LIVE WORKS

1. J. Chester Johnson Is Guest for National Radio Interviews on “Ed Tyll Show” - January 11, 2018

On January 11, J. Chester Johnson appeared as guest for National Radio Interviews on “Ed Tyll Show” of Starcom Radio Network to talk about the status of poetry in the United States, including the relevance of Johnson’s latest books, Auden, the Psalms, and Me and Now And Then: Selected Longer Poems. Also, among the topics covered were the importance of truth in poems, the role of poets in our nation’s arts, and the endurance that poets must exhibit to have their voices heard today. Johnson spent considerable time describing his own journey over many decades following “his own nose” in pursuit of his own muse and voice. Click below to hear the thirty-minute interview.

2. J. Chester Johnson Interviewed on Ed Tyll Show – October 25, 2017

On Wednesday, October 25th, 2017, J. Chester Johnson was interviewed by the nationally syndicated Ed Tyll Show, and this interview was broadcast live nationally over 40 radio stations. The interview focused mainly on Johnson’s book, Auden, the Psalms, and Me, which was published in September, 2017. You can listen by clicking below.

3. Reflection and Reconciliation: The Elaine Race Massacre

J. Chester Johnson returned to the site of the 1919 Elaine Race Massacre, one of the deadliest assaults on African-Americans in our country’s history. The event and its ramifications in Phillips County, Arkansas, where the Massacre actually occurred, were discussed at this presentation. J. Chester Johnson, whose maternal grandfather participated in the Elaine Race Massacre, was joined by Sheila Walker, whose family members, including her great-grandmother and great uncles, were among the victims. Since Sheila and Chester had antecedents representing the two sides of the conflagration, they have, over the last several years, committed to a reconciliation of the inter-racial and generational trauma that has been associated with the massacre.

Video Courtesy of Delta Cultural Center

4. “For Conduct and Innocents”– Multimedia Performance Based on Drama In Verse by J. Chester Johnson

Johnson’s drama in verse, “For Conduct And Innocents,” about the martyr and 20th century theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was presented as a multi-media event (drama, music, dance, film) on Oct. 18, 2015 at Trinity Wall Street with nearly 50 performers participating.
Courtesy of Trinity Wall Street, New York

5. Honoring Martin Luther King Jr. at Trinity Wall Street, January 18th, 2015

J. Chester Johnson gave the Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday sermon at Trinity Wall Street on Sunday, January 18, 2015 at 11:15AM.
Courtesy of Trinity Wall Street, New York

6. J. Chester Johnson Reading at Kairos Poetry Café, NY, NY

J. Chester Johnson was the featured poet appearing at the Kairos Poetry Café, St. John’s Lutheran Church in the West Village, on Sunday, November 17th, 2013. Johnson read a number of his shorter poems – some older pieces, some new. He introduced each poem with a short comment on the event or salient motif that inspired the creation of the verse.
Courtesy of Kairos Poetry Café

7. September 10, 2011: Ten Years After September 11, 2001

Remembrance and Reconciliation Through Poetry
Seven leading American poets, including J. Chester Johnson, read poems of remembrance and reconciliation on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks at Trinity Wall Street, located only a few yards from Ground Zero; the event was sponsored by Poets House and others.
Courtesy of Trinity Wall Street in the City of New York

8. October 28, 2010:  Johnson’s Poetry Reading at the University of Arkansas

Courtesy of Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History

9. A Reading of Selected Poems by J. Chester Johnson

Original poems from his latest book of verse, St. Paul’s Chapel & Selected Shorter Poems.