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Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Jazz and Jack Kerouac (with Steve Allen)

The pioneering broadcast journalist Fred W. Friendly once said, “Television makes so much at its worst, that it can’t afford to do its best.*” Steve Allen, one of the television pioneers working in front of the camera was an exception to Mr. Friendly’s observation, as we see in this television interview he did with Jack Kerouac. 




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* Quoted by Garrison Keillor on The Writer's Almanac, October 30, 2019.



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Friday, April 14, 2023

"Let Love" by Rumi (translated by Haleh Liza Gafori

Haleh Liza Gafori is a rare gift for the English-speaking world interested in the poetry of Rumi. She is a poet of Persian descent who speaks Farsi. Born in New York City to Iranian parents, she grew up hearing Persian poetry recited and has been translating various Persian poets for a decade. 

She is a poet who is eminently qualified to convey Rumi's work to us. Her 2022 publication, Gold, is a translation of some of Rumi's ecstatic poetry. Here she offers her English translation and then sings Rumi's verse in the original Farsi

  


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Wednesday, April 12, 2023

Mother and Son Poet Laureates'

Becoming a poet laureate is a coveted role and rare honor. Rarer still is having two laureates in the same family. PBS's Jeffrey Brown traveled to Philadelphia to meet with a poetic family and hear how a mother-son duo is working to bring poetry to a wider public. It’s part of the PBS arts and culture series, "CANVAS."


Wednesday, April 5, 2023

John Trudell: Crazy Horse

The late John Trudell, Native American poet offers poetic wisdom from the Lakota shaman, Crazy Horse

 



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