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 more
Stephanie Yewdell, an English Language Arts teacher at Success Academy Harlem North Central, reflects on the fear and joy she encountered teaching poetry in the middle school classroom-- with a little help from Poetry in America. … Read more
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 more
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. … Read more
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 more
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 more
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 more
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. … Read more
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 more
