On the 6/11/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:

The first guest on the hour is Nicolette Daskalakis, who joins the show to detail her career in the arts, which started as a high schooler at KDVS. Daskalakis reveals she was at one point the youngest ever staff member at the station, serving as the news director, before she went off to earn an undergraduate degree at USC and then to earn an MFA in France, impressively completed in the French language. Daskalakis details her inspirations for her most recent published poetry collection, Tell Me I'm Not On Fire (2024), before sharing a poem “Welcoming the Arsonist.” Dyson Kona Smith is the next guest of the hour, and he reflects on his undergraduate journey at UC Davis. Coming from Chicago, Illinois, Smith talks about his transition into academia and obtaining a multidisciplinary education. He shares praise for mentors, peers, and the campus-community radio station KDVS, before outlining the thematics of his senior thesis, Tomboy Ballet. Smith then reads three poems, “Duplex,” “Mine/Chicago,” and “Afterlife Poem.”

Born in the fog of San Francisco, Nicolette Daskalakis is a poet, filmmaker, and multidisciplinary artist based in Paris. Her writing has been anthologized by HarperCollins, nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and published in numerous literary journals. Nicolette is the author of multiple poetry books, including Tell Me I'm Not On Fire (2024) and Portrait of Your Ex Assembling Furniture (2018). She holds a BA in Film & Television Production from the USC School of Cinematic Arts and an MFA from the institut supérieur des arts et du design de Toulouse.

Dyson Smith is a recent Statistics, English, and Sociology Graduate from the University of California, Davis. He was awarded the Herbert A. Young Award as the College of Letters and Science’s Medalist, given to the graduating senior they determine the most outstanding. His honors thesis in Poetry, Tomboy Ballet recently won the Lois Ann Lattin prize for UC Davis’s Best Honors Creative Writing Project. Poems from the collection have been published in journals such as Open Ceilings, Poet News, GTFO Poetry’s 2024 Anthology of Sacramento Poets, Euphemism and The Madison Review. Beyond poetry, Dyson is a social statistician who wrote his research thesis on the association between social proximity to gun violence and chronic health conditions in California. He has worked on other projects pertaining to housing insecurity in Davis and deaths of despair among formerly incarcerated persons. In the past school year, Dyson was a Community-Coordinator and DJ at the campus and community radio station KDVS, a researcher at the UC Davis Innovations and Research Lab, the producer of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour, a data analyst for Davis's Data Driven Change Club, and a submissions reader for the literary magazine Open Ceilings. His mom owned a bike shop in Chicago.

June 20th we will be taking a Summer Break from Poetry Night. Please plan to join us on every subsequent first and third Thursday of the month at 7PM at the John Natsoulas Gallery for the Poetry Night Reading Series.

Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 6/4/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:

Heather Bourbeau joins the show to discuss her most recent release, Monarch, detailing that she spends a lot of time outside to better understand the protective lands which she writes about. Bourbeau then reads two poems, “Consequences: Cascades that Skew National Monuments,” and “Steelhead at Devil’s Gulch.” The next guest on the show is Tim Kerbavaz, who joins the show to recount his career as a Technical Producer and founder of Talon AV. He discusses his experiences building a queer-owned business in Yolo County, and the importance of small businesses supporting community-driven events like Davis Pride. Guests Morgan Strong and Breanna Garman finish the show representing events and ongoing showcases in the UC Davis Art Studio department, including their joint exhibit “Kindred Spirits” and the June 6th Art Walk from 12-3 P.M.

Heather Bourbeau’s award-winning poetry and fiction have appeared in The Irish Times, The Kenyon Review, and The Stockholm Review of Literature. Her writings are part of the Special Collections at the James Joyce Library, University College Dublin, and her latest poetry collection, Monarch, examines overlooked histories from the US West (Cornerstone Press, 2023). Much of her creative work is influenced by her work as a researcher, analyst, and writer with various UN agencies, including the UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia and UNICEF Somalia. In addition, she is a winter wildlife docent at Point Reyes National Seashore and organizes the annual Reyes the Pen writing workshop. She is currently working on a poetry collection about protected lands in the Western United States.

