376) Craig Santos Perez: Poetry as therapy and political speech
Green Dreamer: Seeding change towards collective healing, sustainability, regeneration
Kaméa Chayne
4.8 • 694 Ratings
🗓️ 11 October 2022
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"Poetry has always been a powerful space for healing, dealing with trauma, cultivating resilience in times of crisis or even depression..."
In this episode, we welcome Dr. Craig Santos Perez, an indigenous CHamoru from the Pacific Island of Guam. He is the co-editor of six anthologies and the author of five books of poetry and the monograph Navigating CHamoru Poetry: Indigeneity, Aesthetics, and Decolonization. He is a professor in the English department at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Some topics we explore in this conversation include a glimpse into the recent history of Guam and its Pacific Islander communities, the challenges of demilitarization and de-nuclearization amidst the global empires’ endless pursuit of domination, using poetry as political speech and literary therapy, and more.
(The musical offering featured in this episode Eye of the storm by Ali Dineen. The episode-inspired artwork is by Sneha.)
Green Dreamer would not be possible without the direct support from our listeners. Help us keep the show alive by reciprocating a gift of any amount today: GreenDreamer.com/support
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I have a quick but important ask. As you're probably aware, Green Dreamer is an independent |
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| 0:47.6 | grateful for whatever form or level of support that you're able to share with us. |
| 0:55.0 | Hey, it's your host, Kamea, and you're listening to Green Dreamer. |
| 0:58.9 | As a community-powered podcast, which does not take corporate advertisers, and we really hope |
| 1:04.0 | to keep it this way, we do need your help to keep the show alive. |
| 1:07.7 | And if every listener chipped in just a little bit a month, we would meet our |
| 1:11.8 | fundraising goal in no time. So join us today at greendreamer.com slash support. Also, if you |
| 1:18.8 | haven't already, be sure to sign up to our newsletter at greendreamer.com to receive the highlights |
| 1:24.2 | and resources from each episode. |
| 1:34.3 | Poetry, the arts, music, the humanities in general, really do have that power to humanize and to touch the emotions |
| 1:40.3 | when speaking about various topics. |
| 1:51.9 | And of course, poetry as political speech does similar rhetorical work while also still tapping into really deep personal emotions. |
| 1:59.0 | Today we are speaking with Dr. Craig Santos-Pers, an indigenous Chimaru from the Pacific |
| 2:05.8 | island of Guam or Guahan. |
| 2:08.5 | A professor in the English department at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. |
... |
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