Lannan Center Podcast

On Tuesday, April 12, 2022, the Lannan Center presented a reading and talk featuring poets Victoria Chang and Rachel Eliza Griffiths. Hosted by Carolyn Forché. Introductions by Lannan Fellows Max Zhang and Hiruni Herat. 

About Victoria Chang
Victoria Chang’s new book of poetry, The Trees Witness Everything is forthcoming (Copper Canyon Press and Corsair Books in the U.K.). Her nonfiction book, Dear Memory (Milkweed Editions), was published in 2021. OBIT (Copper Canyon Press, 2020), her most recent poetry book, was named a New York Times Notable Book, a Time Must-Read Book, and received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in Poetry, and the PEN/Voelcker Award. It was also longlisted for a National Book Award and named a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Griffin International Poetry Prize. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, and lives in Los Angeles and is a Core Faculty member within Antioch’s low-residency MFA Program.

About Rachel Eliza Griffiths
Rachel Eliza Griffiths is a poet, visual artist, and novelist. Her hybrid collection of poetry and photography, Seeing the Body (W.W. Norton), was published in 2020. Other poetry collections by Griffiths include Lighting the Shadow (Four Way Books, 2015), The Requited Distance (Sheep Meadow Press, 2011), Mule & Pear (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2011), and Miracle Arrhythmia (Willow Books, 2010). Griffiths is a recipient of fellowships including Cave Canem, Kimbilio, Millay Colony, Vermont Studio Center, Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and Yaddo. Her forthcoming debut novel, Promise, will be published by Random House.

Music: Quantum Jazz — "Orbiting A Distant Planet" — Provided by Jamendo.

About
The United States: exceptional, individual, shining city on the hill, home of democracy, land of the free, of the “American Dream” and the pursuit of happiness. A national narrative is composed of ideas made into stories. And these stories are powerful. In a time of division can Americans agree on a common story or make space for multiple narratives?

Panelists: Rabih Alameddine, Aleksandar Hemon, Fathali Moghaddam, and Patricia Smith. Chaired by John Freeman

Music: Quantum Jazz — "Orbiting A Distant Planet" — Provided by Jamendo.

About
As the calls for social and racial justice grow, could the United States follow the example of South Africa and other conflict-affected nations and engage in a national, formal reconciliation process?

Panelists: Elham Atashi, Tope Folarin, Aleksandar Hemon, and Tim Phillips. Chaired by David Smith

Music: Quantum Jazz — "Orbiting A Distant Planet" — Provided by Jamendo.

About
Wage inequality in the United States is approaching the extreme level that prevailed prior to the Great Depression, creating new social classes: the precariat (those on short term or zero hours contracts without benefits) and the one percent. With disparity widening––and anger building among some of the dispossessed––can the American Dream endure?

Panelists: Sarah Anderson, Amy Goldstein, and John Freeman. Chaired by Tope Folarin

Music: Quantum Jazz — "Orbiting A Distant Planet" — Provided by Jamendo.

About
We write to make sense of the world around us. From war and political violence to natural disasters and pandemics – how have writers of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction responded to crises in their nation’s history?

Panelists: Rabih Alameddine, Aleksandar Hemon, and Patricia Smith; Chaired by Jacki Lyden

Music: Quantum Jazz — "Orbiting A Distant Planet" — Provided by Jamendo.

About
If the lion does not tell his story, the hunter will. The history of the United States, as it is currently taught, is being contested like never before. Is it possible to reconcile differing perspectives on America’s national narrative?

Panelists: Mark Muller, Elizabeth Rule, and Clint Smith; Chaired by Adam Rothman.

Music: Quantum Jazz — "Orbiting A Distant Planet" — Provided by Jamendo.

Keynote Speech by Melody C. Barnes: "In Search of an Inclusive America: Culture, Politics, and the Narratives That Define Us" on March 22, 2022.

About Melody C. Barnes
Melody Barnes is executive director of the University of Virginia’s Karsh Institute of Democracy. She is also the J. Wilson Newman Professor of Governance at the Miller Center of Public Affairs and a senior fellow at the Karsh Center for Law & Democracy.

Ms. Barnes was Assistant to the President and director of the White House Domestic Policy Council during the Administration of President Barack Obama. Prior to her tenure in the Obama Administration, she was executive vice president for policy at the Center for American Progress and chief counsel to the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

Barnes is narrator and host of the podcast, LBJ and the Great Society and co-editor of Community Wealth Building & The Reconstruction of American Democracy.  Ms. Barnes earned her B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she graduated with honors in history and her J.D. from the University of Michigan.

Music: Quantum Jazz — "Orbiting A Distant Planet" — Provided by Jamendo.

Clips taken from past event The View From Abroad: “What Can America Learn from the Experience of Other Nations at a Time of Crisis?” held on Crowdcast on March 18, 2021.

Music: Soundside (royalty free music) — "Violin Inspiration" — Provided by Jamendo.

Clips taken from past event "Is There Such a Thing as American Exceptionalism?” held at Beyond Borders Scotland on August 29, 2021.

Music: AudioInfinity — "Inspirational Piano" — Provided by Jamendo.

On February 8th, 2022, the Lannan Center presented a reading and talk featuring poets Mark Nowak. Moderated by Carolyn Forché.

About Mark Nowak
Mark Nowak is the author of four poetry collections: Social Poetics (Coffee House Press, 2020), Coal Mountain Elementary (2009), Shut Up Shut Down (2004), and Revenants (2000). Also a playwright, essayist, social critic, and labor activist, Nowak’s writing documents the hardships and injustices faced by the global working class. Nowak is the recipient of the Freedom Plow Award for Poetry & Activism from Split This Rock and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He has taught at St. Catherine University and Washington College, where he also worked as director of the Rose O’Neill Literary House. He has also led poetry workshops for workers and trade unions in Belgium, the Netherlands, the U.K., the U.S., and South Africa. He is currently Professor of English at Manhattanville College and the founding director, in collaboration with PEN America, of the Worker Writers School.

Music: Quantum Jazz — "Orbiting A Distant Planet" — Provided by Jamendo.