Some Poems For My Sex

About this episode

Usha Akella discusses the power of poetry to bridge cultural divides and shares her experiences as a feminist poet.

Poet Usha Akella talks about poems as bridges into worlds, bridges that help to soften borders - and there is nothing we need more at this moment - than a softening of the criss-crossing lines that cut us off from one another. Borders are hardening, honest and patient dialogue is becoming rare, and meeting each other halfway seems more and more difficult - but a poet’s words can offer a bypass, a more direct path from one human heart to another. Acclaimed poet and author of 11 books, Usha has contributed to over 150 literary anthologies and journals, and is the founder and director of Matwaala, a South Asian diaspora poets’ collective launched in 2015. Usha's poetry is full of very real world matters and it does not shy away from confronting the ironies and contradictions of living life as a woman on this planet - no matter our cultural belonging. With her x-ray honesty and masterful craft, she writes from the raw emotions of her own life experiences as well as a soaring bird's eye view. In this episode Usha reads several poems from her book I Will Not Bear You Sons, and shares the stories behind the poems as well as the clash of cultural forces that shaped her as a woman and as…

People in this episode

Host: Elle Kamihira

Guest: Usha Akella

Topics covered

• poetry
• feminism
• cultural identity
• women's rights
• South Asian diaspora

Keywords

• poetry
• feminism
• cultural borders
• women's writing
• South Asian poets

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Matwaala

Books & works: I Will Not Bear You Sons

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