Giving Thanks in RVA

Rich Meagher:

Thanksgiving was never exactly my favorite holiday. Turkey’s fine. I’m more of a stuffing guy. But enjoying a big elaborate meal always seems to me to be less important than having to do big, elaborate cleanups. Still, and especially as I’ve gotten older, I do appreciate the idea of a break with friends and family to give thanks. I especially like the tradition of going around the table and saying what you’re thankful for. I get it. It’s corny, the kids roll their eyes, but sometimes it’s nice to appreciate and acknowledge the good things in your life. To give thanks to the universe. This is RVA’s Got Issues. I’m your host, Rich Meagher. On today’s episode, we’re going around Richmond’s table, so to speak, to share some of the things we’re thankful for. We’ve got three stories today, all highlighting the members of our community making RVA just a little bit brighter, a little bit happier, a little bit stronger. First up, Julia Warren Mattingly has helped thousands of kids celebrate their birthdays. She just announced she’s leaving the nonprofit she founded 13 years ago. Last year, we got a chance to talk to her about how solving such a seemingly small problem has such a big impact.

We’re here with Julia Warren Mattingly of Celebrate RVA. Hi, Julia.

Julia Warren Mattingly:

Hello. Thanks for having me.

Rich Meagher:

The main thing you do right now is you give kids birthday bags. How does that work?

Julia Warren Mattingly:

So the birthday bag is one of our biggest programs. Um, we have lots of other ones where we work with hospitals and shelters, but the birthday bags, um, are available to any Title one school in Richmond, Hanover, Chesterfield, Henrico.

Rich Meagher:

And Title one school means that a lot of the kids there are getting free lunches, right?

Julia Warren Mattingly:

Free and reduced lunch. Yes.

Rich Meagher:

Meaning that sort of income measure. Right?

Julia Warren Mattingly:

Exactly.

Rich Meagher:

So these are low income kids.

Julia Warren Mattingly:

Yes. So we use that as kind of our barometer of what school needs us most. Any teacher, um, in those school districts can go to our form and request their full roster of kids. Um, or just we have school counselors who will request one or two children on their caseload. And once a month, at the beginning of the month, we deliver all the birthday bags, um, to those schools. And, uh, inside are plates, napkins, birthday banners, candles, balloons, party hats, party horns, a handmade birthday card, everything a child needs to celebrate their birthday.

Rich Meagher:

Right. And the idea is they bring it home and, and they and their family can have a birthday party that they probably couldn’t afford otherwise.

Julia Warren Mattingly:

Absolutely. And, um, when a parent has to decide between shelter or birthday party, what’s the first thing to go <laugh>? Right. And so it’s really giving the resources to the parent. Parents want to do this for their children. They want to be empowered. And so if we can show up with the resources to create joy and memories in their home, we’re happy to do it.

Rich Meagher:

Yeah. So I wanna talk about that, like why this is important, right? With all the problems that low income kids face in, in the world, why do kids need birthday celebrations? Right. Why did you hit on that, and why, why do you think that’s so important for these kids?

Julia Warren Mattingly:

So many times I think the narrative of, oh, if we can meet the basic necessities for children of, um, shelter, food, clothing, healthcare. But kids need joy. Joy is just a critical part of development and the psychological health of a child. Um, and the unique thing about a birthday is that there are tons of programs around Christmas and Thanksgiving and summer food and things like that, but they’re for the entire community.

Rich Meagher:

Right.

Julia Warren Mattingly:

And what’s really cool about a birthday is it’s just about the child. It doesn’t matter your immigration status, your gender, your identity, anything, you are, you, you deserve a birthday, and we’re gonna celebrate that.

Rich Meagher:

Is there a moment when all this kind of hit home for you? Like where you’re like, oh, that’s the kind of impact that I’m having, like a, a conversation with a student or a parent or a teacher?

