Episode 5: Episode 5: Aerik Francis and Nico Wilkinson: Poetry, Performance, and Perspective

Western Colorado Writers Podcast

Aerik Francis and Nico Wilkinson, two Colorado-based award-winning poets who performed at the Slamming Bricks poetry slam competition in Grand Junction this month, chat with Avery about the power of poetry in their lives, what thrills them about Grand Junction’s Pride Week and the Slamming Bricks event, and slam poetry as an art form. Aerik is a Queer Black and Latinx poet and a teaching artist based in Denver. He is also a Canto Mundo poetry fellow and a The Watering Hole fellow and coordinates events for Slam Nuba in Denver. His latest poetry EP, Syzygy, is available on Bandcamp and his forthcoming chapbook, Miseducation, won New Delta Review’s 2022 chapbook contest in May and will be published in 2023. Nico Wilkinson is a poet, organizer, and artist based out of Colorado Springs whose book, Inauguration, won the Pikes Peak Arts Council 2017 award for Best Publication. They organize an LGBTQ+ monthly open mic event, Keep Colorado Springs Queer; and founded the Quaill Club, a homestead co-op of queer artists in Colorado Springs. They enjoy writing tender poems about the apocalypse for their Substack, Poems for the Apocalypse, and most recently, poems about chickens. Aerik Francis: phaentompoet.com / instagram @phaentompoet / Slam Nuba / phaentompoet.bandcamp.comNico Wilkinson: nicowilkinson.com / instagram @nicothepoet / Quaill Club / Keep Colorado Springs Queer / nicothepoet.substack.com