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April is National Poetry Month and to celebrate in proper style Bay Poets has been exploring the Poetry Center at SF State's amazing archives. Today we wrap up the series and poetry month by talking about San Francisco's current Poet Laureate, Genny Lim.
April is National Poetry Month, so here's some more poetry! To celebrate in proper style Bay Poets has been exploring the Poetry Center at San Francisco State's archives. Today's poet was from the East Coast, and also helped shape San Francisco's literary scene.
Today, we hear Al Robles reading an excerpt from his poem “Cold Mountain in Chinatown” which he performed at the Poetry Center at San Francisco State on November 10th, 1976. You can watch Al's reading as part of the Poetry Center Digital Archive here!
Ted Hughes, one of the giants of twentieth-century British poetry, was born in Mytholmroyd, Yorkshire. After serving in the Royal Air Force, Hughes attended Cambridge, where he studied archeology and anthropology and took a special interest in myths and legends. In 1956, he met and married the American poet Sylvia Plath, who encouraged him to submit his manuscript to a first-book contest run by the Poetry Center. Awarded first prize by judges Marianne Moore, W. H. Auden, and Stephen Spender, The Hawk in the Rain (Faber & Faber, 1957) secured Hughes's reputation as a poet of international stature. According to poet and critic Robert B. Shaw, Hughes's poetry signaled a dramatic departure from the prevailing modes of the period. The stereotypical poem of the time was determined not to risk too much: politely domestic in its subject matter, understated and mildly ironic in style. By contrast, Hughes marshaled a language of nearly Shakespearean resonance to explore themes which were mythic and elemental.Hughes remained a controversial figure after Plath's suicide left him as her literary executor and he refused (citing family privacy) to publish many of her papers. Nevertheless, his long career included unprecedented best-selling volumes such as Lupercal (Faber & Faber, 1960), Crow (Faber & Faber, 1970), Selected Poems 1957–1981 (Faber & Faber, 1982), and Birthday Letters (Faber & Faber, 1998), as well as many beloved children's books, including The Iron Man (Faber & Faber, 1968), which was adapted as The Iron Giant (1999). With Seamus Heaney, he edited the popular anthologies The Rattle Bag (Faber & Faber, 1982) and The School Bag (Faber & Faber, 1997). Hughes was named executor of Plath's literary estate and he edited several volumes of her work. Hughes also translated works from classical authors, including Ovid and Aeschylus. Hughes was appointed Britain's Poet Laureate in 1984, a post he held until his death in 1998. Among his many awards, he was appointed to the Order of Merit, one of Britain's highest honors.Hughes married Carol Orchard in 1970, and the couple lived on a small farm in Devon until his death. His forays into translations, essays, and criticism were noted for their intelligence and range. Hughes continued writing and publishing poems until his death from cancer on October 28, 1998. A memorial to Hughes in the famed Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey was unveiled in 2011.-bio via Poetry Foundation Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
4/26/24: Reps Mindy Domb, Natalie Blais & Pat Duffy on herds, gaggles, budgets & parliaments. U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limon at Smith: ArtBeat w/ the Poetry Center's Matt Donovan & Jen Blackburn. Atty Steven Schwartz: Mass. nursing home residents coming home! Silas Kopf: Riverside Industries' auction tonight!
4/26/24: Reps Mindy Domb, Natalie Blais & Pat Duffy on herds, gaggles, budgets & parliaments. U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limon at Smith: ArtBeat w/ the Poetry Center's Matt Donovan & Jen Blackburn. Atty Steven Schwartz: Mass. nursing home residents coming home! Silas Kopf: Riverside Industries' auction tonight!
4/26/24: Reps Mindy Domb, Natalie Blais & Pat Duffy on herds, gaggles, budgets & parliaments. U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limon at Smith: ArtBeat w/ the Poetry Center's Matt Donovan & Jen Blackburn. Atty Steven Schwartz: Mass. nursing home residents coming home! Silas Kopf: Riverside Industries' auction tonight!
4/26/24: Reps Mindy Domb, Natalie Blais & Pat Duffy on herds, gaggles, budgets & parliaments. U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limon at Smith: ArtBeat w/ the Poetry Center's Matt Donovan & Jen Blackburn. Atty Steven Schwartz: Mass. nursing home residents coming home! Silas Kopf: Riverside Industries' auction tonight!
4/26/24: Reps Mindy Domb, Natalie Blais & Pat Duffy on herds, gaggles, budgets & parliaments. U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limon at Smith: ArtBeat w/ the Poetry Center's Matt Donovan & Jen Blackburn. Atty Steven Schwartz: Mass. nursing home residents coming home! Silas Kopf: Riverside Industries' auction tonight!
Join us for a heartfelt journey through the intricate landscape of cultural identity and generational heritage as we sit down with the esteemed Italian American Poet, Artist, and Professor Maria Mazzotti-Gillan. Listen in as Professor Gillan shares her evocative poetry and personal stories at the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College, painting a vivid picture of the Italian immigrant's struggle to assimilate into American society. Together, we unpack the complex emotions tied to our ancestors' sacrifices, the shame and pride of our immigrant roots, and the delicate balance of preserving tradition while embracing a new national identity. Reflect on the meaning of the American Dream from an Italian American perspective as we embark on an exploration of the powerful influence that family, culture, and art have on our sense of self. We uncover the strength found in balancing one's heritage with the pressures to assimilate, and how these dynamics shape our self-identification. This episode is an invitation to become part of an ongoing conversation, ensuring that the rich cultural contributions of Italians are remembered, respected, and cherished for generations to come. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/italianamerican/support
Lauren Camp selects poems that each inhabit a place, a music, another person—shaping a cosmos large or small in language. She introduces Beckian Fritz Goldberg synchronizing past and present (“Black Fish Blues”), Olga Broumas moving through shadows toward individual lives (“The Moon of Mind Against the Wooden Louver”), and Lisel Mueller cherishing names as a beginning (“Naming the Animals”). Camp closes with her poem “Ode to Two,” where land, house, and lovers are celebrated by light.Listen to the full recordings of Goldberg, Broumas, and Mueller reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Beckian Fritz Goldberg (1994)Olga Broumas (1988)Lisel Mueller (1981)
Sophia Terazawa introduces poems that lead us to encounter both the beloved and the enemy, seeing them blurred and intertwined—seeing them as human. She shares Joy Harjo's prayer of courage for the heart (“This Morning I Pray for My Enemies”), Khaled Mattawa's recognition of the faceless dead (“Face: To the One Million Plus”), and Carolyn Forché's liturgy for the last hour (“Prayer”). To close, Terazawa reads her poem “Gibbons Howling,” a prayer spoken from dreams into dust. Watch the full recordings of Harjo, Mattawa, and Forché reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Joy Harjo (2017)Khaled Mattawa (2018)Carolyn Forché (2007)
Radical Reversal highlights the reformative abilities of the arts by bringing poetry, music, and music production workshops—along with performance and recordings spaces—to detention centers and correctional facilities. In this bonus episode, Radical Reversal co-founder Randall Horton shares recordings from three youth writers and performers who worked with Radical Reversal at Jefferson County Youth Detention Center in Birmingham, Alabama. Poet Patrick Rosal makes a guest appearance on flute for the track "Aint No Love in the Streets."To watch readings by poets whose work engages with the crisis of mass incarceration in the US, check out Voca for recordings from the Poetry Center's Art for Justice series.
Manuel Paul López curates poems that draw us into the nourishing mysteries of water. He shares Ofelia Zepeda's evocation of moisture's deep ties to people and land ("The Place Where Clouds Are Formed"), Li-Young Lee's meditation on weeping and the gifts given by those we've lost ("'Why are you crying,' my father asked…"), and Quincy Troupe's precise, tender visions of sunlight and sea ("The Point Loma Series of Haikus and Tankas"). López closes with "Green Water," his own meditation on "the wild taste of self-preservation."You can watch the full recordings of Zepeda, Lee, and Troupe reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Ofelia Zepeda (2015)Li-Young Lee (2020)Quincy Troupe (2001)
The queens get fictional, discussing the poetry equivalents of best supporting actresses with guest Manuel Muñoz.Kay Ryan won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry for her book The Best of It: New and Selected Poems (2010).Randall Mann's Deal: New and Selected Poems is currently out from Copper Canyon Press.Watch Olympia Dukakis's famous "Why do men cheat?" scene in Moonstruck.When Anne Hathaway accepted the Critics Choice Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2013, she said, “This is a bittersweet moment for me because I have this award, but you spelled my name wrong." She kind of forgot to thank the Broadcast Film Critics Association for the honor. “It is with an ‘e,'” she clarified, adding, “It's probably in bad taste for me to point that out here.”Watch Anne Hathaway's cupcake tutorial here. The movie Jacqueline Susann's Once Is Not Enough is a 1975 American romance film, directed by Guy Green, starring Kirk Douglas, Alexis Smith, David Janssen, George Hamilton, Brenda Vaccaro, Melina Mercouri, and Deborah Raffin. When Louise Gluck accepted her National Book Award for Faithful and Virtuous Night, she said, in part, "I'm astonished. My thanks to the judges for their mercy. Four times," she said, "This is a difficult evening. It's very difficult to lose. I've lost many times. And it is also, it turns out, is very difficult to win. It is not in my script," she said, to a general scattering of laughter in the audience. Watch it here. Gary Soto was born April 12, 1952. He published The Elements of San Joaquin in 1977 through the Pitt Poetry Series, which released the book on February 1 that year—so he was actually 24! Read more about Soto here. He lists his address on his website, in case you want to write to him: https://garysoto.com Heather McHugh read and gave a lecture in April 2009 at the University of Arizona's Poetry Center, which keeps a terrific audio/video recording archive. You can watch the reading here. The poems she reads are:"The Gift""Not to Be Dwelled On""Granny's Song""No Sex for Priests""I Knew I'd Sing""Coming""Etymological Dirge""Glass House""From the Tower""Webcam the World""Hackers Can Sidejack Cookies""Philosopher Orders Crispy Pork""DOMESTIQUE"watch McHugh give a lecture about the design and impact of the ends of poems, including close readings of powerful last lines including examples from the work of Emo Philips, Abd-ar-Rahman III, Su Tung-po, Anthony Hecht, D.H. Lawrence, Paul Valéry, Alan Dugan, Julio Cortázar, Louis Simpson, Samuel Beckett, and John Frederick Nims.Watch Bette Davis chain-smoke on the Dick Cabot Show while praising Gladys Cooper.Watch Mare Winningham in Girl from the North Country and even her recorded performance of "Like a Rolling Stone" is a little flat.
