Transcript of Martin Espada’s ‘Alabanza’
Produced by Francesca Rheannon

TRAX: Martin Espada is America's best-known Latino poet. Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1957 of Puerto Rican parents, he's the author of seven poetry collections. His latest, Alabanza, published by Norton in 2003, was named an American Library Notable Book of the Year. An earlier collection, Imagine the Angels of Bread, won an American Book Award. He's received numerous honors, including the Robert Creeley award, the Pen Revson Fellowship, and two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. His poems have appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Harpers, the Nation, and The Best American Poetry.*
I spoke to him on the occasion of the second anniversary of the destruction of the World Trade Center. He told me that he had wanted to write a poem after the tragedy, but the event was too overwhelming to...
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Piece Title:
Martin Espada's Alabanza

Piece Length: 5 minutes 50 seconds

Rundown:

00:00 Music intro (00:02)

00:01 Narrator intros piece over music track (01:00)

01:03 Espada talks about the poem (01:00)
01:06 Music track fades

02:02 Espada reads “Alabanza” (03:02)

05:04 Narrator (00:03)

05:07 Espada talks about reaction to poem (00:33)
05:35 music begins fade up
05:41 narrator, tag line (00:05)
05:45 music fades (00:04)