Love Jawns: A Mixtape

Today we're spotlighting a newly archived podcast series here at PennSound affectionately dubbed Love Jawns: A Mixtape. Originally published between 2019 and 2020 in conjunction with Philadelphia Contemporary, Love Jawns: A Mixtape—or LJAM—was produced by Yolanda Wisher, Jaléssa Savage, and Wayv Wilson, and comprised two seasons, along with a collection of special episodes that effectively serves as a third season.

A love letter to the city of Philadelphia and a self-proclaimed "soundtrack of the city," each episode begins with an ethereal announcement from Wisher—"Doors are closing," a proclamation that should be instantly recognizeable to anyone who's ever taken the El in the past thirty years. An overarching soundtrack by a featured DJ then accompanies each episode, punctuated by readings by local and near-local figures, including a number of Philly's recent Poets and Youth Poets Laureate (including two former Kelly Writers House alumni, Husnaa Hashim and Wes Matthews, the latter of whom segmented audio recordings for PennSound as an undergraduate).

The full podcast series of twelve episodes, along with hi-res cover images and program notes, is available here.

Solarities Series Collection

Another exciting reading series has come to us thanks to Michael Cavuto and Tessa Bolsover, poets and PhD students in the English Department at Duke University. The series, called Solarities, ran for three years from 2023 to 2025 at the Nelson Reading Room at Duke, and was funded by the Franklin Humanities Institute, with support from the English Department, Gender, Feminism and Sexuality Department, Duke Arts, and the Center for Caribbean and Latin American Studies.

Included among Solarities's featured guests some familiar names: Joseph Donahue, Nathaniel Mackey, Will Alexander, Hoa Nguyen, Alice Notley, and Stacy Szymaszek. The series comprises five entries and the full collection is available at the Solarities Reading Series page.