On this week's show, we're going to talk with Brian Laidlaw, who recently released his album Silently Loud, and we're also going to have Tyler Meyer from the University of Arizona's Poetry Center. They're going to share the story behind the upcoming concert with songs from Brian's album, Silently Loud, featuring lyrics by nonspeakers, including Tucson's own Joshua Griner and Alton Grubbs. Today is January 22nd, my name is Tom Heath and you're listening to "Life Along the Streetcar". Each and every Sunday our focus is on Social, Cultural and Economic impacts in Tucson's Urban Core and we shed light on hidden gems everyone should know about. From A Mountain to UArizona and all stops in between. You get the inside track- right here on 99.1 FM, streaming on DowntownRadio.org- we're also available on your iPhone or Android using our very own Downtown Radio app. Reach us by email contact@lifealongthestreetcar.org -- interact with us on Facebook @Life Along the Streetcar and follow us on Twitter @StreetcarLife--- And check out our past episodes on www.lifeAlongTheStreetcar.org, Spotify, iTunes or asking your smart speaker to "Play Life Along The Streetcar Podcast." Our intro music is by Ryanhood and we exit with music from Brian Laidlaw, "The Way That I Was Maid."
VOZ DO TRADUTOR - ano V - nº219 - Edição de 17 de dezembro de 2022 - Tem livro novo sobre literatura venezuelana contemporânea - Pesquisadores analisam como a sociedade influencia e é influenciada pelos estudos de léxico e o resultado é publicado em livro - Dilma Machado convida para as atividades de janeiro da Estrada- Escola de Tradução Audiovisual - A dica de leitura da semana da Editora Lexikos é "Saki, contos escolhidos" - Danilo Nogueira e o desfecho da novelinha de direitos autorais - E recebemos para a Pausa para o Café o grande tradutor literário Alípio Correia de Franca Neto. Alípio é pós-doutor em Teoria da Tradução e Doutor em Teoria Literária e Literatura Comparada pela Universidade de São Paulo, tendo sido professor associado ao Poetry Center na University of Roehampton. Em seu trabalho como poeta, tradutor, ensaísta e dramaturgo publicou mais de cem títulos. Seu trabalho como poeta-tradutor lhe granjeou por três vezes o Prêmio Jabuti. Conversando com a gente diretamente do seu escritório, Alípio conta como tudo começou, compartilhando sua paixão pela poesia, pela pesquisa e pela tradução, dividindo conosco sua preocupação de melhorar sempre e deixando dicas preciosas para quem deseja traçar seu caminho na área literária. A tese do Alípio está disponível aqui: https://teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/8/8151/tde-20012012-105413/fr.php APOIO: TraduSound; Editora Lexikos e Tacet Books --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vozdotradutor/message
Episode 153 Notes and Links to Luivette Resto's Work On Episode 153 of The Chills at Will Podcast, Pete welcomes Luivette Resto, and the two discuss, among other topics, her childhood in Puerto Rico and the Bronx, her pride in her Puerto Ricanidad, Spanglish, formative reading and writing, mentors and inspirations like Helena Maria Viramontes, ideas of home and identity and inheritance that populate her poetry, and how form and family dynamics inform her work. Luivette Resto, a mother, teacher, poet, and Wonder Woman fanatic, was born in Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico but proudly raised in the Bronx. She is a CantoMundo and Macondo Fellow, and a Pushcart Prize nominee. She is on the Board of Directors for Women Who Submit, a non profit organization in Los Angeles focused on women and nonbinary writers. Some of her latest work can be read on Spillway, North American Review, and the latest anthology, Gathering. Her latest collection Living On Islands Not Found On Maps is published by FlowerSong Press. Her first two books of poetry Unfinished Portrait and Ascension have been published by Tía Chucha Press. Some of her latest work can be found in the anthology titled What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Trump edited by Martín Espada and on the University of Arizona's Poetry Center website. She lives in the San Gabriel Valley with her three children aka her revolutionaries. Buy Living on Islands Not Found on Maps Luivette Resto's Website “Becoming Guazabara: A Interview with Luivette Resto” by Ivelisse Rodríguez Luivette Resto's Poetry Foundation Page At about 7:50, Luivette gives background on her early and lasting connections to her birthplace of Puerto Rico and to the Bronx At about 12:40, Luivette describes her growing understanding of hyphenated identities and being part of the “Nuyorican culture” At about 16:45, Luivette lists some of the countless books she read as a kid At about 19:10, Luivette looks back on the dearth of writers of color to whom she was exposed as a kid and high schooler At about 20:15, Luivette describes Mrs. Quigley jostl[ing] some things” as Luivette At about 21:00, Luivette describes the wonderful and creative leadership and mentorship provided by Helena Maria Viramontes At about 22:40, Luivette cites Viramontes' leading Luivette to great Puerto Rican writers like Martin Espada and Judith Ortiz Cofer (Latin Deli) At about 24:30, Luivette references a few words that are particular to Puerto Rico that Martin Espada uses in his work that thrilled her At about 26:50, Pete tells the story about a banal and thrilling experience with Helena Maria Viramontes At about 28:00, Luivette responds to Pete's questions about transformational moments along the way to becoming a writer-she cites Helena Maria Viramontes' influence At about 31:50, Luivette shouts out Martin Espada (read Floaters!) and Pedro Pietri and as two of the many writers who inspire her At about 35:00, Pete and Luivette talk about precision with words and discuss Luivette's philosophy on poetry and how she is a poet on a daily basis At about 38:30, Luivette gives the seeds and background for her collection, which was “seven years in the making” At about 41:15, The two discuss the continuity of the collection At about 42:20, Luivette summarizes themes of Parts I and II in the collection and gives background on the process of splitting up the collection At about 45:25, The two discuss the collection's opening poem and ideas of the poet as speaker and connections to the ocean and the protectoress, as well as the forms of pantoum and her “Didactic” poems At about 50:40, Pete cites the masculine and feminine natures of the sea, as posed by Hemingway's Santiago At about 51:45, Inheritance is explored through some early poems in the collection and real-life connections to Luivette's mother and grandmother At about 57:55, Ideas of home and personality that come up in a few poems are referenced and discussed At about 59:40, Pete compliments the “fresh spin” that Luivette puts on ideas of sexism and misogyny At about 1:00:50, Luivette reads her poem “MILF” At about 1:02:00, Luivette connects ideas of home and father-daughter relationships with some of her work At about 1:04:00, Ideas of potential and hope and a lifesaving experience dramatized in Luivette's work are discussed At about 1:05:35, Home and identity and languages as themes are discussed At about 1:06:45, Luivette provides background on the writing of the title poem with help from Diana Marie Delgado At about 1:10:00, Pete cites some standout lines from the collection's second part, especially those revolving around intimacy and love and loss At about 1:12:20, Highlighting misogyny and ideas of the power of women as depicted in the poetry, Pete asks Luivette about the cool double-meaning of “coqueta” At about 1:13:50, Luivette reads the title poem You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave me a five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Stitcher, Spotify, and on Amazon Music. Follow me on IG, where I'm @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where I'm @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both my YouTube Channel and my podcast while you're checking out this episode. Sign up now for The Chills at Will Podcast Patreon: it can be found at patreon.com/chillsatwillpodcastpeterriehl Check out the page that describes the benefits of a Patreon membership, including cool swag and bonus episodes. Thanks in advance for supporting my one-man show, my DIY podcast and my extensive reading, research, editing, and promoting to keep this independent podcast pumping out high-quality content! This is a passion project of mine, a DIY operation, and I'd love for your help in promoting what I'm convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form. The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com. Please tune in for Episode 154 with Ian MacAllen, the author of Red Sauce: How Italian Food Became American. He is a writer, editor, and graphic designer living in Brooklyn. Pete can't wait to talk sauce and gravy and sugo. The episode will air on November 29.