Julia Warren Mattingly:

Yeah. It was actually early on, um, when I was deciding where to go for college. We were throwing an in-person birthday party, which we had pre-COVID. And this man walked in and he said, I have to pick up this child. It was early from the birthday party. And I said, oh, you know, we, we haven’t gotten to cake yet. Could we wait just a few minutes? And he goes, no, we really gotta go. I gotta find a place for him to sleep tonight. Two weeks ago, he watched his mom be shot and killed in their family home. And since then, he’s just kind of been bouncing around between family members and we just need to find a place. And he was this kid’s social worker. And, um, it stopped me in my tracks because for an hour and a half, this kid got to just be a kid. The biggest decision that he had to make was what, uh, balloon animal he wanted. And it just reminded me that kids are kids and we need to preserve their childhood as much as possible. And, um, if I can bring an ounce of joy to a child’s life, my volunteers and my team were gonna do that.

Rich Meagher:

So you started hosting parties.

Julia Warren Mattingly:

mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Rich Meagher:

Um, eventually Celebrate grew. You, you, you got the space donated, you developed that you’re all set and ready to like get bigger and it’s early 2020.

Julia Warren Mattingly:

Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Rich Meagher:

Right? So the pandemic hits.

Julia Warren Mattingly:

Yes.

Rich Meagher:

How does that affect what you were doing?

Julia Warren Mattingly:

So birthday parties weren’t conducive to social distancing.

Rich Meagher:

Yeah.

Julia Warren Mattingly:

Blowing on candles on other people’s cake was not suggested.

Rich Meagher:

Yeah.

Julia Warren Mattingly:

And so we, um, were supposed to open our community center on March 17th, 2020. And instead on March 17th, we opened up our birthday bag delivery. We were down in Petersburg, we were up in Hanover, we were out in Chesterfield, Henrico delivering birthday bags to homes. And then our biggest pivot of all with COVID, um, we had this 4,500 square feet community center in the basement of a Section eight housing facility. And both that building and the building next door, a lot of the kids, their parents were essential workers and they had to go to work. And it was when Richmond, um, decided to go fully virtual…

Rich Meagher:

mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Julia Warren Mattingly:

for the school year. And so I said, we have the space. We need to do something with it. So we are gonna open up a facilitated learning center.

Rich Meagher:

Hmm.

Julia Warren Mattingly:

So every day for the entire school year, we had the kids come down from their homes into our facilitated learning center, um, in what we fondly called birthday school.

Rich Meagher:

<laugh>.

Julia Warren Mattingly:

And we oversaw all of their extracurriculars. We brought in reading specialists, we brought in math tutors, we served them lunch, we did homework help with them, um, all throughout the day.

Rich Meagher:

Yeah.

Julia Warren Mattingly:

My team was amazing. And, um, we further learned just how important joy was to children.

Rich Meagher:

And so how many kids do you think you’ve affected over the, over the years?

Julia Warren Mattingly:

Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Rich Meagher:

Are you numbering this?

Julia Warren Mattingly:

Yeah. So each school year now, we’re celebrating over 5,000 children.

Rich Meagher:

Wow.

Julia Warren Mattingly:

Um, so we we’re up over 20,000, uh, birthdays that we’ve celebrated.

Rich Meagher:

And so what can listeners do to help?

Julia Warren Mattingly:

So we have weekly volunteer opportunities where they can come in and actually pack the birthday bags. Um, if you’re looking for something to do at home, each one of our children that we celebrate receives a handmade birthday card.

Rich Meagher:

Mmm.

Julia Warren Mattingly:

We often hear from teachers that their kids are keeping their birthday cards in their desk all year long.

Rich Meagher:

Oh, wow.

Julia Warren Mattingly:

So we really tell people, like, take the time to write something really impactful and meaningful in that card because, um, more likely than not, a child’s gonna be reading it over and over again.

Rich Meagher:

Julia Warren Mattingly is founder and executive director of Celebrate RVA. Thanks Julia.

Julia Warren Mattingly:

Thank you.

