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Poetry in America

Poetry in America

All episodes with PBS Passport

Poetry in America

All episodes with PBS Passport

Poetry in America explores the diversity of American poetry. In each episode, members of various American communities join host Elisa New, following Gwendolyn Brooks to the South Side of Chicago, Alberto Ríos to the Sonoran Desert, Richard Blanco to Marco Island, and more. Joining along the way are singers and Supreme Court justices, playwrights and physicists, and teachers and their students.

Poetry in America Season 4
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Upcoming Airdates

  • Monday Sep 1, 6:00 PM PDT on PBS SoCal WORLD
  • Monday Sep 1, 11:00 PM PDT on PBS SoCal WORLD
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The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus
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25:27
Contemplate the physical—and figurative—journeys charted by all immigrants.
N.Y. State of Mind by Nas
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25:45
Explore the transformation of America’s long tradition of urban verse by hip hop artists.
The Gray Heron by Galway Kinnell
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25:26
Explore Galway Kinnell's poem with E.O. Wilson, Robert Hass, Laura McPhee and other guests
To Prisoners by Gwendolyn Brooks
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25:26
Explore Gwendolyn Brooks's poem with John McCain, Anna Deavere Smith, and other guests.
Shirt by Robert Pinsky
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25:27
Explore Robert Pinsky's poem with Stuart Weitzman, Johnson Hartig, and the poet himself.
Musée des Beaux Arts by W.H. Auden
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25:33
Explore W.H. Auden's poem with guests Samantha Power, David Brooks, and Peter Sacks.
Harlem by Langston Hughes
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25:26
“What happens to a dream deferred?” Bill Clinton, Herbie Hancock, and others weigh in.
Skyscraper by Carl Sandburg
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25:27
Can a building have a soul? Frank Gehry, Zhang Xin, Robert Polito, and others weigh in.
Hymmnn and Hum Bom! by Allen Ginsberg
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25:27
Explore Ginsberg's poetry with Bono, US Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, and others.
Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden
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25:26
Explore Hayden's poem with Joe Biden, Elizabeth Alexander, Angela Duckworth, and others.
Fast Break by Edward Hirsch
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25:27
Can basketball be poetic? NBA players Shaq, Pau Gasol, and Shane Battier weigh in.
I cannot dance opon my toes by Emily Dickinson
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25:29
Host Elisa New explores Emily Dickinson's poem with Cyntha Nixon, Yo-Yo Ma, and others.
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