Ellen Doré Watson speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about her poem “In Which Raging Weather is a Gift,” which appears in The Common's spring issue. Ellen talks about the importance of letting a poem surprise you as the first draft comes together. She also discusses her thoughts on the revision process, her work translating poetry and prose, and the years she spent running the Smith College Poetry Center. Ellen Doré Watson's fifth full-length collection is pray me stay eager. Her poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Tin House, Orion, and The New Yorker. She has translated a dozen books from Brazilian Portuguese, including the work of Adelia Prado. Watson served as poetry editor of The Massachusetts Review and director of the Poetry Center at Smith College for decades, and currently offers manuscript editing and workshops online. Read Ellen's poems in The Common at thecommononline.org/tag/ellen-dore-watson. The Common is a print and online literary magazine publishing stories, essays, and poems that deepen our collective sense of place. On our podcast and in our pages, The Common features established and emerging writers from around the world. Read more and subscribe to the magazine at thecommononline.org, and follow us on Twitter @CommonMag. Emily Everett is managing editor of the magazine and host of the podcast. Her debut novel is forthcoming from Putnam Books. Her stories appear in the Kenyon Review, Electric Literature, Tin House Online, and Mississippi Review. She is a 2022 Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellow. Say hello on Twitter @Public_Emily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
Ellen Doré Watson speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about her poem “In Which Raging Weather is a Gift,” which appears in The Common's spring issue. Ellen talks about the importance of letting a poem surprise you as the first draft comes together. She also discusses her thoughts on the revision process, her work translating poetry and prose, and the years she spent running the Smith College Poetry Center. Ellen Doré Watson's fifth full-length collection is pray me stay eager. Her poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Tin House, Orion, and The New Yorker. She has translated a dozen books from Brazilian Portuguese, including the work of Adelia Prado. Watson served as poetry editor of The Massachusetts Review and director of the Poetry Center at Smith College for decades, and currently offers manuscript editing and workshops online. Read Ellen's poems in The Common at thecommononline.org/tag/ellen-dore-watson. The Common is a print and online literary magazine publishing stories, essays, and poems that deepen our collective sense of place. On our podcast and in our pages, The Common features established and emerging writers from around the world. Read more and subscribe to the magazine at thecommononline.org, and follow us on Twitter @CommonMag. Emily Everett is managing editor of the magazine and host of the podcast. Her debut novel is forthcoming from Putnam Books. Her stories appear in the Kenyon Review, Electric Literature, Tin House Online, and Mississippi Review. She is a 2022 Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellow. Say hello on Twitter @Public_Emily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies
Ellen Doré Watson speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about her poem “In Which Raging Weather is a Gift,” which appears in The Common's spring issue. Ellen talks about the importance of letting a poem surprise you as the first draft comes together. She also discusses her thoughts on the revision process, her work translating poetry and prose, and the years she spent running the Smith College Poetry Center. Ellen Doré Watson's fifth full-length collection is pray me stay eager. Her poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Tin House, Orion, and The New Yorker. She has translated a dozen books from Brazilian Portuguese, including the work of Adelia Prado. Watson served as poetry editor of The Massachusetts Review and director of the Poetry Center at Smith College for decades, and currently offers manuscript editing and workshops online. Read Ellen's poems in The Common at thecommononline.org/tag/ellen-dore-watson. The Common is a print and online literary magazine publishing stories, essays, and poems that deepen our collective sense of place. On our podcast and in our pages, The Common features established and emerging writers from around the world. Read more and subscribe to the magazine at thecommononline.org, and follow us on Twitter @CommonMag. Emily Everett is managing editor of the magazine and host of the podcast. Her debut novel is forthcoming from Putnam Books. Her stories appear in the Kenyon Review, Electric Literature, Tin House Online, and Mississippi Review. She is a 2022 Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellow. Say hello on Twitter @Public_Emily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature
Ellen Doré Watson speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about her poem “In Which Raging Weather is a Gift,” which appears in The Common's spring issue. Ellen talks about the importance of letting a poem surprise you as the first draft comes together. She also discusses her thoughts on the revision process, her work translating poetry and prose, and the years she spent running the Smith College Poetry Center. Ellen Doré Watson's fifth full-length collection is pray me stay eager. Her poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Tin House, Orion, and The New Yorker. She has translated a dozen books from Brazilian Portuguese, including the work of Adelia Prado. Watson served as poetry editor of The Massachusetts Review and director of the Poetry Center at Smith College for decades, and currently offers manuscript editing and workshops online. Read Ellen's poems in The Common at thecommononline.org/tag/ellen-dore-watson. The Common is a print and online literary magazine publishing stories, essays, and poems that deepen our collective sense of place. On our podcast and in our pages, The Common features established and emerging writers from around the world. Read more and subscribe to the magazine at thecommononline.org, and follow us on Twitter @CommonMag. Emily Everett is managing editor of the magazine and host of the podcast. Her debut novel is forthcoming from Putnam Books. Her stories appear in the Kenyon Review, Electric Literature, Tin House Online, and Mississippi Review. She is a 2022 Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellow. Say hello on Twitter @Public_Emily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/poetry
Ellen Doré Watson speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about her poem “In Which Raging Weather is a Gift,” which appears in The Common's spring issue. Ellen talks about the importance of letting a poem surprise you as the first draft comes together. She also discusses her thoughts on the revision process, her work translating poetry and prose, and the years she spent running the Smith College Poetry Center. Ellen Doré Watson's fifth full-length collection is pray me stay eager. Her poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Tin House, Orion, and The New Yorker. She has translated a dozen books from Brazilian Portuguese, including the work of Adelia Prado. Watson served as poetry editor of The Massachusetts Review and director of the Poetry Center at Smith College for decades, and currently offers manuscript editing and workshops online. Read Ellen's poems in The Common at thecommononline.org/tag/ellen-dore-watson. The Common is a print and online literary magazine publishing stories, essays, and poems that deepen our collective sense of place. On our podcast and in our pages, The Common features established and emerging writers from around the world. Read more and subscribe to the magazine at thecommononline.org, and follow us on Twitter @CommonMag. Emily Everett is managing editor of the magazine and host of the podcast. Her debut novel is forthcoming from Putnam Books. Her stories appear in the Kenyon Review, Electric Literature, Tin House Online, and Mississippi Review. She is a 2022 Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellow. Say hello on Twitter @Public_Emily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Poet and professor Evie Shockley introduces poems woven together by a subtle thread of committed attention to place and what happens there—the places of language, self, ancestry, and tragedy. She introduces Mónica de la Torre engaging with languages as wild topography ("Is to Travel Getting to or Being in a Destination"), Marilyn Chin uncovering the political territory of the self ("A Portrait of Self as Nation: 1990-1991"), and Nikky Finney channeling the ancestors into the present ("The Girlfriend's Train"). Shockley closes with poem that sits with the terrible resonances of place names turned into a catalog of violence ("les milles").Find the full recordings of de la Torre, Chin, and Finney reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Mónica de la Torre (2008)Marilyn Chin (1996)Nikky Finney (2019)You can also watch a 2019 recording of Evie Shockley reading work commissioned as part of the Poetry Center's Art for Justice series.Have you checked out the new Voca interface? It's easier than ever to browse readings, and individual tracks can be shared. Many readings now include captions and transcripts, and we're working hard to make sure every reading will have these soon.
Undisciplinary writer and translator JD Pluecker curates recordings that circle around themes of return, transformation, history, and the future. Pluecker introduces Joy Harjo finding what remains in the wreckage (“New Orleans”), Andrea Lawlor considering how one thing turns into another (excerpt from “Paul Take the Form of a Mortal Girl”), and C.D. Wright turning herself into an ancestor (“Our Dust”). Pluecker closes by reading “Return Unsettlement,” which asks whether anything is ever quite gone or has ever quite arrived.Enjoy the full recordings of Harjo, Lawlor, and Wright reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Joy Harjo (1987)Andrea Lawlor (2019)C.D. Wright (2000)You can also watch a recording of JD Pluecker reading in 2019 as part of the language experimentation collective Antena Aire, in collaboration with Myriam Moscona. Have you checked out the new Voca interface? It's easier than ever to browse readings, and individual tracks can be shared. Many readings now include captions and transcripts, and we're working hard to make sure every reading will have these soon.
Former U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera shares poems that consider the questions, what exactly is poetry? What does it do? Herrera crafts an expansive answer to these questions through Marvin Bell's reflection on poetry as philosophy (“The Poem”), Denise Levertov's engagement with truth in sacred spaces (“The Day the Audience Walked Out on Me, and Why”), and Lorna Dee Cervantes's assertion that poetry is the force and form of resistance (“From the Bus to E.L. at Atascadero State Hospital”). To close, Herrera shares his poem “For George Floyd, Who Was a Great Man,” a work that encapsulates humanity, compassion, action, and protest. You can listen to the full recordings of Bell, Levertov, and Cervantes reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Marvin Bell (1977)Denise Levertov (1973) Lorna Dee Cervantes (1991)You can also enjoy two recordings of Juan Felipe Herrera on Voca, from 1993 and 2009.Have you checked out the new Voca interface? It's easier than ever to browse readings, and individual tracks can be shared. Many readings now include captions and transcripts, and we're working hard to make sure every reading will have these soon.
Matthew Zapruder selects poems that employ the powers of song, memory, and imagination as points of reflection and comfort amidst the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He shares Adam Zagajewski conjuring a life lost to his family (“To Go to Lvov”), Gerald Stern recognizing the fortunate circumstances of his domestic and writing lives (“Lucky Life”), and Li-Young Lee traversing his own psychic landscape (“I Loved You Before I Was Born”). Zapruder closes by reading his “Poem for Passengers,” which celebrates public spaces and the momentary relief from differences they can afford.You can find the full recordings of Zagajewski, Stern, and Lee reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Adam Zagajewski (1989)Gerald Stern (1983)Li-Young Lee (2020)You can also watch a reading by Zapruder for the Poetry Center from 2019.
Khadijah Queen homes in on her selections by following three keywords through the archive: disobedience, Detroit, and joy. She introduces Rachel Zucker's lecture on the confessional mode in poetry (“What We Talk About When We Talk About the Confessional and What We Should Be Talking About”), francine j. harris's lyric dense with complicated emotions (“katherine with the lazy eye. short. and not a good poet.”), and Monica Sok's poem of gentle power in the face of trauma (“The Woman Who Was Small, Not Because the World Expanded”). Queen closes by reading “Declination,” which approaches her chosen keywords through the lens of making art. Watch the full recordings of Zucker, harris, and Sok reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Rachel Zucker, lecture (2016)francine j. harris (2015)Monica Sok (2020)You can also find a reading by Khadijah Queen on Voca, which was given in 2016.
Sara Borjas introduces poems that focus on the connections between a particular, collective ‘us'—people connected by lineage or language, by place, or by the acts of writing and reading. She shares Layli Long Soldier's exploration of wholeness and mother-daughter relationships (“WHEREAS her birth signaled…”), Juan Felipe Herrera's centering of people and complexity (“Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way”), and Richard Siken's breaking of the fourth wall to implicate the reader (“Planet of Love”). To close, Borjas reads her poem “Narcissus Complicates an Old Plot,” a celebration of mothers and daughters, language, and community rooted in place.Watch the full recordings of Long Soldier, Herrera, and Siken reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Layli Long Soldier (2017)Juan Felipe Herrera (2009)Richard Siken (2002)Transcripts for each episode are available here. Click on the episode title, then click on the transcript tab at the bottom of the player. Poems are transcribed as read and do not represent the published work.
Chet'la Sebree leads us to acknowledge liminal spaces, those places that are not quite one thing or another, moments of transition and not-yet that have become so familiar to us throughout the pandemic. Sebree introduces Camille T. Dungy's recognition that grief relentlessly intrudes on joy (“Notes on What Is Always with Us”), Brenda Shaughnessy's reflection on the difficulties of understanding time (“Three Summers Mark Only Two Years”), and Ada Limón's transformative rendering of relationships (“What I Didn't Know Before”). Sebree closes with a new poem of her own on liminality, “Blue Opening.” Watch the full recordings of Dungy, Shaughnessy, and Limón reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Camille T. Dungy (2016)Brenda Shaughnessy (2005)Ada Limón (2018)
Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN to my January 18th, 2022 WIOX show featuring Maria Mazziotti Gillan, poet, teacher, artist and visionary founder of the renowned Poetry Center at the Passaic Community College in Patterson, N.J., on her new book, When the Stars Were Still Visible. Planet Poet's erudite and endlessly interesting Poet-At-Large Pamela Manché Pearce also joins us with her musings on poetry, art and life. On When the Stars Were Still Visible “… It is as if this book rose out of an alchemist's compound comprised of Calabrian limestone and the cement of the back stoop on 17th Street in Paterson, New Jersey, where Mazziotti Gillan grew up. By the end of this poignant and resonant book, the poet accepts her double heritage with all is pain and obstacles and with all its beauty and grace.” – Stephen F Austin State University Press, Nacogdoches, Texas Maria Mazziotti Gillan, American Book Award recipient for All That Lies Between Us (Guernica Editions) and author of twenty-four books, founded the Poetry Center in Paterson, NJ, is editor of the Paterson Literary Review and is Professor Emerita of English and creative writing at Binghamton University- SUNY. Her newest poetry collection is When the Stars Were Still Visible (Stephen F. Austin University Press, 2021). Other recent publications include What Blooms in Winter (NYQ 2016) and the poetry and photography collaboration with Mark Hillringhouse, Paterson Light and Shadow (Serving House Books, 2017).
Anthony Cody selects poems that ask hard questions about war, borders, gender, power, US history, and ourselves—questions asked in order to remind us of the discomfort necessary for change on individual and collective levels. Cody shares Pat Mora's inversion of relationships between speaker and audience, pursuer and pursued (“La Migra”), Michael S. Harper's use of staccato repetition to sear atrocity into memory (“A White Friend Flies in from the Coast”), and Diana García's revelation of truths that span generations (Excerpts from “Serpentine Voices”). Cody closes with his translation of Juan Felipe Herrera's “Dudo las Luces / I Question the Lights,” which draws attention to the forgotten in our political landscape.You can find the full recordings of Mora, Harper, and García reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Pat Mora (1996)Michael S. Harper (1973)Diana García (2002)
Wendy Xu curates poems that underscore the necessity of attention for the writing of poems, reminding us that to write is to think, to look, and to be present. She introduces James Tate on bending reality through attention to everything (“Rescue”), Mei-mei Berssenbrugge on the connection between the spiritual and the somatic (“Hello, the Roses”), and Joyelle McSweeney on being unafraid of excess (“Percussion Grenade”). Xu closes with her poem “Why Write,” which engages with the past as a living, risky force.You can find the full recordings of Tate, Berssenbrugge, and McSweeney reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:James Tate (1968)Mei-mei Berssenbrugge (2010)Joyelle McSweeney (2012)
Listen to an awe inspiring and uplifting chat with Joanne Gabbin, the first black professor in the English Department at JMU with a building on campus recently named after her. Hear her rich stories that lead her to establish the nation's first academic center for Black poetry and the changes she's seen in her 36 years at James Madison University. Listen to the degree options available to her in the early 1960s and how her student path in journalism had lead to her first job. Hear the story about the JMU Honors program she directed that grew to almost 600 students and the incredible story of a student who said she ‘kicked him out of the honors program'. Hear her thoughts and wisdom on what makes a good writer and how she structures her Life Writing Class. Find out what influenced her to become a literary activist, what her message is and what she believes it teaches us. Discover why she wrote a book on Sterling A. Brown, a highly influential professor at Howard University from 1929-1969 and the “curious thing” he said to her when she handed him the book. Hear more about the famous poets she's worked with on programs and events including Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, Toni Morrison and Gwendolyn Brooks to name a few. Find out the inspiration behind the naming of the Furious Flower Poetry Center; this year's $1000 Poetry Prize for Emerging Writers; the upcoming Collegiate Summit and more! Most definitely not short of stories this episode is filled with oodles of inspiration for you. Enjoy! Furious Flower Poetry Center www.jmu.edu/furiousflower Facebook: Furious Flower Poetry Center Instagram: @furiousflowerpoetrycenterjmu Twitter: @FuriousFlowerPC Visit or Contact Them: Cardinal House 500 Cardinal Harrisonburg, VA 22807 540.568.883 furiousflower@jmu.edu Poetry Prize For Emerging Writers: Deadline to Submit February 15, 2022 https://www.jmu.edu/furiousflower/poetryprize/index.shtml Furious Flower Collegiate Summit 2022: March 3-4, 2022 https://www.jmu.edu/furiousflower/collegiate-summit/index.shtml To learn more about X2 Comedy visit: https://www.x2comedy.com/ Facebook & Instagram: X2 Comedy
In February of 2018, the Bagley Wright Lecture Series and the University of Arizona Poetry Center co-hosted a three-day conference called, "You Are Who I'm Talking To: Poetry, Attention, & Audience," featuring reading, talks, and conversations between the first six BWLS lecturers, Joshua Beckman, Dorothea Lasky, Timothy Donnelly, Srikanth Reddy, Rachel Zucker, and Terrance Hayes. This fall we are sharing recordings of some of these events. Today's episode features a panel on Poetry & Non-Literary Influence, comprised of Timothy Donnelly, Terrance Hayes, & Matthew Zapruder. Thank you to the U of A Poetry Center for partnering with us. To view additional events from this conference, visit Voca, UAPC's audiovisual archive.
In February of 2018, the Bagley Wright Lecture Series and the University of Arizona Poetry Center co-hosted a three-day conference called, "You Are Who I'm Talking To: Poetry, Attention, & Audience," featuring reading, talks, and conversations between the first six BWLS lecturers, Joshua Beckman, Dorothea Lasky, Timothy Donnelly, Srikanth Reddy, Rachel Zucker, and Terrance Hayes. This fall we are sharing recordings of some of these events. Today's episode features a panel on Poetry & Autobiography, comprised of Joshua Beckman, Dorothea Lasky, Srikanth Reddy, & Rachel Zucker. Thank you to the U of A Poetry Center for partnering with us. To view additional events from this conference, visit Voca, UAPC's audiovisual archive.
Eduardo C. Corral introduces recordings by poets who create and encourage possibilities for others through their inquisitive teaching, their artistic commitment to mystery, or by being fully themselves. He celebrates Beckian Fritz Goldberg's dedication to delight and surprise (“The Possibilities”), Bei Dao's inscrutability for the way it affirms the human condition (“Landscape Over Zero”), and Francisco X. Alarcón's generous spirit and embodiment of what a poet can look like (“Ode to Tomatoes”). To close, Corral reads his poem “To Francisco X. Alarcón,” delving into the impact this elder poet has had on his own writing life. You can find the full recordings of Goldberg, Dao, and Alarcón reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Beckian Fritz Goldberg (1994)Bei Dao with Dennis Evans (1999)Francisco X. Alarcón (2008) Watch a 2013 reading by Corral on Voca, as well as a reading given with Natalie Diaz at Tucson High Magnet School, which includes an extensive Q&A with students.
In February of 2018, the Bagley Wright Lecture Series and the University of Arizona Poetry Center co-hosted a three-day conference called, "You Are Who I'm Talking To: Poetry, Attention, & Audience," featuring reading, talks, and conversations between the first six BWLS lecturers, Joshua Beckman, Dorothea Lasky, Timothy Donnelly, Srikanth Reddy, Rachel Zucker, and Terrance Hayes. This fall we are sharing recordings of some of these events. Today: a panel on Poetry & Practice, comprised of Joshua Beckman, Dorothea Lasky, and Srikanth Reddy. Thank you to the U of A Poetry Center for partnering with us. To view additional events from this conference, visit Voca, UAPC's audiovisual archive.
