Inam Inamullah – Author/Artist

Inam Inamullah - Poetic Resurrection PodcastThis month, our guest on the Poetic Resurrection Podcast is Inam Inamullah. We delve into his book “Whispers of the Flight,” a Sufistic novel that explores the journey of self-discovery through life’s peaks and valleys. In addition, we take a look at his personal experiences and how he rose to become an internationally recognized artist, with one of his commissioned pieces displayed at the Carnegie Hall Tower in New York City. It was a fascinating conversation with a guest who has much wisdom to share. Don’t miss it!

Whispers of Flight - Poetic Resurrection PodcastInam, originally from South Asia, is a world-renowned artist, poet, and playwright. His work has earned international acclaim for its depth, creativity, and spiritual insight. Despite the challenges he faced early in life, including the hardships brought on by polio, Inam found solace in his art. Through resilience and a profound sense of creativity, he transformed his struggles into a source of beauty and inspiration.

Inam’s artistic journey is not confined to the canvas alone; his passion for the written word is evident in his prolific contributions to poetry and playwriting. His works reflect a deep appreciation for the ancient wisdom imparted by Sufi sages, which has unveiled the mysteries of the universe to him.

A graduate of UCLA with an MBA, Inam also serves as a Life Coach, guiding others through their own journeys of transformation. His commitment to giving back to the community led him to found the Glitter of Hope Foundation, a local charity dedicated to supporting single mothers and orphans, primarily within the refugee community.

Inam’s latest work, “Whispers of The Flight,” offers readers a profound journey that promises to illuminate the path to inner transformation. Whether you’re a spiritual seeker, a lover of allegorical tales, or someone on a quest for deeper understanding, this work ensures a transformative experience that resonates deeply with the soul.

Listen to the podcast here

Amazon link: https://amzn.to/472w8tO – whispers of the flight

Find out more about his artwork: https://www.inamgallery.com/

Whispers of Flight site: www.whispersoftheflight.com

Inam’s life coaching site: www.elevatelife.guru

Luis J. Rodriguez – Poet/Activist

We are thrilled to welcome back Luis J. Rodriguez, poet/author/activist and former Los Angeles Poet Laureate from 2014 to 2016. We discuss the Always Running festival, which is named after his well-known book Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. Since our last interview, Luis has been traveling with his wife Trini for poetry readings and speaking engagements around the world. Currently, he is working on a script with Freddy Negrete based on the true story of the killing of David Dominguez, a gang member, by San Gabriel ex-cop Billy Joe McIlvain.

We also touch on a project that Luis was involved in with John Leguizamo, though unfortunately it was not completed. One of the most heartbreaking topics we discuss is the growing homeless population in Los Angeles and how expensive housing is causing many people to leave the city or move to Mexico. Take a listen to this insightful conversation with an accomplished author and activist.

In addition to being a novelist, memoirist, short story writer, children’s book writer, and essayist, Luis is also a poet. He is also known as a mentor, healer, youth and arts advocate, community and urban peace activist, husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather.

And if you find yourself in the Los Angeles area, be sure to visit Tia Chucha Bookstore and Cultural Center.

Luis J. Rodriguez – Biography

He has 16 books in all genres (poetry, children’s books, fiction, and nonfiction), including the best-selling memoir, “Always Running, La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A.” His latest memoir is the sequel, “It Calls You Back: An Odyssey Through Love, Addiction, Revolutions, and Healing.” His last poetry book is 2016’s “Borrowed Bones” from Curbstone Books/Northwestern University Press. In 2020, Seven Stories Press released his first book of essays, “From Our Land to Our Land: Essays, Journeys & Imaginings from a Native Xicanx Writer.”

Among his many awards and fellowships, in 2022 Luis was given a California Arts Council Legacy Fellowship and a Los Angeles Times’ Robert Kirsch Lifetime Achievement Award.

Luis is founding editor of Tia Chucha Press, now for over 30 years, and more than 20 years ago he co-founded with his wife Trini Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore in the San Fernando Valley. He has traveled across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America, South America, Europe, and Japan to speak, do poetry readings, indigenous ceremonies, or reportage over the past 40 years. This includes prisons, jails, and juvenile lockups in around 20 U.S. states, as well as Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Argentina, Italy, and England. Dedicated to his indigenous roots and Native American spirituality, Luis has a Mexika name: Mixcoatl Itztlacuiloh. With his wife Trini (Tlazohteotl) he has a podcast called “The Hummingbird Cricket Hour”–http://hchpodcast.libsyn.com/

Luis is dedicated to a clean, balanced, abundant, cooperative, healing world. No more capitalist private property relations, exploitation, war, or inequities. “In essential things, unity; in nonessential things, liberty. In all things compassion.”