Rich Meagher:

This is RVA’s Got Issues. I’m Rich Meagher. We’re going around the Thanksgiving table and giving thanks for community members who make RVA shine a little brighter. Next up, I sit down with a guy who doesn’t sit down very often. In fact, he wants everyone to get up off the couch and be healthy. Anthony Clary is a Richmond based social worker who founded a group called We Off The Couch, and he ran over here to the studio to tell us about it.

Anthony Clary:

<laugh>.

Rich Meagher:

Welcome, Anthony.

Anthony Clary:

Thank you for having me.

Rich Meagher:

Now, so Anthony, I kind of hate running

Anthony Clary:

<laugh>.

Rich Meagher:

Uh, what’s your pitch? Like, what do you like about running?

Anthony Clary:

Well, you know, I hated running too.

Rich Meagher:

Yeah?

Anthony Clary:

Um, I played college football, so I always thought, you know, running in in sprints were a form of punishment if we didn’t win the game.

Rich Meagher:

Yeah.

Anthony Clary:

But, um, back in 2015, the doctor told me I was pre-diabetic.

Rich Meagher:

Oh.

Anthony Clary:

And said, I need to get moving. So I lost a hundred pounds. I discovered outside, I’m a native of Richmond…

Rich Meagher:

Yeah.

Anthony Clary:

from Blackwell. I still live in Blackwell. But as much as I would cross the bridge to go to work every day, I never knew there was a such thing as the Buttermilk Trail or the North Bank Trail. And when I discovered there was an outside for me to be a part of, I started telling everybody.

Rich Meagher:

Yeah. You know, spreading the word?

Anthony Clary:

Yeah. And we, and we make it fun. You know, we don’t leave anybody behind. So it doesn’t matter if you walk <laugh>.

Rich Meagher:

<laugh>.

Anthony Clary:

You can come out.

Rich Meagher:

Okay, good.

Anthony Clary:

You gonna have fun.

Rich Meagher:

So. Well, that’s the thing. You say we, right? Why, why don’t just run on your own? Why start a running group?

Anthony Clary:

I love people. I think, um, well, when I was 17, uh, one of my brothers was robbed and shot. He was killed in Hillside Court. He died, he was murdered, he got shot four times and he was robbed for the amount of, uh, $40. And, uh, there were a group of people that my cousins reached out to at that time who I had no idea of, but they were some cool dudes. They, you know, they did, uh, youth development programming and different things like that. And to answer your question, those guys, they kept showing up. They kept showing up, and I couldn’t get away from ’em, you know? Um, and before you know, it, I, I wanted nothing more, but to be with them and around them because they started giving me something that I hadn’t seen before growing up in my environment. And it was just to see me smile. It was just to see me be happy. So it changed my worldview.

Rich Meagher:

Yeah.

Anthony Clary:

So that’s, that’s why I love people. That’s why I’m a social worker now.

Rich Meagher:

And so then what is We Off The Couch?

Anthony Clary:

We Off The Couch is a community of runners who love running and we absolutely love one another. Right? It shows up in a way that we don’t leave each other behind. It shows up in a way that we are always cheering for one another and we just make it accessible for everybody. We remove the barriers to access and the barriers to access could be expensive race entry. For folks from disenfranchised communities, you don’t have money to pay for…

Rich Meagher:

Yeah.

Anthony Clary:

you know, a hundred plus dollar race. You don’t have money to afford the right running gear. Um, the right running shoes. So anybody that shows up to our community, they click the Google doc, the committee, the board and ourself, we’ll look at it, see who it is, and we’ll make sure they have what they need.

Rich Meagher:

So what are the mechanics? Like let’s say I show up to a practice. What’s it like? Is it just we all run and then go home? Like…

Anthony Clary:

Yeah. We, we literally, we greet one another. We get in a circle, we, we do our announcement, you know who we are. We say, Hey, who’s first time run fam. We explain what the route is and then we’ll warm up and then we move. We run three times a week. Right. Mondays is what we call She Off The Couch. It’s led by the ladies of We Off The Couch. It’s a beginner friendly three miler. You can run, trot or walk.

