PBS News
Poetry Everywhere
New series of poetry films premieres online, on public television, and on transit systems
An innovative effort to introduce new audiences to a wide selection of great contemporary and classic poetry, the Poetry Everywhere films are intended to add a moment of introspection, wonder — even revelation — to the life of a harried commuter, a television viewer, online surfer, or a young child who has yet to encounter poetry. Using a variety of production approaches, the project features films of poets reading their own work, animated interpretations of much-loved poems, and celebrities reading personal favorites.
Seventeen of the Poetry Everywhere films, produced by WGBH/Boston and David Grubin Productions in association with the Poetry Foundation, begin airing
In addition, 15 animated Poetry Everywhere films created by students working with docUWM, a documentary media center at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and the university's creative writing program, in association with the Poetry Foundation, will debut online and on Transit TV throughout the coming months. Aiming to focus a new generation of filmmakers on poetry as subject matter, the project encouraged film students to read widely from the canon of contemporary poetry and, working closely with poets and scholars, effectively translate poetry to the screen using an array of film and animation techniques. The docUWM films feature a wide range of contemporary poems and poets, including Lucille Clifton's "mulberry fields," Robert Creeley's "The Language," and Lyn Hejinian's "Eleven Eyes." The student portion of the project was supervised by Liam Callanan, a creative writing professor at the UW-Milwaukee School of Letters and Science, and
Visitors to Poetry Everywhere on the PBS website will find links to the Poetry Foundation's website, www.poetryfoundation.org, that enable them to read the text of the featured poems, as well as biographies and more work by the poets, and to further explore poetry as a whole. In addition, selected poems will be featured in a special multimedia collection on the Teachers' Domain website, www.teachersdomain.org, which will include video, background essays, strategies for teaching the poems, and sample lesson plans.
A full list of poems included in the Poetry Everywhere series is attached. For additional information on the program and partners, please visit www.poetryfoundation.org.
About docUWM
docUWM is a documentary media center based at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Peck School of the Arts' Film Department that produces and presents documentary and media work of all kinds.
About David Grubin Productions
David Grubin Productions has produced over 100 films on subjects ranging from history to art, from poetry to science. As a producer, writer, and director, David Grubin has won every major award in his field, including two duPont-Columbia awards, three Peabodys, and nine Emmys. Widely acclaimed for his biographies of American presidents, Grubin most recently produced The Jewish Americans, a six-hour documentary following 350 years of Jewish American history, for PBS. Additional information is available at www.grubin.com.
About WGBH/Boston
WGBH
About Transit TV
Transit TV's network of nearly 9000 television screens can be seen on nearly 4000 transit vehicles by 11 million weekly viewers, creating one of the largest digital out-of-home networks in
About the Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine and one of the largest literary organizations in the world, exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience. The Poetry Foundation seeks to be a leader in shaping a receptive climate for poetry by developing new audiences, creating new avenues for delivery, and encouraging new kinds of poetry through innovative literary prizes and programs. For more information, please visit www.poetryfoundation.org.
Poetry Everywhere Poem List
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7. Seamus Heaney - "Black-Berry Picking" (WGBH/David Grubin Productions)
8.
9. Yusef Komunyakaa - "Facing It" (WGBH/David Grubin Productions)
10. Stanley Kunitz - "Touch Me" (WGBH/David Grubin Productions)
11.
12.
13.
14. Charles Simic - "Stone" (WGBH/David Grubin Productions)
15.
16. Walt Whitman - excerpt from "A Passage to India" (read by
17. W.B. Yeats - "The Wild Old Wicked Man" (read by Wynton Marsalis) (WGBH/David Grubin Productions)
18. Agha Shahid Ali - "Snowmen" (docUWM)
19. John Ashbery - "Paradoxes and Oxymorons" (docUWM)
20.
21.
22.
23. Kwame Dawes - "Tornado Child" (docUWM)
24. Rhina Espaillat - "Weighing In" (docUWM)
25. Maurice Kilwein Guevara - "Dona Josefina Counsels
26. Matthea Harvey - "Shiver & You Have Weather" (docUWM)
27.
28. Lyn Hejinian - "Eleven Eyes" (docUWM)
29. Jane Hirshfield - "The Heat of Autumn" (docUWM)
30. John Koethe - "Chester" (docUWM)
31. Wislawa Szymborska - "Advertisement" (docUWM)
32.
SOURCE The Poetry Foundation
Search Our News Using Google Search
Can't find what you want? Try using Google:
