Canada’s diverse and challenging storytelling flow. Stories told in a time of reckoning, rooted in cultural expression, social consciousness and Mother Earth connection. Featuring a new album from spoken word poet Brandon Wint, recent albums from poets M.L. Holton and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, a remarkable collaboration between poet Shane Koyczan, Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq and folk artist Kym Gouchie, another great Rise Ashen remix featuring Eivør Pálsdóttir, Native hip hop from Jb the First Lady, Wellspoke, Mob Bounce and the Mag 7 Standing Rock collective, orchestral electronics with deep roots, from Francois Couture, Ziibiwan, and Quantum Tangle.

A slow chorus. A slow driving mix of spoken word and hip hop and multi-voice harmony, music with many layers, complex melodies and harmonious fusions of electronica and folk origins. Musicians and poets from the United States, Spain, Colombia, Canada, and Guatemala. Big questions and big problems being addressed head-on. Stories being told from the heart, voices coming from deep in the chest. An energising way to start a new year!

A meditative, contemplative edition of the global dance poetic. Dedicated to guitarist Mayara Amaral who was murdered in Brazil last month. #NiUnaMenos – #NemUmaAMenos – #NotAWomanLess 

Pieces of the Puzzle takes its title from a poem by English spoken word artist Salena Godden – the poem that closes the show. From Australia to Costa Rica, to Colombia, to Argentina, to Italy, Portugal, Germany, America, Chile, England, France, Japan, Ghana, Mozambique … all these pieces are part of our big, beautiful jigsaw puzzle of thought, emotion, word, and music. 

The Apollo Saxophone Quartet’s collaboration with poet Lemn Sissay is one of the deepest word/music journeys you can take - expressive, cinematic, arresting. Robert Frost’s 1920s poem “Fire and Ice” observes the end of the world with the cool objectivity of someone who is part of, not just observing, the changes of seasons. There is a goal! So, let’s become the rain...

Paseo Mental - a walk through the mind, through the various voices in our heads, both our own and the voices of the honoured ghosts and ancestors who walk with us. Performance poetry from Segovia, Spain, from an installation by Andrés Sánchez, plus new tracks, collaborations and remixes out of South America, Mexico, USA, Algeria, and Europe.

The power of the drum, the storytelling of music. Honouring The Spaceape, oscillating with the dark and the light in between the drum beats and breaths, exploring Creole, the language of rhythm and time.

Entering my third year at Groovalizacion - happy birthday to La Danza Poetica! The 24th edition is intercontinental, transnational - a world of poetics, mainly new releases, ranging far and wide in the spirit of the dance. 

The dance of the soul - in this month's podcast we have some dream collaborations, new soul poetry and a sampling of Australia's global music festival WOMADelaide.

Start 2014 with some conscious dance! Mixing passionate, compassionate dance releases from 2013 together with the hearts and voices of indigenous resistance in South America, and some truly powerful spoken word. Music and story as uniting and empowering force - the word, the silence, the global dance poetic.

Recorded on the weekend of el Día de los Muertos, raising honoured ghosts and calling on their descendents to speak the border ... la poesía y la música de la frontera, Mejicano, Americano, Chicano, the word and the silence.

LDP 013, ‘Poetree Caan Nyam’, aims to go deeper into the dub poetry groove. I wanted to really get into a poetic dancewith this one. And if any poetry can be danced to, it’s this! We dive into the deep dub seas of Jamaica, and sail around the worldwide ocean of reggae dub poetry. From Africa to the Caribbean, via the States, France, Canada, and the UK, with those poets who speak of identity, history, love, struggle, politics, belief, and society.