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Archive: December 2019 (8 Posts)

The word

Discovering Local and Public Poetry

Posted by: Peter Armenti

As Rebecca Newland, former Teacher in Residence at the Library of Congress, walks around her Washington, D.C., neighborhood, she often encounters vendors selling a local newspaper whose proceeds benefit the homeless of the DC Metro area. Many of the vendors are also writers who mention the page on which their article or poem appears in the issue. This got her thinking about the prevalence of local poetry and ways for us to discover it with our students.

The word

Rita Dove and “On the Bus with Rosa Parks”

Posted by: Anne Holmes

Because of her enduring impact and legacy, one doesn't need to look far to find Rosa Parks memorialized in poetry. In 1999, Rita Dove—U.S. Poet Laureate from 1993-1995—published her poetry collection "On the Bus with Rosa Parks." In celebration of the Library's new exhibition, "Rosa Parks: In Her Own Words," we're reprinting two poems from Dove's "On the Bus with Rosa Parks" in this post.