WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.540 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.540 --> 00:00:02.490 align:middle line:84% So I'm really happy to welcome you 00:00:02.490 --> 00:00:04.830 align:middle line:84% to this new annual initiative that we're 00:00:04.830 --> 00:00:08.250 align:middle line:84% doing at the Poetry Center of the themed sub series. 00:00:08.250 --> 00:00:10.270 align:middle line:90% The concept is pretty simple. 00:00:10.270 --> 00:00:13.770 align:middle line:84% We take a big cultural concept or question up here, 00:00:13.770 --> 00:00:17.440 align:middle line:84% and we lob it up next to one of poetry and poetics. 00:00:17.440 --> 00:00:19.270 align:middle line:90% We see what happens. 00:00:19.270 --> 00:00:23.670 align:middle line:84% So this year we have in this order, Terrance Hayes, 00:00:23.670 --> 00:00:27.810 align:middle line:84% Kimiko Hahn, Khadijah Queen, and Adrian Matejka joining us. 00:00:27.810 --> 00:00:31.800 align:middle line:84% Yes, joining us to talk about the overlapping possibly 00:00:31.800 --> 00:00:34.740 align:middle line:84% conflicting, possibly mutually enabling categories 00:00:34.740 --> 00:00:37.080 align:middle line:90% of spectacle and poetry. 00:00:37.080 --> 00:00:39.150 align:middle line:84% This came about because over the last two years 00:00:39.150 --> 00:00:41.430 align:middle line:84% we've found ourselves wondering about how 00:00:41.430 --> 00:00:46.020 align:middle line:84% to navigate the 21st century as poets and as lovers of poetry. 00:00:46.020 --> 00:00:48.780 align:middle line:84% If we read a poem and it talks about a TV show instead 00:00:48.780 --> 00:00:52.170 align:middle line:84% of a flower, or love, or a babbling brook, then 00:00:52.170 --> 00:00:53.820 align:middle line:90% what do we do with that? 00:00:53.820 --> 00:00:56.610 align:middle line:84% We've been told for ages that poetry is solitary, 00:00:56.610 --> 00:00:58.680 align:middle line:84% and it's quiet, that it's something 00:00:58.680 --> 00:01:02.280 align:middle line:84% to write on a hillside, that true poets are introverts, not 00:01:02.280 --> 00:01:05.820 align:middle line:84% swayed or affected by mass media, that they don't own TVs 00:01:05.820 --> 00:01:08.790 align:middle line:84% and can't tell you a single thing about what Kanye West was 00:01:08.790 --> 00:01:11.490 align:middle line:90% tweeting about last weekend. 00:01:11.490 --> 00:01:14.340 align:middle line:90% That's funny if you [INAUDIBLE]. 00:01:14.340 --> 00:01:16.380 align:middle line:84% But then of course maybe poets do 00:01:16.380 --> 00:01:19.140 align:middle line:84% have something to say about it all, about cable news, 00:01:19.140 --> 00:01:22.140 align:middle line:84% infotainment, Wolf Blitzer, about sporting events 00:01:22.140 --> 00:01:24.900 align:middle line:84% and their constituent bodies, about social media, 00:01:24.900 --> 00:01:28.210 align:middle line:84% with its likes, and its shares, and its clickbait. 00:01:28.210 --> 00:01:29.460 align:middle line:90% I just sound like Sarah Palin. 00:01:29.460 --> 00:01:31.640 align:middle line:90% Just, clickbait. 00:01:31.640 --> 00:01:34.440 align:middle line:90% Ah ha, you got it. 00:01:34.440 --> 00:01:36.510 align:middle line:84% About this year's concurrent reduxs 00:01:36.510 --> 00:01:39.510 align:middle line:84% of The X-Files and the OJ Simpson trial, 00:01:39.510 --> 00:01:42.990 align:middle line:84% about brightly lit and widely syndicated political speeches, 00:01:42.990 --> 00:01:46.740 align:middle line:84% caucuses, elections, wars, global health emergencies, 00:01:46.740 --> 00:01:49.740 align:middle line:84% about Dr. Oz, or Dr. Phil, or Jerry Springer, 00:01:49.740 --> 00:01:52.560 align:middle line:84% or 25 years of The Oprah Winfrey Show, 00:01:52.560 --> 00:01:55.890 align:middle line:84% about the Super Bowl, or at least its halftime engagements, 00:01:55.890 --> 00:02:00.600 align:middle line:84% about televised protests, rallies, or revolutions. 