UEN » UEN-TV » What's On » Poetry In America - What's On - UEN

What's On UEN-TV

 

Poetry In America

The 12-part series POETRY IN AMERICA draws students of all ages into conversations about poetry. Hosted by Harvard University professor Elisa New, each half-hour episode highlights the work of one distinguished poet (Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks) with a reading by an individual well known for accomplishments outside the humanities (actress and playwright Anna Deavere Smith, Grammy-Award winner Herbie Hancock; former vice president Joe Biden, and rapper/poet Nas), as well as a chorus of others, including: a chorus of pick-up basketball players, young naturalists at the Massachusetts Audubon Society, and students at the Parsons School of Design. The fast-moving, beautifully shot series offers viewers a fully immersive experience in hearing, reading, and interpreting a single American poem. Scholar Elisa New opens a conversation about poetry and encourages viewers at home to extend the discussion past the episode's end.

Poetry In America  
  • Harlem - Langston Hughes
    Saturday, April 12
    10:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    President Bill Clinton, pianist and composer Herbie Hancock, poet Sonia Sanchez, and students from the Harlem Children's Zone interpret Langston Hughes's most iconic poem, "Harlem" with series host Elisa New.
  • Harlem - Langston Hughes
    Monday, April 14
    5:00 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    President Bill Clinton, pianist and composer Herbie Hancock, poet Sonia Sanchez, and students from the Harlem Children's Zone interpret Langston Hughes's most iconic poem, "Harlem" with series host Elisa New.
  • Musee Des Beaux Arts - W.H. Auden
    Saturday, April 19
    10:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, journalist and ethicist David Brooks, and poet, professor, and painter Peter Sacks join Elisa New to ponder W.H. Auden's World War II-era reflection on suffering: "Musee des Beaux Arts."
  • Musee Des Beaux Arts - W.H. Auden
    Monday, April 21
    5:00 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, journalist and ethicist David Brooks, and poet, professor, and painter Peter Sacks join Elisa New to ponder W.H. Auden's World War II-era reflection on suffering: "Musee des Beaux Arts."
  • Shirt - Robert Pinsky
    Saturday, April 26
    10:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    At New York Fashion Week, host Elisa New catches up with fashion designer Johnson Hartig, Bergdorf Goodman's Betty Halbreich, shoe designer Stuart Weitzman and with fashion and poetry students from the New School to discuss Robert Pinsky's poem on labor, craft, and the threads that connect us. Back in Boston, Pinsky joins New on camera to reflect on his poem.
  • Shirt - Robert Pinsky
    Monday, April 28
    5:00 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    At New York Fashion Week, host Elisa New catches up with fashion designer Johnson Hartig, Bergdorf Goodman's Betty Halbreich, shoe designer Stuart Weitzman and with fashion and poetry students from the New School to discuss Robert Pinsky's poem on labor, craft, and the threads that connect us. Back in Boston, Pinsky joins New on camera to reflect on his poem.
  • To Prisoners - Gwendolyn Brooks
    Saturday, May 3
    10:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Senator John McCain, playwright and activist Anna Deavere Smith, poets Reginald Dwayne Betts and Li-Young Lee, and four exonerated prisoners discuss poetry's special resonance for those behind bars.
  • To Prisoners - Gwendolyn Brooks
    Monday, May 5
    5:00 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    Senator John McCain, playwright and activist Anna Deavere Smith, poets Reginald Dwayne Betts and Li-Young Lee, and four exonerated prisoners discuss poetry's special resonance for those behind bars.
  • The Gray Heron - Galway Kinnell
    Saturday, May 10
    10:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    In this environmentally-themed, visually splendid episode, Elisa New is joined by evolutionary biologist E.O. Wilson, poet Robert Hass, environmental photographer Laura McPhee, naturalist Joel Wagner, and children at an Audubon Society summer camp on Cape Cod in a wide ranging discussion of Galway Kinnell's "The Grey Heron."
  • The Gray Heron - Galway Kinnell
    Monday, May 12
    5:00 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    In this environmentally-themed, visually splendid episode, Elisa New is joined by evolutionary biologist E.O. Wilson, poet Robert Hass, environmental photographer Laura McPhee, naturalist Joel Wagner, and children at an Audubon Society summer camp on Cape Cod in a wide ranging discussion of Galway Kinnell's "The Grey Heron."
  • New York State of Mind - Nas
    Saturday, May 17
    10:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Learn alongside host Elisa New as hip hop artist Nas, music executive Steve Stoute, scholar Salamishah Tillet, and a chorus of rappers and fans break down the breakbeats and explore the searing vision of Nas's iconic track "NY State of Mind."
  • New York State of Mind - Nas
    Monday, May 19
    5:00 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    Learn alongside host Elisa New as hip hop artist Nas, music executive Steve Stoute, scholar Salamishah Tillet, and a chorus of rappers and fans break down the breakbeats and explore the searing vision of Nas's iconic track "NY State of Mind."
  • The New Colossus - Emma Lazarus
    Saturday, May 24
    10:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Host Elisa New rediscovers the freshness and the still-potent charge of Emma Lazarus's iconic sonnet of immigration alongside singer-songwriter Regina Spektor, activist and founder of the United We Dream Foundation Cristina Jimenez, President of the American Federation of Teachers Randi Weingarten, financier and philanthropist David Rubenstein, and poet Duy Doan.
  • The New Colossus - Emma Lazarus
    Monday, May 26
    5:00 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    Host Elisa New rediscovers the freshness and the still-potent charge of Emma Lazarus's iconic sonnet of immigration alongside singer-songwriter Regina Spektor, activist and founder of the United We Dream Foundation Cristina Jimenez, President of the American Federation of Teachers Randi Weingarten, financier and philanthropist David Rubenstein, and poet Duy Doan.
  • Urban Love Poem - Marilyn Chin
    Saturday, May 31
    10:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Explore San Francisco's history--from the Gold Rush and early Chinese immigration to the rise of Silicon Valley--through Marilyn Chin's poem of her San Francisco youth. In this series opener, Elisa New brings together acclaimed memoirist Maxine Hong Kingston, tech investor Randy Komisar and four Bay Area residents on a rooftop in Chinatown to discuss love of a great city.
  • One Art - Elizabeth Bishop
    Saturday, June 7
    10:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    "The art of losing isn't hard to master," Elizabeth Bishop wrote in her poem "One Art," universally considered one of her greatest. Journalist Katie Couric, media executives Sheryl Sandberg and Yang Lan, Singer/Songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter, and others discuss Bishop's masterpiece on losses, great and small.
  • The Fish - Marianne Moore
    Saturday, June 14
    10:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    This environmental science-themed episode explores Marianne Moore's great poem of marine life, "The Fish." Former Vice President Al Gore, poet Jorie Graham, and scientists from Conservation International dive into Moore's portrayal of the ocean's always-changing history, and its future in a warming world.
  • This Your Home Now - Mark Doty
    Saturday, June 21
    10:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Series creator Elisa New talks with poet Mark Doty, psychologist Steven Pinker, choreographer Bill T. Jones, design maven Simon Doonan and designer Johnathan Adler about "This Your Home Now," where a visit to the barber show sparks a meditation on love, the AIDS crisis, and the satisfactions of getting older.
  • Finishing The Hat - Stephen Sondheim
    Saturday, June 28
    10:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Stephen Sondheim is widely hailed as the greatest modern American musical theater composer. Series creator Elisa New speaks with Broadway stage actors and writer Adam Gopnik to explore Sondheim's singular ability to blend lyrics and music - using as their case study "Finishing the Hat," from Sondheim's Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Sunday in the Park with George.
  • You and I Are Disappearing - Yusef Komunyakaa
    Saturday, July 5
    10:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Yusef Komunyakaa went to Vietnam as a journalist but he came home a poet. This episode explores what burns in memory and on the page, even decades later. Former Secretary of State John Kerry, film and theatre director Julie Taymor, composer Elliot Goldenthal, Komunyakaa himself and a chorus of veterans discuss the mingled beauty and horror of war-- and the challenge of making art of it.
