Poetry Centered

Vickie Vértiz curates poems that chart a path to a collective future where we can survive crises, connect with others, and see life’s beauty. She introduces Khadijah Queen looking to words as weapons amidst grief (“bloodroot,” “Dear fear…”), Lehua M. Taitano moving through the luminous ocean of time (“Queer Check-Ins”), and Angel Dominguez breaking through the world’s isolation (“What Does the Future Sing to You in Dreams”). Vértiz closes with her poem “Disco,” a celebration of discovery and delight.

Watch Suheir Hammad’s “Gaza Suite” from the 2009 Palestine Festival of Literature.

Watch the full recordings of Queen, Taitano, and Dominguez reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:
Khadijah Queen (February 18, 2016)
Lehua M. Taitano (July 25, 2019)
Angel Dominguez (August 3, 2023)

You can also enjoy a recording of Vickie Vértiz reading for the Poetry Center in 2016.

Read about the Voca captioning project here. Every recording on Voca now has transcripts and captions—dive in and enjoy!

Eugenia Leigh introduces poems that speak from a particular moment into our own time, offering possibility amidst struggle. She shares John Murillo’s engagement with resistance and reality (“Enter the Dragon”), Monica Sok’s truth-telling about genocide (“Tuol Sleng”), and Angel Dominguez’s joyful protest against capitalism. Leigh closes with her poem “This City,” which ends with renewal.

Watch the full recordings of Murillo, Sok, and Dominguez reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:

John Murillo (April 22, 2021)
Monica Sok (February 13, 2020)
Angel Dominguez (August 3, 2023)

Mary Jo Bang brings together poems united by astonishment at the continuation of a world that seems utterly self-destructive. She shares Claudia Rankine on the illusions of American optimism (“Don’t Let Me Be Lonely”), Srikanth Reddy on mortality and teaching literature (“Underworld Lit”), and Timothy Donnelly on the human experience of a polluted world (“In My Life”). She closes with her own “Cosmic Madonna,” an ekphrastic poem inspired by Salvador Dali.

Watch the full recordings of Rankine, Reddy, and Donnelly reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:

Claudia Rankine (October 19, 2005)
Srikanth Reddy (November 12, 2015)
Timothy Donnelly (October 19, 2023)

You can also enjoy a recording of Mary Jo Bang reading for the Poetry Center in 2011.

Olatunde Osinaike curates poems that meld comedy, cultural scrutiny, and self-imagination. He introduces Patricia Spears Jones clearing a path for desire (“Self-Portrait as Midnight Storm”), Morgan Parker pursuing feeling through description (“Magical Negro #217: Diana Ross Finishing a Rib in Alabama, 1990s”), and Ishmael Reed satirizing wealth and importance (“Sixth Street Corporate War”). Olatunde closes with his own self-identification, “Self-Portrait in Lieu of My EP.”

Find the full recordings of Spears Jones, Parker, and Reed reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:

Patricia Spears Jones (October 21, 2017)
Morgan Parker (September 6, 2018)
Ishmael Reed (March 29, 1989)

Sawako Nakayasu selects poems that confront griefs personal and national, told directly and obliquely. She introduces Timothy Liu documenting the atrocities of Japanese imperialism (“A Requiem for the Homeless Spirits”), Daniel Borzutzky’s translation of Raul Zurita witnessing to the brutal crimes of the Chilean dictatorship (“Song for His Disappeared Love”), and Keith Waldrop conjuring a grief-riddled dream landscape (“An Apparatus”). Nakayasu closes with her own “Ant in a silvery tide,” a poem linked to a time of personal grief.

Find the full recordings of Liu, Borzutzky, and Waldrop reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:
Timothy Liu (February 20, 2014)
Daniel Borzutzky (January 10, 2019)
Keith Waldrop (with Rosmarie Waldrop, March 5, 2011)

You can also enjoy three recordings of Nakayasu reading for the Poetry Center in 2007, 2018, and 2023.

Jake Skeets curates poems by Diné poets centering on translation and the way that the Diné language orients its speakers to the world, which exists before them. He shares Rex Lee Jim’s invocation of voice as what brings life (“Language”), Laura Tohe’s embodiment of meaning in rhythm and sound (“Niltsá Bi'áád, Female Rain” and “Niltsá Bika', Male Rain”), and Luci Tapahonso’s blending of Diné syntax with English (“Hills Brothers Coffee”). Skeets closes with his poem “Emerging,” which traces the act of translation between English and Diné.

Watch the full recordings of Jim, Tohe, and Tapahonso readings for the Poetry Center on Voca:

Rex Lee Jim (2001)

Laura Tohe (2011)

Luci Tapahonso (2011)

Sally Wen Mao shares poems that trace her awakening as a poet, invoking teachers both in person and on the page. She introduces Claribel Alegría on how to express the unknowable and untraceable (“Savoir Faire”), Terrance Hayes on transformation as the role of poetry in the world (“The Deer”), and Bhanu Kapil on poetic language as a means of collapsing borders (“Humanimal”). Mao concludes with her poem “a dream or a fox,” written after Lucille Clifton’s “A Dream of Foxes.” 

Find the full recordings of Alegría, Hayes, and Kapil reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:
Claribel Alegría (1997)
Terrance Hayes (2016)
Bhanu Kapil (2008)

Lauren Camp selects poems that each inhabit a place, a music, another person—shaping a cosmos large or small in language. She introduces Beckian Fritz Goldberg synchronizing past and present (“Black Fish Blues”), Olga Broumas moving through shadows toward individual lives (“The Moon of Mind Against the Wooden Louver”), and Lisel Mueller cherishing names as a beginning (“Naming the Animals”). Camp closes with her poem “Ode to Two,” where land, house, and lovers are celebrated by light.

Listen to the full recordings of Goldberg, Broumas, and Mueller reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:
Beckian Fritz Goldberg (1994)
Olga Broumas (1988)
Lisel Mueller (1981)

Sophia Terazawa introduces poems that lead us to encounter both the beloved and the enemy, seeing them blurred and intertwined—seeing them as human. She shares Joy Harjo’s prayer of courage for the heart (“This Morning I Pray for My Enemies”), Khaled Mattawa’s recognition of the faceless dead (“Face: To the One Million Plus”), and Carolyn Forché’s liturgy for the last hour (“Prayer”). To close, Terazawa reads her poem “Gibbons Howling,” a prayer spoken from dreams into dust.   

Watch the full recordings of Harjo, Mattawa, and Forché reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:
Joy Harjo (2017)
Khaled Mattawa (2018)
Carolyn Forché (2007)

Radical Reversal highlights the reformative abilities of the arts by bringing poetry, music, and music production workshops—along with performance and recordings spaces—to detention centers and correctional facilities. In this bonus episode, Radical Reversal co-founder Randall Horton shares recordings from three youth writers and performers who worked with Radical Reversal at Jefferson County Youth Detention Center in Birmingham, Alabama. Poet Patrick Rosal makes a guest appearance on flute for the track "Aint No Love in the Streets."

To watch readings by poets whose work engages with the crisis of mass incarceration in the US, check out Voca for recordings from the Poetry Center's Art for Justice series.