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Kousha Navidar: This is All Of It. I'm Kousha Navidar, in for Alison Stewart, thanks for starting your week with us. I'm glad you're here. On today's show, we'll talk about the new revival of The Wiz that's out now, on Broadway. We'll learn about the promise and peril of medicinal psychedelics with author Ernesto Londoño, and we'll debate the pros and cons of really great coffee versus just meh coffee, so be ready to call in for that one. That's the plan, so let's get this started with WNYC's Poetry Month Project.

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Here's a little poem to introduce our next segment. Though poetry month is now passed, we feel it was over too fast. You sent us submissions to read and to listen in line with a theme we had asked. What places mean something to you, that your poems shine light on anew? Now, from those we collected, we'll play some selected and map them all for you to view. Okay, now in prose. Last month, WNYC's Morning Edition team did what they do every poetry month.

They asked listeners to write and send in their own poems around a theme. This year's theme was about the places in our area that carry a special meaning to you. Now that all those poems have been sent in, we've collected them all on our website, at wnyc.org/poetry. Since the theme is based on location, we've put all those poems from your neighbors on a map that you can explore.

You can click around to read the text of the poems, and also hear them read aloud by the poets themselves. Let's hear one to kick us off. This is Snug in Spring, by Denise Galong from Staten Island. Here it is.

Denise Galong: Cottage Row is exploding,

Pink petals, clusters of flowers,

Branches, awakening from winter slumber,

Blossoms are born, exist for weeks, then flee,

In these blossoms, I find faith that beauty is rooted,

I pray to the petals,

Give thanks to being present for the phases of their expression,

Bear branches, pointed buds, wisps of pink,

Tiny emerging petals to pillowy fullness,

In my next pilgrimage, past peak,

My dog will soil the ground, search for fallen sticks with thick bark,

Petals will parade, cover the path,

Fade to green canopy trees that will shade our summer walks.

Kousha Navidar: That one really spoke to me because I love walking through New York City during the spring and during the summer. Joining us now to talk about the whole project and to share some of the other fantastic poems. Please, welcome Morning Edition producer Amanda Rozon. Amanda, welcome to All Of It.

Amanda Rozon: Thank You so much for having me.

Kousha Navidar: Absolutely. It's a pleasure to have you here. Let's start with the numbers. How many people submitted poems?

Amanda Rozon: So many. We estimate over 500, but it's really hard to tell. They came from all over New York City, New Jersey, Connecticut, even Scotland, and listeners really look forward to it every year, so we expanded it. We did a live event in the Green Space. We also started posting poems on WNYC social media and newsletters, because we wanted to fit as many as we can in, but it's still so heartbreaking that we can't get more poems out there and just use all of them.

Kousha Navidar: Yes. You mentioned that you had one in all the way from Scotland. Were there a bunch that were international, or was it mostly just in New York City?

Amanda Rozon: That was the only international one. They were mostly in New York City, but a ton from New Jersey, actually, and a bunch from Connecticut too.

Kousha Navidar: Oh, cool. Yes, so the whole surrounding area. The theme of this year was poetry about the nearby places that are important to you, and what's happening there. As you and your Morning Edition colleagues were thinking about this engagement project, how did you settle on that theme?

Amanda Rozon: Listeners get so much good and important national and international news on air from the BBC and PR, but we wanted to give people the opportunity to share with us what's happening right here, right now, and from their perspectives. We thought to ask listeners to tell us what are the places that are important to them, and what's happening there.

Kousha Navidar: You note that so many submissions that people sent in were about their own commutes, which I thought was really interesting. Well, I was thinking about what I would write about for a poem. One of the things that popped into my mind was, "Hey, probably the subway ride to work every morning." What do you think it is about commutes that put people into that poetic mindset?

Amanda Rozon: It's something we all do every day, and we do it together. Whether we take the LIRR, the subway, the ferry, it's something that bonds us all together, and there's so much to observe. It's kind of a meditative experience. You're not home, but you're not quite at work yet, or wherever your destination is, so you have a lot of time to think. Also, I think as much as New Yorkers and New Jerseyans love to complain about transportation, and for good reason, sometimes we also really love to nerd out on it.

The sounds a train makes, how fast they're going, the route they take, the route they take when they're rerouted, things like that. [chuckles]

Kousha Navidar: Did you notice any other common threads among the kinds of places that people submit poems about, or similar themes that came through about the places where they wrote poetry?

Amanda Rozon: By far, transportation was the biggest one, but a lot of people wanted to talk about the sounds and the textures of the city, and funny enough, we even had two poems on the same day, that both mentioned the way the pavement sparkles in New York City, [chuckles] which was really specific and also really interesting. Listeners got really specific with this, and we love it.