  • 'This Is Just to Say' - William Carlos Williams
    Saturday, July 12
    10:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Just 28 words and mimicking the form of a refrigerator note, is "This is Just to Say" simply the short apology it pretends to be, or something more subtle and passive-aggressive? Join actor John Hodgman, poet and physician Rafael Campo, poet Jane Hirshfield, a chorus of couples, and New as they consider what may or may not lie beneath the surface of William Carlos Williams's brief tribute to marital relations--and the savor of plums.
  • Whitman
    Saturday, July 19
    10:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    In 1855 Walt Whitman declared "The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem." Poetry In America celebrates the 200th anniversary of Walt Whitman's birth with Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, playwright Tony Kushner, poets Mark Doty and Marilyn Chin, and a chorus of National Student Poets, discussing Whitman's powerful and timeless work.

 

Load All

  • Mending Wall
    Monday, April 7
    2:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    No description available.
  • You Can Say That Again, Billie
    Monday, April 7
    2:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    No description available.
  • Cascadilla Falls
    Monday, April 7
    1:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    No description available.
  • Looking for the Gulf Motel
    Monday, April 7
    1:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    No description available.
  • The Wound Dresser
    Monday, April 7
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    No description available.
  • Whitman
    Monday, April 7
    12:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    In 1855 Walt Whitman declared "The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem." Poetry In America celebrates the 200th anniversary of Walt Whitman's birth with Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, playwright Tony Kushner, poets Mark Doty and Marilyn Chin, and a chorus of National Student Poets, discussing Whitman's powerful and timeless work.
  • Skyscraper - Carl Sandburg
    Monday, April 7
    5:00 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    Elisa New considers the rise of the skyscraper-- and the emergence of the modernist poem-- in an episode featuring celebrated architect Frank Gehry, Chinese visionary and real estate developer Zhang Xin, poet Robert Polito, and student poets from around the United States.
  • Skyscraper - Carl Sandburg
    Saturday, April 5
    10:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Elisa New considers the rise of the skyscraper-- and the emergence of the modernist poem-- in an episode featuring celebrated architect Frank Gehry, Chinese visionary and real estate developer Zhang Xin, poet Robert Polito, and student poets from around the United States.
  • 'This Is Just to Say' - William Carlos Williams
    Thursday, April 3
    2:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Just 28 words and mimicking the form of a refrigerator note, is "This is Just to Say" simply the short apology it pretends to be, or something more subtle and passive-aggressive? Join actor John Hodgman, poet and physician Rafael Campo, poet Jane Hirshfield, a chorus of couples, and New as they consider what may or may not lie beneath the surface of William Carlos Williams's brief tribute to marital relations--and the savor of plums.
  • You and I Are Disappearing - Yusef Komunyakaa
    Thursday, April 3
    2:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Yusef Komunyakaa went to Vietnam as a journalist but he came home a poet. This episode explores what burns in memory and on the page, even decades later. Former Secretary of State John Kerry, film and theatre director Julie Taymor, composer Elliot Goldenthal, Komunyakaa himself and a chorus of veterans discuss the mingled beauty and horror of war-- and the challenge of making art of it.
  • Finishing The Hat - Stephen Sondheim
    Thursday, April 3
    1:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Stephen Sondheim is widely hailed as the greatest modern American musical theater composer. Series creator Elisa New speaks with Broadway stage actors and writer Adam Gopnik to explore Sondheim's singular ability to blend lyrics and music - using as their case study "Finishing the Hat," from Sondheim's Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Sunday in the Park with George.
  • This Your Home Now - Mark Doty
    Thursday, April 3
    1:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Series creator Elisa New talks with poet Mark Doty, psychologist Steven Pinker, choreographer Bill T. Jones, design maven Simon Doonan and designer Johnathan Adler about "This Your Home Now," where a visit to the barber show sparks a meditation on love, the AIDS crisis, and the satisfactions of getting older.
