National Poetry Month at 92NY Features Readings, Classes – and Iconic Poets in Rare Recordings

92NY Celebrates National Poetry Month in April

Readings by Ama Codjoe and Carl Phillips

Rare Recordings of Dylan Thomas, Maya Angelou, W.H. Auden, Mary Oliver, Pablo Neruda and More

Classes on T.S. Eliot and Verlaine

In celebration of National Poetry Month in April, 92NY’s Unterberg Poetry Center presents a wide range of offerings – poetry readings by Ama Codjoe and Carl Phillips, classes on Verlaine and T.S. Eliot – and archival recordings featuring Maya Angelou, W.H. Auden, e.e. cummings, Rita Dove, Robert Frost, Pablo Neruda, Anne Carson and Dylan Thomas, among many others. 

Complete details – as well as information on a March 30 event featuring Clint Smith and poet Sarah Kay – are below. 

READINGS

CLINT SMITH WITH SARAH KAY

In Person and Online

Thursday, March 30, 8 pm, From $20

Sarah Kay has shared her poems in over thirty countries, from cornfields in Iowa, to a town square in Estonia, to the Royal Danish Theatre in Denmark, Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy  Center in DC. A writer, performer and educator, she has written four books of poetry: B, No Matter the Wreckage, The Type, and All Our Wild Wonder. “She is a fearsomely open and generous talent,” writes Lin-Manuel Miranda. “She gives you moments so intimate and  beautifully rendered you will come to know them as your own.” She reads new work. 

Clint Smith, whose recent nonfiction bestseller How the Word Is Passed won the National Book Critics Circle Award, now publishes Above Ground, his second collection of poems. “Smith is a  marvelous poet,” wrote Ilya Kaminsky. “This is a beautiful, vivid book, where ‘grandfather is a fist / full of embers,’ and a dance party becomes a life-giving ceremony, and Andromeda Galaxy, 2.5 million light years away, is reason enough to spark a love note. Much to love in this  poetry collection, lyric keeping us above the ground, rooted into our world, blessed to be alive.”

AMA CODJOE AND CARL PHILLIPS

In Person and Online

Monday, April 10, 7:30 pm, From $20

Join us for readings by Ama Codjoe and Carl Phillips, two powerfully original voices in American poetry as they read from their new books — vital poems that find revelation in the intersections between language, history, and desire.

Ama Codjoe is the author of Bluest Nude, a collection that investigates what it means to be seen by others as well as that most intimate, singular spectacle of looking at oneself. “Sensual, sound-driven and brimming with a necessary truth, these poems are pulsating with both grief and beauty. She has written a true triumph of a debut that feels urgent and deeply human,” wrote Ada Limón.

Carl Phillips’s most recent books include Then the War, a collection of poems; and My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditationsfrom a Life in Writing, a series of essays on his experiences as a writer and mentor. “More than a craft book, it is a reminder of the restlessness and recklessness that call many of us to keep doing the things we’re drawn to,” wrote Reginald Dwayne Betts.

CLASSES

READING T.S. ELIOT’S “THE WASTE LAND”

Online/With Edward Mendelson

April 3-April 10, 7-8 pm ET, $160 for two sessions

T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”, published in 1922, evokes a synthesizing vision of public and private disorder: the emotional and erotic failures of individual persons and the chaotic anomie of contemporary Europe, individuals and societies both thirsty for life-giving waters, both waiting for the transforming commandments that “the thunder said.” No other modern writer had his power to portray, simultaneously and in sharp focus, the disasters of both the inner world and the outer one. In this intensive seminar, students will see how they can read “The Waste Land” as having a discourse. 

Instructor Edward Mendelson is the Lionel Trilling Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University and W.H. Auden’s literary executor. His book Early Auden, Later Auden: A Critical Biography  is the standard study of Auden’s life and work. His complete edition of Auden’s poems will be published in May by Princeton University Press.

READING VERLAINE, MALLARME AND VALERY

Online/With Lisa Goldfarb

April 11-April 25, 6:30-8 pm, $360 for three sessions

This intensive course will focus on the close reading of three poets of the French Symbolist movement, whose work ignited a mode of poetry that grew internationally in their aftermath. Students will explore Paul Verlaine’s call to the symbolist poets to compose “Music above everything,” and explore what that means thematically and structurally in their beautiful lyrics and prose poems. The class will also explore Mallarmé and his more enigmatic poems that, at times, borrow from musical structures – and it includes Valéry, who, while writing somewhat later, also writes in the symbolist tradition. Students will explore the poetic prose of both Mallarmé and Valéry that considers the place of poetry in the modern world, while touching on the musical and poetic history of the period, and the musicality and melody of poetry.

Instructor Lisa Goldfarb is a recipient of Gallatin’s Adviser of Distinction Award and NYU’s Great Teacher Award. She is the author of The Figure Concealed: Wallace Stevens, Music, and Valéryan Echoes and co-editor of Wallace Stevens, New York, and Modernism. She is president of the Wallace Stevens Society and associate editor of The Wallace Stevens Journal.

RECORDINGS

DYLAN THOMAS: “DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT”

A rare recording featuring Dylan Thomas reading his iconic poem before a live audience in 1952. Listen here.

