Open House on WBAI

Monica Youn—poet and member of the Racial Imaginary Institute—discusses her new book From From, and the surprising influence of children’s books on her craft with host Cornelius Eady.

New Mexico Poet Laureate Lauren Camp discusses new and recent work, and her experience as Poet in Residence at Grand Canyon National Park with host Patricia Spears Jones.

Francisco Aragón—poet, translator, and curator—discusses his most recent book, After Rubén, and his work as the director of Letras Latinas with host Cornelius Eady.

Poet and educator Brenda Coultas discusses contested histories, surviving in New York, and The Writing of an Hour with host Patricia Spears Jones.

Award-winning poet and educator Kimiko Hahn, newly appointed to the Board of Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets, reads and discusses her work and poetic forms with host Cornelius Eady.

Emerging Brooklyn poets Jade Yeung and Jordan E. Franklin read their work and join host Patricia Spears Jones for a discussion of craft, fun, and influences.

Poet, essayist, and non-fiction writer J. Chester Johnson speaks with host Cornelius Eady about the Elaine Race Massacre, his friendship with Sheila L. Walker—a descendant of survivors—and the power of reconciliation.

Poet, curator, mentor and community organizer Cheryl Boyce-Taylor reads and discusses new work, dialects, and family with host Patricia Spears-Jones.

Pulitzer Prize winning poet Tyehimba Jess, author of Leadbelly and Olio, reads his own work and talks with host Cornelius Eady.

Peter Covino—poet, translator, and one of the founding editors of Barrow Street Press—reads work in English and Italian, and talks craft with host Patricia Spears Jones.   

Host Cornelius Eady introduces an exploration of the intricacies and pleasures of translation in a conversation between Polish poet Krystyna Dąbrowska and her translator, poet Karen Kovacik, in celebration of Dąbrowska’s new collection, Tideline.

On this episode of Open House: esteemed poet Linda Pastan discusses her most recent collection Almost An Elegy: New and Later Selected Poems with co-host Cornelius Eady. Linda Pastan has published 16 volumes of poetry and is a past Poet Laureate of Maryland.  Pastan has won numerous awards, including the Maurice English Award and the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.

This episode of Open House features Illinois Poet Laureate Angela Jackson in conversation with co-host Patricia Spears Jones. Influenced by the Chicago based Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC) movement, Jackson will read and discuss her own poetry as well as her biography of Gwendolyn Brooks, A Surprised Queenhood in the New Black Sun.

Open House co-hosts Cornelius Eady and Patricia Spears Jones introduce themselves, the show, and Poets House, plus read and discuss each other’s poetry and craft.

Open House explores the breadth of the contemporary poetry world. Each episode invites one or more notable poets, publishers, or poetry advocates to join us for poetry readings and conversations on topics ranging from personal creative practice to the state of poetry today.

Patricia Spears Jones is a poet, playwright, anthologist, educator, and cultural activist and the winner of the 2017 Jackson Poetry Prize from Poets & Writers. She is author of A Lucent Fire: New and Selected Poems and The Beloved Community, forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press. Her work is anthologized in African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song, Of Poetry and Protest: From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin, and BAX 2016: Best American Experimental Writing. Her poems have been published in The New Yorker, The Brooklyn Rail,  The Ocean State Review, Ms. Muse, and CUTTHROAT: A Journal of the Arts. Nonfiction works are in BOMB, The Poetry Project Newsletter, The Black Scholar, and Killens Review of Arts and Letters and online journals Homeslice and Pangyrus. She edited THINK: Poems for Aretha Franklin Inauguration Day Hat and Ordinary Women: An Anthology of New York City Women Poets. Mabou Mines commissioned and produced her works Mother and Song For New York: What Women Do When Men Sit Knitting.

Jones co-curated the Wednesday Night Series for St. Mark’s Poetry Project. She has taught graduate and undergraduate creative writing at Hollins University, Adelphi University, Hunter College, and Barnard. She leads poetry workshops for the 92nd Street Y, The Workroom, Hugo House, Community of Writers, Truro Center for the Arts, Gemini Ink, and Brooklyn Poets. She organizes the American Poets Congress and is a Senior Fellow Emeritus of the Black Earth Institute. www.psjones.com.

Cornelius Eady is a renowned poet, musician, and co-founder of Cave Canem. He is the author of several collections of poetry, including Hardheaded Weather; Brutal Imagination, which was a finalist for the 2001 National Book Award in Poetry; The Gathering of My Name, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize; and Victims of the Latest Dance Craze, which received the 1985 Lamont Poetry Selection of The Academy of American Poets. He has also collaborated with Jazz composer Deidre Murray to produce several works of musical theater, including You Don’t Miss Your Water; Running Man, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 1999; Fangs; and Brutal Imagination, which received Newsday’s Oppenheimer Award in 2002.

Eady’s honors include a Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Rockefeller Foundation. Eady has taught at institutions including Notre Dame University, Sarah Lawrence College, New York University, the City College of New York, the 92nd Street Y, the College of William and Mary, and Sweet Briar College. He has been director of the Poetry Center at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and Miller Family Endowed Chair in Literature and Writing and Professor in English and Theater at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Eady is currently Interim Director of Poets House and John C. Hodges Chair at the University of Tennessee/Knoxville.