Nathan Hoks's most recent book, Nests in Air, was published in 2021 by Black Ocean Press. Previous books include Reveilles (winner of Salt Publishing's Crashaw Prize), The Narrow Circle (winner of the National Poetry Series), and the chapbook Moony Days of Being (winner of the Tomaž Šalamun Prize). He has also published translations of work by Vicente Huidobro, Christian Dotremont, and Henri Michaux. In 2018 Hoks was a poet-in-residence at the Tomaž Šalamun Poetry Center in Ljubljana, and he has also held residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and the Millay Colony for the Arts. Hoks occasionally works as an editor and letterpress printer for Convulsive Editions, and teaches creative writing at the University of Chicago and in the MFA in Writing program at the School of the Art Institute. Books mentioned in the interview: Wuthering Heights and Will Alexander's Across the Vapor Gulf.
Sumita Chakraborty curates poems that draw our attention to the overlooked: to the body's cycles, to cruelty, to deep attention, to trauma and what comes after. She introduces Lucille Clifton on accepting change and growth (“to my last period”), Ai on the link between violence and loss (“Cruelty”), and Nora Naranjo Morse on vulnerability as potential blessing (“Sometimes I Am a Sponge”). Chakraborty closes by reading her own exploration of the complexities of PTSD, written to an extraterrestrial audience: “The B-Sides of the Golden Records, Track Five: ‘Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.'”You can find the full recordings of Clifton, Ai, and Naranjo Morse reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Lucille Clifton (2007)Ai (1972)Nora Naranjo Morse (1992)
In February of 2018, the Bagley Wright Lecture Series and the University of Arizona Poetry Center co-hosted a three-day conference called, "You Are Who I'm Talking To: Poetry, Attention, & Audience," featuring reading, talks, and conversations between the first six BWLS lecturers, Joshua Beckman, Dorothea Lasky, Timothy Donnelly, Srikanth Reddy, Rachel Zucker, and Terrance Hayes. Over the next few months we'll be sharing recordings of some of these events, beginning with this one: a panel on Poetry & Social Engagement. This panel is comprised of Terrance Hayes, Timothy Donnelly, former BWLS director Matthew Zapruder, and Rachel Zucker. Thank you to the U of A Poetry Center for partnering with us. To view additional events from this conference, visit Voca, UAPC's audiovisual archive.
Silvina López Medin introduces poems that reflect on the writing process and the openings we encounter therein when boundaries blur between speaker and listener, creator and creation. She shares Robert Hass on going to the movies and Greek rhetorical devices (“Heroic Simile”), Adélia Prado on the earthy charms of poetry (“Seduction,” read by Prado's translator Ellen Doré Watson), and Anne Carson on making marks (“Short Talk On Homo Sapiens”). López Medin concludes with her poem “I Am Writing This in My Head, My Hands Inside Gloves That Don't Match,” which considers how the lost lingers in what remains.You can find the full recordings of Hass, Prado as read by Watson, and Carson reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Robert Hass (1979)Adélia Prado, read by her translator Ellen Doré Watson (1992)Anne Carson (2001)
Adam O. Davis selects and shares poems that engage with journeys—across time, through mystery, into the past, or to shape a future. He introduces Nathaniel Mackey meditating on eternal questions (“Glenn on Monk's Mountain”), Maurya Simon reminding us that the dead surround and sustain us (“El Día de los Muertos”), and Robert Creeley poignantly speaking across time (“I Know a Man”). Davis closes by reading his poem “Interstate Highway System,” his own plea for living sparked by a 2015 road trip across America.You can find the full recordings of Nathaniel Mackey, Maurya Simon, and Robert Creeley reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Nathaniel Mackey with jazz pianist Marilyn Crispell (2013)Maurya Simon (2019)Robert Creeley (1963)Check out Davis's Index of Haunted Houses Hotline by calling 619-329-5757.
Adrian Matejka reflects on cruelty as manifested in American institutions, history, private lives, and the public realm of the past year. He opens with Ai's invocation of the human hunger for violence (“Cruelty”), Lucille Clifton's deft blending of imagery and wisdom (“cruelty. don't talk to me about cruelty”), and Al Young's meditation on American cruelty as it begins with slavery (“The Slave Ship Desire”). To close, Matejka reads his poem “Somebody Else Sold the World,” which considers the complexities of cruelty in the context of the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020.Listen to the full recordings of Ai, Clifton, and Young reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Ai (1972)Lucille Clifton (1983)Al Young (1997) You can also watch a 2016 reading by Adrian Matejka on Voca.
Maria Mazziotti Gillan is a recipient of the 2014 George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature from AWP (Association of Writers & Writing Programs), the 2011 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award from Poets & Writers and the 2008 American Book Award for her book, All That Lies Between Us (Guernica Editions). She is the Founder and Executive Director of the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College in Paterson, NJ, and editor of the Paterson Literary Review. Maria Gillan is Bartle Professor and Professor Emerita of English and creative writing at Binghamton University-SUNY. She has published more than twenty books of and about poetry, and has edited four anthologies. Her most recent book is When the Stars Were Still Visible (Stephen F. Austin University Press, 2021) Find more info and all of Maria's books here: http://www.mariagillan.com/ As always, we'll also include live open lines for responses to our weekly prompt or any other poems you'd like to share. For details on how to participate, either via Skype or by phone, go to: https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/ This Week's Prompt: At the library. Next Week's Prompt: I love the way Joni Mitchell's song “Circle Game” uses the image of a carousel to illustrate the passing of childhood. Choose a symbol we associate with childhood innocence--a teddy bear, a jump rope, etc.—and let your poem unfold from there. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.
Joanna Klink curates poems that blend dream and waking, sparking ordinary life with visionary fire. She shares Jon Anderson wrestling with the desire to walk away (“In Autumn”), Sherwin Bitsui's haunting epic of water (“Flood Song”), and Linda Gregg's dreamscape of life without loneliness (“Alma to Her Sister”). Klink closes by reading her poem “On Diminishment,” an intimate, interior landscape of silences and withheld speech.You can find the full recordings of Anderson, Bitsui, and Gregg reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Jon Anderson (1984)Sherwin Bitsui, as part of “Multilingual Poetry of the Southwest” (2010)Linda Gregg (1981)
This week, Ashley M. Jones speaks with one of the most important mentors in her life: poet and scholar Dr. Donna Aza Weir-Soley. They speak about protest and power, Weir-Soley's mentor Audre Lorde, and the legacies they inhabit and continue as Black poets writing toward liberation. Weir-Soley met Audre Lorde as a student at Hunter College, and came to run the Audre Lorde Women's Poetry Center. Today, they invite Lorde into the room with the poem, “Power.” You'll also hear “8 Minutes and 46 seconds,” by Weir-Soley, which appears in the July/August issue of Poetry magazine.
Bojan Louis shares poems that embody deep listening and engagement with particular realities. He introduces Alan Dugan’s grasp of each moment’s truth (“Love Song: I and Thou”); Layli Long Soldier’s poetry of image, witness, and ways of being (“WHEREAS her birth signaled…”); and Angel Nafis’s critical song that speaks to community (“Ghazal to Open Cages”). Louis closes with a recently published ghazal (“Ghazal VI”) of his own.Listen to the full recordings of Dugan, Long Soldier, and Nafis reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Alan Dugan (1966)Layli Long Solider (2017)Angel Nafis (2019) Listen to a 2019 reading by Bojan Louis on Voca.
Peggy Robles-Alvarado introduces poems that embody complex identities with honesty, exuberance, and strength. She shares Toi Derricotte’s frank look at the experience of shifting from woman to mother (“Delivery”), Judith Ortiz Cofer’s reckoning with leaving childhood behind (“Quinceañera”), and Ada Limón’s celebration of self-worth and self-pride (“How to Triumph Like a Girl”). Robles-Alvarado concludes with her own poem “Stunting,” a piece sparked by exploring the archive and reflecting on the restorative power of poetry.Listen to the full recordings of Derricotte, Ortiz Cofer, and Limón reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Toi Derricotte (1992)Judith Ortiz Cofer (1991) Ada Limón (2018)
Allison Adelle Hedge Coke curates poems by writers who have influenced her own writing through their creative leadership, mentoring, or poetics of belonging. She introduces Juan Felipe Herrera’s invitation to a spirit of generosity and care (“Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way”), Quincy Troupe’s musically attuned tribute to his father (“Poem for My Father”), and Arthur Sze’s transformative vision that unites intelligence with grace (“Adamant”). To close, Hedge Coke reads her poem “Ghost,” acknowledging the role voices from the past can play as educators for the living.Watch the full recordings of Herrera, Troupe, and Sze reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Juan Felipe Herrera (2008)Quincy Troupe (2001)Arthur Sze (2019)You can also watch a celebration of Sing: Poetry from the Indigenous Americas (2011), an anthology edited by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, on Voca.