Kousha Navidar: Here on All Of It, we've been talking about the Public Song Project, which asks for musical submissions to a community project based on the idea that WNYC is in the unique position of being able to act as a conduit for this city's vibrant community of artists. How do you think about this project, these poems, and these poets, as part of the city's wider artistic composition?

Amanda Rozon: One thing I'll say is, I think it gives people a place to put these wonderful poems. Some of our listeners did tell us that some of these poems that they submitted were either published in a book or in articles, but many of the listeners are what I call secret poets. They're sitting on these really beautiful poems, that maybe they're just sharing with loved ones, or maybe they're just keeping hidden in their books, but this gives them a place to share them with lots of people.

It doesn't matter if they were invited to a poetry slam or not, they get their big feelings out there and see if other people resonate with them.

Kousha Navidar: Do you think that poetry, in your experience of reading all of these poems, has it added something about our area and our experience of living here, that maybe you didn't appreciate as much before, or did it change your own perspective on being in New York City?

Amanda Rozon: What I love about poetry versus other mediums, maybe like photographies, for example, a photo can tell you what a place looks like, but a poem tells you what a place feels like, or it can help you put that together yourself. It's all these chunks of details that the person listening has to then thread together and make meaning of, and each person listening comes up with their own meaning to a poem.

Also, I think there's something to be said about hearing them in their own voices. Michael Hill, the host of Morning Edition, could have very easily read all these poems himself, and it would've been lovely, actually. [chuckles] I think a lot of people would've really loved that, but there's something to be said about hearing them in their own voices and different accents coming from all over the city, and people coming from out of state and bringing those perspectives with them too.

I think that ground's level, coming from the ground's level, and sharing it with the rest of the audience, is really cool.

Kousha Navidar: Amanda, you read almost all the poems that came in. You and the team were just going through poem by poem, absorbing them all. Is that right?

Amanda Rozon: Yes.

Kousha Navidar: How did you do that? Were you like, "Before breakfast, I'm going to get 10 poems in, and then--" Did you have a regimen that you followed?

Amanda Rozon: Well, I'm not going to lie, I shouldn't say this. I was reading them at home before bed too, not just during work hours, also because they were really fun to listen to. We took turns, Verónica Del Valle, another assistant producer, and Alec Hamilton. We went one by one, and listened to all the poems. Then we would have slack conversations like, "Oh, did you see that one? We have to air that one." Things like that. It was such a collaborative experience, and even across the whole newsroom, to be honest.

Kousha Navidar: That's awesome. Listeners, if you're just joining us, we're here talking about listener poetry submissions. We're with Amanda Rozon, who is an assistant producer of Morning Edition, and she spearheaded this year's Poetry Month Listener Poetry Project. I'd love to get to some of the poems that we heard. Let's hear one from Kyle Shih, from Manhattan, who I think is one of our youngest poets to submit this year. This is called Roosevelt Island Tramway. Here it is.

Kyle Shih: The Roosevelt Island Tramway,

Fresh and clean, empty and idle,

Ready to do its duty,

The many passengers,

Some tourists, some residents,

Ready to board, like on any ordinary day,

The gears and wheels spinning and turning,

The tram, jolting, gliding along the thick ropes, Far above the cherry blossoms,

Gaining altitude over the East River,

Leaving Roosevelt Island and entering Manhattan,

Parallel to the Queensborough Bridge,

Passing by tall residential buildings,

Entering a swarm of towers,

And hovering over many cars and trees,

Losing altitude, diving down,

Slowly moving towards the platform,

Passengers ready to leave,

Over and over, crossing the river,

From 6:00 AM to 2:00 AM,

The tram welcomes all riders.

Kousha Navidar: Shout out to Kyle for that wonderful poem. Amanda, what strikes you about the way he approached that common theme of commuting that you mentioned before?

Amanda Rozon: I'll just say, first, you asked before how we go through all of these poems, actually, one of the first things we do is we say, "Are there any kids that submitted poems?" We love to hear kid voices on air. That's one of our favorite things. What I liked about what Kyle did, is-- It was like the tramway personified. I couldn't help but think of Thomas, the train, the old kids show.

I'm not just saying that because a kid wrote this, but Thomas has these human characteristics, a very expressive face, and all of that. At the very end of Kyle's poem, he says, and I'll read word for word, "Over and over, crossing the river from 6:00 AM to 2:00 AM, the tram welcomes everyone." It's almost like Kyle captured how the tramway might describe itself and the job that it does every day, and that's really fun.

