MPR has had a keen ear for capturing the words and meter of poetry. Minnesota is home to many nationally renowned poets, city and state poet laureates, spoken word artists, and individuals young and old that have simply created work for the sake of the form. The state is also a magnet for poets all throughout the world. Here is a wonderful breadth of those readings, speeches, thoughts, and histories of the poet.
September 19, 1992 - Eileen Myles poet reads her political poem "An American Poem."
October 3, 1992 - MPR’s Kathleen Hallinan interviews William Ackerman and Janet Rienstra, producers of the spoken word label, Gang of Seven. They discuss the process of choosing what to record and the label’s potential audience.
October 8, 1992 - MPR’s Kitty Eisele reports on announcement of poet Derek Walcott as winner of Nobel Prize for Literature. Segment includes brief interview with Walcott.
December 1, 1992 - MPR’s Joe Kelly reports on a Duluth public reading of poetry about people’s experiences with AIDS, sponsored by local group Poetry Harbor.
January 13, 1993 - A conversation with poet and literary critic Dana Gioia, author of Can Poetry Matter?: Essays on Poetry and American Culture. Gioia describes the slowing interest on poetry in popular culture.
January 15, 1993 - MPR’s Cathy Wurzer interviews Anthony Signorelli and Paul Macadam, editors of Rooster Crows at Light from the Bombing: Echoes from the Gulf War, published by Inroads Press (Minneapolis, MN). Poet Thomas R. Smith, from River Falls, Wisconsin, also takes part in conversation.
January 15, 1993 - Author Anthony Signorelli reads Pretend You Live in a Room by poet William Stafford.
January 15, 1993 - Wisconsin poet Thomas R. Smith reads his poem "Contempt."
January 15, 1993 - Local editor and writer Paul Macadam reads War is the Health of the State by Robert Bly.
February 5, 1993 - On this segment from First Friday, American poet Dana Gioia discusses the history of poetry in a conversation about his book “Can Poetry Matter?: Essays on Poetry and American Culture,” published by Graywolf Press.