Now available to stream!
Season 2 of Poetry in America returns with eight new episodes that will air on public television stations nationwide and on the World Channel starting this April, National Poetry Month. Check your local listings for air times!
Join poet Marilyn Chin, memoirist Maxine Hong Kingston, investor Randy Komisar, and Bay Area residents to discuss Chin’s love poem to San Francisco.
Host Elisa New, journalist Katie Couric, media leaders Sheryl Sandberg and Yang Lan, musician Mary Chapin Carpenter, poet Gregory Orr, and psychiatrist Richard Summers discuss Bishop’s masterpiece on loss.
In this environmental science episode, Vice President Al Gore, poet Jorie Graham, and scientists from Conservation International dive into Moore’s portrayal of the always-changing ocean, and its future in …
Host Elisa New explores Mark Doty’s meditation on love, the AIDS crisis, aging, and home with Doty, psychologist Steven Pinker, choreographer Bill T. Jones, fashion commentator Simon Doonan, and …
In this musical theater episode, Broadway stars Raúl Esparza, Melissa Errico, Donna Lynne Champlin, Kerry O’Malley, Andrew Arrow, and writer Adam Gopnik contemplate Stephen Sondheim’s singular ability to blend …
Yusef Komunyakaa, Senator John Kerry, director Julie Taymor, composer Elliot Goldenthal, and Vietnam War veterans discuss the awful mix of beauty and horror in war.
Join actor John Hodgman, poet and physician Rafael Campo, poet Jane Hirshfield, and couples, young and old, as they unpack William Carlos Williams’s plum of a poem.
Celebrate Walt Whitman’s 200th birthday with Justice Elena Kagan, playwright Tony Kushner, music legend Nas, composer Matthew Aucoin, baritone Davóne Tines, poets Joshua Bennett, Marilyn Chin, Linda Hogan, and …
Dozens of guest interpreters have joined the conversation about poetry. These are just a few who have participated this season.
In April 2020, Poetry in America returned for its second season during National Poetry Month. Expanding the scope of the first season, the eight episodes in Season Two explore everything from the universal burdens of Elizabeth Bishop’s “One Art” to William Carlos William’s mischievous “This Is Just to Say,” tracking American poetry from San Francisco to Broadway to Vietnam.
Season Two guests include: Vice President Al Gore, Katie Couric, Maxine Hong Kingston, Secretary of State John Kerry, Stephen Pinker, Raúl Esparza, Justice Elena Kagan, and Mary Chapin Carpenter discussing works by Marilyn Chin, Elizabeth Bishop, Mark Doty, Yusef Komunyakaa, Marianne Moore, Stephen Sondheim, Walt Whitman, and William Carlos Williams.
Interested in learning more? Poetry in America offers a wide range of courses, all dedicated to bringing poetry into classrooms and living rooms around the world. Check out our course offerings
Photo credits clockwise from top left: Nancy Crampton (Yusef Komunyakaa); Library of Congress (Marianne Moore); NARA (Walt Whitman); Courtesy of Marilyn Chin (Marilyn Chin).
The Poetry Foundation elevates poetry, and promotes communities of poets through Poetry magazine, readings and events, partnerships and programs.
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Dalio Philanthropies reflects the diverse philanthropic interests of the Dalio family, supporting organizations at all stages of development, from start-ups in need of seed capital to well-established institutions that can bring big and novel ideas to fruition.
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The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation makes grants primarily to support original research and education related to science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and economics.
Learn about the Sloan FoundationAdditional support for season two provided by:
Deborah Hayes Stone & Max Stone