Francisco Aragón shares poems alive with the vibrancy of a particular voice addressed to a particular audience. He introduces Francisco X. Alarcón’s bittersweet homage to a poetic ancestor (“Hernando Ruiz de Alarcón”), Thom Gunn’s farewell address to a beloved fellow writer (“To Isherwood Dying”), and Denise Levertov’s mythic, ecstatic monologue on transformation (“A Tree Telling of Orpheus”). Aragón concludes the episode with a direct address of his own that challenges Arizona’s SB 1070 (“Poem with a Phrase of Isherwood”). Listen to the full recordings of Alarcón, Gunn, and Levertov reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Francisco X. Alarcón (2008)Thom Gunn (1986)Denise Levertov (1973)
Jane Hirshfield curates poems that look into the abyss with brave clarity and complex humility. Hirshfield shares Eavan Boland’s probing into the place of shadows that history passes by (“Quarantine”), Miroslav Holub’s reminder that there is life and meaning beyond human precision (“Brief Thoughts on Exactness”), and Tomas Tranströmer’s marrying of the visionary and the vernacular (“Vermeer”). Hirshfield closes by reading her poem “Day Beginning with Seeing the International Space Station and a Full Moon Over the Gulf of Mexico and All Its Invisible Fishes.”Listen to the full recordings of Boland, Holub, and Tranströmer reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Eavan Boland (2003)Miroslav Holub (1988)Tomas Tranströmer (1988)Listen to a 1995 reading by Jane Hirshfield on Voca.
Douglas Kearney discusses recordings that give rise to reflections on human interaction and the potential for both connection and violence held there. Kearney introduces Rosa Alcalá as she uses found text to chart the shape of violence (“Are You Okay?"), Martín Espada as he encounters “reeling hyper-reality” in the courtroom (“City of Coughing and Dead Radiators”), and Ai as she pushes the limits between understanding and sympathizing with cruel narrators (“Abortion”). Kearney ends by reading a poem sparked by Fred Moten’s essay “Black Kant.”Listen to the full recordings of Alcalá, Espada, and Ai reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Rosa Alcalá (2020)Martín Espada (1992)Ai (1972)You can also find readings by Douglas Kearney on Voca, including his most recent with percussionist/electronic musician Val Jeanty, which was given as part of the Thinking Its Presence conference in 2017.
Cynthia Cruz introduces poems that mingle “the everyday with the mystical, the unreasonable,” the poems' meaning and beauty transcending the words themselves. Cruz considers the urgency of the quotidian in Denis Johnson’s “The Monk’s Insomnia,” the magical life a poem can carry within itself in Jon Anderson’s “Fox,” and negation as a place of beginning in Orlando White’s “Ats'íísts'in.” To close, Cruz reads “Hotel Letters,” a poem from a forthcoming collection. Listen to the full recordings of Johnson, Anderson, and White reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Denis Johnson (1993)Jon Anderson (1978)Orlando White, in a reading celebrating the anthology Sing: Poetry from the Indigenous Americas (2011)
One of the most profound days of my life was up a mountain in Sicilia. Eternal thanks to Stefania Taviano for taking me around her homeland, and to her ancestral land, of olive trees growing on steep slopes."Nerina” written by Annie Lanzillotto, was awarded an Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award Honorable Mention sponsored by the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College. Published in Paterson Literary Review #49, Editor Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Paterson, New Jersey, 2021.----------------------------------------------------------------This podcast series is a Street Cry Inc production.You can contribute to this series via PAYPAL at: StreetCryIncorporated@gmail.comStreet Cry Inc thanks our 2021 backers:Mike Fiorito, Audrey Kindred, Ron Raider, Ellynne Skove, Adele TravisanoSpecial Thanks Al Hemberger for audio production equipmentRose Imperato for her earJoanna Clapps Herman and Lucia Mudd for passaparola; getting out the word; Contact:StreetCryIncorporated@gmail.comwww.StreetCryInc.orgStreet Cry Inc, est. 2018, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, championing pluralism in society by creating works of literature, voice, and performance, and mentoring the artist in everyone. Your contributions are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"Nerina"text: Annie Rachele Lanzillotto © 2020audio performance: Annie Rachele Lanzillotto © 2021
Jack Jung shares poems in which he hears echoes of the themes, musicality, and imagery of Korean modernist poet Yi Sang. Shadow selves recur in each selection: Jung introduces early recordings of James Tate in 1968 on sparring with his shadow (“Shadowboxing”) and W.S. Merwin in 1969 reading a mythical poem about anti-creation (“The Last One”). He also discusses Sawako Nakayasu’s playful, desperate poem in which ants become a double of humans (“Battery”). Jung closes with his translation of Yi Sang’s “Crow’s Eye View, Poem No. 15,” which considers our shadow selves and provides what Jung calls a “much-needed lyrical recognition of our failures and suffering .”Listen to the full recordings of Tate, Nakayasu, and Merwin reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:James Tate (1968)Sawako Nakayasu (2007)W.S. Merwin (1969)
Michelle Whittaker presents recordings of poems that display their writers’ skill with both narrative and sound as they each consider the body as a site of conflict and grace. Whittaker considers the way Robert Hass employs sound to communicate strong emotion (“A Story About the Body”), connects with Ellen Bryant Voigt’s memories of seeing a family member’s scars (“Lesson”), and celebrates Michael S. Harper’s reflective pairing of narrative tension and cycling sounds (“The Borning Room”). To close, Whitaker reads her poem “In the Afterlight,” itself a complexly layered composition of sound and image. Listen to the full recordings of Hass, Voigt, and Harper reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Robert Hass (1984)Ellen Bryant Voigt (2003)Michael S. Harper (1973)
Oliver Baez Bendorf shares recordings of poets that encourage him to “show up in [his] own life” through both their poetry and the way they themselves move through the world as thinkers, activists, and people. He celebrates Trish Salah’s intelligence and generosity of mind (“Tiresias as Cuir (on the run)”), CAConrad’s expressiveness of voice and connection to the body (“I Hope I’m Loud When I’m Dead”), and Ching-In Chen’s call to reconsider histories (“dear story of a risk, 1878.”). Baez Bendorf closes by reading a poem written this summer, titled “Michigan,” inspired by the life and work of transgender activist Sylvia Rivera. Listen to the full recordings of Salah, CAConrad, and Chen reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Trish Salah (2017)CAConrad (2014)Ching-In Chen with the Thinking Its Presence Board (2017)
Randall Horton introduces poems that ask us to consider intensely difficult situations, seeing anew their complexity and the humanity of the people involved. He discusses Reginald Dwayne Betts’ exploration of the 1980s crack cocaine epidemic and mass incarceration (“The Invention of Crack”), Brian Turner’s masterful use of point of view (“2000 lbs.”), and Patricia Smith as an example of the way that poets can be instruments for change (“Sitting in my dimly lit cell…”). Horton closes by sharing his poem “Dear Aesthetic Beauty,” paired with music in a collaboration with guitarist Brendan Regan.Listen to the full recordings of Betts, Turner, and Smith reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Reginald Dwayne Betts (2017)Brian Turner (2006)Patricia Smith (2019)You can also find a reading by Randall Horton on Voca, which was given as part of our Art for Justice series in 2018.
Teaching artists from the Poetry Center’s Writing the Community program offer ideas for using recordings from Voca to inspire K-12 students. Kristen E. Nelson discusses the benefits of using a simple, concrete parameter—such as writing about the moon—for younger students. She shares moon poems by Al Young (“Excerpt from ‘About the 22 Moon Poems’” and “Moon of No Return”) and a student at Miles Exploratory Learning Center. Lisa M. O’Neill discusses the power of using lists and other forms of everyday writing familiar to students as an entry point to help students feel comfortable with writing poetry. She introduces a list poem by US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo (“For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet”) and shares two list poems written by students at the CAPE School that came out of an assignment inspired by Wang Ping’s poem “Things We Carry on the Sea.”Listen to the full recordings of Young and Harjo reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Al Young (1997) Joy Harjo (2016) Learn more about the Poetry Center’s education programs by visiting the Poetry Center online and clicking on the “Education” tab.
TC Tolbert shares recordings that express a willingness to be deeply present, including a poem by Akilah Oliver that records intimacy with grief (“Selections from the Putterer’s Notebook and ‘An Arriving Guard of Angels, Thusly Coming to Greet’”), a poem by Rigoberto González that brings exquisite specificity to a migrant’s narrative (“The Bordercrosser’s Pillowbook”), and a Marie Howe poem that demonstrates the power of staying with a constraint for as long as you can (“Magdalene—The Seven Devils”). Tolbert closes by reading “Dear Melissa,” an epistolary poem to an earlier self.Listen to the full recordings of Oliver, González, and Howe reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Akilah Oliver (2010)Rigoberto González (2010)Marie Howe (2012)Listen to a 2011 reading by TC Tolbert on Voca.
Maggie Smith approaches poems as a poet’s best teacher in this episode, calling poems “a conversation we have with our own minds.” Smith shares a poem by Donald Hall that shaped her early days of writing (“Gold”), a Lynn Emanuel poem that she prizes for its perfection of word choice (“Stone Soup”), and a prose poem by Jenny Boully that engages the listener through its forward momentum (“Tether”). Smith closes by reading her poem “Ohio Cento.” Listen to the full recordings of Hall, Emanuel, and Boully reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Donald Hall (1972)Lynn Emanuel (1993)Jenny Boully (2013)Listen to a 2018 reading by Maggie Smith on Voca.
Urayoán Noel introduces recordings of Ai engaging with war through necessary fury (“The Root Eater”), Lehua M. Taitano composing a lifeline to communities living with the legacies of colonialism (“A Love Letter to the Chamoru People in the Twenty-first Century”), Ofelia Zepeda on the untranslatability of song (“Ñeñe'i Ha-ṣa:gid / In the Midst of Songs”), and a fable of radical imagination by Gloria E. Anzaldúa (“Nepantla”). Noel ends the episode with his poem “Molecular Modular,” built around open-ended questions considering virality and modes of community.Listen to the full recordings of Ai, Taitano, Zepeda, and Anzaldúa reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Ai (1972)Lehua M. Taitano with the board of Thinking Its Presence (2017)Ofelia Zepeda (2015)Gloria E. Anzaldúa (1991)Listen to a performance by Urayoán Noel on Voca, presented as part of the Thinking Its Presence conference in 2017.