Listen to episode

Always Running – La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. by Luis J. Rodriguez

The Concrete River: Poems by Luis J Rodriguez

Tia Chucha Bookstore & Cultural Center

Freddy Negrete: Smile Now, Cry Later

Good Cop or Bad Cop? The Story of Billy Joe McIlvain and the Murder of David Dominguez

 

Ruben Rodriguez -Book Editor

Ruben Rodriguez - Book editorRuben Rodriguez, our guest for this month’s episode of the Poetic Resurrection Podcast, is a highly accomplished editor and English teacher. He shares with us the intriguing story of how he first ventured into the world of editing and teaching. From a young age, Ruben had a deep appreciation for literature and storytelling, which led him to pursue a degree in English. Throughout his academic journey, he discovered his talent for editing and his ability to bring out the best in written works. His passion for working with writers and helping them refine their stories is evident in every project he takes on. Ruben’s experiences have taught him the importance of not only understanding the technical aspects of editing but also fostering a nurturing and collaborative relationship with writers. In this episode, he shares valuable insights on the creative process, the challenges faced by writers, and the fulfillment he finds in helping them realize their literary visions.

Ruben J. Rodriguez received his degree of Bachelor of Arts with a major in English from UCLA, magna cum laude, was an editor of Westwind magazine, has read his works at UCLA’s Powell Library, co-edited the L.A.-based poetry anthology Coiled Serpent, and currently works as a freelance editor, including with Tia Chucha Press, and as an English teacher through IANT Education with a focus on creative writing. He recently started a YouTube channel focused on book reviews and discussion of literature, To Readers It May Concern.

Listen to his episode here.

Ruben’s YouTube Channel

 

Life with Bex Rose – Poet

Bex Rose, Poet and Mental Health ProfessionalIt is our pleasure to have Bex Rose, Poet and Mental Health Professional, as a guest on the Poetic Resurrection Podcast in November 2023. She shared her poem called A Subconscious Mind, which talks about depression from her book Mental Health Via Poetry. We had a fascinating conversation about the poem and her personal story of growing up in Brooklyn, New York writing poetry with Tourette’s, then transitioning to become a mental health clinician. Tune into this touching and entertaining interview to learn more about Bex’s inspiring journey.

A Subconscious Mind

What are these thoughts
The if, and, why,
What is this feeling I get
As if I’m ripping apart from inside
Why has my internal drive
Become so weak
Why am I too depressed to even open my eyes
To even sit up and think
Can’t even make it to my own kitchen sink
Not even thirsty for a drink
It’s lawless
The pressure to be human
Eat, think, sleep like a person, it’s arduous
It is not involving the effects of any one single event
I wish my time could be better spent
Society’s pages depend on a therapy book
So quick to not even take a real look
So quick to hand us the bottle than to ask us how to spell out the name
I’m not so easy to belittle with labels
Each diagnosis on paper
Can become quite easily a fable
Remedied with quick-think drugs bought from any store and self-help label
Not knowing there’s also drugs on the corners underneath the table
Waiting
For us to crave more
Why do we have to think and be challenged to want to search for more
When we’re left un-adored
In majority, for the very same reason you referred us to get help in the first place
I am not a charity case
I will not just fall in line
I will make use of this time
As I tiptoe between the tattered line
Between each tear-stained work of mine
I speak
For others whose medication has rendered them mute and subconscious
How dare you try to band-aid depression as if it’s a rouse
I think rather that it’s abuse
To be this overlooked
Well I stand here let-loose
I will tell you with my rhymes
The enforced societal standard behind each bind
Left on the “mentally unequipped”
Considered Drones of the unkind
These vastly purged minds
It’s exhausting
Left unchecked it could be an easy departing
Why should I let that be the case too
I am as much a human being as are you
If I had a presumed fully capable mind and funds I guess I would sue
But you’d stay there thoughtless
Wondering how this mess started to involve you
Feeling targeted you alone
Truth oftentimes is that
You don’t even bother unless it happens to one of your own

Bex Rose is a born and raised Brooklynite and native New Yorker who is both openly gay and active in the social work community. As a Licensed Mental Health Professional (LMHC), Bex is a Program Director for a NYC based non-for-profit. She has a background in family focused evidence-based practices as well as upper leadership administrative management. Additionally, her work extends beyond community-based services and extends into her private practice – Candor’s Call for leadership development, coaching and consultation.

Despite a dysfunctional childhood and diagnosis of OCD and Tourette’s she has been able to cultivate success in her field and through many social media platforms. Her most recent book “Mental Health via Poetry” speaks to the duality of a role as a clinician and experience living with Tourette’s. Bex hopes to utilize social media platforms to continue promoting healthy conversations, collaborations and content around mental health, creativity and positive representation.

Listen to her episode here

Get her book: Mental Health via Poetry

https://linktr.ee/Bexrose

https://www.candorscall.com/

Life with Cindi Buckley – Author

Cindi BuckleyMay’s special guest is Cindi Buckley, the author of Love Awakens You. We had an enjoyable time talking together, where she told me about her experience going from working in a corporate job to writing her book We had a great time talking and sharing stories, and I was also able to take a look at her collection of crystals (which wasn’t caught on camera). She talked to me about how cancer impacts both the body and the mind.

After 15 years in the corporate world in logistics and software consulting, Cindi changed her life’s direction in her early 40’s. For the last 20 years, she has helped hundreds of people through meaningful life transitions, such as the death of a loved one, opening to spirit and finding the courage to make a change for the better. She published her first book Cosmic Unity and became a student of A Course in Miracles.

Listen to Podcast

Cindi Buckleys book: Love Awakens You is available on Amazon.

http://cindibuckley.com

Connect with her on Linkedin and Facebook

Cindi refers to this book in the study of a course in miracles.

The Disappearance of the Universe on Amazon

CANVASREBEL Stories & Insights – Meet Sonia Iris Lozada

Sonia Iris Lozada CanvaRebel articleCANVASREBEL Stories & Insights article entitled Meet Sonia Iris Lozada. We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sonia Iris Lozada a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

“I decided to follow my heart, even though it seemed like a strange decision since I have bills to pay and food to put on the table. I went through a stretch of time during which I lost sight of the joy found in acting and writing. At that point, I viewed my career with a seriousness born out of the need to make money. Yet, I haven’t made my living from this yet. What I discovered, however, is that I don’t have to stop being an actor, writer or poet; these things are true passions for me, and when I stopped trying so hard to make money from them, suddenly the joy reappeared and I started booking projects again. There are miracles everywhere if we just look for them.”

Quote: “Sometimes I feel like a cocoon of chains wrapped around my soul. The cocoon of perceptions and beliefs.”

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VoyageLA Conversations: Sonia I Lozada

Sonia Iris Lozada

Sonia Iris Lozada is featured on a VoyageLA Conversations article. She is a podcaster, poet and performer fascinated with perceptions of time, history, dreams, psychology, and the metaphysical. Most of all, she’s fascinated by interesting people, the guests on the podcast, Poetic Resurrection, Chica and the Man and Overheard at Chica’s Café, compliment the warmth, conversation, and genuine concern for what they have to say. As an actor for both stage and screen, she’s appeared in films such as Out of the Wild and TV shows like Bosch Legacy and many others, this plays a role in my ability to entice guests to share what they know and feel with listeners.

Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
I don’t know about good or bad luck. I believe in the adage that when you are ready, the teacher will appear. So many times, I had wondered, what am I doing wrong because I was working so hard and nothing was materializing from my efforts? Then I picked up meditating and practicing gratitude for what I had, and situations started flowing. Grieving Dreams was a podcast episode I recorded on the Poetic Resurrection podcast, regarding giving up on your dreams and passions because they weren’t working out.

What I realized was my perceptions of what I expected. I wanted to make a living out of being an actor, but the truth was I wasn’t going to and that was heartbreaking. I just changed my perception to when auditions and roles come along, I will do them. Letting go of this has been a godsend because now I’m working more acting gigs. Just changing my perception made a world of difference.”

Article appeared on November 18, 2022

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