Refuge and National Poetry Day

What does the phrase 'Victorian values' conjure today? Matthew Sweet and guests explore what we have inherited from that formative era in relation to political ideas, civic culture, aesthetics, and social and sexual mores. How does our view of the Victorian age match the historic ...  Show more

Are we addicted to novelty? What are the cultural settings that allow innovation to flourish? And are novelty and innovation things we've always valued? Matthew Sweet is joined by writer and entrepreneur Margaret Heffernan, Professor of Innovation Tim Minshall, and historians Agn ...  Show more

In their latest collection of poems, Cave Canem Poetry Prize winner Brionne Janae dives into the deep, unsettled waters of intimate partner violence, queerness, grief, and survival. This event took place on July 6, 2023. “I’ve decided I can’t trust anyone who uses darkness as a m ...  Show more

Join Quenton Baker and special guests for a celebration of and conversation on their new book ballast. This event occurred on April 26, 2023. Ballast is a poetic sequence using the 1841 slave revolt aboard the brig Creole as a lens through which to view the vitality of Black live ...  Show more

Friendships deserve praise songs, and here’s a praise song — an ode — to friends that have crossed continents for each other, and would go further if needed.Sudanese by way of D.C., Safia Elhillo is the author of Girls That Never Die, The January Children, and Home Is Not a Count ...  Show more

An impassioned plea, a yearning for connection — the poem U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón wrote when she says all language failed her. Take in Ada's reading of her piece, “The End of Poetry” — and hear her read more of her work in the On Being episode, “To Be Made Whole.”Ada Limón i ...  Show more