When the great poet Maya Angelou died last Wednesday, we learned about it during a conversation about the death penalty. Maybe you learned about it while reading about deadly violence in Ukraine, or the search for the kidnapped girls in Nigeria.
Her death was sad news, to be sure. We don’t think we're the only ones who felt forced to step back from the news and consider the beauty and power of words.
This hour, in memory of Maya Angelou’s spirit, we welcome a group of Connecticut poets into our studio to read their work and try to measure the art and power of poetry.
Visit the Hillstead website for more information about the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival in Farmington.
GUESTS:
- Dick Allen - Connecticut State Poet Laureate
- Benjamin Grossberg - Director of Creative Writing and Associate Professor of English at the University of Hartford; Assistant Poetry Editor and regular book reviewer for The Antioch Review
- Elizabeth Thomas - Coach and organizer with Brave New Voices: International Youth Poetry Slam and Festival; Founder of UpWords Poetry
- Sean Frederick Forbes - Director of the creative writing program at UConn
- Lily Myers - Poet and student at Wesleyan University