Rich Meagher:

Mm.

Anthony Clary:

Nobody’s ever left behind, and it’s always back to last. Right. And then Wednesdays we do something called Wednesday Night Extras. So that’s a two and five mile on Wednesday nights. And then Saturday mornings it’s, it’s so cool. It’s nine o’clock, 9:00 AM, and we have a two and a five miler. And we meet at various locations throughout the city. ‘Cause I think back to, I’m from here, from the city, I’m all around the city doing social work, and I have never seen these trails. I’ve never seen these streets. So it gives you a greater love for the community that you’re part of.

Rich Meagher:

So you seem pretty intentional about addressing inequities and running health. Shoes cost money, races cost money. So you did just receive this $60,000 grant…

Anthony Clary:

Yes.

Rich Meagher:

from the Richmond Health Equity Fund.

Anthony Clary:

Yes.

Rich Meagher:

This is a time too, where funding’s been pretty tight for local nonprofits.

Anthony Clary:

Yes. It, it definitely has been.

Rich Meagher:

What are you using that money for?

Anthony Clary:

It’s allowing us to expand our program for, um, people who are largely impacted and, and don’t even know that distance running is a thing. So we’re already partnered with Richmond Public Schools. Right? But we’re going directly into the schools and we’re providing, uh, mentorship programming. And that mentorship programming isn’t going to just be, uh, where we’re running with the kids after school. Right. We’re doing that, but we’re also going directly to the community where we’re partner with the housing authority and we’re going right in there. We’re holding programming there. Um, and then we’re actually going to knock on the door of that kid’s home, meet that parent, meet those parents. How can we help you? This is what we’re doing. Wanna come out? The health grant is gonna allow us to be consistent in ways, um, historically that we haven’t been able to be because of, uh, monetary issues, but, um, historically in ways that a lot of groups aren’t able to show up.

So we’re gonna continue to be consistent because it’s what somebody did for me and it changed my life. Right. So that’s gonna help us to be able to do that. We’re gonna be able to get the shoes, pay for the race entries. We’re also going to be able to certify 12 of our run leaders to become certified run coaches.

Rich Meagher:

Oh, wow.

Anthony Clary:

Which is a huge deal. We want to empower people to be the, their best selves. And the best way to do that is to actually show up, not just in the school, but in the community with folks, and really do life with people. I’m gonna sit on the front porch with you. We just hanging out today. So it’s, it’s not just removing the barriers of access to material things, it’s removing the barriers of access to your mental health, to, um, knowing that you’re okay. Knowing that it’s okay just to show up the way you are. Like, so that that’s how you change a generation of people.

Rich Meagher:

Speaking of change there is another event…

Anthony Clary:

Yep.

Rich Meagher:

that, uh, your groups involved with. This Run Richmond 1619.

Anthony Clary:

Yes.

Rich Meagher:

So, so what is that?

Anthony Clary:

Yeah. So Run Richmond 1619 is a beautiful, uh, I wouldn’t just call it a race. It’s a beautiful ceremony. You can be empowered as a, a black person, a person of color. You can be, um, empowered as a white person. You can be empowered in that space and knowing how to show up, um, for your fellow person. And we go right down the slave trail, up through, uh, historic Richmond, all of the places that have been deemed redline communities, um, of no value where all of Gentrification’s popping up at now.

Rich Meagher:

Yeah.

Anthony Clary:

We run directly through there. Right. And the hopes is that so that we could connect folks back to our roots and our heritage and who we are, but also it’s centered around unity and diversity.

Rich Meagher:

It’s a 10 mile run. Right. That’s 16.19 kilometers.

Anthony Clary:

Correct.

Rich Meagher:

Right. The 1619, the year the first enslaved African Africans came to America.

Anthony Clary:

Correct. Correct.

Rich Meagher:

Yeah. So what, what can our listeners do to help and, and if, how can they join in if they want to?

