158: What if you entered The Void?

“You try to take off your skin to try to get rid of this voice, and it goes all the way down to the bone.”

Producer: Whit Missildine

Episode Summary: A man suffering the deep generational traumas of poverty, racism, abuse and mental illness finds transformative power in an ancient plant medicine.

Today’s episode featured Dexter L. Booth. Dexter is the author of the poetry collection, Scratching

the Ghost from Graywolf Press, which won the 2012 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, as well as the chapbook Rhapsody from Etchings Press. Booth’s poems have been included in the anthologies The Best American Poetry 2015, The Burden of Light: Poems on Illness and Loss, The Golden Shovel Anthology honoring Gwendolyn Brooks, and Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry. He is a professor in the Ashland University MFA program and a residential faculty member at Paradise Valley Community College where he teaches poetry and English composition. You can find out more about Dexter, his writing and teaching by following him on Instagram@dexter_two_omelettes, or on Facebook or Twitter. You can find his books Scratching the Ghost and Rhapsody on Bookshop.org, Amazon, or wherever books are sold.

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Content/Trigger Warnings: domestic abuse, mental illness, suicide, explicit language

Intro Music: "Illabye" – Tipper

Music Bed: “Union Flow” - Spuntic

Outro Music: "The Moon is Down" - El Diablo & Adam Schraft (Rojo y Negro) @eldiablosf @rojo-y-negro www.eldiablobass.com/

Services

If you or someone you know is struggling with the effects of trauma or mental illness, please refer to the following resources:

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 

National Alliance on Mental Illness: 1-800-950-6264

National Sexual Assault Hotline (RAINN): 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)

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