Tag Archives: Poetry
Billy Collins animated, cont’d
My favorite living poet Billy Collins provides some context for his animated poems. Stick around for the hilarious piece he reads aloud at the end. (via TED)
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What do teachers make? They make a goddamn difference.
A classic performance by the fiery spoken-word poet, teacher, and teachers’ advocate Taylor Mali: A more recent version, coinciding with the publication of Mali’s book, What Teachers Make: I love this poem for what it says about teachers’ passion, commitment, … Continue reading
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Falling upward
In her marvelous essay “The Wetfooted Understory,” written for the collection The Joy of Secularism, Rebecca Stott examines the idea of “transcendence” and how to approach it from a secular perspective. A key passage: [I suspect] that the idea of … Continue reading
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Neil deGrasse Tyson and Stephen Colbert on all things science
Another long-but-absolutely-worth-it video: Neil deGrasse Tyson talks with Stephen Colbert (out of character!) about all things science. If you’re a Tyson junkie like me, you’ve heard much of this before — the Titanic story, Apophis, how he fell in love … Continue reading
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Voices from the 99%: the Occupy Wall Street Poetry Anthology
You must download this: a massive (and still-ongoing) compilation of poetry (and, it seems, a few prose pieces) submitted to the People’s Library by people from around the world, professional writers and amateurs alike, in support of the Occupy Wall … Continue reading
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Speak with conviction
A fantastic spoken-word piece by Taylor Mali, animated by Ronnie Bruce: Bravo. I’ll post more by Mali soon. If he and Sarah Kay are examples of the caliber of talent coming out of the spoken-poetry world, I’m seriously going to … Continue reading
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“Every mystery ever solved has turned out to be NOT MAGIC.”
Hot off the presses, here’s DC Turner’s short animated film of Tim Minchin’s celebrated beat poem “Storm”: (Update: Interviews with Minchin and the filmmakers here and here.) Very well done, I think, though I prefer Minchin’s live delivery (which you … Continue reading
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“Embrace all that you fear, for joy shall conquer all despair”: Patti Smith at the NYPL
Poet, rocker, activist and author Patti Smith — whose memoir Just Kids has recently won the National Book Award for nonfiction — talks with Paul Holdengräber at the New York Public Library on a wide range of topics, including: opera, … Continue reading
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“This world is made out of sugar. It can crumble so easily, but don’t be afraid to stick your tongue out and taste it.”
Lately I’ve been featuring some wonderful videos from the recent TED conferences. Here’s one of the best. Poet Sarah Kay performs two fiery spoken-word pieces, “B” and “Hiroshima.” In between, she talks about courage and terror; about finding her voice … Continue reading
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