Tim Kerbavaz is the Founder and Principal Technical Producer at Talon Audio Visual, a Yolo-County Based Technical Production Agency which he founded 15 years ago in a college bedroom in Davis. As a Technical Producer, Tim manages the behind the scenes tools and processes that enable live events to bring people together, with a focus on connectivity and accessibility solutions for live events. Talon AV is proud to be providing audio and production support to Davis Pride for the 11th consecutive year, this Saturday, June 7, in Davis Community Park.

Breanna Garman is a 4th year UC Davis student soon to graduate with degrees in both Art Studio and Applied Chemistry. Garman serves as the programming director and a longtime DJ at the campus and community radio station KDVS.

Morgan Strong is an interdisciplinary artist specializing in printmaking and visual art. Strong is an Undergraduate at UC Davis, Radio DJ at KDVS, and an artist who aims to experiment ruthlessly, use water as a reservoir, exhibitions as community, discursive questions to disrupt patterns of complacency, and her intuition as a compass.

The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. Our June 5 Poetry Night will feature poets and authors Heather Bourbeau and Andrea Ross.

Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 5/28/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:

UC Davis alumna Allison Field Bell discusses her upcoming, debut poetry collection ALL THAT BLUE, thinking through themes of sexuality and womanhood. Field Bell shares her journey in academia, starting as an undergraduate in Davis, California, then transitioning as an MFA student at New Mexico State University, and now as a PhD candidate in Creative Writing and English Literature at the University of Utah. She then reads two poems from the collection, “O’Keefe Country” and “Garden.” Stephanie Roberts is the next guest on the show, and she reflects on her intentional humor within her poetics. Roberts explains how her recent collection, UNMET expands on the thematics of her first book, rushes from the river disappointment, exploring themes of justice and rescue. She then reads two poems, “Nothing of the Month Club” and one of the many poems in the manuscript titled “UNMET.” The last guest of the hour, Diane Frank, discusses her role as Chief Editor at Blue Light Press, and her newly published book Mermaids and Musicians. Frank states the novel is literary fiction, magical realism, and a romance, where a violinist falls in love with a mermaid. She outlines how the book chose her to write it, and is a labor of love. Frank closes the episode by sharing a long sample from her new novel.

Allison Field Bell is a writer from California. She is a PhD Candidate in Creative Writing at the University of Utah, and she holds an MFA from New Mexico State University. Her debut poetry collection, ALL THAT BLUE, is forthcoming in 2026. She is also the author of two chapbooks, WITHOUT WOMAN OR BODY and EDGE OF THE SEA. Find more of her writing at allisonfieldbell.com

Stephanie Roberts is the Canadian author of the poetry collection UNMET (Biblioasis Books, April 2025). Her debut collection, rushes from the river disappointment (McGill-Queen's University Press, May 2020) was an A.M. Klein Poetry Prize finalist. Widely featured in periodicals and anthologies in the U.S., Canada, and Europe such as Poetry Magazine, Atlanta Review, Event Magazine, New York Quarterly Books, Verse Daily, Crannóg (Ireland), and The Stockholm Review of Literature, she is the winner of The Sixty-Four: Best Poets of 2018 (Black Mountain Press). Stephanie was born in Panama, grew up in NYC, and is a citizen of three countries.

Diane Frank is author of eight books of poems, three novels, and a photo memoir of her 400 mile trek in the Nepal Himalayas. She is also Chief Editor of Blue Light Press. Her collection While Listening to the Enigma Variations: New and Selected Poems won the 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Award for Poetry. Diane plays cello with the College of Marin Symphony Orchestra. She teaches poetry, flash fiction and memoir workshops at San Francisco State University and Dominican University. Her first novel, Blackberries in the Dream House, won the Chelson Award for Fiction and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Her website is www.dianefrank.com.

The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis.

Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.