BJ Speaks: A Conversation with Zoraida "Ziggy" Pastor

Join author Billy Jones for another segment... BJ Speaks: A Conversation with author/poet Zoraida "Ziggy" Pastor (Sunday, May 7th @ 3 p.m. EST). 

Miami native Zoraida “Ziggy” Pastor has been writing poetry since she was thirteen.  Her immigrant mother sent her to spend countless afternoons in the library that was conveniently located across from her middle school. While completing her bachelor’s degrees, she was part of the Everglades Wilderness Writing Expedition that took local, aspiring writers to learn about Everglades National Park. She was led by park rangers for a month-long exploration deep into the Everglades; she hiked, biked, slogged through the “Grassy River,” all the while writing and recording. This experience was the catalyst for her future work: a reflection of nature and what nature can give us. This collection of poems gently asks the reader to look within at the thoughts and feelings nature provokes or evokes. It is a call to awareness of the importance of nature places and the need to preserve them. Ziggy, like many naturalists, believes that nature and wild places preserve our sanity and well-being. Her work is a type of eco-criticism of how our nature places are dwindling. It also ruminates on art, and daily life as sources of imagination, and inspiration.

Ziggy's poems on the Everglades were exhibited in the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center in Everglades National Park. She is the author of the upcoming book:  Poems: Particles of Lights.

If you wish to speak to BJ or Ziggy during the live broadcast, call 347-539-5372 or email your questions, comments or requests to everydayfolkslisten@gmail.com.