Full Title: The Spalding Suite, where poetry meets basketball - From hip-hop to hoop dreams When Inua Ellams was 15, his family moved from England to Dublin. "Back then Dublin was, how shall I put it, at a youthful stage in its race relations," Ellams says elegantly. "They had these ready-made stereotypes for black kids. … Continue reading The Spalding Suite, where poetry meets basketball (via The Independent)
Local high school students Daiana James and Kyle Fox Shreve are prepping for a major national competition that kicks off this week. But their training doesn’t involve carb loading, stretching and weight training; for them, it’s all about memorization and recitation. James and Shreve compete with poetry, and this week, they’re headed to the national … Continue reading Local teens compete for $20,000 in national Poetry Out Loud competition (via WTOP)
Full Title: MTA Celebrates National Poetry Month With Poems-on-Demand in the Fulton Center (via Village Voice) A little boy sporting a blue jacket and glasses skipped through the recently renovated Fulton Center, clutching a custom-made poem in his hands. "It's really good!" he cried. [Last] Thursday, the Lower Manhattan transit hub doubled as a poet's … Continue reading MTA Celebrates National Poetry Month with Poems-on-Demand (via Village Voice)
On an unabashedly glorious afternoon this week, the poet and essayist Phillip Lopate stood in front of a small group of graduate students in Columbia University’s creative writing program. He took attendance, noting a few absences, before turning to a discussion about the German filmmaker Harun Farocki. But first he singled out a student sitting … Continue reading Gregory Pardlo, Pulitzer Winner for Poetry, on His Sudden Fame (via NYTimes)
April is National Poetry Month and National Poetry Writing Month, sparking poetry readings, new poetry books, challenges to write thirty poems in thirty days, people carrying poems in their pockets to share, and, of course, a multitude of poetry writing assignments in schools across the country. NBC Asian America—with the help of a poetry professor … Continue reading National Poetry Month: Asian-American Poets to Watch (via NBC News)
"That's what I would hope for: that we recognize just how big we are and that we're willing to frolic inside that clarity." -- Dominique Christina Preach, girl! Dominique Christina will be releasing her book, "This Is Woman's Work" this October! Check it out. Video interview below! This Is Woman’s Work: Calling forth your inner … Continue reading Dominique Christina Discusses Her Forthcoming Book (via Sounds True)
No poem in the preceding decade captured the spirit of the times more than Frederick Seidel’s “December.” The product of a Faustian pact, it fixed itself in a fiendish dialectic, a self-canceling logic that likewise trapped the reader like a dying fly — in the politics of the War on Terror, in the axiomatic hell of the Bush … Continue reading The 50 Best American Poetry Books of the Decade so Far (via Flavorwire)
Before her death last spring at the age of 86, author and poet Maya Angelou was working on a new project -- one that puts her words to music. An album was recently released, giving listeners a taste of an unusual collaboration that crosses generations. In a music video called "Harlem Hopscotch," inspired by a … Continue reading Maya Angelou gets a hip-hop remix (via CBS News)
Video interview below! Thank you to Book Forum for putting us on to this interview! Quraysh Ali Lansana stops by the Academy of American Poets to discuss his latest editorial project, The Breaktbeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop. Co-edited with Kevin Coval and Nate Marshall. Links: Academy of American Poets | … Continue reading Quraysh Ali Lansana speaks on The Breakbeat Poets anthology (via Academy of American Poets)
This is awesome! Click the link below to read the full article. Featuring Treesje Powers, Jesse Parent and Dominique Christina. To be a parent, means to give every ounce of your body, mind, and spirit to the very human being/s you brought into this world. Parents are the providers and sculptors of their children who … Continue reading The Balancing Act: Learning how to poet and parent (via SPITJournal)
