Platica Y Poetics S2E1 w/ Alexandra Gilliam

Episode 1 of season 2 was welcomed with poetic Thai delicacy. My interview with friend and poetic colleague Alexandra Gilliam we explored the emotional gravitas of her poetry collections Femmestuary and Lightsheen. Gilliam shared how the BP oil spill, environmental destruction, and marginalized identities are interwoven to critique societal neglect and environmental desecration. Offering a visceral engagement with ecological and feminist issues, encapsulating her concern for both environmental and bodily autonomy. Her deft balance between personal grief and societal trauma, includes themes of police violence, addiction, and the degradation of Louisiana’s coastline. In "Exile," a poem about the last moments of Michael Brown, she reflected on the responsibility of bringing voice to such a profound moment of vulnerability, illustrating how poetry can bear witness to innocence amid tragedy. Gilliam models how, through love— termed uniquely as "bullet love," through connection and intimacy, motions to a journey through evolving definitions of love and resilience. Her reverence for language as a living entity—a tool for survival, witness, and healing—reflects her approach to poetry as an act of reclamation and endurance, holding space for voices that need to be remembered and honored.