker 3: Blessed and humble that I suppose you got to stay
Speaker 3: healthy and live long. Yeah, live long, stay healthy, exercise,
Speaker 3: eat your vegetables.
Speaker 1: Yes for sure, Yes, yes, sir, absolutely, it's that idea.
Speaker 2: Like I love what you said.
Speaker 1: It's not even the culmination of your achievement that's meant
Speaker 1: the most. It's the climb, and it's the person you
Speaker 1: became as you climb to reach those goals, and it's
Speaker 1: the constant always knowing. I just love to grow and
Speaker 1: I'm going to continue to grow in every aspect.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll tell you a little secret, because I grew
Speaker 3: up Catholic, and I really, I really thought I might
Speaker 3: be a priest, and so I was like when I
Speaker 3: was in fifth grade, it was like it was all
Speaker 3: Catholic schools.
Speaker 2: So like I was into Catholicism.
Speaker 3: I don't practice it actively as much now, but I
Speaker 3: say that because I think that poetry is it is religion,
Speaker 3: it is spirituality, it is shamanistic and you are giving lights,
Speaker 3: you are giving hope, you are trying to tell people,
Speaker 3: you're giving them what it is to live in the
Speaker 3: human condition. And you're trying to give people a way
Speaker 3: to exist or a way to hang on, or a
Speaker 3: way to inspire or to see what is happening right now,
Speaker 3: because there's so much unprecedented shit that happens. So poets
Speaker 3: name it and that they speak it and that they
Speaker 3: release this prayer or this spell. Poetry is a spell,
Speaker 3: and so to me, that's another component and another component
Speaker 3: about by and I don't stop being a poet because
Speaker 3: it is a daily practice.
Speaker 2: You have to look at the world on a.
Speaker 3: Daily basis and make continual observations, remembering and recording and
Speaker 3: processing all of that and making connections. So really the
Speaker 3: poem is a bridge to the world and to people.
Speaker 3: And as a child of immigrants, we're always trying to
Speaker 3: find a bridge. We are almost bridgeless, and we are
Speaker 3: building our own bridges. I'm starting an Asian mentorship a
Speaker 3: poet program in Washington, d C. With an organization day
Speaker 3: eight and the project is called Heart of My Home,
Speaker 3: Home that I Built. I'm paraphracing, but in terms of
Speaker 3: doing a portfolio with Asian American poets in DC, Home
Speaker 3: that I Built, I feel like Amanda, you and I
Speaker 3: we've had to build our homes right, and build home
Speaker 3: means you brought that. So so that's that's that's important.
Speaker 1: Absolutely now, that idea of home and what that means
Speaker 1: to so many different people. Now, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for sharing that, Reggie, and just speaking of you know,
Speaker 1: poetry and building and creating new connections. Reggie is featured
Speaker 1: on the new show Streaming on the Archaeology Channels new
Speaker 1: streaming service heritage called The Post Speaks with Amanda Eke.
Speaker 1: So yours truly, Reggie, you were in the episode spoken.
Speaker 2: We're in the village.
Speaker 1: By the time folks here this podcast, the episode will
Speaker 1: be streaming everywhere. Yes, Yes, tell us a little bit
Speaker 1: about your experience being on The Post Speaks with Amanda Eke.
Speaker 1: Tell us a little bit about the day for filming
Speaker 1: and the work that you did in the poem.
Speaker 3: Well, it was a phenomenal experience, and I want to
Speaker 3: say it's.
Speaker 5: It's it's it's great to get television credits and it's rare,
Speaker 5: and it's great to be archived, especially you know, post
Speaker 5: pandemic or in this timeframe, not that the pandemic and
Speaker 5: not the COVID's over, but to be able to enter
Speaker 5: and to film, to go back to my roots in
Speaker 5: New York City, and to be.
Speaker 3: At Poet's house and to be reconnected in person. Although
Speaker 3: my work was virtual, it was so energizing to perform
Speaker 3: there and also to to meet Thomas Volclaro, who is
Speaker 3: also recording in this episode with the village, to really just.
Speaker 2: Reflect also.
Speaker 3: What the influence and the multiplicity of voices that informed
Speaker 3: my work was just also was also emotional, and it
Speaker 3: was just an exciting day. And it was really really hot,
Speaker 3: but not as hot as like recording up a streat platform.
Speaker 2: So thank you, I've got that.
Speaker 3: We were like a little bit little breeze, yeah, a little.
Speaker 2: Bit of tree shade. Yeah, So that was it was.
Speaker 2: It was a jubilation and we got it done. We
Speaker 2: was snappy and we got it. We we moved it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we did that. Yeah, folks check it out.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: Reggie is featured on the spoken Word in the Village episode.
