Access to this video is a benefit for members through PBS Passport.
Up Next
Back to Show
Poetry in America
Who Burns for the Perfection of Paper
Season 4
Episode 7
Long before he won the National Book Award, Latinx poet Martín Espada worked after school in a factory making legal pads. Espada, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, economists Natasha Sarin, Betsey Stevenson, and Justin Wolfers, historian Jill Lepore, and actor John Turturro join Elisa New to reflect on social mobility, and what connects manual labor with the raw materials of poetry and law.
Sign up now for inspiring and thought-provoking media delivered straight to your inbox.
Unlock with PBS Passport
25:45
Explore the transformation of America’s long tradition of urban verse by hip hop artists.
Unlock with PBS Passport
25:26
Explore Galway Kinnell's poem with E.O. Wilson, Robert Hass, Laura McPhee and other guests
Unlock with PBS Passport
25:26
Explore Gwendolyn Brooks's poem with John McCain, Anna Deavere Smith, and other guests.
Unlock with PBS Passport
25:27
Explore Robert Pinsky's poem with Stuart Weitzman, Johnson Hartig, and the poet himself.
Unlock with PBS Passport
25:33
Explore W.H. Auden's poem with guests Samantha Power, David Brooks, and Peter Sacks.
Unlock with PBS Passport
25:26
“What happens to a dream deferred?” Bill Clinton, Herbie Hancock, and others weigh in.
Unlock with PBS Passport
25:27
Can a building have a soul? Frank Gehry, Zhang Xin, Robert Polito, and others weigh in.
Unlock with PBS Passport
25:27
Explore Ginsberg's poetry with Bono, US Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, and others.
Unlock with PBS Passport
25:26
Explore Hayden's poem with Joe Biden, Elizabeth Alexander, Angela Duckworth, and others.
Unlock with PBS Passport
25:27
Can basketball be poetic? NBA players Shaq, Pau Gasol, and Shane Battier weigh in.
Unlock with PBS Passport
25:29
Host Elisa New explores Emily Dickinson's poem with Cyntha Nixon, Yo-Yo Ma, and others.