Poet Maya Angelou’s debut memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, is her most famous work, yet its title is not original to Angelou: She borrowed it from a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar that he composed, at least in part, in response to his employment at the Library of Congress.
This “Literary Treasures” post examines an audio recording from the Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature featuring Dudley Randall reading his poems at the Library of Congress on October 23, 1975.
Two weeks ago, students from the 826DC Young Authors’ Book Project came on a field trip to the Library of Congress for a collaborative collections-based research workshop in the Library's new Programs Lab.
Earlier this year, Sirianna Santacrose, a Spanish teacher from the School of Ethics and Global Leadership, approached us with an interest in incorporating our Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape (AHLOT) into her class curriculum.
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.
On October 24, 2019, the Library of Congress welcomed the fifth author in its yearlong National Book Festival Presents series, the inimitable fiction writer Alexander McCall Smith. As part of the programming surrounding Mr. McCall Smith's visit, staff from four Library divisions were asked to develop a display of items related to Mr. McCall Smith and his works.