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Poetry in America
you can say that again, billie, by Evie Shockley
Season 3
Episode 4
Billie Holiday’s haunting song “Strange Fruit” winds beneath the unsettling, satiric humor of Evie Shockley’s poem “you can say that again, billie.” Shockley, jazz singer Cassandra Wilson, historian Robin D.G. Kelley, actor LisaGay Hamilton, novelist Beverly Lowry, and radio host Nick Spitzer join Elisa New to discuss the history of racism, violence, and artistic tradition in the American south.
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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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25:26
“What happens to a dream deferred?” Bill Clinton, Herbie Hancock, and others weigh in.
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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.