Archive by Author

Keillor, Garrison 1994

Thursday, January 13, 1994
with Roland Flint

I used to do avant-garde dance
With a blowtorch, blue paint, and no pants,
Which many folks guessed
Was genius, and the rest
Left gladly when given the chance.

– Garrison Keillor, “Baker’s Dozen”

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Listen to Garrison Keillor’s 1994 reading for the Poetry Center of Chicago:

Watch an interview with Garrison Keillor for Time Magazine:

Let winter come and walk roughshod
With sleet and freezing rains.
We fear it not, we trust in God
And jumper cables and tire chains.

– Garrison Keillor, “Minnesota Rouser”

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Listen to Garrison Keillor discuss limericks, free verse, life in St. Paul, Minnesota, and his book, O, What a Luxury:

http://podcasts.jccsf.org/2014/01/garrison-keillor/

Check out the A Prairie Home Companion website⇒

More info on Garrison Keillor⇒

Karpowicz, Tymoteusz 1975

Friday, February 21, 1975
Slavic Poetry
with Josip Brodsky, Djordje Nikolic, and John Rezek

nor yet one dove beneath the vault
of fire will be sent on song
but sinks its neck into our throat
to sip the fireborn saliva

– Tymoteusz Karpowicz, “Musical Evening Stroll”

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Vintage poster of Slavic Poetry, featuring Josip Brodsky, Tymoteusz Karpowicz, Djordje Nikolic, and John Rezek at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

Vintage poster of Slavic Poetry, featuring Josip Brodsky, Tymoteusz Karpowicz, Djordje Nikolic, and John Rezek at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

More info on Tymoteusz Karpowicz⇒

Hamilton, Jane 1996

Wednesday, April 17, 1996

There is no sound but the melody of the dial-up, the purity of the following Gregorian tones, and the sweet nihilistic measure of static. The brief elemental vibration that means contact. And then nothing. No smudge of ink, no greasy thumbprint left behind.

– Jane Hamilton, “Disobedience”

Continue reading this novel excerpt⇒ 

Listen to Jane Hamilton’s 1996 reading for the Poetry Center of Chicago:

Read an interview with Jane Hamilton from TriQuarterly:

http://www.triquarterly.org/interviews/jane-hamilton-interview

Listen to Jane Hamilton discuss one of her books, “When Madeline Was Young:”

Watch this in a video here⇒

More info on Jane Hamilton⇒

Justice, Donald 1979; 1997

Friday, November 9, 1979
Wednesday, April 16, 1997
Vintage poster of Donald Justice's reading at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

Vintage poster of Donald Justice’s reading at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

We have climbed the mountain,
There’s nothing more to do.
It is terrible to come down
To the valley
Where, amidst many flower,
One thinks of snow…

– Donald Justice, “Here in Katmandu”

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Read this interview with Donald Justice from The Iowa Review:

Research Portal

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You would not recognize me.
Mine is the face which blooms in
The dank mirrors of washrooms
As you grope for the light switch.

– Donald Justice, “The Tourist From Syracuse”

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Watch a short documentary on Donald Justice:

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More info on Donald Justice⇒

Joseph, Allison 1999

Wednesday, October 13, 1999
with Carolyn Kizer

rather scurry to my driveway to study
the moon’s abrupt phrases than kneel
with bucket and mop to banish shadows
that have sprung up on my kitchen…

– Allison Joseph, “Little Epiphanies”

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Listen to Allison Joseph’s 1999 reading with Carolyn Kizer at the Poetry Center of Chicago:

Allison Joseph begins at 5:00 minutes.

Watch Allison Joseph read her work:

Poetry@Tech: Allison Joseph

Poetry@Tech Presents: Allison Joseph September 25, 2009 http://www.poetry.gatech.edu/index.php Produced by the Georgia Tech Cable Network

Don’t show your face in a sundown  town,
or forget your race in a sundown town.
What ancient shame flushes my cheeks?
Reminded of my place in a sundown town.

– Allison Joseph, “Sundown Ghazal”

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Read an interview with Allison Joseph from Lunch Ticket:

Allison Joseph, Poet, Interviewed by Kiandra Jimenez

Allison Joseph is the author of six poetry books: What Keeps Us Here (Ampersand, 1992), Soul Train (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 1997), In Every Seam (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1997), Imitation of Life (Carnegie Mellon, 2003), Worldly Pleasures (WordTech Communications, 2004), Voice: Poems (Mayapple Press, 2009), and My Father’s Kites: Poems (Steel Toe Books, 2010).

