Poetry in America for Teachers
Poems present a unique set of challenges to readers—and to teachers. They look and often sound different from prose, for one thing, and they sometimes require that we use a special …
Read MoreYear: 2016
Poetry, Podcasting, and the Problem of Audience
What if poetry content was something that everyone could easily follow without taking notes, a succession of complex ideas that unfolded themselves to the listener intuitively? Summer intern Brieanna Martin tries to answer this question as she works on the Poetry in America podcast, currently in production.
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Nautilus Features Poetry in America Conversation with Richard Dawkins
What are the forces that shape us, that make us the way we are? How much control do we have over the decisions we make each day? Are we mere products of our environment, or do we have the power to transform the world around us? Questions like these have long guided research by scientists, social scientists, and philosophers. But, as this Nautilus feature on Poetry in America’s conversation with evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins demonstrates, such questions also lend themselves to poetic inquiry.
Read MorePoetry on the Road: “Animals” by Robinson Jeffers
Poetry in America board member Nick Simmons recently recorded himself reading an excerpt of Robinson Jeffers’ “Animals” in Big Sur, as he biked down the Pacific Coast from Canada to Mexico, raising money for students at Success Academy to attend college.
Read MorePoetic Diagnoses: The Art and Science of Close Reading
Where might one turn in order to understand the pain of people who encounter mental illness? According to Hemingway, and to Poetry in America intern and aspiring physician Lauren Claus, the answer might be poetry.
Read MoreThe Local Lyric: eTTo
Budding Massachusetts rapper/producer eTTo is a “lyrical chameleon” whose gruff voice and unconventional flow highlight his potential to emerge into the Hip Hop spotlight. One of our summer interns, Eniola Sodeke, produced a video to share eTTo’s work with the world.
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Production Diary: Poetry of Art, Sport, and Play
During the first two weeks of May, the Poetry in America team hit the road, filming classrooms at Greenwich Country Day School and Success Academy Charter Schools. The project? A new educational series on the Poetry of Art, Sport, and Play designed to help teachers and their students explore the intersections of poetry and other kinds of creativity– whether artistic or athletic– and to read with an eye toward fostering play and fun.
Read MoreWe Hear America (dot com) Singing: But Who’s Listening?
Creating a meaningful discussion in a classroom poses its own set of difficulties; designing a discussion forum that creates a community online multiplies the face-to-face problems tenfold. We’re constantly asking ourselves: How do you get people to listen to each other online? One member of our Teaching Team weights in.
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Poetry in America Featured Guests
Poetry in America believes that anyone can have a conversation about a poem. Here are some of the distinguished guests who have spoken with us so far.
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Poetry in America in the News
Welcome to Poetry in America in the News. Dive into Poetry in America features online, in print, and on air over the last three years.
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The Atlantic + Poetry in America on Small Towns
On Monday, Atlantic columnist and Poetry in America guest James Fallows covered our most recent project for Notes, the blog section of The Atlantic.
Poetry in America: Modernism launched on April 6, and will run live through June. Registration is open and free.
Poetry at the White House
Last month, the Poetry in America team headed to Washington DC for one of our most exciting conversations yet: a discussion with Vice President Joe Biden on Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays.”
What would the Vice President have to say about the father/son relationship in Hayden’s poem?
Poetry in America featured in The Atlantic
On April 25th, 2016, James Fallows wrote a piece in The Atlantic about the HarvardX course ‘Poetry in America: Modernism,’ which features videos of himself and his wife Deb …
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Poetry in America featured by The Poetry Foundation
On March 22nd, 2016, The Poetry Foundation’s editors published a feature on our course“Poetry in America for Teachers: Earth, Sea, Sky.” As one commenter on the article said: “This looks great! Enrolled!”
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The Production Design of Modernism
When we began filming the core segments for our Modernism course, the production team knew that we wanted to move beyond the one-note aesthetic of previous edX Poetry in America modules. We wanted to marry our visual approach to the mold-breaking spirit of Modernist poets themselves. Because the structure of the videos themselves wasn’t something we could experiment with, we turned to production design to explore the individual tone of each week.
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True Grit: On Poetry and Character with the UNC Women’s Soccer Team
UNC Soccer has an incredible history of winning– 22 NCAA championships over the last 36 years. While filming practice last month, we got to witness first-hand the speed, strength, and grit of these champions, followed by a discussed of Coleman Barks’ “Glad” with the team, its legendary coach Anson Dorrance, and Macarthur Genius Angela Duckworth. How would a championship team respond to a poem in which the speaker’s team loses ten-zip?
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