The following is a guest post by Megan Metcalf, a reference librarian in the Library’s Humanities & Social Sciences Division. One weekday afternoon, I found myself sitting across the table from the self-proclaimed Black, lesbian, feminist, and warrior-poet Audre Lorde. To be clear, I wasn’t actually in the same room with Audre Lorde, who passed …
The following post was written by Cathy Kerst from the Library’s American Folklife Center (AFC), and originally appeared on the AFC’s Folklife Today blog. Documenting California Sounds and Communities: The Story of Migration and Settlement from the New Deal Era to the Present The Library’s newly-appointed Poet Laureate, Juan Felipe Herrera, spent the afternoon of …
Halloween, as celebrated in the United States today, is a holiday focused primarily on children. In the Victorian era and the first decades of the 20th century, however, Halloween’s focus was less on kids, candy, and trick-or-treating than on the romantic desires of young, single men and women. In particular, one the most popular forms …
The following is a guest post by Catalina Gómez, reference librarian in the Library’s Hispanic Division. Earlier this year, the Library of Congress launched the Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature (ARPL), an online feature that contains highlights from a collection of close to 2,000 recordings. For the first time, the Library could offer these …
The following post, which originally appeared on the Library of Congress Blog, was written by Gina Apone, one of 36 college students who spent the last two months working at the Library as part of the 2015 Junior Fellows Summer Intern Program. Apone currently attends Michigan State University pursuing a dual degree in Pre-Law and …
The poems of Pablo Neruda are among the most frequently translated works in the English language. While the Chilean poet has for many years enjoyed a huge readership in the United States, thanks to the widespread availability of English-language editions of his poetry, few people are aware of the integral role played by the Library …
Preceding next week’s announcement of our 21st Poet Laureate, I thought it’d be nice to commemorate the lives and literary legacies of two former Consultants, Maxine Kumin and Gwendolyn Brooks–both of whom were born this first week of June. Each a powerful force for poetry in her own right, please enjoy the below compiled lists …
Walt Whitman was born on May 31, 1819. Although From the Catbird Seat just highlighted a “lost” Whitman poem recently discovered at the Library, we decided that Whitman’s multitudes should not be contained by a single post, or even two posts, in the lead-up to his birthday. The best way to honor Whitman, we thought, …
Walt Whitman enthusiasts were treated to a surprise last December when news broke that Wendy Katz, an associate professor of art history at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, had discovered a new poem by Whitman. The poem, titled “To Bryant, the Poet of Nature,” was uncovered by Katz in May 2014 as she examined penny press …