More info on Allison Joseph⇒

Jess, Tyehimba 2007; 2016

Wednesday, October 17, 2007
with A. Van Jordan
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
with Aricka Foreman
City Lit Books

you got to have the wildweed and treebark boiled
and calmed, wating for his skin like a shining baptism
back into what he was before gun barrels and bars
chewed their claim in his hide and spit him
stumbling backwards into screaming sunlight.

– Tyehimba Jess, “martha promise receives leadbelly, 1935”

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Listen to Tyehimba Jess’ 2007 reading with A. Van Jordan at the Poetry Center of Chicago:

 

Audio recording of the Poetry Center Reading Series featuring Tom Raworth, Diane di Prima, Kimiko Hahn, Eugene Gloria, Patricia Smith, Luis Rodriguez, Robert Bly, Brian Turner, Bruce Weigl, Tyehimba Jess, A. Van Jordan, Arielle Greenberg, Billy Corgan, Franz Wright, Czeslaw Milosz, Louise Glück, and Alicia Ostriker.

Audio recording of the Poetry Center Reading Series featuring Tom Raworth, Diane di Prima, Kimiko Hahn, Eugene Gloria, Patricia Smith, Luis Rodriguez, Robert Bly, Brian Turner, Bruce Weigl, Tyehimba Jess, A. Van Jordan, Arielle Greenberg, Billy Corgan, Franz Wright, Czeslaw Milosz, Louise Glück, and Alicia Ostriker.

Buy this audio recording featuring Tyehimba Jess⇒

I sing this body ad libitum, Europe scraped raw between my teeth until, presto, “Ave Maria” floats to the surface from a Tituba 
tributary of “Swanee.” Until I’m a legatodarkling whole note, my voice shimmering up from the Atlantic’s hold; until I’m a coda of sail song whipped in salted wind…

– Tyehimba Jess, “Sissieretta Jones”

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Watch an interview with Tyehimba Jess:

An Arts@UNH Interview with Poet Tyehimba Jess

Jess, a Detroit first book of poetry, leadbelly, was a winner of the 2004 National Poetry Series. The Library Journal and Black Issues Book Review both named it one of the “Best Poetry Books of 2005.”

Watch Tyehimba Jess read for the Chicago Poetry Center, with Aricka Foreman:

Six Points Reading Series

Poets Tyehimba Jess and Aricka Foreman are featured in an event hosted by the Poetry Center of Chicago and curated by Natasha Mijares. This program was recorded by Chicago Access Network (CAN TV).

Tyehimba Jess starts reading at 25:41. 

More info on Tyehimba Jess⇒

Hull, Lynda 1994

Wednesday, February 9, 1994
with John Dickson

Close my eyes and I’m a vessel. Make it
some lucent amphora, Venetian blue, lip circled
in faded gold. Can you see the whorls of breath,
imperfections, the navel where it was blown
from the maker’s pipe, can you see it drawn…

– Lynda Hull, “Rivers into Seas”

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Read an article about Lynda Hull from Cerise Press:

Cerise Press › Making History Bearable: Lynda Hull and Reading Newark

Cerise Press, Fall/Winter 2011-12, Vol. 3 Issue 8 essay by Sean Singer. Lynda Hull’s love of beauty was so intense that she could risk her life to achieve it…

More info on Lynda Hull⇒

Hoover, Paul 2000

Wednesday, October 4, 2000
with Maxine Chernoff

Half erasure, half wisdom,
history rocks in her chair like Lillian Gish
in Night of the Hunter, a shotgun
in her lap…

– Paul Hoover, “Night of the Hunter”

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Listen to Paul Hoover’s 2000 Poetry Center reading:

Audio recording of the Poetry Center Reading Series featuring Billy Collins, Andrei Codrescu, Ron Padgett, Lucille Clifton, Mark Perlberg, Li-Young Lee, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Anne Waldman, Yusuf Komunyakaa, Lisel Mueller, Ted Kooser, Paul Carroll, Jorie Graham, and Paul Hoover.

Audio recording of the Poetry Center Reading Series featuring Billy Collins, Andrei Codrescu, Ron Padgett, Lucille Clifton, Mark Perlberg, Li-Young Lee, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Anne Waldman, Yusuf Komunyakaa, Lisel Mueller, Ted Kooser, Paul Carroll, Jorie Graham, and Paul Hoover.

Buy this audio recording featuring Paul Hoover⇒

They are crying out in restaurants,
so delighted to be speaking,
they appear to be insane.
But we are the silent types,
who hold speech within
like the rustle of gold foil.

– Paul Hoover, “Why is Quiet ‘Kept’?”

Continue reading this poem⇒

Read this Paul Hoover’s article from Poetry Society of America:

Q & A American Poetry: Paul Hoover

Poets answer the question: “What’s American about American Poetry?”

More info on Paul Hoover⇒