BPL Podcast

Between Home and Here: Ghanaian-American Poets on Identity and Voice

In this episode, WIR Cynthia Amoah sits down with Ghanaian-American poets Claudia Owusu and Tasha Lomo for a layered conversation about language, place, and what it means to write and create from the in-between. Together, they explore how heritage shapes creative voice, the role of poetry as both resistance and refuge, and the ways they each build community through art—from spoken word albums to filmmaking to advocacy for Black women. Special thanks to fo/mo/deep [https://www.fomodeep.com/] for lending us their song, "Bourbon Neat" for the podcast! Find out about upcoming Bexley Public Library events at https://www.bexleylibrary.org [https://www.bexleylibrary.org/] Follow Bexley Public Library across platforms @bexleylibrary Host/Guest Bios Cynthia Amoah is a Ghanaian-American poet, national speaker, and teaching artist. She received her MFA from The New School, where she was cited for Excellence in Poetry. Cynthia has been featured on three TEDx stages, The Lincoln Theatre, and the United Nations Information Center in Accra, among others. She is currently serving as the 2025 Inaugural Writer-in-Residence at the Bexley Public Library and the 'Arts in the Parks' Coordinator with Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Her writing and performances often explore questions of identity, belonging, displacement, migration, and uprootedness. Cynthia’s chapbook 'Handrails' was published by Akashic Books in Fall 2021. She resides in Columbus, OH with her family and facilitates workshops in poetry, positive thinking, confidence-building, and using our voice as instruments for strength and social change. Learn more at www.cynthiaamoah.com [https://urldefense.com/v3/__http:/www.cynthiaamoah.com/__;!!J-4R7rTSYA!YU19mW96Lwt2eXSRricPtook-XQoJMIesMsD-EkFURpxyqE-DisMuNrUiFrVosXQxBM2kQTfk-R854vbO2yYsTY6iu5zioc$]. Tasha Lomo is a Ghanaian American poet, writer, and community advocate. She currently serves as the Program Manager for The Giovanni Collective; a collective dedicated to the advancement of Black women writers and poets, and has performed her work across the central Ohio community. She has received training through the Lincoln Artist Incubation Program, the Wexner Center for the Arts, and Writerz and Scribez based in London, England. She uses her work as a platform to explore themes of identity, culture, and self actualization.  Claudia Owusu is a Ghana girl through and through. As a writer and filmmaker, her work divulges the nuance of Black girlhood through a personal and collective lens. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Ninth Letter, Bellingham Review, Indianapolis Review, Vogue, Narrative Northwest, Akoroko, and Brittle Paper. Her films have screened internationally at Aesthetica, the New York African Film Festival, Urbanworld, and Blackstar Fest. She is the author of the chapbook, In These Bones I Am Shifting, by Akashic Books. Her documentary film in progress "This is the House: If I Don't See You, I Love You" is the winner of the 2025 Julia Reichart award. She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from The Ohio State University.

Four Women with Dr Jack Marchbanks and Gamal Brown

Dr Jack Marchbanks and Gamal Brown sit down with us to talk about the legacies of Four Women: Maya Angelou, Lorraine Hansberry, Abbey Lincoln, and Nina Simone. These icons of African American artistic achievement, activism, courage and vision will be highlighted at the Lincoln Theatre’s Community Conversation on March 6th at 6pm [https://my.cbusarts.com/8403?occurrence=2025-03-06&time=1741285800&queueittoken=e_cbusarts~q_59dee44d-cf96-4a86-b698-d2fc9887a2ed~ts_1740009468~ce_true~rt_safetynet~h_ae89b12a4a1ad58830fe0ef4e68aecb7f2c7b7416651f52274488d73a342f264]! Special thanks to fo/mo/deep [https://www.fomodeep.com/] for lending us their song, "Bourbon Neat" for the podcast! Find out about upcoming Bexley Public Library events at https://www.bexleylibrary.org [https://www.bexleylibrary.org/] Follow Bexley Public Library across platforms @bexleylibrary

Y2K Twenty Five Years Later with Directors Brian Becker and Marley McDonald

Happy New Year! Explore the Y2K scare with technology librarian, Josh, as he interviews Marley Mcdonald and Brian Becker, directors of the HBO documentary Time Bomb Y2K. We'll revisit the global panic, technological fears, and lessons learned from the turn of the millennium. More about Time Bomb Y2K As the clock counted down to the 21st century, the world faced a potential technological disaster: a bug that could cause computers to misinterpret the year 2000 as 1900. Crafted entirely from archival footage and featuring first-hand accounts from computer experts, survivalists, scholars, militia groups, conservative Christians, and pop icons, Time Bomb Y2K is a prescient and often humorous tale about the power and vulnerabilities of technology.

Hanif Abdurraqib on Basketball and Ascension

We are excited to invite Hanif Abdurraqib [https://www.abdurraqib.com/] back to the podcast to discuss writing, building community around art, and basketball! Hanif is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio whose new book "There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension" is both an Indie and New York Times bestseller.  Hanif will return to the library on June 6th [https://www.bexleylibrary.org/event/10186154], in conversation with poet and essayist Franny Choi, as a part of Bexley Centennial Author Series. We hope to see you there! Special thanks to fo/mo/deep for lending us their song, "Bourbon Neat" for the podcast! Find out about upcoming Bexley Public Library events at https://www.bexleylibrary.org [https://www.bexleylibrary.org/] Follow Bexley Public Library across platforms @bexleylibrary

The Space Episode!

The first part of this episode is an interview with Dr. Wayne Schlingman and Dr. Stephan Frank from the OSU Astronomy Department to talk about the eclipse: the science, the history, and general coolness of having a eclipse past through our backyard!  The second part is a discussion between BPL Director Ben Heckman and the first American woman to conduct a spacewalk, Astronaut Kathy Sullivan. She discusses her new children's book, How to Spacewalk: Step-by-Step with Shuttle Astronauts and being the "the world's most vertical woman!" Special thanks to fo/mo/deep for lending us their song, "Bourbon Neat" for the podcast! Find out about upcoming Bexley Public Library events at https://www.bexleylibrary.org [https://www.bexleylibrary.org/] Follow Bexley Public Library across platforms @bexleylibrary