Arts May 04 Roxane Gay’s Brief But Spectacular take on effective ways of being heard By Melissa Williams
Arts Apr 22 Watch 6:26 Margaret Renkl writes about the environment from her ‘blue dot’ hometown in red state Writer Margaret Renkl doesn’t have to travel far to appreciate nature. She basks in the nearby parks of her hometown Nashville to draw inspiration for her essays on the environment. Through a regular column in the New York Times, Renkl… By Jeffrey Brown, Anne Azzi Davenport
Poetry Apr 18 Watch 6:16 Citizen poets share details of their pandemic lives in ‘Dear Vaccine’ A new poetry anthology called “Dear Vaccine: Global Voices Speak to the Pandemic” illuminates how people around the world have experienced COVID-19. Jeffrey Brown sits down with Naomi Shihab Nye, an author, editor and current Young People’s Poet Laureate, to… By Jeffrey Brown, Anne Azzi Davenport, Alison Thoet
Poetry Mar 16 Watch 6:56 Poet Cornelius Eady on exploring the everyday lives of Black people in America The National Book Critics Circle is presenting the Black poetry group "Cave Canem” with the inaugural Toni Morrison Achievement Award, saying “no institution has played such a definitive role in shaping the poetry of the 21st century.” For our CANVAS… By Jeffrey Brown, Anne Azzi Davenport
Poetry Mar 11 Watch 3:26 Kara Jackson’s Brief But Spectacular take on honoring her lineage Kara Jackson is known for being the 2019-2020 National Youth Poet Laureate from Oak Park, Illinois. But her art is not limited to one medium or one place. She writes poems but also essays and music that explore her family… By Melissa Williams
Feb 23 Watch 4:06 A teacher’s Brief But Spectacular take on how spoken word poetry amplifies student voice By PBS NewsHour Peter Kahn has taught English and spoken word poetry to thousands of students at Chicago's Oak Park and River Forest High School since 1994. In collaboration with his current and former students, Kahn is releasing the anthology, "Respect the Mic:… Continue watching
Dec 02 The pandemic has been a roller-coaster ride. This poet captures the feeling By Joshua Barajas Poet Jasmine Gardosi was commissioned by the British charity National Literacy Trust to write a poem about the pandemic. So she performed a poem while riding an actual roller coaster. Continue reading
Nov 22 Prominent poet Robert Bly, author of ‘Iron John’, dies at 94 By Steve Karnowski, Associated Press Bly published his first book of poems, "Silence in the Snowy Fields," in 1962. He won the National Book Award in 1968 for "The Light Around the Body," a book of Vietnam War protest poems. Bly donated the $1,000 prize… Continue reading
Oct 11 Watch 3:02 How poetry helps this young Afghan refugee ’empty’ her pains and share her dreams By Rawan Elbaba, Student Reporting Labs October 11 is the International Day of the Girl. Tonight, we hear from one girl, a young Afghan poet, who left her country a few years ago with her family for security reasons. Aryan Ashory now lives in a refugee… Continue watching
Mar 29 A poem on how the human spirit survives overlapping crises By Joshua Barajas In Dr. Fady Joudah’s poem “House of Mercury,” a severe summer storm has blown over Houston. The poem is a tribute to the "beauty of the human spirit."… Continue reading