Kousha Navidar: I also love that idea that you talked about before, with how poetry adds to the nuance of living in the city, is seeing other people's experiences that you've had yourself through their own eyes, which, through Kyle's eyes, I thought was pretty interesting too. This is a poem called Walking the East Village at Dusk in December. It's by Jamie Silverstone. Let's listen to it.

Jamie Silverstone: I'm alive in thought when I walk,

The city walks beside me,

Five million, or is it eight?

I don't pause to count.

Did you know walking at dusk, you can peer inside other lives?

See that place on Bleecker, with books stacked to beams?

And next door, steam rises from pots, clouding windows,

And over there on Elizabeth, they watch TV in vibrating light,

When I cross at Bowery, CBGB winks at me from under its Varvatos Veil,

Later, on 1st Avenue, a stranger stops to ask, "Are you a poet?"

I love this city.

Pen in hand, I am seen.

Kousha Navidar: Amanda, this one shouts out very specific places, like Elizabeth and Bleecker Street, and the historic site of CBGBs. What changes about the way we experience a poem when it evokes places and things that we might have our own experiences with?

Amanda Rozon: I think if you hear a poem about somewhere you've been, or somewhere you've never been, rather, it's like getting a peek into this new world, but if you have been to that place before, you start to look for how your experiences compared to to the poets'. If they match up, that's great. You may feel seen or represented, and if you disagree with them, then maybe not so much. Or maybe you disagree with them, but you learn something new that you didn't learn before. I think it's a lesson on perspective.

Kousha Navidar: We just got a text that I want to read, which I thought was pretty cool.

Amanda Rozon: Cool.

Kousha Navidar: It says, "My poem was picked this year, which was a real honor. It was aired at 6:15 AM, too early for my daughter, but a friend heard me and reached out to let me know she heard me. Thanks again. Erica, in Crown Heights." Erica, shout out to you. Thanks for submitting to the project. Amanda, I'm wondering how is it possible for folks who have submitted to find their poems? There's a map, right?

Amanda Rozon: It's so cool. It's an interactive map, you described in the beginning. Keeping with the theme, you can click on a borough or a locality and hear the poems that came from there. I know I've heard all these poems so many times at this point, but I often go back and click around, and I hear something new in a poem every day. Huge shout out to Zach Gottehrer-Cohen, who helped us put this together.

Awesome. This is what I mean by it was a newsroom effort, really. Credit goes to everybody. You can go to wnyc.org/poetry and you'll find it there.

Kousha Navidar: Erica's poem is Auto Babysitters, want to make sure that I shout that out. Big shout out to Zach as well, who's a producer on this show. Listeners, we're talking about the listener poetry submissions that comes from this Morning Edition team, Amanda Rozon specifically, who's an assistant producer on Morning Edition. We're going to take a quick break.

When we come back, we're going to hear more poems and go a little bit more in-depth about what makes poetry in New York City so special. This is All Of It, we'll be right back.

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This is All Of It, on WNYC. I'm Kousha Navidar, in for Alison Stewart, and we are so happy to be talking about poetry. We're here with Amanda Rozon, the assistant producer at Morning Edition, who spearheaded this year's Poetry Month Listener Poetry Project. We've gotten poems from across the city, and from one place in Scotland, which we're going to talk about in a second.

We're going through and just enjoying some of the beautiful verses that you all, listening, have laid down. I mentioned that we had one from Scotland. Amanda, I'd love to get to it. This one comes from across the ocean, from Collum Black, in Scotland, though it is an ode to New York, let's listen to it.

Collum Black: We were there, a long weekend,

That concert, Central Park,

Iconic songs, Tai chi relationship,

She loved the song Heart in New York,

Flying in from London to your door,

That was us, but we too went our separate ways,

So here's to you, New York.

Kousha Navidar: Amanda, how surprised were you to get a poem from Scotland, and how does that color the way this poem speaks to the theme of meaningful places when it was written by a visitor?

Amanda Rozon: Really not surprised at all. We typically get poems from not just out of state, but out of the country. Of course, WNYC has listeners all over the world. I know on this show, maybe you might take calls, also, from outside of the country here and there. It's also why we left the theme vague. Notice we didn't ask for poems about New York City specifically. We didn't define local for the listeners, we had them define that themselves.

This trip to New York that Collum Black is describing obviously means a lot to him. He took the time to write about it and send it to us. Of course, when people come and visit New York, it leaves a big impression on them, good or bad, so we really appreciate people getting vulnerable and sharing that with us.

Kousha Navidar: Speaking of visitors and locals, here's a poem about being, or, I guess, becoming and feeling like a native New Yorker. This is from Catherine Aurora, from New Rochelle. It's called Local.

