208. Zedeka Poindexter and Gina Tranisi on the Power of Poetry

Zedeka Poindexter and Gina Tranisi are co-executive directors of
the Nebraska Writers Collective. NWC is responsible for the
annual All Writes Reserved Youth Spoken Word Festival, formerly
known as Louder Than a Bomb, which reaches more than 30 schools
and 500 students across Nebraska and Iowa with free spoken word
poetry lessons, workshops with local writers, open mics, and a
space to be heard.


NWC will also host National Youth Poet Laureate Stephanie Pacheco
for a performance on Oct. 12 at Dry Spokes, located at 19th and
Leavenworth.


Zedeka Poindexter is a North Omaha-born writer and performer with
a background in management and communications. She holds a
bachelor's degree in communication from the University of
Nebraska at Omaha. Poindexter has built a historical record
through poems and essays that draw on physical senses to connect
with readers and listeners. Before assuming her current role, she
spent ten years with the NWC as a teaching artist.


Gina Tranisi is a leader, educator, and poet who has competed at
both the National Poetry Slam and the College Unions Poetry Slam
Invitational. She holds a bachelor's and master's degree in
English with a specialization in Women's and Gender Studies from
the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. An alum of the Nebraska
Writers Collective's youth poetry programming, Tranisi has served
as a teaching artist and, most recently, an Inside-Out Prison
Exchange Program certified instructor, and the organization's
full-time program director.


In this episode, Poindexter and Tranisi are in conversation with
Michael Griffin about the basics of writing poetry, the value of
expressing lived experiences through art, and the past and future
of the Nebraska Writers Collective.