  • The Fish - Marianne Moore
    Thursday, April 3
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    This environmental science-themed episode explores Marianne Moore's great poem of marine life, "The Fish." Former Vice President Al Gore, poet Jorie Graham, and scientists from Conservation International dive into Moore's portrayal of the ocean's always-changing history, and its future in a warming world.
  • One Art - Elizabeth Bishop
    Thursday, April 3
    12:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    "The art of losing isn't hard to master," Elizabeth Bishop wrote in her poem "One Art," universally considered one of her greatest. Journalist Katie Couric, media executives Sheryl Sandberg and Yang Lan, Singer/Songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter, and others discuss Bishop's masterpiece on losses, great and small.
  • Urban Love Poem - Marilyn Chin
    Wednesday, April 2
    2:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Explore San Francisco's history--from the Gold Rush and early Chinese immigration to the rise of Silicon Valley--through Marilyn Chin's poem of her San Francisco youth. In this series opener, Elisa New brings together acclaimed memoirist Maxine Hong Kingston, tech investor Randy Komisar and four Bay Area residents on a rooftop in Chinatown to discuss love of a great city.
  • The New Colossus - Emma Lazarus
    Wednesday, April 2
    2:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Host Elisa New rediscovers the freshness and the still-potent charge of Emma Lazarus's iconic sonnet of immigration alongside singer-songwriter Regina Spektor, activist and founder of the United We Dream Foundation Cristina Jimenez, President of the American Federation of Teachers Randi Weingarten, financier and philanthropist David Rubenstein, and poet Duy Doan.
  • The Gray Heron - Galway Kinnell
    Wednesday, April 2
    1:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    In this environmentally-themed, visually splendid episode, Elisa New is joined by evolutionary biologist E.O. Wilson, poet Robert Hass, environmental photographer Laura McPhee, naturalist Joel Wagner, and children at an Audubon Society summer camp on Cape Cod in a wide ranging discussion of Galway Kinnell's "The Grey Heron."
  • To Prisoners - Gwendolyn Brooks
    Wednesday, April 2
    1:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Senator John McCain, playwright and activist Anna Deavere Smith, poets Reginald Dwayne Betts and Li-Young Lee, and four exonerated prisoners discuss poetry's special resonance for those behind bars.
  • Shirt - Robert Pinsky
    Wednesday, April 2
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    At New York Fashion Week, host Elisa New catches up with fashion designer Johnson Hartig, Bergdorf Goodman's Betty Halbreich, shoe designer Stuart Weitzman and with fashion and poetry students from the New School to discuss Robert Pinsky's poem on labor, craft, and the threads that connect us. Back in Boston, Pinsky joins New on camera to reflect on his poem.
  • Musee Des Beaux Arts - W.H. Auden
    Wednesday, April 2
    12:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, journalist and ethicist David Brooks, and poet, professor, and painter Peter Sacks join Elisa New to ponder W.H. Auden's World War II-era reflection on suffering: "Musee des Beaux Arts."
  • Harlem - Langston Hughes
    Tuesday, April 1
    2:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    President Bill Clinton, pianist and composer Herbie Hancock, poet Sonia Sanchez, and students from the Harlem Children's Zone interpret Langston Hughes's most iconic poem, "Harlem" with series host Elisa New.
  • Skyscraper - Carl Sandburg
    Tuesday, April 1
    2:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Elisa New considers the rise of the skyscraper-- and the emergence of the modernist poem-- in an episode featuring celebrated architect Frank Gehry, Chinese visionary and real estate developer Zhang Xin, poet Robert Polito, and student poets from around the United States.
  • Hymmnn and Hum Bom - Allen Ginsberg
    Tuesday, April 1
    1:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Joined by rock star Bono, US Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, and by a chorus of clergy and religious practitioners, host Elisa New tackles two of Ginsberg's most emotionally transporting poems, the "Hymmnn" from Kaddish, and the anti-war chant "Hum Bom."
