MPR has had a keen ear for capturing the words and meter of poetry. Minnesota is home to many nationally renowned poets, city and state poet laureates, spoken word artists, and individuals young and old that have simply created work for the sake of the form. The state is also a magnet for poets all throughout the world. Here is a wonderful breadth of those readings, speeches, thoughts, and histories of the poet.
September 23, 2011 - MPR’s Euan Kerr profiles Korean poet Ed Bok Lee and Vietnamese American spoken word artist Bao Phi. The poets respective works explore the Asian American experience - with a very Minnesota perspective.
September 29, 2011 - On this edition of Art Hounds, a look at Jon Hassler Theater's production of "Pinocchio;" the Weisman Art Museum re-opening; and poet Seamus Heaney visiting Minnesota.
April 16, 2012 - MPR’s Marianne Combs reports on two of the Pulitzers announced that have Minnesota connections. Kevin Puts won a 2012 Pulitzer in Music for "Silent Night: Opera in Two Acts" that premiered at the Minnesota Opera. Also, poet Tracy K. Smith won a Pulitzer for "Life on Mars," published by Minneapolis' Graywolf Press.
April 20, 2012 - The 2012 winner of the Laurence O'Shaughnessy prize for Irish poetry is Gerard Smyth. The prize is given annually by the Center for Irish Studies at the University of St. Thomas. Smyth is visiting the St. Thomas campus and stopped by MPR's studios. He shares a poem from his collection “The Fullness of Time” - and it includes a nod to Minnesota's own Robert Bly.
May 14, 2012 - MPR’s Euan Kerr profiles Twin Cities native Maya Washington, who uses a short film she created about a deaf performance poet to challenge elementary school students to think about - and perform poetry.
May 18, 2012 - Is life better for an African American artist today living in the Twin Cities than it was twenty or thirty years ago?
May 25, 2012 - Essayist Peter Smith shares a poem on mowing the lawn. It captures the essence of the eternal struggle of adults getting kids to actually do the task.
August 1, 2012 - For the 5th anniversary of the 35W bridge collapse, Minnesota poet laureate Joyce Sutphen reads her poem "Someone Just Like You."
September 7, 2012 - MPR’s Marianne Combs sat down with author and fiber artist Gwen Westerman, painter and sculptor Jim Denomie, actor and spoken word artist R. Vincent Moniz, Jr., and poet Heid Erdrich. The discussion included what it means to be a contemporary Native artist working in a world that still has stereotypical notions of what it means to be an American Indian.
November 30, 2012 - MPR’s David Cazares profiles all-Black jazz group Mother of Masks, a group that blends spoken word, poetry and improvised music in a blues-based fountain of black creative consciousness.