00:02:00.600 --> 00:02:03.360 align:middle line:84% In short, our question for this series and for its poets 00:02:03.360 --> 00:02:07.590 align:middle line:84% is this, if poetry engages with spectacle, why, 00:02:07.590 --> 00:02:09.660 align:middle line:90% and in what ways? 00:02:09.660 --> 00:02:12.540 align:middle line:84% To speak broadly, we'd like to suggest that poets are uniquely 00:02:12.540 --> 00:02:15.480 align:middle line:84% positioned to show us new ways of engaging with spectacle 00:02:15.480 --> 00:02:18.960 align:middle line:84% more creatively, with deep attention and curiosity. 00:02:18.960 --> 00:02:21.690 align:middle line:84% To speak specifically, we're really, really lucky 00:02:21.690 --> 00:02:25.080 align:middle line:84% that Terrance Hayes is here to talk with us about this. 00:02:25.080 --> 00:02:27.750 align:middle line:84% Who better to start off this series than Terrance Hayes, 00:02:27.750 --> 00:02:30.630 align:middle line:84% whose wild intertextuality has gotten to the point 00:02:30.630 --> 00:02:33.510 align:middle line:84% that a notes and references web page for his newest book, 00:02:33.510 --> 00:02:36.570 align:middle line:90% "How to Be Drawn" over there. 00:02:36.570 --> 00:02:38.130 align:middle line:90% Thank you, Mark. 00:02:38.130 --> 00:02:39.510 align:middle line:90% Mark. 00:02:39.510 --> 00:02:42.000 align:middle line:84% That his notes and references page for "How to be Drawn" 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:44.520 align:middle line:84% includes Jenny Holzer installations and Willie Cole 00:02:44.520 --> 00:02:47.700 align:middle line:84% sculptures, a music video from the 80s R&B girl group 00:02:47.700 --> 00:02:51.540 align:middle line:84% "Climax," three links to news articles about a 2012 00:02:51.540 --> 00:02:53.550 align:middle line:84% stabbing in New York public transit, 00:02:53.550 --> 00:02:57.150 align:middle line:84% and among other things, Einstein's logic puzzles. 00:02:57.150 --> 00:02:59.910 align:middle line:84% Terrance Hayes whose poems roll it all together, 00:02:59.910 --> 00:03:04.440 align:middle line:84% silver orbs of basketballs, big bird, Marvin Gaye, Shaft, 00:03:04.440 --> 00:03:06.720 align:middle line:90% Air Jordans, Mr T. 00:03:06.720 --> 00:03:09.870 align:middle line:84% Terrance Hayes, whose poetry is complete and expansive, 00:03:09.870 --> 00:03:11.910 align:middle line:84% whose brain and body, and writing, all 00:03:11.910 --> 00:03:14.490 align:middle line:84% serve as a kind of locus of the broader world, 00:03:14.490 --> 00:03:17.820 align:middle line:84% synthesizing it, feeling and digesting what's out there, 00:03:17.820 --> 00:03:21.480 align:middle line:84% and becoming it, recognizing it as already a part of the self, 00:03:21.480 --> 00:03:24.240 align:middle line:90% transforming it, making it new. 00:03:24.240 --> 00:03:26.730 align:middle line:84% Terrance Hayes, who also happens to be a MacArthur 00:03:26.730 --> 00:03:30.720 align:middle line:84% Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, an NEA Fellow, and United States 00:03:30.720 --> 00:03:34.140 align:middle line:84% Artists Zell fellow, a National Book Award winner, a National 00:03:34.140 --> 00:03:38.100 align:middle line:84% Poetry series winner, a visual artist, a diagram maker, 00:03:38.100 --> 00:03:41.970 align:middle line:84% a former NCAA basketball player, and a professor of English 00:03:41.970 --> 00:03:43.320 align:middle line:90% at the University of Pittsburgh. 00:03:43.320 --> 00:03:43.820 align:middle line:90% Woo. 00:03:43.820 --> 00:03:48.040 align:middle line:90% 00:03:48.040 --> 00:03:50.420 align:middle line:90% He's right there. 00:03:50.420 --> 00:03:54.010 align:middle line:90% It's like, he's right there. 00:03:54.010 --> 00:03:56.350 align:middle line:84% When asked why poetry matters, one thing that Terrance 00:03:56.350 --> 00:03:59.080 align:middle line:84% Hayes said is quote, I think we all 00:03:59.080 --> 00:04:01.690 align:middle line:84% benefit from talking with more than being talked 00:04:01.690 --> 00:04:04.600 align:middle line:90% to as a television talks to us. 00:04:04.600 --> 00:04:08.490 align:middle line:84% So here to talk with us, Terrance Hayes.