May 28 Watch Remembering Maya Angelou’s iconic voice By PBS News Hour Drawing on a childhood of abuse and segregation, writer and author Maya Angelou moved the nation. Works such as her 1978 poem, “And Still I Rise,” explored the effects of racism and sexism on personal identity, with a voice that… Continue watching
May 28 Watch From rough beginnings, respected writer and activist Maya Angelou made a remarkable journey By PBS News Hour Maya Angelou, one of the most respected cultural figures of her generation, has died at the age of 86. Her debut memoir, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” made her one of the first bestselling African-American female authors. Jeffrey… Continue watching
May 28 Maya Angelou, renaissance woman, dies at 86 By Ellen Rolfes Renaissance woman and civil rights activist Maya Angelou has died at the age of 86. Continue reading
May 26 Weekly Poem: Dan Chiasson and his poetry time machine By Victoria Fleischer Poet Dan Chiasson started working on his book “Bicentennial” after the death of his father, who left when Chiasson was 7 months old. While the two never really knew each other, that event prompted Chiasson to revisit his childhood in… Continue reading
May 20 Watch Graduate students encourage poetry through community service By PBS News Hour Master of Fine Arts students at Antioch University in Los Angeles are required to do community service to enhance the “writing life” of others. As part of our series Where Poetry Lives, poet laureate Natasha Trethewey joins Jeffrey Brown to… Continue watching
May 20 Poet Gina Loring on lost potential of LA’s incarcerated youth By Mary Jo Brooks "It's not just about the work on the page, it's about where you put your feet when you get out of bed in the morning." That was the mantra of Eloise Klein Healy when she created the graduate writing program… Continue reading
May 20 Watch Poet Gina Loring considers lost potential of LA’s incarcerated youth By PBS News Hour Continue watching
May 19 Weekly Poem: W. S. Di Piero uses language to create ’emotional immediacy’ By Victoria Fleischer W. S. Di Piero never wants to hear again that his poems are intense. “You get tired of hearing certain things if they get said so many times about the kind of work you do. I don’t write poems that… Continue reading
May 12 Weekly Poem: Mark Bibbins takes ‘little pieces’ to craft layers of meaning By Victoria Fleischer Bibbins writes poems like collages -– using words or anecdotes to create new layers of meaning. Continue reading
May 05 Weekly Poem: Kevin Powers approaches war with ‘unadorned honesty’ By Victoria Fleischer In his first collection of poems, “Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting,” former Army machine gunner Kevin Powers writes about combat and the consequences of conflict. Continue reading