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Poetry in America
Harlem by Langston Hughes
Season 1
Episode 6
“What happens to a dream deferred?” Langston Hughes’s question calls President Bill Clinton, pianist and composer Herbie Hancock, poet Sonia Sanchez, and students from the Harlem Children’s Zone to interpret Hughes’s most iconic poem,“Harlem.” Together with host Elisa New, the President and other guests, explore the poem’s rhythms and rhymes, and discuss its enduring call for justice.
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25:27
Contemplate the physical—and figurative—journeys charted by all immigrants.
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25:45
Explore the transformation of America’s long tradition of urban verse by hip hop artists.
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25:26
Explore Galway Kinnell's poem with E.O. Wilson, Robert Hass, Laura McPhee and other guests
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25:26
Explore Gwendolyn Brooks's poem with John McCain, Anna Deavere Smith, and other guests.
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25:27
Explore Robert Pinsky's poem with Stuart Weitzman, Johnson Hartig, and the poet himself.
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25:33
Explore W.H. Auden's poem with guests Samantha Power, David Brooks, and Peter Sacks.
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25:27
Can a building have a soul? Frank Gehry, Zhang Xin, Robert Polito, and others weigh in.
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25:27
Explore Ginsberg's poetry with Bono, US Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, and others.
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25:26
Explore Hayden's poem with Joe Biden, Elizabeth Alexander, Angela Duckworth, and others.
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25:27
Can basketball be poetic? NBA players Shaq, Pau Gasol, and Shane Battier weigh in.
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25:29
Host Elisa New explores Emily Dickinson's poem with Cyntha Nixon, Yo-Yo Ma, and others.