In Volume Six: Chapter Sixteen of The Program, we welcome Poet, Actor, Producer, Playwright, and Author of the new book Hair Me, Leslie Saint Julien. Making her third appearance on the podcast, Leslie returns to discuss the evolution of her personal and powerful stage project Hair Me: A Journey Through the Rich Tapestry of Black Hair and the book of the same name.

In this wide-ranging and honest conversation, Leslie shares how 2025 became a transformative year after a period of burnout and creative exhaustion, and what she’s learned about rest, resilience, and intention. We explore her journey from writing an award-winning poem to developing it into a one-woman stage play, complete with a companion book, script, and educational study guide designed for classrooms.

She opens up about the pressures Black women face when it comes to hair — not just in terms of aesthetics, but as a matter of survival, self-expression, and social perception. We dig into the emotional and cultural weight of “code-switching” one’s hairstyle, the complexity of navigating critique, and the behind-the-scenes work required to bring a theatrical vision to life.

Leslie is also the author of Brooklyn Stew and three poetry collections. A graduate of the University of Maryland with a degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice, she later studied acting at the New York Film Academy.

Contact Barbara:
Instagram: @lesliesainjulien Website: lesliesaintjulien.com

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Destiny Birdsong – Killing White
Instagram: @bird_songoftheyear Website: destintbirdsong.com

Destiny Birdsong – Mythicona
Instagram: @bird_songoftheyear Website: destinybirdsong.com

Ray Jane – Spoils
Instagram: @itsrayjane Website: itsrayjane.com

Summer Durant: Same
Instagram: @summeraen

Ghetto Jedi the Poet: Strap Up

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In Volume Six: Chapter Fifteen of The Program, we welcome Youngstown, Ohio-born, Los Angeles-based educator, community activist, writer, poet, performance poet, and author Barbara Fant.

Barbara is the author of three poetry collections — Paint, Inside Out, Mouths of Garden, and her newest release, Joy in the Belly of a Riot. For more than a decade, she has led poetry workshops for incarcerated youth and adults, people in recovery, and survivors of human trafficking and domestic violence, using poetry as a tool for healing, survival, and connection.

Contact Barbara:
Instagram: @iambarbarafant Website: barbarafant.com

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Sunshine Lombre – Daydream
Instagram: @ladylombre

Tonya Ingram – Monster
Instagram: @tonyainstagram

Theresa Davis – Why I Do This
Instagram: @shepiratepoet Website: artisttheresadavis.com

Barbara Fant: Brown Bodies Bending
Instagram: @iambarbarafant Website: barbarafant.com

Barbara Fant: Medicine
Instagram: @iambarbarafant Website: barbarafant.com

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In Volume Six: Chapter Fourteen of The Program, we welcome Candace Marquez Green, a Chicago-born and Chicago-based community activist, entrepreneur, writer, poet, and author of the new poetry collection, "In Glimpses and Reminisces". Candace holds a Bachelor’s degree in Entertainment Business, a Master of Arts in Public Relations, and a Master of Business Administration. She is the recipient of the 2022 Chicago Defender Woman of Excellence Award, was named one of Crain’s Chicago Business and Black Women’s Professional League 40 Under 40, and currently serves on the board of the Chicago Poetry Center, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to poetry across diverse communities throughout Chicago.

Our conversation explores the many layers of Candace’s creative identity, beginning with her long history in pageantry. She reflects on what pageantry taught her about discipline, confidence, access, and leadership, while also addressing the more complicated narratives often associated with the pageant world.

From there, we transition into her creative history and examine the parallels between pageantry and poetry — performance and vulnerability, composure and truth — and how those worlds have shaped, rather than contradicted, one another. Candace speaks openly about growing up on Chicago’s South Side, witnessing addiction, loss, and trauma within her family, and how writing became her earliest and most honest form of self-expression through journaling and poetry.

The conversation then turns to her newest poetry collection, a deeply personal work shaped by love, grief, resilience, and self-discovery. Candace shares the significance of writing much of the book during an intense creative period, and she also discusses the experience of self-publishing the collection and the pride she feels in releasing a book rooted in lived truth rather than polished performance.

This episode is a thoughtful conversation about identity, growth, and the long journey from learning how to be seen to learning how to speak — honestly and on one’s own terms.

Contact Candace:
Instagram: @chosenpoetic Website: candacegreen.net

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Porsha O – Trigger
Instagram: @iamporsheolayiwola Website: porshaolayiwola

William Evans – For My Wife Who Fell In Love With A Ship Buried At Sea
Instagram: @williamevanswrites Website: williamthe3rd.com

Ephriam Nehemiah – Inheritance of a Broken Home
Instagram: @ephriamnehemiah

Alyesha Wise: Untitled: To Black Women
Instagram: @alyeshawise Website: alyeshawise.com

Kenneth Something: Rape Poem
Instagram: @saysomethingpoet

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