Hanif Abdurraqib presents poems that offer listeners an invitation to reflection via rich details, repetition, and rhythm. He discusses his admiration for Ross Gay’s tenderness (“To the Fig Tree on 9th and Christian”), shares a long poem by Juliana Spahr that creatively engages with the political (“Gentle Now, Don’t Add to Heartache”), and praises Yona Harvey’s tenderness and nuanced understanding of violence (“Hurricane”). Abdurraqib closes by reading his poem “Someone Brought You into This World and Someone Can Take You.”Listen to the full recordings of Gay, Spahr, and Harvey reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Ross Gay (2017)Juliana Spahr (2009)Yona Harvey (2014)
Rowan Ricardo Phillips is a poet, writer and literary and art critic - and sports writer! - who was born and raised in New York City. He is the author of the poetry collections The Ground (2012), Heaven (2015; a finalist for the National Book Award), and Living Weapon (2019). In addition to his collections of poetry, Phillips is author of the critical volume When Blackness Rhymes with Blackness (2010) where Uli has hosted him on his podcast on Great Books to talk about Phillis Wheatley, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and African American poetry in general. He translated Salvador Espriu’s story collection Ariadne in the Grotesque Labyrinth (2012) into English, and received a 2013 Whiting Writers’ Award, a PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award, the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award for Poetry, and a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship. A contributing writer at Artforum, he has taught at Columbia University, Harvard, Princeton, and at SUNY-Stony Brook, where he’s served as director of the Poetry Center. /////////////// Follow us: TWITTER - @ulibaer / @corklinedRoom INSTAGRAM - @ulinyc / @carolineweber2020 (PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE PODCAST) - @proust.questionnaire ROWAN RICARDO PHILLIPS - @rowanricardophillips //////////////// Listen to the Podcast on: APPLE PODCASTS - Proust Questionnaire Podcast SPOTIFY - Proust Questionnaire Podcast YOUTUBE: Ulrich Baer //////////////// Thanks for listening! :) Uli Baer & Caroline Weber.
Ada Limón shares poems that speak to finding a way forward through moments of crisis and struggle. She discusses Lorna Dee Cervantes on being courageous enough to be alone (“Crow”), the enduring relevance of poems written in a particular moment, like Mark Wunderlich’s “Peonies,” and Lucille Clifton’s anthem on need, defiance, and making it up as we go (“won’t you celebrate with me”). Limón closes by reading her poem “The End of Poetry,” published this spring in the New Yorker.Listen to the full recordings of Cervantes, Wunderlich, and Clifton reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Lorna Dee Cervantes (1991)Mark Wunderlich (1995)Lucille Clifton (1998)Listen to two readings by Ada Limón on Voca, including her most recent, which was given as part of our Art for Justice series in 2020.
Alison Hawthorne Deming introduces recordings of Diane Ackerman reading a love poem for an extraterrestrial (“Ode to the Alien”), Cornelius Eady choosing gratitude as a response to anger and racial discrimination (“Gratitude”), and N. Scott Momaday describing a memorable encounter with Georgia O’Keeffe (“Forms of the Earth at Abiquiu”). Deming also reads a new poem written during this time of quarantine and isolation, “Territory Drive,” originally published at Terrain.org.Listen to the full recordings of Ackerman, Eady, and Momaday reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Diane Ackerman (1985)Cornelius Eady (1991)N. Scott Momaday (1992)You can also find readings by Alison Hawthorne Deming on Voca, including her most recent, which was given as part of our Climate Change & Poetry series in 2017.
As children grow up and move away, the change can be painful. Maria Mazziotti Gillan is winner of the 2014 George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature from AWP, the 2011 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award from Poets & Writers, and the 2008 American Book Award for her book, All That Lies Between Us. She is the Founder/Executive Director of the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College, editor of the Paterson Literary Review, and director of the creative writing program/professor of English at Binghamton University-SUNY. She has published 23 books, including What Blooms in Winter (NYQ Books, 2016) and Paterson Light and Shadow (Serving House Books, 2017). Visit her website at www.mariagillan.com “What I Can’t Tell My Son,” is in The Silence in an Empty House, New York Quarterly Books, New York, NY.
Enjoy time on the Midway since life is unpredictable. Maria Mazziotti Gillan is winner of the 2014 George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature from AWP, the 2011 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award from Poets & Writers, and the 2008 American Book Award for her book, All That Lies Between Us. She is the Founder/Executive Director of the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College, editor of the Paterson Literary Review, and director of the creative writing program/professor of English at Binghamton University-SUNY. She has published 23 books, including What Blooms in Winter (NYQ Books, 2016) and Paterson Light and Shadow (Serving House Books, 2017). Visit her website at www.mariagillan.com . “Going to the World’s Fair, 1964” first appeared in The Silence in an Empty House, New York Quarterly Books, New York NY
Garrett J. Brown's first book of poems, Manna Sifting, won the Liam Rector First Book Prize from Briery Creek Press in 2009, and his chapbook, Cubicles, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2014. His other awards include first place in the Poetry Center of Chicago's Juried Reading, judged by Jorie Graham; runner-up in the Maryland Emerging Voices competition; and a Creative Writing Fellowship from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His poetry and creative nonfiction have appeared in The Black Warrior Review, Poetry East, TriQuarterly, Natural Bridge, The Account, and Passages North. He makes his home in Baltimore and is an Associate Professor at Anne Arundel Community College.
Chicago Poetry Center Executive Director, Beth Sampson, and Poet in Residence, Frankeim Mitchell, joined Jill Hopkins to talk about "No Love for Love" Valentines fundraiser on 2/13/20.
"She approaches words as reference points, rather than endpoints. By reimagining language, she exerts control over her sense of self.”—Los Angeles Review of Books ARISA WHITE is a Cave Canem fellow, Sarah Lawrence College alumna, an MFA graduate from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and author of the poetry chapbooks Disposition for Shininess, Post Pardon, Black Pearl, Perfect on Accident, and “Fish Walking” & Other Bedtime Stories for My Wife won the inaugural Per Diem Poetry Prize. Published by Virtual Artists Collective, her debut full-length collection, Hurrah’s Nest, was a finalist for the 2013 Wheatley Book Awards, 82nd California Book Awards, and nominated for a 44th NAACP Image Awards. Her second collection, A Penny Saved, inspired by the true-life story of Polly Mitchell, was published by Willow Books, an imprint of Aquarius Press in 2012. Her newest full-length collection, You’re the Most Beautiful Thing That Happened, was published by Augury Books and nominated for the 29th Lambda Literary Awards. Most recently, Arisa co-authored, with Laura Atkins, Biddy Mason Speaks Up, a middle-grade biography in verse on the midwife and philanthropist Bridget “Biddy” Mason, which is the second book in the Fighting for Justice series. Arisa was awarded a 2013-14 Cultural Funding grant from the City of Oakland to create the libretto and score for Post Pardon: The Opera, and received, in that same year, an Investing in Artists grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation to fund the dear Gerald project, which takes a personal and collective look at absent fathers. As the creator of the Beautiful Things Project, Arisa curates poetic collaborations that center narratives of women, queer, and trans people of color. Selected by the San Francisco Bay Guardian for the 2010 Hot Pink List, Arisa was a 2011-13 member of the PlayGround writers’ pool. Recipient of the inaugural Rose O’Neill Literary House summer residency at Washington College in Maryland, she has also received residencies, fellowships, or scholarships from The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, Juniper Summer Writing Institute, Headlands Center for the Arts, Port Townsend Writers’ Conference, Squaw Valley Community of Writers, Hedgebrook, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Prague Summer Program, Fine Arts Work Center, and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Nominated for Pushcart Prizes in 2005, 2014, 2016, and 2018, her poetry has been published widely and is featured on the recording WORD with the Jessica Jones Quartet. A native New Yorker, living in central Maine, Arisa serves on the board of directors for Foglifter and Nomadic Press and is an advisory board member for Gertrude. As a visiting scholar at San Francisco State University’s The Poetry Center in 2016, she developed a digital special collections on Black Women Poets in The Poetry Center Archives. Arisa is as an assistant professor in creative writing at Colby College. For booking inquiries, contact Allison Connor at Jack Jones Literary Arts.
Guest Erin Quick, Executive Director of the St. Louis Poetry Center, stops in to talk about the history of the organization, some of the notable past members, and how you can get involved!