  • Those Winter Sundays - Robert Hayden
    Tuesday, April 1
    1:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Vice President Joe Biden, Inaugural poet Elizabeth Alexander, and psychologist Angela Duckworth join host Elisa New and a chorus of working fathers and sons to reflect on Robert Hayden's moving poem "Those Winter Sundays."
  • Fast Break - Edward Hirsch
    Tuesday, April 1
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Join poet Edward Hirsch, host Elisa New, NBA players Shaquille O'Neal, Pau Gasol, and Shane Battier, and a group of pick-up basketball players as they read Hirsch's "Fast Break" and use basketball to understand poetry - and poetry to understand the game of basketball.
  • I Cannot Dance Upon My Toes - Emily Dickinson
    Tuesday, April 1
    12:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    "I cannot dance upon my toes," Emily Dickinson writes -- "no man instructed me." Join host Elisa New, actor Cynthia Nixon, cellist Yo Yo Ma, dancer and choreographer Jill Johnson, and poet Marie Howe in an exploration of the challenges of art and audience across time, space, and artistic medium.
  • Hymmnn and Hum Bom - Allen Ginsberg
    Monday, March 31
    5:00 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    Joined by rock star Bono, US Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, and by a chorus of clergy and religious practitioners, host Elisa New tackles two of Ginsberg's most emotionally transporting poems, the "Hymmnn" from Kaddish, and the anti-war chant "Hum Bom."
  • Hymmnn and Hum Bom - Allen Ginsberg
    Saturday, March 29
    10:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Joined by rock star Bono, US Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, and by a chorus of clergy and religious practitioners, host Elisa New tackles two of Ginsberg's most emotionally transporting poems, the "Hymmnn" from Kaddish, and the anti-war chant "Hum Bom."
  • Those Winter Sundays - Robert Hayden
    Monday, March 24
    5:00 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    Vice President Joe Biden, Inaugural poet Elizabeth Alexander, and psychologist Angela Duckworth join host Elisa New and a chorus of working fathers and sons to reflect on Robert Hayden's moving poem "Those Winter Sundays."
  • Those Winter Sundays - Robert Hayden
    Saturday, March 22
    10:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Vice President Joe Biden, Inaugural poet Elizabeth Alexander, and psychologist Angela Duckworth join host Elisa New and a chorus of working fathers and sons to reflect on Robert Hayden's moving poem "Those Winter Sundays."
  • Fast Break - Edward Hirsch
    Monday, March 17
    5:00 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    Join poet Edward Hirsch, host Elisa New, NBA players Shaquille O'Neal, Pau Gasol, and Shane Battier, and a group of pick-up basketball players as they read Hirsch's "Fast Break" and use basketball to understand poetry - and poetry to understand the game of basketball.
  • Fast Break - Edward Hirsch
    Saturday, March 15
    10:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Join poet Edward Hirsch, host Elisa New, NBA players Shaquille O'Neal, Pau Gasol, and Shane Battier, and a group of pick-up basketball players as they read Hirsch's "Fast Break" and use basketball to understand poetry - and poetry to understand the game of basketball.
  • I Cannot Dance Upon My Toes - Emily Dickinson
    Monday, March 10
    5:00 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    "I cannot dance upon my toes," Emily Dickinson writes -- "no man instructed me." Join host Elisa New, actor Cynthia Nixon, cellist Yo Yo Ma, dancer and choreographer Jill Johnson, and poet Marie Howe in an exploration of the challenges of art and audience across time, space, and artistic medium.
  • I Cannot Dance Upon My Toes - Emily Dickinson
    Saturday, March 8
    10:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    "I cannot dance upon my toes," Emily Dickinson writes -- "no man instructed me." Join host Elisa New, actor Cynthia Nixon, cellist Yo Yo Ma, dancer and choreographer Jill Johnson, and poet Marie Howe in an exploration of the challenges of art and audience across time, space, and artistic medium.