Between the Lines: The Underwater Typewriter

by Zinta Aistars
for WMUK 102.1 FM
Southwest Michigan's NPR affiliate



Between the Lines is my weekly radio show about books and writers with a Michigan connection. It airs every Tuesday at 7:50 a.m., 11:55 a.m., and 4:20 p.m. (or listen anytime online), on WMUK 102.1 FM, Southwest Michigan's NPR affiliate. I am the host of Between the Lines.

This week's guest: Marc Zegans 

Marc Zegans (Credit Jeff Haynes)

Ann Arbor, Michigan native Marc Zegans is better known for the spoken, rather than the written word. “As a spoken word artist with a penchant for immersive theater, I perform periodically with the New York Poetry Brothel under the nom de plumeBellocq C. Obscura,” Zegans says. “I’ve been doing spoken poetry as long as I can remember.”

But with his new poetry collection The Underwater Typewriter (Pelekinesis Press, September 2015), Zegans hopes to expand his written word readership. His spoken word albums include Night Work (2007) and Marker and Parker, recorded with jazz pianist Don Parker (2010). His collection of erotic senryu, a type of haiku, calledPillow Talk was published in 2008. Zegans is also a playwright and performs on stage.

“I was Narragansett Beer’s first Poet Laureate from 2010 to 2013 and a Poetry Whore with the New York Poetry Brothel,” Zegans says, laughing. “I had two friends in the New York Poetry Society who had grown tired of academic poetry readings and wanted something with greater depth than slam poetry.”

One of his poet friends thought about what she liked, then said, “Well, I love poetry, and I also like bourbon, and I like sex. How do I put them together?”

Zegans recalls, “So she came up with this idea of a 1920’s Prohibition bordello where rather than hire a prostitute, one would hire a poet for ...

READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE AT WMUK.

LISTEN TO BETWEEN THE LINES ON AIR. (8:58)

LISTEN TO THE COMPLETE INTERVIEW. (15:48)

BROWSE OTHER BETWEEN THE LINES INTERVIEWS.

Rooted: A Reading by Zinta Aistars

And you are invited! If you are in Southwest Michigan, please consider attending. I'd love to see you there. Visit the Facebook event page to sign up and learn more.

“Let the dam open. Let it flow. In this place of healing, where all rooted things offer blessing: the stalwart trees, the exuberant flowers, the field of grasses and alfalfa, yes, but also the birds, rooted in sky, and the furred creatures burrowing beneath the earth, the insects buzzing and winging through the air, all rooted in their own way. As am I. It took but once, stepping on this hallowed ground, and I felt the roots spring from my feet, from my hands, and instantly tangle with the roots already here to become one. At long last, I have come to know what it means to be Home.” ~ Zila

Zinta at Z Acres ... or is it Zila?

Zinta Aistars, creative director, writer and editor at Z Word, LLC, is known in the literary community for showcasing writers and artists in the online literary magazine, The Smoking Poet, for many years. Then, in January 2015, Zinta began hosting a weekly radio show called "Between the Lines" at WMUK 102.1 FM, the NPR affiliate station in Southwest Michigan, showcasing books and writers with a Michigan connection. 

When is it Zinta's turn to showcase her own work? 

By golly, it's now. Zinta will read from her work-in-progress, "Zila." In her novel, Zinta builds a story of finding Home after a lifetime of wanderlust. It is a story that grew out of the author’s own move to a ten-acre plot of land in Southwest Michigan in March 2012. She calls her home Z Acres, a place that offers a little of everything: woods, water, open fields. Through her main character, Zila, Zinta explores what it means to grow up bicultural, straddling two countries, never quite belonging in either. Without a place to call Home, a place where one can be rooted, Zila has spent her life wandering in place, in career choices, but perhaps most of all in relationships. The wandering is over, but being rooted comes with its own strange challenges.

Alongside the reading, an exhibit of Zinta's photography of Z Acres will be on view in the Portage District Library, 300 Library Lane, Portage, Michigan, from Sept. 4 to Oct. 31. All photos are for sale, all priced at $30. Own a little piece of Z Acres for yourself and support a starving (well, not quite starving, but always hungry for a salty chip) artist.

The reading is open to all at no cost. Rumor has it there may even be refreshments, straight from the farm.

UPDATE: 

What fun! Lori Moore has invited me to appear on The Lori Moore Show on Tuesday, September 22. I'll have an opportunity to talk a bit more about what you'll be hearing at "ROOTED: A Reading by Zinta Aistars "... as well as some behind-the-scenes teasers about my weekly radio show, Between the Lines, on WMUK 102.1 FM. Maybe I can pick up some radio hints from Lori, one of the area's radio greats prior to her television show.

Between the Lines: Eating Wild

by Zinta Aistars
for WMUK 102.1 FM
Southwest Michigan's NPR affiliate



Between the Lines is my weekly radio show about books and writers with a Michigan connection. It airs every Tuesday at 7:50 a.m., 11:55 a.m., and 4:20 p.m. (or listen anytime online), on WMUK 102.1 FM, Southwest Michigan's NPR affiliate. I am the host of Between the Lines.

This week's guest: Lisa Rose

Lisa Rose

What others mow over, pull up, and toss into the weed pile, Lisa Rose adds to her dinner plate. Dandelions, cow parsnip, jewelweed and milkweed, honeysuckle, goldenrod, nettle, field garlic — these are just a very few of the plants Rose covers in her new book, Midwest Foraging: 115 Wild and Flavorful Edibles from Burdock to Wild Peach (Timber Press, 2015).

The guide lists and illustrates plants of interest to foragers in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Ontario.

Rose leads foraging plant walks and classes on edible and medicinal wild plants in the greater Grand Rapids area. With a background in anthropology and a professional focus on community health, she's made foraging a part of her lifestyle since childhood.

“Foraging and wild plants have been a part of my entire life,” says Rose. “I grew up just a few miles from the 'Big Lake,' and I had a family that was outside all four seasons. My mom kept a garden; she canned and preserved what we got out of the garden and farmers markets. But we also had wild Concord grapes, and I knew where the wild apples were. My first pie in college was mulberry pie. I’ve always had a really close relationship to the land around me.”

Rose is also the author of Grand Rapids Food: A Culinary Revolution (History Press, 2013). Rose says it's her call to take up a shovel, dig into the earth, and create change in our food system.

"We need to learn how to be better stewards of our resources. Gardening is empowering people. The book is a call to action to the people of Grand Rapids to do more, to sit down at the table to talk about the economic impact on our community when we connect to place, when we grow our own food."

Rose says she's traveled a "nonlinear path" to get where she is today. She started as a music major at Grand Valley State University but discovered she wanted to ...

READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE AT WMUK.

LISTEN TO BETWEEN THE LINES ON AIR. (8:48)

LISTEN TO THE COMPLETE INTERVIEW. (28:59)

BROWSE OTHER BETWEEN THE LINES INTERVIEWS.

Listen to WMUK's Between the Lines every Tuesday at 7:50 a.m., 11:55 a.m., and 4:20 p.m.