Saul Williams : Martyr Loser King
episode
Between The Covers : Conversations with Writers in Fiction, Nonfiction & Poetry
2h 42m
1 speaker
7 chapters
transcribed 20 days ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What are the opening sponsor messages and episode introduction?
Today's episode is brought to you by Patient Female Stories by Julie Schumacher. From the New York Times bestselling author of Dear Committee members, Julie Schumacher's stories in Patient Female are sharp, darkly funny, and deeply human. Each protagonist, ranging from girlhood to senescence, receives her own indelible voice as she navigates social blunders. generational misunderstandings, and the absurdity of the human experience. Schumacher's talent shines in this masterful collection, writes Library Journal. exploring motherhood, friendship, and work Patient female renders the foibles of human behavior with dark humor and wit. Patient female is out with milkweed editions wherever books are sold. Today's episode is also brought to you by Coastal Lines Press.
Coastal Lines Press is a collective of writers in Gaza, turning words into life-saving supplies for their families. Through zines from Gaza they publish independent booklets of poetry, essays, and testimonies that travel like tiny vessels from coast to coast, carrying stories of survival, resistance, and hope. The name Coastal Lines Press honors the Mediterranean Sea, which anchors life in the region, and celebrates the lines of language, words, sentences, prose, and poems that connect writers to readers worldwide. Profits from every zine directly fund essential supplies for families under siege. Learn more, follow their journeys, and purchase a zine from Gaza at coastal linespress.com. Because I'm so excited to share today's conversation with Saul Williams, to release it into the world, to see where it travels, to see where it lands, what conversations it sparks, and who gathers around it to form connections and carry it forward, I'm going to keep this brief.
I'll just say it was unusually pleasurable to prepare for today's conversation, given Saul's work in so many different fields and his dynamism as a speaker about that work. And even though I only include a subset of the materials I engaged with in the supporter resource email associated with today's episode, That set of resources is nevertheless particularly robust and alive. Every listener supporter at every level of support gets these resources of what I discovered while preparing, of the things that we referenced during our time together, and places to go once you're done listening. And then there are a ton of other things to choose from. Books of course, but also the bonus audio archive with Contributions from many past guests who, like Saul, are diagnosing history and the present moment as part of seeking a future otherwise.
Contributions of everything from readings to writing prompts to music. From Dion Brand, Denez Smith, Natalie Diaz, Omar El Akkad, Geordi Rosenberg, Isabella Hamad, Naomi Klein, Rhonda Abdelfata, Christina Sharp, Lailey Long Soldier, Leanne Batassamusek Simpson, and many others. You can find out about all of it and more at patreon dot com slash between the covers. And now for today's conversation with none other than Saul Williams.
Good morning and welcome to Between the Covers. I'm David Naaman, your host. Today's guest, writer, poet, musician, director, actor, and more, Saul Williams, earned a BA in acting and philosophy from Morehouse College and an MFA in acting from NYU at the Tisch School of the Arts. It was while he was at NYU that he started writing poetry. And for those who wonder what poetry does or what the power of poetry is, consider this. Saul at his first open mic has only one poem to his name, Amethyst Rocks, and after he finishes reading it in a tiny New York cafe, someone comes up to him and asks if he'd like to open. For Alan Ginsburg. And then someone else asks if he would open for The Last Poets and Gil Scott Heron.
And then someone else asks if he'd open for the Roots, the Fujies, for KRS One. All from one poem. The documentary Slam Nation follows his Poetry Slam team as they compete at the 1996 National Poetry Slam held in Portland, Oregon. And in the same year, the feature film Slam, co-written and starring Saul, not only brought Saul's performance poetry to a wider audience, but went on to win the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and the Camera Door at the Cannes Film Festival.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What are the opening sponsor messages and episode introduction?
0:00–14:03
2
How does David Naaman introduce Saul Williams and set up the conversation?
14:03–1:19:47
3
What is the origin story of the main characters Mataloosa and Neptune in *Martyr Loser King*?
1:19:47–1:26:09
4
What new music is Saul Williams previewing and how does he describe its mystical impact?
1:26:09–1:38:55
5
How does Saul connect language, mysticism, and Sufi poetry to the themes of his work?
1:38:55–2:00:56
6
What does Saul say about hacking, colonial exploitation, and the role of technology in resistance?
2:00:56–2:21:23
7
How did the collaboration with Morgan Sorne shape the graphic‑novel version of *Martyr Loser King*?
2:21:23–2:41:36