Kavai Strong Washburn

Yeah, thank you so much for having me.

I really appreciate the engagement, especially when we're in such a challenging time right now.

I try to make it a point to read at least a poem every day.

And I often like to listen to a poem read by the poet as well.

And that's always a nice thing.

It's almost like giving myself, I don't know, like an ice cream cone or something.

It's like my little treat for the day.

So I make sure to stick that in so that I can engage with that part of reading.

And I have some books, both of nonfiction and fiction that I'm working through.

It's just much slower going.

I usually end up reading, I don't know,

10 pages or something at night before I fall asleep.

I just finished a collection by an American poet named Danez Smith.

And they recently wrote a collection called Homie.

It came out early this year.

I don't know if it was January or February.

Maybe it was a little bit earlier than that.

They live here in the Twin Cities area in Minneapolis.

And they

is just a great book of poetry, really looking at what it means to be African American in the United States today and a lot of the experiences they've gone through.