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Posted by: Anne Holmes
All cultures and peoples turn to poetry during times of celebration, transformation and challenge—those times when ordinary language cannot carry meaning beyond our understanding. The road from childhood to adulthood is a precarious path, yet full of miracles. We need poetry as we navigate that archetypal journey.
Posted in: Guest Posts, Poets Laureate
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.
Posted in: Collections, Digital Resources, News and Events, Poets Laureate
Posted by: Anne Holmes
The Young Readers Center is excited to invite you to see the annual Puppet Show on the day after Thanksgiving on November 29, 2019. This year we are sharing Native American Folktales, with stories and poems from nations such as Cree, Seneca, Winnebago, and Navajo adapted from books by Abenaki authors and storytellers—the father-son duo Joseph and James Bruchac.
Posted in: Guest Posts, News and Events, Poets Laureate
Posted by: Anne Holmes
The following essay was written in 2012 by Ted Kooser, 13th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, as part of the Poetry and Literature Center’s online “Poetry of American History” series that ran from 2012-2014. The series included essays and interviews by leaders in the literary field, including former Poet Laureate Consultants in Poetry, that illustrated how …
Posted in: Guest Posts, Poets Laureate
Posted by: Anne Holmes
The following guest post, explaining the connection between former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith and the latest Brad Pitt film, “Ad Astra,” is by Guy Lamolinara, communications officer for the Center for the Book. It originally appeared on the Library of Congress blog. If you have seen the space film “Ad Astra”—Latin for “to the …
Posted in: Guest Posts, Poets Laureate
Posted by: Anne Holmes
It’s been a busy summer and fall for U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo. In just the few months since her historic appointment announcement, Joy has been featured in virtually every major news outlet, as well as in outlets with ties to her local and regional communities; released her newest poetry collection, An American Sunrise; has …
Posted in: News and Events, Poets Laureate
Posted by: Anne Holmes
It’s been nearly two weeks since Poet Laureate Joy Harjo’s inaugural reading, and we’re still reeling from the event. If you missed it, you can tune in to watch the evening’s festivities via the Library’s YouTube site (with captions). Last week, we sat down with Shari Werb, director of the Library’s new Center for Learning, …
Posted in: Interviews, Poets Laureate
Posted by: Anne Holmes
The following guest post is by Katherine Blood, curator of fine prints in the Library’s Prints and Photographs Division. In our ongoing exploration of intersections between art and poetry in the Library’s graphic art collections, I’d like to share a fascinating, recent donation of somberly enthralling images by Texas artist Alice Leora Briggs (b. 1953). …
Posted in: Collections, Digital Resources, Guest Posts, Poets Laureate
Posted by: Anne Holmes
Tomorrow, Thursday, September 19, at 7 p.m., Joy Harjo will take the stage of the Coolidge Auditorium in the Library of Congress’s Jefferson Building for the first time as 23rd Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. To mark this historic occasion, musicians Howard Cloud, Larry Mitchell, and Robert Muller will join Joy in a reading and …
Posted in: News and Events, Poets Laureate