Poets & Writers Theater

“It was Dre who once said, / You lose something every day / Your mind on the way to the store / The floor on the way to your mind…” In this Ours Poetica video, Jacqueline Woodson reads “You Lose Something Every Day,” a poem from Willie Perdomo’s collection The Crazy Bunch (Penguin Books, 2019). 

“Once on the back porch my lab barked / and barked. / he was always spooked / by something, garter snake, black / snake, rabbit.” In this Ours Poetica video produced in collaboration with the Poetry Foundation, Phillip B. Williams reads an untitled poem by Kayleb Rae Candrilli from their debut book, What Runs Over (YesYes Books, 2017).

“I was so struck by ‘Snow Drops’—it became sort of my prayer toward healing.” Leila Chatti talks about her connection with Louise Glück’s Pulitzer Prize–winning collection, The Wild Iris, and reads the poem “Snow Drops” for the Poetry Foundation’s Ours Poetica video series.

Julian Randall reads “On the Night I Consider Coming Out to My Parents” from his debut poetry collection, Refuse (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018), in this Ours Poetica video produced by the Poetry Foundation in collaboration with Complexly. Randall is featured in “My MFA Experience” in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Maybe every talk about poetry is a defense of poetry,” says Tony Hoagland in this 2011 Chicago Ideas Week talk at the Poetry Foundation on the mind of a poet and how poets explain the world. Hoagland, the author of eight books of poetry and a recipient of the Jackson Poetry Prize, died on October 23 at the age of sixty-four.

“Poetry survives the errors of its beliefs.” In this video, Jon Baskin, editor of the Point, moderates a panel exploring the purpose of poetry with Don Share, Srikanth Reddy, Lamar Jorden, and Kush Thompson.

“The sun descending in the west, / The evening star does shine; / The birds are silent in their nest, / And I must seek for mine.” This Gucci fashion show, in which models walked to a reading of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience by musician Florence Welch, was examined in a recent essay on poetry and fashion by Mia You for the Poetry Foundation’s Harriet blog.

Artist Cheryl Pope speaks about working with youth in Chicago on an interactive poetry project "that responds to issues of segregation, gun violence, inequality, and systems that abuse power." The exhibit and performances were held at the Poetry Foundation.

This short film, created by Manual Cinema in association with Crescendo Literary, uses puppetry to imagine the life of Gwendolyn Brooks and the inspiration for her poem “We Real Cool.” The film was produced by Poetry Foundation with the story by Eve Ewing and Nate Marshall, and music by Jamila Woods and Ayanna Woods. For more on Brooks, read “Grant Me a Voice, and Speaking Eyes” by Angela Jackson.

In this short film, part of the Poetry Everywhere series produced in association with the Poetry Foundation, a poem by James Tate is animated by Steven Wells.

"Poetry is a necessity of life. It is a function of poetry to locate those zones inside us that would be free and declare them so." The Poetry Everywhere project, in association with the Poetry Foundation, features C. D. Wright reading her poem "Lake Echo, Dear."

In November 2013 the Brooklyn Academy of Music put out an open call for readings of an excerpt from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in collaboration with the Poetry Foundation's Record-a-Poem project. This clip features a sampling of the many voices that participated. You can listen to the full audio submissions on SoundCloud.

This clip of Natasha Trethewey reading on April 12 at the Poetry Foundation in Chicago as part of the Dark Room Collective Reunion Tour, was recorded by Rachel Eliza Griffiths. Read Kevin Nance's profile of the new poet laureate, "This Time, This Voice," in the current issue.

Samuel Menashe, the first poet to receive the Neglected Masters Award from the Poetry Foundation in 2004, died Monday night in his sleep on August 22, 2011. He was eighty-five years old. In this clip, from the WNYC series “Know Your Neighbor,” Menashe is seen in his New York City apartment, where he lived for fifty years.