Poetry For All
Finding Our Way Into Great Poems
Displaying Episode 1 - 10 of 19 in total of Poetry For All with the tag “social justice and advocacy”.
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Episode 86: Gwendolyn Bennett, I Build America
February 20th, 2025 | Season 6 | 25 mins 19 secs
free verse, harlem renaissance, labor day, laborers, persona poem, social justice and advocacy, twentieth century, violence, women's history month
Gwendolyn Bennett was a poet, journalist, editor, and activist whose contributions helped to fuel the Harlem Renaissance. In this episode, we read "I Build America," a poem that exposes and critiques the exploitation and suffering of ordinary workers.
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Episode 82: Sidney, Translation of Psalm 52
November 14th, 2024 | Season 6 | 26 mins 33 secs
16th century, anger, christianity, hope, poetry in translation, rhymed verse, social justice and advocacy, women's history month
Psalm 52 concerns a lying tyrant and God's impending judgment. Mary Sidney, who lived 1561-1621, was an extraordinary writer, editor, and literary patron. Like many talented writers of her time, she translated all the psalms. Here we talk about translation, early modern women's writing, religious engagements with politics, and the power of Psalm 52.
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Episode 81: Niki Herd, The Stuff of Hollywood
October 31st, 2024 | Season 6 | 37 mins 37 secs
21st century, black history month, found poetry, free verse, guest on the show, social justice and advocacy, violence, word and image
In this episode, Niki Herd joins us to read and discuss an excerpt from The Stuff of Hollywood, a collection in which Herd experiments with a range of forms and procedures to examine the history of violence in America.
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Episode 51: Martín Espada, Jumping Off the Mystic Tobin Bridge
October 10th, 2022 | Season 5 | 30 mins 20 secs
21st century, anger, city, guest on the show, hispanic heritage month, laborers, narrative, repetition or refrain, social justice and advocacy
In this episode, we talk with the 2021 winner of the National Book Award, Martín Espada, about narrative poetry, poetry of engagement, and the witness of poetry as a work of advocacy.
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Episode 48: Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise
April 28th, 2022 | Season 4 | 21 mins 47 secs
21st century, anger, golden shovel, grief and loss, hope, joy, native american heritage month, poet laureate, social justice and advocacy, spirituality
In this episode, we examine The Golden Shovel form and discuss the idea of "survivance" through the work of Muscogee (Creek) poet Joy Harjo, the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States.
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Episode 44: Ann Hudson, Soap
March 16th, 2022 | Season 4 | 23 mins 19 secs
21st century, body in pain, grief and loss, guest on the show, laborers, narrative, science and medicine, social justice and advocacy, women's history month
In this episode, Ann Hudson joins us to read her poem “Soap” and discuss how its narrative structure allows her to explore the history of science, technology, and our notions of progress and beauty, even when those notions do great harm to ordinary workers.
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Episode 42: Robert Hayden, Frederick Douglass
February 23rd, 2022 | Season 4 | 17 mins 58 secs
20th century, anger, black history month, blank verse, gratitude, hope, repetition or refrain, restlessness, social justice and advocacy, sonnet
In this episode, we offer a close reading of "Frederick Douglass," a poem in which Hayden channels the prophetic energies of his subject in order to imagine what freedom might one day mean.
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Episode 41: F.E.W. Harper, Learning to Read
February 16th, 2022 | Season 4 | 23 mins 27 secs
19th century, anger, black history month, guest on the show, narrative, social justice and advocacy
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was a prolific writer and activist of the nineteenth century. In this episode, Professor Janaka Bowman Lewis joins us to discuss her power, influence, voice, and work. "Learning to Read" foregrounds the ballad style in a narrative poem designed to keep alive the memories of fighting for both literacy and liberation.
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Episode 39: Paul Laurence Dunbar, We Wear The Mask
February 2nd, 2022 | Season 4 | 22 mins 9 secs
19th century, anger, black history month, grief and loss, guest on the show, repetition or refrain, rhymed verse, rondeau, social justice and advocacy
This week, Rafia Zafar joins us to discuss "We Wear the Mask" by the great poet and writer Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906). Rafia leads us in a discussion of Dunbar's fame and influence while opening up broader themes of African American history and literature.
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Episode 34: Tracy K. Smith, Declaration
December 7th, 2021 | Season 3 | 23 mins 10 secs
21st century, anger, black history month, erasure, grief and loss, poet laureate, social justice and advocacy
In this episode, we discuss erasure poetry and its power to reveal hidden histories and redacted stories through Tracy K. Smith's erasure of the Declaration of Independence.