Author Brian Sonia-Wallace (The Poetry of Strangers): "I’m Like An Uber Driver For Your Emotions"

DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley

Dennis is joined via Zoom by author and poet Brian Sonia-Wallace to talk about his book The Poetry of Strangers, which documents his adventures traveling the country as a typewriter poet-for-hire. He recalls the stunt that led to him first getting into public typewriter poetry when he declared during an open mic type show that he was going to make his rent money doing nothing but poetry. It worked...and led to his career as what he calls a "rent poet," which is like a rentboy but for poems. He talks about some of the places this vocation has taken him; from paid residencies at the Mall of America and on an Amtrak train to a gathering of witches in Salem, Massachusetts to a political campaign in Chatanooga, Tennesssee. Other topics include: being invited to the White House for the ceremony where the AIDS quilt was displayed on the White House lawn, starting the Pride Poets booth at Weho Pride, why he never feels imposter syndrome at his rent-poet typewriter but he does when he sits down at his laptop to write his own projects and the idea that the mistake is actually part of the art. And at the end of the interview, he writes a poem for Dennis. Yes, there are tears. (www.rentpoet.com)