Boundless & Bare

In this episode, Melissa and Phil discuss his writing journey, influences, ageism and Lingo.

Phil Lynch is an iconic Dublin writer and poet whose work and events for years has inspired the spoken word community. He is a regular performer at poetry and spoken word events and festivals in Ireland, London, Paris, Brussels and New York. Phil is a member of the Dalkey Writers Workshop and  was a runner-up in the iYeats Poetry Competition in 2014  and the winner of the Intercompetitive Poetry Competition in 2018. His work has been featured extensively in Irish Media and his collection "In a Changing Light" has been published by Salmon Poetry. Phil is a co-founder of Lingo the iconic Irish spoken word festival.

In this episode of the Boundless & Bare podcast Melissa Ridge sits down with Hazel Hogan, a 26 year old poet from Dublin. Hazel Hogan who started when she was ten discusses everything from Grangegorman to her brand new podcast Being Earnest with Hazel Hogan.

Hazel Hogan is a 24 year old poet from Dublin, Ireland.
Her poem ‘Grangegorman’ is on the recommended list to be studied as part of the Junior Certificate English curriculum.
Her poetry was submitted into the Irish Poetry Reading Archive as part of the UCD digital library.
She was selected to take part in the Dublin City of Literature project, Dublin:A Year in Words curated by Stephan James Smith and Linda Devlin and supported by UNESCO.
Hazel is a member of the spoken word and Graffiti collective OutStraight a concept-based show combining spoken word theater with visual art graffiti.
She was the co-founder and the currator of the variety night Words in the Warehouse.
She was recently featured in Episode four of Myles O'Reilly and Donal Dineen 'This Ain't No Disco'.
"Those are some fighting words" Saul Williams.

"A true warrior of words" RTE Culture.

"Powerful stuff" Brenda Donohue, The Ray D’Arcy Show.

For the halfway point for Season 2 Melissa and Melanie sit down with the acclaimed Raven.

Raven is a multi-disciplinary artist – writer, performer, filmmaker and arts educator originally from San Francisco, California, now living in Dublin.

In addition to being an Emmy award-winning videographer, his written work has appeared in print in the U.S. and Ireland in numerous anthologies, magazines and in his collection, The Living, the Dead and Americans. He is also an acclaimed performer, having captivated audiences as a poet, rapper and actor on stages at literary, music and arts festivals and events in Ireland, the US, South Africa and the UK for twenty years.

As an educator he has taught workshops and courses in poetics, creative writing and filmmaking for even longer; he has worked with children and adults, often with special needs or challenges. He has given private instruction, lectures and taught in diverse settings, in Ireland and abroad – the Junior Certificate School Program (eleven Dublin schools), Migrant Rights Centre Ireland (Dublin), National Institute for Intellectual Disabilities (Trinity College, Dublin), National Council for the Blind in Ireland (Dublin), Creativity Explored (San Francisco), and University of Kwazulu-Natal (Durban, South Africa), amongst others

In this episode we sit down with Tari Takavarasha one of the poets who will be joining us on our Sunshine Tantrum tour. In this episode we explore the importance of good mentors, how rhyme and rhythm can shape a poem as well as expression as a mixed race woman.

In this episode we discuss the state of the Irish Spoken Word Industry and it’s longevity with Journalist Paulie Doyle, who recently wrote a piece on Spoken Word in Ireland for the Sunday Business Post.

Thank you to our producer Willem McCartney for recording this podcast. 

Episode Links:

In this episode the two Mels chat to Bibi June!

Bibi June is a poet, producer and theatre maker originally from Amsterdam, now an import Glaswegian. Through personal experience, their work explores narratives of race, queerness, migration and social inequalities. They mix Glasgow’s down-to-earth culture with Dutch directness in an intimate high-energy performance.

In spring 2017 they received funding from the Workers Theatre to develop their first show, 'Daughter, Mother, Truth', as part of the Megaphone residency, created to promote artists of colour in Scotland. Their first pamphlet ‘Begin Again’ was published by Speculative Books in December 2017. It is a collection of poems on queer life and happiness. Their work has been published in the Beyond Boundaries, Now That’s What I Call Poetry and We Were Always Here anthologies. In 2018, they were part of the judging panel at the National Scottish Poetry Slam, were selected for the Young Arts Industry Programme at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and received both a Disrupter Grant and a Nurturing Talent fund.

They run ‘In The Works’, a spoken word theatre company co-founded with Ross McFarlane and Ellen Renton. ITW was set up to promote innovative spoken word theatre and develop an accessible, diverse and sustainable tradition for the art form. Their first production, A Matter of Time', debuted as part of the Edinburgh Free Fringe 2017. Their second show ‘The 900 Club’ received 4 and 5 star reviews from The Wee Review and The Sunday Post, and SGFringe respectively for its run at the Scottish Poetry Library as part of the Edinburgh Fringe 2018. It has since been performed in Glasgow, Perth and Nottingham. Their newest show, Make/Shift, is currently touring spoken word events across the UK & Ireland.

If you’d like to hear more from Bibi Visit:

In the first episode for season 2, we return with Boundless & Bare podcast alumni Sasha Terfous! In this episode we discuss Poetry Day Ireland, the Spoken Word community in Waterford and how to foster more empathy in the community as a whole. Please note that in this episode there are some sensitive topics discussed so listener discretion is advised.  

If you'd like to hear more from Sasha visit:

On this special episode of the Boundless and Bare Podcast we take you on a journey through the making of our first publication, BND! Meet the team behind the zine, discover the work and love that went into the making of it, and get wrapped up in wholesome shenanigans on the BND Magazine Special!  

In this episode, Melissa and Melanie interview Californian poet and writer Sean Colletti after the release of his brand new poetry pamphlet ‘Saeculum’.