Empower House Radio KXEP-LP

The Resilience Within S3E3 w/ Nathan Brown - Writing as a form of Self-Care

Season 3 is about self-care, because self-care is community care. Our guest this week, Nathan Brown, shares how his writing practice has been a powerful act of self-care, including his practice of writing one poem a day for the last 30 years. He shares his journey through big changes, including the pandemic shutdown which caused him to pivot and to create “fireside sessions,” a livestream weekly performance on Facebook that is still happening. He says that currently silence is one of the most healing resources in his life.
Nathan Brown is an author, songwriter, and award-winning poet who holds a PhD in English and Journalism from the University of Oklahoma where he’s taught for over 20 years. He served as Poet Laureate for the State of Oklahoma in 2013/14, and now travels full time performing readings, concerts, workshops and speaking on creativity, poetry, and songwriting. You can learn more about Nathan at brownlines.com 

The Resilience Within S3E2 w/ Jen Yáñez-Alaniz- Land and Lineage

Season 3 is about self-care, because self-care is community care. Today Jen Yáñez-Alaniz, a Chicana Mestiza activist, educator, poet, and PhD Fellow in Culture, Literacy, and Language at UT San Antonio shares some of her experiences working with refugee students in both the classroom and the garden setting.  She also shares about how she is addressing her chronic pain through a deepening relationship with the land and her lineage. Through the mentorship of her indigenous elders and relatives, she is cultivating a renewed relationship with the plant medicines of this region.  

The Resilience Within S3E1 w/ Estrella- “Apapacharte “

Season 3 is about self-care, because self-care is community care. Today’s guest Estrella shares what it’s like to be a migrant in a society that’s not shaped to support and care for migrant bodies. She shares about her own journey of self-care and how it has landed her back home in her childhood community, caring for her land, her parents, her child, and her own body. Self-care also includes things like dancing, even while caregiving, as well as the modalities she’s picked up through her years of seeking and training, including sound, drumming, yoga, and massage, into her everyday inner work and in her work with others.   She speaks about the wisdom and medicine of the fire, and how the respect of the fire as an elder is the same respect and deference she uses in caregiving her father. She also speaks about what it’s like to work with land that’s been contaminated by industrial toxins.

The Resilience Within S2E14 My Prayer Was Answered w/ Irene Lara Silva

The finale of Season 2: “Grief” airs today with guest ire’ne lara silva, who experienced the life, love, and loss of her brother Moises, whom she was roommates, co-creator, and caregiver for 20 years. Moises strove for beauty which came out in his painting, his cooking, and in the way he showed up in the world. You simply must take the time to listen. Spoiler alert: you cry. We moo like cows. You have to be there. 
 
ire’ne lara silva, 2023 Texas State Poet Laureate, is the award-winning author of five poetry collections, two chapbooks, a comic book, and a short story collection http://www.irenelarasilva.wordpress.com

Platica y Poetics S2E9 Jo Reyes-Boitel

My sit-down with Jo Reyes-Boitel began with a platica as if we were sitting down at a smallvintage metal table with cafecito Cubano in hand. She began by sharing who the artist andindividual are setting the stage by exploring who she is and how she exists in the world. Thisunique foundation led seamlessly into a discussion of her work, focusing on her distinctive voiceand the sensuous undercurrents that define her writing. Jo shared with us her favorite sensorypleasures—offering insights into how these elements enrich her creative process and deepen herconnection to the world. She spoke of the sensual clarity and inner alignment that manifest in herwriting, revealing how these qualities arose as precursors to her work or as revelations within it.Desire, she notes, operates as a central blueprint for her, a celebration of diverse identities thatinfluence her craft. In discussing Mouth, Jo delved into how her poetry navigates thecomplexities of intimate partner violence, queer survival, and femme-centered femininity. Sheexplores how lush, sensuous imagery allows her to approach difficult topics with emotionaldepth while highlighting the resilience of the queer body. Through juxtaposing pain withtriumph, her work reimagines the fairy tale narrative, gifting a voice to marginalizedperspectives. In discussing Michael + Josephine, she reflected on the exploration of queer Latinxintimacy, deepening the conversation about queerness within Latinx communities, revealing howthe divine and the everyday intertwine, speaks to the the complexities of love, humanconnection, and trauma recovery. The duality of tenderness and recklessness in her poetry, asdescribed by Anel I. Flores, reflects the vulnerability and strength of her characters, capturing themultifaceted nature of existence and her commitment to reshaping narratives of identity,survival, and liberation.

Happy Hour w/ Elda Olvera - Honoring Black History Month

Sala Artisté w/ Karla Kopalli

Sala Artisté w/ Vic Janitzi Estrada

The Resilience Within S2E13 Pilgrimage w/ Carla Pineda

Carla lost her husband Paul in July 2024 after 10 years of major health challenges and 36 years of a life well loved.  She shares her journey of grieving the loss of her beloved husband, Paul Pineda, who passed away 6 months ago. She shares some of the surprises along the way, and likens her experience to a pilgrimage, where it is about the journey, not the destination. Carla finds that Paul is still with her on this journey.
Carla is a journaling/writing workshop and retreat leader with a background in psychology/counseling and is a certified spiritual director.  She manages the bookstore at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in San Antonio, Tx. and is a co-facilitator of The Wisdom Years, a  ministry focused on spiritual growth in the last third of life.  

The Resilience Within S2E12 Feeling The Feelings w/ Daniel Ramirez

Daniel Ramirez, poet and teaching artist, shares about his journey of feeling the depths of his emotions through meditation and breath. For Daniel, sacred poetry - by sacred poets such as Rumi and Hafez - was a deep medicine in his grieving process. These days he continues to show up in the world with a conscious, intentional connection to what’s happening within.