Season 6 - Ep. 130 Poet Laureate Lessons with guest Luisa A. Igloria

April is National Poetry Month and whether you love poetry or not, you’ve likely heard of poet laureates. You may not know what that distinction means, however. There are all kinds of poet laureates—of countries, of states, of cities, and of even smaller areas. A poet laureate is appointed by a head of government for her or his accomplishments and may publish poems for special occasions. It is an honor that comes with a lot of flexibility.

In this week’s episode, we chat with Luisa A. Igloria, a native of the Philippines who came to the US to attend graduate school and is one of only four poet laureates of color for the state of Virginia. She was appointed to the position right as Covid took over our lives in 2020. She talks about the three cornerstone projects she wanted to launch in order to make poetry a larger part of the community.

You can find Luisa on instagram at @poetslizard. 
To see the Poetry Postcard Project and Young Poets in the Community, go to her website at www.luisaigloria.com.

Books and Poetry mentioned--

1- Maps for Migrants and Ghosts by Luisa A. Igloria
2- "Song of Meridians" by Luisa A. Igloria
3- "Blue Bucket" by Naomi Shihab Nye
4- Cartography by Luisa A. Igloria
5- "Vacation" by Wendell Berry
6- Sapiens: A Graphic History Vols 1 and 2 by Yuval Noah Harari, David Vandermeulen, Daniel Casanave
7- Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
8- Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari
9- Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
10- Rise: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now by Jeff Yang, Phil Yu, and Philip Wang
11- Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World by Anthony Doerr
12- All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
13- Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr