HIV/AIDS is defined by people: their complex lives, their bravery, their fear, their sadness, their need, their laughter, their inconsistencies--basically, their rich humanity. LiveHopeLove looks at the universal problems faced by people with HIV/AIDS, through the specific lens of Jamaica, where almost no one is unaffected by the disease. What are the unique realities of this small island state that set its HIV/AIDS sufferers apart from those in the rest of the world? Poet and writer Kwame Dawes travels to Jamaica to explore the experience of people living with HIV/AIDS and to examine how the disease has shaped their lives. Dawes' poems, inspired by their stories, take this documentary into deep realms of the heart.

LiveHopeLove: HIV/AIDS in Jamaica is the second of two multimedia reporting initiatives undertaken by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting with support from the MAC AIDS Fund.

Visit LiveHopeLove.com to explore the interactive website with rich photography, the complete set of Kwame's poems, short video documentaries and musical interpretations of the poems.

The radio documentary is produced by Stephanie Guyer-Stevens and Jack Chance of Outer Voices, in association with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

Through story and song, author Russell Goings has adapted his epic poem “The Children of Children Keep Coming” into an hour-long spoken word performance that delineates and celebrates the too often unsung African American cultural history.  His inspiration comes from friendship of iconic collagist Romare Bearden and from the voices of the ancestors.

Infused with the improvisational feel of jazz, this program celebrates the soulful spirits of ancestors through Goings’ masterfully poetic prose.  Narratives of historical figures Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Frederick Douglass and Phillis Wheatley intertwine with mythic characters Evalina, Banjo Pete and Black Tiny Shiny to tell the important story of the African American heroic journey.  

With introduction by acclaimed Tony Award winning Broadway actor Brian Stokes Mitchell, the radio adaptation of “The Children” will be available for broadcast on public radio stations nationwide starting Black History Month, February 2010.  It is the first part of a yearlong audio and lecture series exploring African-American narratives through art and storytelling, in partnership with WNPR – Connecticut Public Radio and Fairfield University.


Russell Goings graduated with honors from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1959.  He briefly played professional football, and then headed to Wall Street to become the first African-American brokerage manager for a New York Stock Exchange member firm.  Later, he became the first black owner of an investment firm, which managed the assets of some of the world’s largest companies along with many legendary athletes and entertainers.  He was founder of Essence Magazine and became the chairman of the Studio Museum in Harlem.  Goings is an inductee into the Wall Street Hall of Fame.  He spent thirteen years writing the “Children”, studying under Pulitzer Prize nominee and Fairfield University poetry professor Kim Bridgford. 

Harmonia looks at the poetry behind the most popular Renaissance vocal music from Italy, France, and Spain. Plus, Nigel North performs in a featured release of lute music by Robert Johnson.  

Eileen Myles has written thousands of poems since she gave her first reading at New York City’s CBGB in 1974. Once a part of the renowned St. Mark's Poetry project, Myles comes from the traditions of Patti Smith and Allen Ginsberg. She’s read to audiences at colleges, performance spaces, and bookstores across America and around the world.

In this intimate interview with a fellow poet, Myles discusses the state of women and poetry, her time with the touring literary group Sister Spit, and the New York poetry scene. Myles also reads two poems.

One hundred and fifty years have passed since Walt Whitman first published Leaves of Grass, a collection of twelve poems that irrevocably altered the development of poetry and literature. His magnum opus shattered existing notions of poetry, breaking all existing conventions in terms of subject matter, language, and style. Leaves of Grass opened the door not only for poets, but writers, artists, musicians, and thinkers to break down barriers in their own work; despite never reaching a mass audience during the artist's lifetime, its tremendous impact is being felt a century and a half later. Today, we are still trying to understand who Whitman was, what he was saying, and what he was styling himself to be. Hosted by Carl Hancock Rux, "Walt Whitman: Song of Myself" explores how a 36-year old freelance journalist and part-time house-builder living in Brooklyn created his outrageous, groundbreaking work. We join Whitman on a walk through the urban streets, imagining the sights, sounds and music, from Stephen Foster to Italian opera, that profoundly affected him and indelibly shaped his poetry. The city transformed Whitman, and Whitman in turn transformed the wild diversity and intensity of the city into a radical, passionate vision for America. In his poetry, he refused to be censored: he celebrated the body and sexuality; he embraced the invisible and the disenfranchised, from women to slaves to prostitutes. His hopes to heal the country of its deep political divisions through his poetry were dashed by the Civil War, but his work lives on as a vital life-affirming force. In this hour-long special, Rux speaks with writers, poets, musicians, and scholars who tell the story of this extraordinary, self-styled celebrity. Guests include writers Michael Cunningham and Phillip Lopate; poets Martin Espada, hailed by some as a contemporary Whitman, and Ishle Yi Park, Queens poet laureate; composers John Adams and Ned Rorem; choreographer Bill T. Jones; Whitman scholars Karen Karbiener and David Reynolds; and many, many others. Actors including Jeffrey Wright and Paul Giammatti share readings of Whitman's poetry, which, one hundred and fifty years on, still astonishes.

"We’re members of each other—all of us—everything. The difference is not whether you are or not, but whether you know you are or not. Because we’re all under each other’s influence. We’re all are affected by one another’s others lives and decisions. And there is no escape from this membership."

Wendell Berry is an American man of letters, academic, cultural and economic critic, and farmer.

The author of more than forty works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, Berry has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors.

Born in 1934 in Henry County, Kentucky, his writing is grounded in the notion that one’s work ought to be rooted in and responsive to one’s place.

His nonfiction serves as an extended exploration of the good life: sustainable agriculture, appropriate technologies, healthy rural communities, the pleasures of good food, husbandry, good work, local economics, fidelity, frugality, and reverence.

Beat Latino, hosted by Catalina Maria Johnson, celebrates in every hour a different facet of the extraordinary diversity of the latin/latino musical universe. This hour's selection highlights the work of Latin American and Spanish poets that has been set to song. Never has poetry been quite this danceable! The selections span the range from the poems of the 16th century Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross, to afrocuban versions of pieces written by Miguel Hernandez, who died imprisoned during the Spanish Civil war, to a rock in Spanish version of Gil Scott Heron's "The Revolution will not be televised". Broadcasts well for Poetry Month, April, and just about anytime!

What's the Word? Rhyme As children, we learn to rhyme before we know what it is. We hear it in nursery rhymes, games, and songs. Our first attempts at writing poetry usually involve rhyme. On this program, we'll hear about rhyme in three languages. The poetry critic Helen Vendler explores William Butler Yeats's "Sailing to Byzantium"; Suzanne Stetkevych talks about classical Arabic ode; and Laurence Porter discusses French poetry. Well-suited to National Poetry Month in April. If you are interested in this, see our piece at What's the Word? Contemporary Language Poetry . Fifteen- and thirty-second promos available. Photo credit: Mary Lee

Alixa and Naima are two poets who together make up Climbing PoeTree, an award winning performance duo.  Mixing poetry and politics they seek to use their words to educate and inspire.  On this edition, we hear performances by Climbing PoeTree and find out where such inspiring artists find their own inspiration.

To kick off Black History Month, we turn to our extensive archive to present this look back at the legacy of the legendary poet Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000).  The first African-American to win a Pulitzer Prize in 1950 for her poetry collection, Annie Allen, Brooks went on to influence generations of poets.  In this compilation made from 1984 and 1988 recordings, Brooks reads from her works, including her famous “We Real Cool” poem, and talks about her childhood, her work, and the recognition of her own mortality.

Northern Irish poet Seamus Heaney won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995. Since then his lines have been quoted by world leaders, his new translation of "Beowulf" has become a best-seller, and he has praised rapper Eminem for encouraging interest in poetry among young people. But in his latest collection, District & Circle, Heaney returns to some of the darkest images of his work in the 1970s...when the violence in Northern Ireland was still his main preoccupation. Perro de Jong talked to the poet at the 2006 Poetry International Festival in Rotterdam. About the perils of discarding history too soon...and the need to go back to the "first life" of memory and place when the world makes you feel "simply lost?

"April is the cruelest month, breeding  Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain." The famous words of poet T.S. Eliot prompted us to mix this anthology of American poets, who examine the mysteries of love in various forms. Listen to former Poets Laureate Billy Collins, Charles Simic, Rita Dove, and Kay Ryan, who offer their poetic insights and reflections into the ambiguous and enticing world of love, on The Cruelest Month, a finalist for the New York Festivals International Radio Award.

Alix Olson has been called a “spoken word diva,” a “road poet on a mission” and a “word warrior.” She calls her voice her “weapon of choice” and her powerful work contains equal doses of humor, anger and compassion. A champion slam poet, Olson introduced the new urban literary genre to Europe at Rotterdam’s Poetry International. As an activist, she’s been honored for her exceptional commitment to social justice in Washington D.C. But at the same time, a conservative women’s organization put her on their list of Ten Most Dangerous Women in America.

Maybe it was because the convention had just ended. Maybe it was something else. But the air was more charged than usual at the Boston Poetry Massacre this year. This marathon of poetry readings, sixty or so, all packed into one weekend, is an annual tradition here. Since it began in 1998, it's had many organizers, and many names: The Boston Poetry Conference, The Boston Alternative Poetry Conference, The Boston Poetry Marathon and last year's more utilitarian "60 at MIT." This year's title, "massacre," fit the impression that everyone was reciting their work as though their life depended on it. The event began just hours after John Kerry had delivered his acceptance speech to delegates at the Democratic National Convention, just a few miles down the road from Wordsworth Books in Cambridge, MA, where the readings were held. All week we'd been hearing that Kerry needed to give the speech of his lifetime. And whether he did or not, many of the poets at the Massacre seemed to give the readings of their lifetimes, John Mulrooney included. Last year, Mulrooney began his reading with a quote from Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (or D.H. Rumsfeld as he called him), lovingly reciting the words as though it were an Emily Dickinson poem. So this year, when he got behind the podium and said "I'd like to dedicate my reading to the department of homeland security" I thought he was joking. But what followed was one of the most haunting, relentless and evocative poems I have ever heard, equal parts Dylan Thomas and Allen Ginsberg, all sewn together with the refrain "If you see something, say something," which seemed to gather new meaning every time he said it. It occurs to me that that's a poet's job, saying something when they see something. They don't need to be asked. So when they *are* asked, the result is going to sound something like this.

While in Juvenile Hall, detained and incarcerated youth are invited to participate in weekly writing and conversation workshops which encourage them to dig deep, and seek meaningful insights through thought-provoking topics.

These young men, women, girls and boys reveal childhoods and teen years so often defeated by aspects of the lives they have lived so far. They address things, people, or events that are critical to acknowledge during rehabilitation before returning to their homes, schools, and communities.

Living out loud through rap, rhyme, and essay, these youth see the web as a portal --a way to let loose their stories in hopes others might put an ear to the wall and hear who they really are. Here, 20 writers read their own works, sometimes lending a voice to one another's.

Produced by Susan Stone with the boys and girls of San Francisco's Juvenile Justice Center, and the support of Malcolm Marshall, Youth Speaks, and the inspiration of David Inocencio and The Beat Within.

James Tokley is the Poet Laureate of Tampa, FL. A professor told him there were no more epic poems because there were no more epic heroes; Tokley decided that Muhammad Ali was one, and so he wrote this poem. It was produced with sound effects and music, and presented in a showcase of his poetry on WMNF's radio theater show.

Youth Radio chronicles life in Oakland, California, where an alarming number of youth homicides has weighed heavily on the community. The story uses as its centerpiece a poem by Ise Lyfe -- a retelling of Romeo and Juliet. The killings have been a major topic of conversation in Oakland among youth, from young poets, to teens gathered on the sidewalk, to kids taking the bus home from school. A high percentage of the victims are youth, sometimes as many as three in a single week. Youth Radio documents the words of young residents in street corner conversations in East Oakland, the neighborhood where much of the violence has taken place. The voices are Youth Radio's Gerald Ward II, Bianca Yarborough, her mom Bridget Taylor, and poet Ise Lyfe.

Youth producer, Dolna Smithback, along with her co-host, Gabe Rima, interviewed six members of the award winning and nationally acclaimed Santa Fe Indian School's Spoken Word Club. Dolna and Gabe heard pieces that the Spoken Word Club performed at different jams and competitions. This is a group piece called: "Creation Poem" by poets: April Chavez, Nolan Eskeets, Jimmy Coriz, and Santana Shorty; all who are members of the Santa Fe Indian School Spoken Word Club, directed by Tim McLaughlin. The students' inspiration for the poem comes from Native American ancestors, traditions, family members, dreams, and spirit guides.

April is National Poetry Month CURIUM: E.E. CUMMINGS FRIED IN A HARD DRIVE A POET GETS DIGITIZED E.E. Cummings was a poet in word and form, sculpting his verse in graphic designs and synthesist Evan Sorenstein has plugged into this. Under his recording guise as Curium he's made a beguiling recording, setting charming readings of Cummings poetry, read by a 3-year-old girl, an 80-something grandmother and everyone in between. Processed, stretched and distorted, he's set their words in a subtle ambient soundscape on the album Nowever. Curium talks about a poetry and music disc that transcends the form. Kimberly Haas reports.

Sean Cole is a poet and he knows what you think of that.

He is also a radio producer. One night, drunk and stumbling around the Hudson River with his friend Malissa O’Donnell, he discovered a monument — two of them actually — to two of his poetry heroes. Apropos of the name of this show, the tribute wasn’t very obvious. In fact, he and Malissa nearly walked right past it. Still, embedded in the architecture of a 25 year old plaza were the words of Walt Whitman and Frank O’Hara. And weirdly, Sean had he’d been reciting from O’Hara’s Lunch Poems just minutes before.

Thus began Sean’s quest to talk to the people whose idea this was — forging a largely unloved art form into a permanent fixture of the cultural landscape. Along the way he talks with urban landscape architect M. Paul Friedberg, former Battery Park official Richard Kahan and none other than Frank O’Hara’s younger sister, Maureen O’Hara.

Sean Cole and Malissa O’Donnell both work for WNYC’s Radiolab. And Sean is also a 99-percentilist from way back.

"Autobiography," by Joe Brainard 

----I was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1942.
----No, I wasn’t. I was born in Salem, Arkansas in 1942. I always say I was born in Tulsa tho. Because we moved there when I was only a few months old. So that’s where I grew up. In Tulsa, Oklahoma.
----A lot has happened between then and now, but somehow, today, I just don’t feel like writing about it. It doesn’t seem all that interesting. And it’s just too complicated.
----What’s important is that I’m a painter and a writer. Queer. Insecure about my looks. And I need to please people too much. I work very hard. I’d give my right arm to be madly in love. (Well, my left.) And I’m optimistic about tomorrow. (Optimistic about myself, not about the world.) I’m crazy about people. Not very intelligent. But smart. I want too much. What I want most is to open up. I keep trying. 

Two minutes, four seconds. Straight Commentary.

Carl Sandburg reads poems and talks poetry, to the (original) music of Skyward.

James Arthurr's poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic, Poetry, Ploughshares, The Southern Review, New England Review, and Narrative. He has received the Amy Lowell Traveling Poetry Scholarship, a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Poetry. His book Charms Against Lighting was recently published by Copper Canyon.

Joanne Kyger is one of the still-living poets from the Beat era. Her writing focuses on the environment and contemplative themes. This heartful piece comes from an 89 reading at Naropa University. This piece is from Naropa University Archive's Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics collection. Allen Ginsberg founded the Kerouac School, a writing program, in 1974, and for 30 years he brought a group of counter culture writers, artists and thinkers to Boulder for a Summer Program. Naropa's Audio Archive is digitizing 2000 hours of readings, lectures and panel discussions, several hundred hours of which is available for free at www.archive.org. Click through 'audio' to 'naropa' and browse. Kyger is a frequent visiting instructor at the Summer Writing Program. The piece has never been broadcast - you will be among the first to make this rare recording available to listeners.

Six-year-old Gareth has a voice made for poetry. He recites regularly for a radio magazine called "The Lumberyard." Listening to these classic poems recited by a child is like hearing them for the first time. In this series, Gareth recites two poems by William Blake, "The Little Boy Lost" and "The Chimney Sweeper"; Walt Whitman's, "Youth, Day, Old Age and Night"; and an excerpt from Walden by Henry David Thoreau. These are engaging, enchanting poetic moments, perfect for National Poetry Month.