Speaker 1: We're looking at oral traditions and how the village Grantedge
Speaker 1: Village has influenced a lot of New York poets. So
Speaker 1: he performs a very very powerful piece and has some
Speaker 1: very powerful words to say for the episode. For the
Speaker 1: poet speaks with Amanda Ecka, streaming on the Archaeology Channels
Speaker 1: new streaming service Heritage Links will be down below. So
Speaker 1: big thank you to Reggie for not only being on
Speaker 1: the podcast, but also being on the Now the TV show.
Speaker 1: So we're I'm so excited and he did such a
Speaker 1: phenomenal job.
Speaker 3: Oh, Amanda, I gotta plug my book. It's called Rabbit
Speaker 3: in Search of a Rolex. Day eight so if you
Speaker 3: look it up online on Day eight website, you can
Speaker 3: buy the book and check it out.
Speaker 1: A Rabbit in search of a Rolex. I'm wondering where
Speaker 1: does that title come from. That is a pretty specific title.
Speaker 3: It's a line from one of the poems. And the
Speaker 3: book is just a series of meditations. It is a
Speaker 3: spiritual meditation. And I was thinking of the word hammock
Speaker 3: and what it feels like to be in a hammock.
Speaker 3: And I would just close my eyes and I would
Speaker 3: like drink wine, have an edible, and the words just
Speaker 3: came out, I have fallen in the universus hammock. I
Speaker 3: listened to the trees walk and skip around me. I
Speaker 3: am the white rabbit in search of a Rolex. I
Speaker 3: feel the kindness of dice rolled around my knees. So
Speaker 3: those words were the spiritual meditation. That was the truth,
Speaker 3: the journey, the magic, the way that you can fall
Speaker 3: into the universe and open yourself up. So and that's
Speaker 3: a rapit in search of a Rolex. I use that
Speaker 3: with my students. A robot in search of a heart,
Speaker 3: a cucumber in search of yogurts, a pencil in search
Speaker 3: of a path, like you can just keep going with that.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, absolutely beautiful. Reggie's that will be the link
Speaker 1: down below no matter where you're listening to this podcast,
Speaker 1: So everyone go check that out.
Speaker 2: That sounds amazing.
Speaker 1: And Reggie, last question for you. We ask every poet
Speaker 1: on the Pope Speaks podcast, Reggie Cabigo, why do you
Speaker 1: need to get your words out?
Speaker 3: I got to get words out because I need to connect.
Speaker 3: I need to connect. And I've grown up feeling disconnected,
Speaker 3: and I grew up in a dysfunctional place and the
Speaker 3: only way to heal from trauma is to connect by
Speaker 3: being yourself. And I think it's just it's simple. And
Speaker 3: I hope I speak my words because I hope that
Speaker 3: someone listening will also share their story and their words.
Speaker 1: Absolutely all right, he needs to connect everyone, all right, Reggie,
Speaker 1: We appreciate you being guessed. Now our final final question
Speaker 1: before we let you go, please tell the folks what's
Speaker 1: next for you in twenty twenty four, any event, and
Speaker 1: then tell us where can we find you socials website
Speaker 1: and all that good stuff.
Speaker 2: Oh, thank you.
Speaker 3: Check out a Gathering of the Tribes. It is an
Speaker 3: organization where I'm executive director. We do a lot of poetry.
Speaker 3: Literary programs on the Roots are originally in the village
Speaker 3: and please check that out and you will see what
Speaker 3: I'm doing. I'm working now that I'm working more in
Speaker 3: New York. I'm looking to do my theater performance. I
Speaker 3: hope to be connected with the New York video futurists again.
Speaker 3: And I look for my next book.
Speaker 2: It took me.
Speaker 3: It took me about thirty years to do this book.
Speaker 3: It's not going to take another thirty years from our
Speaker 3: next one, so very soon. I hope to have a longer,
Speaker 3: full length Absolutely, where can.
Speaker 1: We find you for socials website all that good stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Instagram, Reggie Guy, that's our e g I e
Speaker 3: g u y and then Reggie Kubiko on Facebook. There
Speaker 3: are other Regi Kibikos. Look for the cute one there
Speaker 3: we go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, look at you, Yeah, yeah, look for the key
Speaker 1: well please all right, Reggie, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: being a guest on the Folk Speak podcast. Everyone. Reggie's
Speaker 1: links will be down below in the description box. No
Speaker 1: matter what platform you're listening to this podcast song, look
Speaker 1: for the links in the description box below. All right, Reggie,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for being a guest today. On
Speaker 1: the Post Speaks podcast. Absolutely all right again everyone. Check
Speaker 1: out off Reggie's amazing work. Check out the Post Speaks
Speaker 1: podcast no matter where you listen to podcast, all right,
Speaker 1: by bye everyone,