Poetry month: 'A lovesong to a planet in crisis'
Poetry, new and old, is available to us year-round, but the end of National Poetry Month is upon us. It’s an April tradition started by the Academy of American Poets in 1996.
The Academy notes: “It has become the largest literary celebration in the world with schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers, and poets celebrating poetry’s vital place in our culture.”
This event, hosted by Seattle Arts & Lectures and Copper Canyon Press, is a fitting way to reflect on ends, the present and the prospect for change and new beginnings.
The occasion was the release of the anthology “Here: Poems for the Planet.” SAL called it a celebration of “eco-poetics as a mode of creative resistance.”
The readings opened with a poem by WITS poet Jones Kasperson. Poets Kimiko Hahn and Francisco Aragon read from their work. Then the anthology’s editor Elizabeth J. Coleman joined them for conversation and audience questions.
This event took place at the Broadway Performance Hall at Seattle Central College on April 25.
Listen to the full version below, which includes opening music by Seattle-based violinist, violist and singer Alex Guy:
SAL Poems for the Planet full event
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John O'Brien
Senior Producer, All Things Considered
John O’Brien is KUOW's All Things Considered Senior Producer. He spends his days setting up interviews with newsmakers on subjects from politics and public health to arts and culture. John learned to make radio starting in 2006 as an intern on KUOW’s The Conversation with Ross Reynolds.
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