Eighth grade, a turning point in adolescence, is a great time to be introduced to contemporary poetry. Reading poetry can feel daunting for newcomers, but at Poetry in America, we work to present poetry not as academic and aloof, but real and relatable—an art form that is great fun, and that instigates growth of the mind.
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Three years ago, Poetry in America launched an online channel with the science magazine Nautilus, dedicated to bringing together science and poetry. This summer, as Poetry in America’s educational programs settle into their new home base at Arizona State University’s Center for Public Humanities, the Nautilus channel is once again breaking new ground.
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This summer, in collaboration with Arizona State University’s Center for the Public Humanities, Poetry in America is launching a summer intensive workshop for high school students in India.
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This summer, Arizona State University’s Center for Public Humanities collaborated with ASU Prep Digital to present an environmental poetry intensive for Middle and High School educators!
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On Friday August 13th, Harvard Magazine published a review by Professor Elisa New of Kevin Young’s 1,000-plus page anthology African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song. A polymath, Young is, among other things, the Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, the poetry editor for The New Yorker, the author of 15 volumes of poetry and prose, and the prolific editor of eight previous collections of poetry.
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On July 15th, 2021, Poetry in America host Professor Elisa New wrote a letter to the editor of Inside Higher Ed, entitled “Bridging the moat between K-12 and higher education.”
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Poetry is having a moment! Viewers of both this year’s Presidential Inauguration and Super Bowl watched Amanda Gorman deliver her poems on the national stage.
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“The aspiration to mastery leaves room for a lot of anxiety. Many readers hear a kind of hysteria in the poem, with its rhythm revving up as it ruminates …
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Poetry in America is coming to DVD! Featuring every episode of season 2, explore and debate 8 classic and contemporary American poems with a wide variety of guests, and rich archival materials.
Read MorePoetry in America and Nautilus Magazine recently announced a new collaboration to explore the relationship between poetry and science. This online channel will include videos of conversations between Poetry …
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On March 15th, 2018, Poetry in America and Nautilus produced an exclusive video of Al Gore reading and discussing Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Each and All” with PIA host Professor Elisa New. The video was accompanied by an article from Poetry in America Curriculum Specialist Gillian Osborne.
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A few months ago, we sat down with U2 frontman Bono and US Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera to read the Allen Ginsberg anti-war poem “Hum Bom!”
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Prof. Elisa New sat down with hip hop legend Nas to do a close-reading at “It Ain’t Hard to Tell,” a track from his iconic 1994 album Illmatic.
Read MorePoems 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 …
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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 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.
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