107: Chiara Masci & Mahnoushsadat Moossavi — Loss

107: Chiara Masci & Mahnoushsadat Moossavi — Loss

<< Full show notes and poems on Substack [https://poetrybetweenfriends.substack.com/]>> When profound grief bears astonishing gifts, how do we hold both truths at once? In the conclusion of this two-part mini-series, host Rachel Schroeder welcomes former students and current mentees — young women she’s mentored since 2020 across three continents, but never in the same room: Chiara Masci, a psychology graduate devoted to holistic wellbeing, dance, and the arts in Gubbio, Italy, and Mahnoushsadat Moossavi, an international Tai Chi champion, educator, and human rights advocate in Warsaw, Poland. In keeping with the mini-series format, Chiara and Mahnoush read each other’s poems in English, and along with Rachel, follow the conversation wherever it leads. The poets then read their own poems in their mother tongues: Italian and Farsi. Through Mahnoush’s “ShirAli” and Chiara’s “Soul Gaze,” they encounter loss unflinchingly, and together, uncover its gifts. Hosted & Produced by Rachel Schroeder • Music by Andrew Veivers • Cover Art by Mathayu Warren Lane • Sound Engineering by Revision Sound. Recorded in New York City, on unceded Lenape land; in Gubbio, Italy; and in Warsaw, Poland. Engineered in Lewisville, Texas, on Jumanos and Kickapoo land. ... Because poetry lives between friends.

106: Carlotta Campara & Varsha Kini — Accompaniment

<> What if you're the friend you've always longed for? In the first of a two-part mini-series, host Rachel Schroeder welcomes former students and current mentees she has known since 2020 but has yet to meet in person: Carlotta Campara, a graduate student engaged at the intersection of psychology and the performing arts in Assisi, Italy, and Varsha Kini, a psychology graduate, multi-instrumentalist and translator in Gurgaon, India. Through Varsha's "A Girl of Thirteen" and Carlotta's "Authenticity: Instructions for Use," they explore accompaniment — the company we keep, and the company we learn to keep with ourselves. Hosted & Produced by Rachel Schroeder • Music by Andrew Veivers • Cover Art by Mathayu Warren Lane • Sound Engineering by Revision Sound. Recorded in New York City, on unceded Lenape land; in Assisi, Italy; and in Gurgaon, India • Engineered in Lewisville, Texas, on Jumanos and Kickapoo land. Because poetry lives between friends.

105: Hester Kamin — Threshold

<⁠> At the threshold between life and death, how do the dead look back at the living? And when we get there, how will we look back at ourselves? Host Rachel Schroeder exchanges poems with Hester Kamin — award-winning poet, director, choreographer, arts educator, and Rachel’s soul sister — about violence, civic grief, responsibility, and the power of prayer. Through Rachel’s “Dear Lawmakers” and Hester’s “The Dead Pray For Us,” they explore what artists can do when lawmakers won’t, and how to pray with our feet. Hosted & Produced by Rachel Schroeder • Music by Andrew Veivers • Cover Art by Mathayu Warren Lane • Sound Engineering by Revision Sound. Recorded in New York City, on unceded Lenape land, and in Arlington, Virginia, on Powhatan, Monacan, and Cherokee land • Engineered in Lewisville, Texas, on Jumanos and Kickapoo land. Because poetry lives between friends.

104: Sheela Clary — Perspective

<> What if you grew up believing your father built both your house and the river beside it? Host Rachel Schroeder exchanges poems with Sheela Clary—storyteller, essayist, journalist, teacher of Italian and storytelling, wife, mother, cold-plunge enthusiast, and Rachel’s dear friend since the age of two—about inner and outer landscapes, fatherly authority, and the invisible forces that hold us back or tickle us forward. In Sheela’s “Gravity,” a girl grows up in a big, weird house beside a shimmering river, believing her father’s word built both. In Rachel’s “Sneaky Currents,” the hard-won effort of reaching a mountain summit gives way to an unseen force lifting her toward flight—even as Gravity hooks her heels with the old commands: can’t, shouldn’t, must not. Together, Rachel and Sheela explore the pull between being planted and taking wing—and what it takes to let Choice choose through you. New episodes on Sundays. Hosted & Produced by Rachel Schroeder • Music by Andrew Veivers • Cover Art by Mathayu Warren Lane • Sound Engineering by Revision Sound. Recorded in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, on unceded Mohican land • Engineered, edited & mixed in Lewisville, Texas, on Jumanos and Kickapoo land. Because poetry lives between friends.

103: Jason Howard — Cosmology

<> What happens when a man dressed in pea soup floats into the ever after — and a voice whispers that we are not crumbs, not parts, but whole? Rachel exchanges poems with Jason Howard — actor, fight choreographer, writer, coder, and her dear friend since college — about amnesia, a mantra that echoes across lifetimes, and absurdity that just might be wisdom. Through Rachel’s “Not Crumbs” and Jason’s “PeaSoupland (aka Couch Lounger Bingo),” they explore the odd comfort of being both a speck of dust and a planet, the mystic journey of finding wholeness in a universe that keeps forgetting itself, and the search for meaning in inscrutable messages. Hosted and Produced by Rachel Schroeder • Music by Andrew Veivers • Cover Art by Mathayu Warren Lane • Sound Engineering by Revision Sound • Recorded in New York, NY on unceded Lenape land • Engineered in Lewisville, TX on Jumanos and Kickapoo land. Because poetry lives between friends.