🎙 Season 1- Episode 9: Art Official — Writing Authentic Stories in a Market-Driven World

Guest: Daphne Santana Strassmann

What if the bravest thing you could do as a writer wasn’t just to write—but to write like no one’s watching?

In this intimate and layered conversation, Enzo sits down with memoirist and educator Daphne Santana Strassmann for what feels like a master class on writing from the inside out.

Together, they explore the quiet—but powerful—ways we’re taught to question the validity of our own stories. Not just by the outside world, but by the expectations we internalize. Whether it’s the pressure to fit into a narrative that makes sense to others, or the fear that our truth is too complicated, too specific, too much—this episode is a reminder that honoring your voice is a radical act.

💬 Inside this episode:

– How to trust the shape of your story before it’s “market-ready”

– Memoir as a way of returning to yourself

– The danger of leaving stories untold

– And how writing with honesty—on your own terms—is its own form of liberation

Daphne’s wisdom, warmth, and lived experience offer an invitation to all of us: to claim our stories not because they’re easy to tell—but because they’re ours to tell

What if poetry isn’t just about art—but about survival, clarity, and connection?

In this solo National Poetry Month reflection, Enzo the Poet invites listeners into the quiet laboratory of the poetic life. Drawing parallels between poets and scientists, he explores how language—like any evolving experiment—holds both implication and application. From the politics of translation to the sacred work of interpretation, this episode dives into what it really means to write, to witness, and to wonder aloud in a world that often demands silence.

Whether you’re a writer, a thinker, or simply someone trying to make sense of the noise, The Language of Infinity offers an intimate meditation on how poetry helps us live, remember, and begin again. With stories that span from cultural silencing to contemporary book bans, Enzo reflects on the emotional labor of language, the risks of being misunderstood, and the courage it takes to tell the truth anyway.

This isn’t just an episode about poems—it’s about why words still matter.

Subscribe to It’s a Poetic Life and join a growing community of listeners engaging with art, voice, and meaning—one reflection at a time.

In the final segment of this three-part episode, It’s a Poetic Life turns to the transformative power of art and curation in bridging cultural, geographic, and ideological divides. Curator Amy Rosenblum-Martín joins host Enzo Silon Surin for a compelling conversation on how exhibitions become spaces of resistance, reclamation, and relationship-building. From her work on Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration to Swagger and Tenderness, Amy reflects on the curatorial responsibility to amplify underrepresented voices while navigating institutional tensions and public resistance.

Together, they explore how art unsettles comfort, disrupts dominant narratives, and serves as a poetic force for connection in fragmented times. This segment asks: How do museums and curators hold space for authenticity amid systemic resistance to equity? What happens when storytelling becomes a collective bridge rather than an individual expression?

Listen in for a resonant close to a conversation rooted in the everyday work of creating true community.