Anthony Clary:

Google Run Richmond 1619, go to the website, sign up, um, sign up to volunteer. I think a effort like this should be supported. And I think running is like a great equalizer and we’re getting to see each other outside of the, uh, the barriers that have been put in place for us. There’s so much more, um, that’s to be gained when you recognize that underneath all of these things, I have the same organs that this person has. I’m not gonna ask this person, uh, what’s their political affiliation or what’s any of that?

Rich Meagher:

We all got the same blisters on our toes. Right?

Anthony Clary:

Right. God forbid if I’m on my deathbed, I’m not gonna ask you that. I’m gonna just say, I heard we were the same blood type. [unintelligible]. Because I don’t want, I don’t wanna get up outta here. So like that, I think people can get involved that way. They can come out, um, they can support, they can be present and everybody’s welcome.

Rich Meagher:

And so to join up with We Off the couch, how do they do that?

Anthony Clary:

Uh, WeOffTheCouch.org. You just hit Join the Crew and you come on out. You can look us up on all socials. Everything is We Off The Couch and we, we want everybody present. We want people out there. We want people moving, uh, and being, not just being a physically healthier them, but uh, a total healthier person.

Rich Meagher:

Anthony Clary is the founder of We Off the Couch. Thanks Anthony.

Anthony Clary:

Thank you.

Rich Meagher:

We’ll give thanks for more community members when we come back on RVA’s Got Issues.

For our final story highlighting RVAs community members, I talked to a former poet Laureate who started a poetry grant program along with one of the recipients of that grant, a young poet who also happens to be my daughter. Joining me remotely is Founder Louisa A. Igloria, former Virginia Poet Laureate. And sitting with me in the studio is participant High Schooler Tris Meagher, who if you couldn’t tell by the last name, is also my daughter. Luisa, Tris, welcome.

Luisa A. Igloria:

Thank you.

Tris Meagher:

Thank you for having me.

Rich Meagher:

Sure. Tris, why don’t we start with you. Why don’t you tell us, how did you hear about Young Poets in the community?

Tris Meagher:

Well, I go to an art school, Appomattox Regional Governor’s School, and my poetry teacher, Ms. Gail Giewont, has um, been promoting this program for a couple years now to all of her students. I sent in an application and put a put forth a couple of my poems and what I wanted to do if I was the winner of this grant and it worked out.

Rich Meagher:

Yeah. And so why, like, why did you think this was a good program to apply for?

Tris Meagher:

I think having the platform of the young poets in the community behind me would help me spread my voice and use my poetry in an activist way.

Rich Meagher:

Okay. And we’ll ask more about what your poetry’s about in a minute. Uh, but Luisa, you started this program a few years ago. What kind of need did you see needing addressing?

Luisa A. Igloria:

Right. So this program is part of three cornerstone programs that I created during my term as Virginia’s poet laureate. And those are from 2020 to 2022. I wrote up a proposal that included, um, a young poets in the community program because for one thing, one cannot be everywhere all at once.

Rich Meagher:

Right.

Luisa A. Igloria:

And the more poets there are in the world, I believe the better the world will be.

Tris Meagher:

Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Luisa A. Igloria:

So I approached the Poetry Society of Virginia to see if they could help me make this part of my project a, uh, reality. And they were all excited and they were very happy to provide support. So we formed a little committee and I explained what I wanted to do, reach out to as many schools. And in fact, uh, I went both from the elementary to the middle school to the high school and college level. We got a really enthusiastic response. And out of that first cohort, I think there were 23 young poets in the community. And I was just bowled over by the kinds of projects that they were proposing. Ideas for how to bring poetry more into the public eye as a vibrant and living thing.

Rich Meagher:

So, uh, Tris you applied for this program and, uh, what was the project that you chose to do?

Tris Meagher:

I said my father has a podcast

Rich Meagher:

<laugh>

Tris Meagher:

About RVA and I thought that maybe it would be a good idea to use your platform, especially in the Richmond area, to elevate the voices of the poets around me.

Luisa A. Igloria:

Love that.

Rich Meagher:

That’s great.

Luisa A. Igloria:

Congratulations.

Tris Meagher:

Thank you.

Luisa A. Igloria:

And I love that you are using community resources.

Tris Meagher:

<laugh>.

Rich Meagher:

That’s right. So now Tris, I think you brought a poem to share with us. Is that right?

Tris Meagher:

I did.

Rich Meagher:

So why don’t you tell us what that is and, and read it for us.

Tris Meagher:

Okay. The poem is called I Fight for Love Unsullied. It’s a golden shovel, which is a type of form poem in which you use a quote from a famous author or musician or anyone, and use that quote as the last word of each line. And I picked a quote from Jack Kerouac. And soon I will be many, twisting shadows into something more than absence, streaming one step beyond fantastical and pure than iodine. Golden the way we’ll march the days sour blood, peeling from the heels of our rotted feet and leaving a trail for our young to follow. I learned to wash my souls in the rivers we pass. Now I hold my grime like a full, too virgin to know the will to live is more privileged than right, eyes open from birth as care from a mother is no more usual to find than diamonds.

When she stands on spindled hooves, I will learn to write as I sing. Open like the last rattled exhale of a dying woman. I will be sharp enough to shatter the strongest of bone. Right between song and sob, I will turn my face to the heavens and it will be quiet among the words spilled from a thousand tired tongues among a chorus of anger, rejoicing in a new home. And soon they will scream with me, indistinguishable from sorrow intertwined with rage, and they will track filth into every clean foyer and smear mud in the grooves of hardwood. There will be no beauty in anything clean. Together the thousands of me will love and fight until to be is to be real, until I collapse on muddied grass and know the answers were always simple.

Luisa A. Igloria:

That’s beautiful.

Tris Meagher:

Thank you.

Luisa A. Igloria:

Thank you for sharing that. Yeah.

Tris Meagher:

Thank you so much.

Rich Meagher:

Yes, thank you. Uh, I I I like it. I’m not a sophisticated, uh, poetry, uh, listener, but I know I like it.

Tris Meagher:

<laugh>.

Rich Meagher:

Um, what, what were you trying to express when you were writing that Tris?

Tris Meagher:

That poem was written for the Gaithersburg, Maryland book contest under the prompt civic duty.

Rich Meagher:

Mm.

Tris Meagher:

I wrote it because I feel like sometimes, uh, people in marginalized communities, specifically queer people, are sometimes forced to fit into a very specific type of person, a very specific type of gay or of trans person so they can be accepted by their greater community. And it is this like expectation of purity, of cleanliness that I think is unfair. And writing I Fight for Love Unsullied was about trying to break that boundary.

Rich Meagher:

Yeah. Luisa, what did you think?

Luisa A. Igloria:

I think it’s amazing that, uh, you, Tris, and other young people like you are thinking of such real, um, issues in our lived reality in our lived world. Because I know some people may think of poetry as just fluff, you know?

Tris Meagher:

Mm.

Luisa A. Igloria:

As like icing on the cake, or like, oh, do you all just write about butterflies and flowers?

Rich Meagher:

<laugh>, right.

Luisa A. Igloria:

Not really. I think the best kind of poetry is the ones that address the very realities that we are living in. They tell our stories, and it’s really a long conversation that we have been having with poets over the centuries. I, I think that’s a beautiful thing because I like to tell my students sometimes, you know, we’re all about technology, but I like to think that poetry is also a very powerful form of technology. I mean, how do we have the poems and stories that are from antiquity in our lives today because they went viral.

Tris Meagher:

<laugh>

Rich Meagher:

<laugh>

Luisa A. Igloria:

In their own way, right. Without strings, without, you know, these kinds of equipment. But word of mouth, uh, oral traditions, they all feed into that idea of, uh, a hunger for hearing the stories that reflect us back to ourselves. So you go.