Nothing changes the course of your life like the discovery of a fundamental truth. In the case of David Dickerson, that truth was the fact that women -- well, most women, anyway -- actually enjoy having their breasts touched! Astounding! Where that revelation led Dave is a story I'll leave to him, though anyone who attended the "Detours" show in August 2015 already knows the hilarious answer. From David's Odyssey bio: Recently returned Tucson native David Ellis Dickerson is an author, storyteller, and former greeting card writer who is a regular contributor to public radio's "This American Life," where he usually tells stories about his fundamentalist Christian upbringing. As the host of the YouTube channel "Greeting Card Emergency," he has also become the unofficial greeting card laureate of public radio, with interviews on Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, Talk of the Nation, Studio 360 and other shows. His greeting card memoir, "House of Cards," was published by Riverhead in 2009. A volunteer docent at the U of A Poetry Center, David currently writes, teaches, and looks under sofa cushions for spare change. This episode was performed and recorded in front of a live audience at The Screening Room in Tucson, AZ, on August 6th, 2015, and was curated by Carolyn Langford Hussein Fort. For more information about Odyssey Storytelling, please visit www.odysseystorytelling.com
Winner of the American Book Award and Director of The Poetry Center in Paterson, New Jersey
In September 2016, Odyssey's dual-themed "Forgiveness/Grudges" show featured a heartfelt story from Maggie Golston about learning to forgive her father, and longing for his forgiveness, in turn. From Maggie's Odyssey bio: Maggie Golston is a Writing and Humanities faculty member at Pima Community College. She earned an MFA at the University of Arizona and also studied as a PhD candidate at the University of Utah. Her work has appeared on a Kore Press broadside and in literary journals, including Ploughshares and Spork. Maggie has taught poetry and literature at the University of Arizona and the University of Utah, as well as Tucson's Poetry Center. From 2002-2006, she owned and operated Biblio, a bookstore and performance space in downtown Tucson. She is also a songwriter/musician. This episode was performed and recorded in front of a live audience at The Screening Room in Tucson, AZ, on September 1st, 2016, and was curated by Molly McCloy. For more information about Odyssey Storytelling, please visit www.odysseystorytelling.com
30 Minutes features a panel from the Pima County Public Library/ Nuestras Raices Presentation Stage from the 2017 Tucson Festival of Books entitled “Because…
01:04 - How Sara got involved with Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble. http://www.danztheatre.org 02:10 - What is an artistic director? 07:34 - Sara's time in London and her study of Dance Science. 18:24 - How did Sara start dancing? 22:29 - Sara's teaching style and experiences. 29:08 - Specific example of frustration in teaching. 35:25 - "Consumed," Sara's inaugural show with Chicago Danztheatre. http://www.danztheatre.org/consumed.html 44:56 - "Ethereal Abandonment." http://www.danztheatre.org/ethereal-abandonment.html 47:46 - Additional promotions: Variety shows with Edgewater Theatre District. https://www.edgewater.org/programs-and-events/theatre-district/ and Dance and poetry collaboration with Poetry Center of Chicago on Aug. 19th & 20th. http://www.poetrycenter.org Follow us on Twitter or Facebook Intro Music: "Are You Famous, Yet?" - Laura Scruggs. Outro Music: "The Devil Is In The Beats" - The Chemical Brothers
2017 Sacramento Poetry Center MLK Poetry Reading Hosted by Emmanuel Sigauke by NSAA 360
This episode: ARISA WHITE is a Cave Canem fellow, Sarah Lawrence College alumna, an MFA graduate from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and author of the poetry chapbooks Disposition for Shininess, Post Pardon, and Black Pearl. She was selected by the San Francisco Bay Guardian for the 2010 Hot Pink List and is a member of the PlayGround writers’ pool; her play Frigidare was staged for the 15th Annual Best of PlayGround Festival. A native New Yorker, living in Oakland, California, Arisa is a faculty advisor at Goddard College and was a visiting scholar at San Francisco State University’s The Poetry Center, where she developed a special collections on Black Women Poets in the Poetry Archives. Published by Virtual Artists Collective, her debut collection, Hurrah’s Nest, was a finalist for the 2013 Wheatley Book Awards, 82nd California Book Awards, and nominated for a 44th NAACP Image Awards. Her second collection, A Penny Saved, inspired by the true-life story of Polly Mitchell, was published by Willow Books, an imprint of Aquarius Press in 2012. Forthcoming in fall 2016 is the full-length collection You’re the Most Beautiful Thing That Happened from Augury Books. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Larry O. Dean was born and raised in Flint, Michigan. As a young man, he worked with Academy Award-winning filmmaker, Michael Moore, published essays and reviews on popular culture in the alternative press, and also cartooned for fanzines and other underground outlets. He attended the University of Michigan, where he won three Hopwood Awards in Creative Writing, along with fellow poets John Ciardi, Robert Hayden, Jane Kenyon, and Frank O’Hara, among others; and Murray State University’s low-residency MFA program. He teaches creative writing, literature, and composition as an adjunct English instructor, and is a Poet-in-Residence in the Chicago Public Schools through the Poetry Center of Chicago’s Hands on Stanzas program. He was a recipient of the Gwendolyn Brooks Award for teaching excellence in 2004.
Recorded at the University of Arizona Poetry Center, we catch up with Executive Director, Tyler Meier, to talk about the intersection between poetry and physical space. A living archive, the Poetry Center is home to exclusive written works, one-of-a-kind photo collections, a vast library of multimedia recordings, and more. So get cozy, grab your favorite pair of headphones and listen to our conversation with Tyler Meier as he walks us through the history of the Poetry Center over the years, and the evolution of poetry from individual art form, to a genre of creative and public collaboration. Plus, learn about the Poetry Center’s exciting lecture series, programs, and new initiatives for 2015-16.
September 5th marked the 102 anniversary of the birth of the American avant-garde composer, artist, and writer, John Cage. The man, who said, “I have nothing to say, I am saying it, and that is poetry,” received much acclaim for his poetic works, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an appointment as the Charles Elliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University for the 1988’-89’ academic year. His lectures have been published by Harvard University Press under the title I-IV. One afternoon in March, 1992, at the same time the artist had a visual exhibition up at the Museum of Contemporary Art, he performed a reading at The Poetry Center of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. From that appearance, originally recorded by WFMT for broadcast on WFMT, we will hear John Cage reading his 1991 work titled “Overpopulation and Art.”
Native American poet Simon Ortiz reads at the University of Arizona in 1975. The recording is used with permission of the University of Arizona Poetry Center and Simon Ortiz. The full recording, and many others, are permanently available on voca, the Poetry Center's online audio video library.
Kathleen Fraser's newest collection, m o v a b l e TYYPE, foregrounds texts from four recently produced Artist Books. Her collected essays, Translating the Unspeakable: Poetry and the Innovative Necessity, is in its second printing. She edited and co-founded the journal HOW(ever) and in 2001, launched its on-line version, How2. While director of The Poetry Center, Fraser founded The American Poetry Archives at San Francisco State University where she taught in the Graduate Writing Program for 20 years. Her honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship and two NEA fellowships. She has published 16 volumes of poetry and seven collaborative Artist Books, recently collected by the Bienecke Library at Yale. Her work has been translated widely in Italian and French. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 24346]
Kathleen Fraser’s newest collection, m o v a b l e TYYPE, foregrounds texts from four recently produced Artist Books. Her collected essays, Translating the Unspeakable: Poetry and the Innovative Necessity, is in its second printing. She edited and co-founded the journal HOW(ever) and in 2001, launched its on-line version, How2. While director of The Poetry Center, Fraser founded The American Poetry Archives at San Francisco State University where she taught in the Graduate Writing Program for 20 years. Her honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship and two NEA fellowships. She has published 16 volumes of poetry and seven collaborative Artist Books, recently collected by the Bienecke Library at Yale. Her work has been translated widely in Italian and French. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 24346]
Kathleen Fraser’s newest collection, m o v a b l e TYYPE, foregrounds texts from four recently produced Artist Books. Her collected essays, Translating the Unspeakable: Poetry and the Innovative Necessity, is in its second printing. She edited and co-founded the journal HOW(ever) and in 2001, launched its on-line version, How2. While director of The Poetry Center, Fraser founded The American Poetry Archives at San Francisco State University where she taught in the Graduate Writing Program for 20 years. Her honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship and two NEA fellowships. She has published 16 volumes of poetry and seven collaborative Artist Books, recently collected by the Bienecke Library at Yale. Her work has been translated widely in Italian and French. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 24346]
Kathleen Fraser’s newest collection, m o v a b l e TYYPE, foregrounds texts from four recently produced Artist Books. Her collected essays, Translating the Unspeakable: Poetry and the Innovative Necessity, is in its second printing. She edited and co-founded the journal HOW(ever) and in 2001, launched its on-line version, How2. While director of The Poetry Center, Fraser founded The American Poetry Archives at San Francisco State University where she taught in the Graduate Writing Program for 20 years. Her honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship and two NEA fellowships. She has published 16 volumes of poetry and seven collaborative Artist Books, recently collected by the Bienecke Library at Yale. Her work has been translated widely in Italian and French. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 24346]
Kathleen Fraser’s newest collection, m o v a b l e TYYPE, foregrounds texts from four recently produced Artist Books. Her collected essays, Translating the Unspeakable: Poetry and the Innovative Necessity, is in its second printing. She edited and co-founded the journal HOW(ever) and in 2001, launched its on-line version, How2. While director of The Poetry Center, Fraser founded The American Poetry Archives at San Francisco State University where she taught in the Graduate Writing Program for 20 years. Her honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship and two NEA fellowships. She has published 16 volumes of poetry and seven collaborative Artist Books, recently collected by the Bienecke Library at Yale. Her work has been translated widely in Italian and French. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 24346]
Kathleen Fraser's newest collection, m o v a b l e TYYPE, foregrounds texts from four recently produced Artist Books. Her collected essays, Translating the Unspeakable: Poetry and the Innovative Necessity, is in its second printing. She edited and co-founded the journal HOW(ever) and in 2001, launched its on-line version, How2. While director of The Poetry Center, Fraser founded The American Poetry Archives at San Francisco State University where she taught in the Graduate Writing Program for 20 years. Her honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship and two NEA fellowships. She has published 16 volumes of poetry and seven collaborative Artist Books, recently collected by the Bienecke Library at Yale. Her work has been translated widely in Italian and French. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 24346]