Episodes
Wednesday Jun 28, 2017
Alexis Rhone Fancher, Poet and Photographer
Wednesday Jun 28, 2017
Wednesday Jun 28, 2017
Alexis creates art full of beauty, light, darkness, life, death, sex, and personal power. Alexis is the author of How I Lost My Virginity To Michael Cohen and other heart stab poems, (2014), State of Grace: The Joshua Elegies, (2015), and the brand new, erotic, LA-centric collection, Enter Here (2017). She is published in The Best American Poetry 2016, Rattle, Slipstream, Plume, Nashville Review, Diode, Glass, and elsewhere. Her photos are published worldwide. Since 2013 Alexis has been nominated for 11 Pushcart Prizes, 1 Best Small Fiction, and 4 Best of the Net awards. She is Poetry Editor of Cultural Weekly and lives in Los Angeles.
Find Alexis Rhone Fancher’s art & event schedules at www.facebook.com/alexis.fancher & www.AlexisRhoneFancher.com
Wednesday Jun 28, 2017
Mercedes Lucero, Writer
Wednesday Jun 28, 2017
Wednesday Jun 28, 2017
Mercedes is the author of the chapbook In the Garden of Broken Things (Flutter Press, 2016, available at www.Lulu.com) and winner of the Langston Hughes Creative Writing Award for Poetry. Her writing has appeared in New Orleans Review,Curbside Splendor, Paper Darts, The Chicago Tribune’s Printers Row Journal, The Pinch, Heavy Feather Review, and Whitefish Review among others. She is a recent Glimmer Train “Short Fiction Award” Finalist and has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is currently the Fiction Editor of Beecher’s and curates a collection of works dedicated to the experiences of autism and developmental disabilities through the online literary magazine, Spectrum Extract. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Northwestern University and is currently pursuing her PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Kansas. Follow her work on Twitter @loose_arrow and at www.MercedesLucero.com
Monday Jun 19, 2017
The Transformational Jennie Washburn V.2017.6
Monday Jun 19, 2017
Monday Jun 19, 2017
Each month, the Transformational Jennie Washburn joins Talk With ME host, Marcia Epstein, for real life conversation. This Month: Community Fun & Goodness. Jennie is a Licensed Esthetician & a member of Spiritual Entrepreneurs, Pryor Transformation, Shift 2 Degrees, Lawrence Women’s Network, & One Hundred Good Women. She also enjoys being onstage, including as a two-time contestant in Transformations, a charity gala. Find Jennie on the stage at Mic Drop for Willow Domestic Violence Center & at https://skincarebyjennie.net
Friday Jun 16, 2017
Emmett Phillips, Rapper-Actor-Activist-Speaker
Friday Jun 16, 2017
Friday Jun 16, 2017
Emmett has tenaciously pursued his passions as a performance artist and youth developer since leaving the military in 2014. Since high school, he has been an avid lyricist and battle rapper, and now performs his original style of Hip Hop in his hometown Des Moines and major cities such as NYC, San Antonio, and St. Louis. He discovered his affinity for working with youth working at a Boys and Girls Club, and currently at Children and Family Urban Movement (CFUM) where he is a program coordinator for a group of young men called the Backyard Boyz. Emmett also is a teaching artist with Harding Middle School where he conducts a weekly writing workshop through a program called Movement 515. He proudly represents a New York based NPO called ASTEP (Artists Striving to End Poverty) as a Fellow and founder of the Des Moines ASTEP chapter where he collaborates with other local artists and community members to use the power of the arts to empower youth and provide a platform for self-expression and contributing to society through creativity. And Emmett is the Cultural Agent for the U.S, Department of Arts and Culture – Des Moines, http://usdac.us
Follow Emmett Phillips on Instagram @EPizFree & Twitter @TheRealEPizFree & https://EPizFree.com
Wednesday Jun 14, 2017
Michael Timothy Dieker, Performer & Writer
Wednesday Jun 14, 2017
Wednesday Jun 14, 2017
Michael is a singer, songwriter, playwright, actor, and distance runner based in Lawrence, KS. He also serves as a support person with the Sexual Trauma & Abuse Care Center there. Michael grew up playing all the sports, but his light really shone when he was performing music or theatre. As soon as he was old enough, he brought his original music into area drag shows. Through his art, Michael shares his story and inspire others to live authentically and joyfully, even with all the challenges.
Michael’s original musical, RUN, debuts in July 2017. RUN is a never before seen take on the classic hero’s journey, with colorful comic book settings and characters, as well as plenty of nods and winks to some of your favorites in tights (with or without capes). RUN tells an unforgettable story about a group of regular people learning to survive, create, and fall in love in the aftermath of traumas past and present, and trying to be or become heroes in their own lives.
Follow Michael Timothy Dieker at www.facebook.com/michael.t.dieker & on Twitter @MichaelTDieker
Wednesday Jun 14, 2017
Annette Hope Billings, Poet
Wednesday Jun 14, 2017
Wednesday Jun 14, 2017
Annette is an African-American, a Kansan, a poet, a playwright, an actress and a nurse, based in Topeka, KS. Since 2015, Annette has immersed herself in the boundless waters of writing and sharing her poetry and prose, and inspiring others. She has written two collections of poetry, and numerous one-act plays and short stories. Known for her performance delivery style, she has been received enthusiastically in many diverse venues.
Those who have experienced Annette’s words on the page or on the stage have dubbed her “The Maya of the Midwest,” a moniker she allows with all due humility and gratitude. To ME, Annette will always be The SuperModel Of Love. Her first book of poems, A Net Full of Hope, garnered the Topeka, KS 2015 ARTSConnect Arty Award for Literature. Her second book, Descants for a Daughter, is a very timely collection of affirmations/meditations.
Follow Annette & Buy Her Books at http://anetfullofhope.com & www.facebook.com/ANetFullOfHope
Thursday Jun 08, 2017
Brandon Whitehead
Thursday Jun 08, 2017
Thursday Jun 08, 2017
Brandon is originally from Oklahoma, where there are generally only two accepted ways in which a man may express himself: silence or rage. Brandon studied violin at the U of KS. Yes. Violin. He lives in KC, KS, in a tiny apartment that doesn’t adhere to normal Euclidian geometry. Brandon likes to drink beer, smoke cigarettes and play role-playing games. He is one of the last of the old time film projectionists, plus he has a really cool collection of robot and spaceship toys, which you are not allowed to touch. He spends his nights writing poems and stories while listening to the strange old man that lives above him play the violin. Brandon is the author of Thieves, Pharaohs, and Mexican Daredevils (Spartan Press, 2015) and is featured in several poetry collections. His is one of the organizers of the KC Small Press Poetry Fest, formerly the KC Poetry Throwdown. Learn more at
www.facebook.com/KCPoetryThrowdown/ Find him performing at select poetry events across the country, and in “Project 4000.”
Buy Brandon’s Books by emailing KingInYellow.BW@gmail.com
Thursday Jun 08, 2017
Kat Giordano, Poet & Musician
Thursday Jun 08, 2017
Thursday Jun 08, 2017
Kat is a native of Pennsylvania. She is the former poetry editor of Lake Effect and the former managing editor of Lit.cat. Her work appears in The Cincinnati Review, Up The Staircase Quarterly, Rat’s Ass Review, and Menacing Hedge, among others, and in 2016, she was one of five finalists for Erie County (PA) Poet Laureate. In 2017, Kat received a BFA in Creative Writing from Penn State Behrend in Erie, PA. She has since returned to her hometown in the Philadelphia area to finish her first manuscript.
Follow Kat on Twitter @GiordKat
Thursday Jun 08, 2017
Taurean LaCharles, Actor, V.2017.6
Thursday Jun 08, 2017
Thursday Jun 08, 2017
Taurean LaCharles is a native of Lawrence, KS and a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he studied classical theatre. As an androgynous gay African-American male, Taurean has known discrimination throughout his life. Taurean and host Marcia Epstein engage in a lively conversation about Being Your Authentic You & Getting Out To Build Community.
Monday Jun 05, 2017
B. Diehl, Poet
Monday Jun 05, 2017
Monday Jun 05, 2017
B. is a New Jersey native who has been writing since he was a kid. He started writing poetry in 2013 after he finally found some good poetry to read. B. is the author of the poetry collection Zeller’s Alley (White Gorilla Press, 2016). Starting in 2014, his work has been published by Hobart, BOAAT Press, FLAPPERHOUSE, Words Dance, and other venues. Every other Sunday, he hosts a reading series in Catasauqua, PA, called I Hate Poetry. When he is not writing, reading, hosting, or breathing in dust at his warehouse job, he is usually hanging out with his cats.
You can find him on the web at www.facebook.com/B.DiehlPoetry & at www.MyNameIsB.net