Tris Meagher:

<laugh>

Rich Meagher:

<laugh>, Alicia, that’s, that’s a beautiful description of poetry. Uh, but it’s not exactly a, a great time for poetry in the arts. I mean, maybe it never is. It’s in part a, a reflection of decision makers and…

Luisa A. Igloria:

Yeah.

Rich Meagher:

institutions, education everywhere, not really valuing the arts. Uh, I I wonder if you could make a case for the place of poetry today.

Luisa A. Igloria:

Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Rich Meagher:

Right. Why do we need it?

Luisa A. Igloria:

I think we need poetry so much today because poetry is really at its core, all about cultivating the ability to really pay attention to the world. Where you care deeply about what you look at, how you respond to the things you look at, how to you, how you respond to others. Really to recognize that we are a web of interconnected beings. And I’m talking not just about humans, but also non-human existences in the world. And what I like about poetry is that it gets to those deepest parts of you that are so human at their core in such a quick way before you even think about it. You’re feeling it. The best poetry, I think is something that makes you feel like your socks have gotten knocked off. Uh, you feel completely immersed in the experience of language and the poem bring you. And to be like that, I think to live like that, in such presence, is so amazing.

Rich Meagher:

That’s great. Now Tris, not just because of course I have a vested interest in your future. Uh, and, and wondering why poetry, like why spend so much time on, on poetry here? What does it do for you?

Tris Meagher:

For me specifically, poetry is like a tunnel. From your subconscious to the paper, you have all of these emotions like sadness or fury or joy, that sometimes it’s not socially acceptable to express. Mm-hmm. Just like you don’t walk around and go, I mad all the time.

Rich Meagher:

<laugh>. Right.

Tris Meagher:

You have to find a different medium for that. And I think using poetry, using the lens of metaphor especially, is a beautiful way to express your emotion and your feelings on the world.

Luisa A. Igloria:

Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Tris Meagher:

In a way that’s more digestible.

Luisa A. Igloria:

Right. So beautifully put.

Tris Meagher:

Thank you.

Rich Meagher:

Yeah. And so now that you have applied for this and, and participated in this Young Poets program, you’re now here on the podcast talking to RVA. What have you learned from this process, Tris?

Tris Meagher:

I’ve learned a lot. I was very lucky in that I go to an art school and I have such incredible teachers and such an incredible platform. But there are so many places that you can visit and so many communities that you can become a part of if you really look for them. If you want to be a poet, there are open mics literally every weekend. You can always find a place to share your message and hear others.

Rich Meagher:

Luisa A. Igloria teaches in the MFA creative writing program at Old Dominion University and was the 20th poet Laureate of Virginia. Tris Meagher is a high school junior and occasionally my daughter.

Luisa A. Igloria:

<laugh>.

Rich Meagher:

Louisa, thanks for being here.

Luisa A. Igloria:

Thank you so much. And congratulations again, Tris, and more power to you and your poetry.

Tris Meagher:

Thank you so much.

Rich Meagher:

Yeah, Tris. Thanks for being here. Proud of you, kid.

Tris Meagher:

<laugh>.

Rich Meagher:

For more information about the young poets in the community program, visit PoetrySocietyOfVirginia.org. That’s our show. Thanks to our guests, Julia Warren Mattingly, Anthony Clary, Luisa A. Igloria, and Tris Meagher. Tell us about your issues by visiting our website, RVAsGotissues.vpm.org, or send us an email at [email protected]. Be sure to leave a review on your favorite podcasting platform. RVA’s Got Issues is produced by Max Wasserman and Rachel Dwyer. Script editing on this episode by Rachel Dwyer and Nicki Stein. Audio mix by Steve Lack. Our theme music was composed by Alexander Hitchens. Shawn Freude is our executive producer. Steve Humble is VPM’s Chief Content Officer. I’m your host, Rich Meagher. And I say this at the end of every episode, but this week I especially mean it. Thanks for listening.