Poet, performer, and educator edwin bodney joins Unapologetically Creative for a deeply honest conversation about writing closer to the nerve, transforming grief into a landscape for discovery, and creating work rooted in truth, vulnerability, and connection. Edwin reflects on their journey from early open mic nights at the Poetry Lounge to becoming a powerful voice in contemporary spoken word, exploring how performance sharpened their craft and how storytelling became a space for survival, joy, and radical empathy.

Together, edwin and host Andrew Ramsammy unpack what it means to live and create without apology, why spoken word sits at the foundation of all literature, and how artists can continue their own stories on their own terms. From grief and identity to creativity as courage, this episode is a powerful reminder that no one else gets to write the ending of your story.

2:04 Getting Closer to the Nerve
4:00 Grief as Geography
7:51 Discovering Poetry and Performance
13:44 First Time on Stage
15:55 Growth Over Time
16:22 Identity, Belonging, and Connection
17:50 Bringing Audiences Closer to Themselves
19:25 Living Without Apology
20:27 Spoken Word as the Foundation of Literature
21:14 Breaking Rules in the Creative Process
21:54 Where Performance and Writing Converge
23:59 Writing for Truth and Vulnerability
25:36 Expanding Reach Through social media
26:58 Continuing Your Own Story

Brooke Champagne, award winning author of Nola Face: A Latina’s Life in the Big Easy, joins Unapologetically Creative for a conversation about writing from the most personal places and finding humor inside life’s contradictions. Growing up biracial in New Orleans shaped her voice, teaching her to hold darkness and joy in the same frame and to explore the complicated emotions that drive honest storytelling.

Brooke reflects on the risks of telling intimate family stories, the power of vulnerability on the page, and why writers must abandon people pleasing in pursuit of truth. She also shares how teaching and mentoring emerging writers reinforces her belief that, even in the age of AI, human storytelling…our need for that in order to survive is not going away.

This episode is a thoughtful look at identity, resilience, creative courage, and the responsibility artists have to document the world around them while inspiring others to make art of their own.

1:41 — Identity, Language, and Growing Up Biracial
4:18 — Writing the Hard Stuff
4:57 — The Philosophy of “Bugginess”
7:22 — Humor as Survival
9:25 — Abandoning People Pleasing to Tell the Truth
11:26 — Writing Risky, Intimate Stories
13:20 — When Family Reads Your Work
16:02 — How New Orleans Shapes Her Voice
17:18 — Editing, Deep Reading, and Literary Context
19:48 — Teaching Writers in the Age of AI
21:39 — Why Writers Must Keep Going
23:54 — What It Means to Be Unapologetically Creative
25:13 — Advice to Her Younger Self

Damon Davis reflects on how stories shape meaning, memory, and responsibility. Working across film, music, visual art, and public installation, Davis explains why he lets the story dictate the medium and how creative practice begins with close attention to place, history, and lived experience.

Throughout the conversation, Davis discusses subjectivity and fairness in storytelling, the implications of local work entering national institutions, and why art often becomes one of the lasting records of a moment in time. He shares how process, patience, and care guide his decisions, and why resisting labels allows the work to remain honest and grounded in context.

Rather than offering prescriptions, Davis leaves us with a way of thinking about creative practice that values intention over posture, meaning over speed, and the long life of work made with care.

0:22 — Introduction and Background

2:21 — Letting the Story Dictate the Medium

2:54 — Early Life, Family, and Creative Roots

4:59 — Process, Symbols, and Public Monuments

7:53 — Local Stories Going National

8:20 — Ferguson and Making Whose Streets?

10:53 — The Smithsonian and Art as Historical Record

15:06 — Art as a Tool for Truth and Authenticity

15:52 — Grief, Tropes, and Telling Difficult Stories

17:04 — Subjectivity, Objectivity, and Power

18:30 — Teaching, Stillness, and Self-Awareness

20:23 — Accolades, Ego, and Staying Grounded

22:29 — Relationships and Creative Fuel

23:48 — Activism, Burnout, and Branding

25:40 — Fatigue, Relevance, and Stepping Away

26:36 — Creating an Opera

30:16 — The Three Phase Creative Vision

33:00 — Being Unapologetically Creative