Arts and Music

Poetry in America

Poetry in America explores the diversity of American poetry. In each episode, members of various American communities join host Elisa New, following Gwendolyn Brooks to the South Side of Chicago, Alberto Ríos to the Sonoran Desert, Richard Blanco to Marco Island, and more. Joining along the way are singers and Supreme Court justices, playwrights and physicists, and teachers and their students.

Sonnet IV; I shall forget you presently, my dear, by Millay

25m 41s

In 1920s Greenwich Village, Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote sonnets that toppled clichés of love and romance. To probe this unsentimental break-up poetry, host Elisa New speaks with musician Natalia Zukerman, poet Olivia Gatwood, New York Times advice columnist Philip Galanes, writer Leslie Jamison, scholar of Greenwich Village Jeffery Kennedy, and a chorus of National Student Poets.

Episodes

  • Sonnet IV; I shall forget you presently, my dear, by Millay: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Sonnet IV; I shall forget you presently, my dear, by Millay

    S3 E8 - 25m 41s

    In 1920s Greenwich Village, Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote sonnets that toppled clichés of love and romance. To probe this unsentimental break-up poetry, host Elisa New speaks with musician Natalia Zukerman, poet Olivia Gatwood, New York Times advice columnist Philip Galanes, writer Leslie Jamison, scholar of Greenwich Village Jeffery Kennedy, and a chorus of National Student Poets.

  • Two poems, by Linda Hogan and Alberto Ríos: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Two poems, by Linda Hogan and Alberto Ríos

    S3 E7 - 25m 14s

    Two poems, by Linda Hogan and Alberto Ríos, follow wolves, jackrabbits, and other animals across the harsh Great Plains and Sonoran Desert. Both poets join wildlife biologist Jeff Corwin, film director Chris Eyre, Native American scholars Philip Deloria and Stephanie Fitzgerald, and a chorus of students to discuss how the poems call back difficult histories of human migration in the American west.

  • Poems about Motherhood by Sharon Olds and Bernadette Mayer: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Poems about Motherhood by Sharon Olds and Bernadette Mayer

    S3 E6 - 25m 38s

    Sharon Olds’s “The Language of the Brag” and Bernadette Mayer’s “The Desires of Mothers to Please Others in Letters” are exuberant, boisterous tributes to motherhood. Both poets join host Elisa New, actor Donna Lynne Champlin, writer Emily Oster, activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, obstetrician Lorna Wilkerson, and co-founders of Our Bodies Ourselves to explore the miracle, and mess, of creating new life.

  • Mending Wall, by Robert Frost: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Mending Wall, by Robert Frost

    S3 E5 - 25m 21s

    Do good fences really make good neighbors? Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall” asks surprising questions about the role of walls in civil society. Host Elisa New gathers Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, author Julia Alvarez, political commentator David Gergen, Frost biographer and poet Jay Parini, poet Rhina Espaillat, and former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith to delve into this classic poem.

  • you can say that again, billie, by Evie Shockley: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    you can say that again, billie, by Evie Shockley

    S3 E4 - 25m 22s

    Billie Holiday’s haunting song “Strange Fruit” winds beneath the unsettling, satiric humor of Evie Shockley’s poem “you can say that again, billie.” Shockley, jazz singer Cassandra Wilson, historian Robin D.G. Kelley, actor LisaGay Hamilton, novelist Beverly Lowry, and radio host Nick Spitzer join Elisa New to discuss the history of racism, violence, and artistic tradition in the American south.

  • Cascadilla Falls, by A. R. Ammons: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Cascadilla Falls, by A. R. Ammons

    S3 E3 - 25m 21s

    Picking up a hand-sized stone near a rushing waterfall, the speaker of A.R. Ammons’s poem “Cascadilla Falls” is catapulted into the cosmos. Planetary scientist Lindy Elkins-Tanton, composer DJ Spooky, geologist Daniel Schrag, poet Joshua Bennett, CEO Larry Berger, and philosopher Rebecca Goldstein join host Elisa New to consider Ammons’s window onto the vast workings of the universe.

  • Looking for The Gulf Motel, by Richard Blanco: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Looking for The Gulf Motel, by Richard Blanco

    S3 E2 - 25m 2s

    Richard Blanco's poem "Looking for The Gulf Motel" transports readers to 1970s Florida, recalling a Cuban-American family’s vacations on the sparkling sands of Marco Island. Blanco and international superstar Gloria Estefan join Elisa New and a chorus of Cuban American adults in Miami and middle school students in New York City to reflect on family and what it means to call a place home.

  • The Wound-Dresser, by Walt Whitman: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The Wound-Dresser, by Walt Whitman

    S3 E1 - 25m 11s

    Episode 1 explores Walt Whitman’s “The Wound-Dresser,” set in the battlefield infirmaries and operating theaters of 1860s Washington, D.C. Actor David Strathairn, playwright Tony Kushner, composer Matthew Aucoin, opera star Davóne Tines, physician-writers Rafael Campo and Abraham Verghese, and historian Drew Faust join Elisa New to discuss how the trauma of the Civil War shaped American history.

Extras + Features

  • Poetry In America Season 3 Preview: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Poetry In America Season 3 Preview

    S3 - 30s

    Poetry in America explores the diversity of American poetry. In each episode, members of various American communities join host Elisa New, following Gwendolyn Brooks to the South Side of Chicago, Alberto Ríos to the Sonoran Desert, Richard Blanco to Marco Island, and more. Joining along the way are singers and Supreme Court justices, playwrights and physicists, and teachers and their students.

Schedule

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