persona poems

Track

Dove, Rita. Playlist for the Apocalypse. New York: Norton, 2021. 

Track

Dove, Rita. Playlist for the Apocalypse. New York: Norton, 2021. 

Reading

Former US Poet Laureate Rita Dove reads poems from her book Playlist for the Apocalypse (2021). This reading was presented as part of the 2022 Tucson Humanities Festival. 

Reading

Tyehimba Jess reads historical persona poems from leadbelly (2005) and his Pulitzer Prize-winning Olio (2016), including the full sonnet sequence about the McKoy twins from Olio. He also discusses the research behind Olio and the complex forms he uses throughout the collection, particularly his syncopated sonnets.

Reading

Paisley Rekdal presents from West: A Translation (2023), a documentary hybrid work centered on the Transcontinental Railroad, the Chinese Exclusion Act, and racism in America. Rekdal shares video poems from the book's companion website and reads the essays corresponding to those poems. She shapes her reading around topics selected by the audience: labor, Mormons, Chinese death rituals, Robert Smithson (creator of Spiral Jetty on the Great Salt Lake), the biracial experience, prostitution, and Hollywood's portrayal of women and the railroad.

Poetry Center

1508 East Helen Street (at Vine Avenue)
Tucson, AZ 85721-0150 • MAP IT
PHONE 520-626-3765 | poetry@email.arizona.edu