MARY OLIVER: “THE SUMMER DAY” AND MORE

In her last appearance at 92Y in 2012, Mary Oliver reads from her collection, A Thousand Mornings, and favorites including “The Summer Day”, among others. Listen here.

ROBERT FROST: “THE ROAD NOT TAKEN”

As part of a November 1952 reading, the famous American poet read his most iconic poem, “The Road Not Taken,” accompanied by remarks that were characteristically gruff and sly. “How should ‘The Road Not Taken’ be taken,” Frost teases the audience. Listen here.

W.H. AUDEN: ON NATURE AND RELIGION

In one of his many visits to 92nd Street Y, poet W. H. Auden reads from a selection of his work, including “Bucolics” (a sequence of seven poems about man’s relation to nature) and selections from “Horae Cononicae” (a series of poems which dramatize Auden’s religious position). Listen here.  Other Auden at 92Y readings centered on “The Sea and the Mirror” and “Metalogue to the Magic Flute” can be found here and here.

MAYA ANGELOU

“I’m told that poetry is obliged to be mystical, magical, musical and lyrical,” began Ms. Angelou on the evening of December 9, 1971. “And I believe that the great poetry in the United States is the poetry that came out of and still comes out of the black experience.” The iconic author reads from her work, including some of her poems, tells stories and discusses her work. Listen here.

PABLO NERUDA: HIS FIRST U.S. READING

Recorded at 92NY on June 11, 1966, it was Neruda’s U.S. debut. The reading is introduced by Archibald MacLeish. The English translations of Neruda’s poems are read, in this excerpt, by Clayton Eshleman, James Wright and Ben Belitt. Listen here.

RITA DOVE: PLAYLIST FOR THE APOCALYPSE

The former U.S. Poet Laureate visited 92Y in November, 2021 to read from her first collection of poems in a decade, Playlist for the Apocalypse, and to discuss her work. Watch here.

T.S. ELIOT

T.S. Eliot talks about live vs. recorded readings, how to pace a public performance, and reads Preludes, La Figlia che Piange, Whispers of Immortality, Sweeney Erect, The Waste Land, Triumphal March, and Difficulties of a Statesman. Listen here.

SEAMUS HEANEY: OPENED GROUND: SELECTED POEMS

Seamus Heaney—making his first 92Y appearance since winning the Nobel in 1995—reads from Opened Ground: Selected Poems and other work, including “Digging,” “Casualty,” and “Audenesque,” written in memory of Joseph Brodsky. Listen here. Heaney gave a few readings at 92NY over the years, including this 2011 appearance, and another in 1971.

TRACY K. SMITH: “THE UNIVERSE IS A HOUSE PARTY”

The former U.S. Poet Laureate in a 2012 reading at 92Y. Listen here. At Smith’s 2018 reading, she read her poem “Annunciation.”  Watch here.

E.E. CUMMINGS

The iconic poet reads several poems from his oeuvre at 92Y in Oct. 20, 1949. Listen here.

ALLEN GINSBERG: “WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU LOST IT?”

Allen Ginsberg read with his father Louis this night in 1973, but what sets this recording apart is how Ginsberg is heckled throughout by fellow Beat poet Gregory Corso, who keeps interrupting the show from his seat in the audience. The recording starts with Ginsberg reading “What would you do if you lost it?” and ends with some songs and a chant. Corso comes in around the 5:30 mark—and sticks around a while. “I’m the igniter for the dynamite,” he shouts at Ginsberg. “I’ll blow ‘em up!”  Listen here.

VLADIMIR NABOKOV: “THE BALLAD OF LONGWOOD GLEN”

In a visit to 92Y in 1964, Nabokov read, among other works, one of his greatest poems, “The Ballad of Longwood Glen.” Listen here.

JAMES EARL JONES: “SONG OF MYSELF”

Actor James Earl Jones reads passages from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” at 92Y in 1973. Listen here.

JOY HARJO: AN AMERICAN SUNRISE

In a joint appearance with poet Aracelis Girmay in 2019, former U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo read from her books of poems, An American Sunrise. Watch here.

ANNE CARSON 

Poet Anne Carson and collaborators perform two works: “Cassandra Float Can” and a sonnet sequence, the latter is featured in this 2008 video.

BILLY COLLINS: A STAR-STUDDED POETRY LISTENING EVENT

At this event celebrating the 80th anniversary of 92NY’s Poetry Center in 2019, former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins played and discussed recorded readings featuring many iconic poets: T.S. Eliot, Marianne Moore, Lucille Clifton, Gwendolyn Brooks, William Carlos Williams, Adrienne Rich, Robert Lowell, Richard Wilbur, Kay Ryan, Sharon Olds and more. Listen here. 

Collins himself has read at 92NY many times over the years, including this 2016 appearance.

About The 92nd Street Y, New York:  The 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY) is a world-class center for the arts and innovation, a convener of ideas, and an incubator for creativity. 92NY offers extensive classes, courses and events online including live concerts, talks and master classes; fitness classes for all ages; 250+ art classes, and parenting workshops for new moms and dads. The 92nd Street Y, New York is transforming the way people share ideas and translate them into action all over the world. All of 92NY’s programming is built on a foundation of Jewish values, including the capacity of civil dialogue to change minds; the potential of education and the arts to change lives; and a commitment to welcoming and serving people of all ages, races, religions, and ethnicities. For more information, visit  www.92NY.org.