Catherine Aurora: I'm an alien in New York,

Even after 10 years,

To call something local feels presumptuous,

And yet, Harbour House Diner feels local to this expat,

Not only because of the unexplained u in Harbour,

She's not much to look at,

Baby blue boots of vynil,

Nautical-themed charge keys,

A cracked, sloping counter,

But there, everybody knows my name,

Knows it's tea, not coffee I need,

They greet me with a smile,

Ask after the kids and tell me about theirs,

As an alien in New York,

Having a local is all the more special.

Kousha Navidar: Amanda, you picked out that poem for us to play. What drew you to it?

Amanda Rozon: It was very similar to the kinds of conversations we were having as a team. She really wrestled with the idea of what even is local, really, and how can you really call yourself a local? That's the kind of conversations we were having as we were workshopping. She took on that challenge. She defined it for herself and then took it from there.

Kousha Navidar: If you're just joining us, listeners, we're talking about the Poetry Month Project from the Morning Edition team. We're here with Amanda Rozon, the assistant producer who spearheaded this year's Poetry Month Listener Poetry Project. We're looking and listening into some of the beautiful poetry that you sent. I want to bring up another one that is about commuting. Let's hear this poem, called Gift, from Agnieszka Tuarek, from Staten Island. Here it is.

Agnieszka Tuarek: While a resident ghost's rock subway travelers

Lost on the rusty tracks of their lives,

A girl in a green scarf starts peeling an orange,

Its sweet smell unhusks the travelers from their separate solitudes,

The car becomes an orange grove, at least until the next stop.

Kousha Navidar: A lot of what we're hearing in these poems are quiet contemplations on these hidden undercurrents to city life, which I love. Here's one last one that I wanted to bring up, that wrestles with what it means for a place to be hidden and visible, owned and shared in the city. This is On Being Forgotten, by Stacey Conn. She's from Crown Heights, but this is a poem about Staten Island. Here it is.

Stacey Conn: It's not that Alice Austin House pressed up against the skyline,

Or the ferry boat gliding like an iron flame through the bay,

It's the I drive through your borough to get somewhere else most zero in on,

But never mind that Wu-Tang shirt you're wearing,

Or the grandma restaurant you've walked to on Hyatt street,

Where the host and the chef, the nona of the night,

Come to your table to ask how your food was,

A bottle of grandpa cha-cha in hand,

Or that new restaurant The Times wrote up,

Where they also make sure you feel at home,

And cook dishes that melt into every part of you.

Never mind all of that.

It's easy to forget when there's a pressing punchline,

An assumption to be made.

Which is not to say this daughter of the ship graveyard,

The no subway, the plastered-over dump, does not see the flaws.

I moved to the other side of the Verrazano, after all,

And yet I can't decide if I want the lines of the forgotten borough to be redrawn,

To reshape it into something everyone stops laughing at,

Even if they've never visited,

Even if they know all the words to [unintelligible 00:20:44],

But couldn't name a single neighborhood,

Or if I'd like to embrace the forgottenness of the forgotten borough,

And keep its treasures to myself.

Kousha Navidar: It makes me feel connected to the city just to hear the voices of people that I might have been on, on the subway. Did you ever get that sense of connection just from hearing people speak?

Amanda Rozon: I actually had that exact thought. I'm like, "What if I walked past one of these poets on the sidewalk, or on the C train, going home?" I did have that exact thought that you're having, yes.

Kousha Navidar: It's this wonder of, the world is big and the world is small at the same time. It's really wonderful to experience. Before we say goodbye, Amanda, can you tell listeners about the map that we're using to present these poems one more time, and how it changes the experience of this project to see all the submissions presented in map form?

Amanda Rozon: Well, like I said, it just looks cool, which is really great. Then you can click around all the other boroughs. I also just need to say really quickly, I think it's funny that Scotland is just in the water. [laughs]

Kousha Navidar: [laughs] I was wondering about that too, yes.

Amanda Rozon: It's just floating in the water, I think, between Connecticut and Long Island, which is really interesting. Click around, find a poem that either you heard before-- We got a lot of questions, too. Like, "Hey, I heard a poem, but I missed it. How can I listen to it again?" This is your chance, wnyc.org/poetry. You'll find them all there.

Kousha Navidar: wnyc.org/poetry? [crosstalk]

Amanda Rozon: .org/poetry. Yes.

Kousha Navidar: Got it. wnyc.org/poetry, and listeners, thank you so much to everyone who has submitted and has written on behalf of their own experience in New York City. Amanda, thank you and your whole team for putting so much work into this. It really is beautiful.

Amanda Rozon: You're very welcome. We loved it. Thank you for having me.

Kousha Navidar: Absolutely. We were talking to Amanda Rozon, the assistant producer of Morning Edition. She and her team spearheaded this year's Poetry Month Listener Project.

 

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