When you feel like crying, do you cry? Or do you stifle it? Why?
The U.S. Congress 2009 “Joint resolution to acknowledge a long history of official depredations and ill-conceived policies by the Federal Government regarding Indian tribes” stated “Whereas the arrival of Europeans in North America opened a new chapter in the history of Native Peoples.” Layli ... Show More
Jul 24
Poetry Unbound in Conversation — Richard Scott
“Poetry means paying attention in a different way to the world and seeing what wisdom you're given back in return for that attention,” says Richard Scott in this conversation with Pádraig Ó Tuama, recorded during the 2025 Collective Trauma Summit. Richard’s second collection, Tha ... Show More
51m 37s
Jul 10
Poetry Unbound in Conversation — Kimberly Campanello part 2 of 2
“It had to involve more than just a slim volume of verse,” says Kimberly Campanello about MOTHERBABYHOME, her ongoing visual poetry project which centers the 796 infants and children who died at the St. Mary's Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, in the west of Ireland, between 1926 and ... Show More
38m 16s
Jun 26
Poetry Unbound in Conversation — Kimberly Campanello part 1 of 2
“It's about seeing, through reading, whether where you are going has been or is now or will be written, or not.” This deliciously twisty line is from Kimberly Campanello’s ongoing versioning of Dante’s Inferno, and as in that sentence, she is translating and reconfiguring the 700 ... Show More
50m 12s
Apr 2021
Layli Long Soldier — The Freedom of Real Apologies
Layli Long Soldier is a writer, a mother, a citizen of the United States, and a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation. She has a way of opening up this part of her life, and of American life, to inspire self-searching and tenderness. Her award-winning first book of poetry, WHEREAS, ... Show More
50m 40s
Oct 2019
Joy Harjo: An American Sunrise
The first Native American to be named United States Poet Laureate, Joy Harjo discusses her tumultuous life, her career as an award-winning poet and her newest book of poetry, “An American Sunrise.” Joy also talks about reparations, universal connection, her native ancestors and o ... Show More
40m 27s
Nov 2022
Two poetry collections find beauty in unexpected places
Poet Franny Choi knows that marginalized communities have been facing apocalypses forever. But in her new book, The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On, she uses their survival as a way to look forward. In this episode, she tells NPR's Leila Fadel how understanding that pai ... Show More
20m 21s
Mar 2018
Naomi Shihab Nye — Your Life Is a Poem
“When you’re in a very quiet place, when you’re remembering, when you’re savoring an image, when you’re allowing your mind calmly to leap from one thought to another, that’s a poem.” Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem “Kindness” has traveled around the world. She grew up between Ferguson, M ... Show More
51m 55s