Host Elizabeth Howard talks with poet and performer Kyle Ducayan, executive director of the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery, about the purpose of poetry.
Books
Book Review: A Profound Meditation — “Mathematics for Human Flourishing”
Put bluntly, Mathematics for Human Flourishing is quite possibly the most profound meditation on mathematics I have read.
Poetry Review: “The Vertigo of All Your Dreams” — The Poetry of Maria Baranda
In Maria Baranda’s poetry there is the constant oscillation between beauty and ugliness, elegance and terror, the empowering journey and the overwhelming nightmare.
Poetry Review: “Black Earth” — The Irresistible Appeal of Poet Osip Mandelstam
Russian poet Osip Mandelstam’s “ancient language” is rendered into real contemporary poetry in English that succeeds in speaking eloquently to the inner eye and ear.
Book Review: “The Commune” — Don’t Iron While the Strike Is Hot
As an example of historical revisionism, The Commune proffers a valuable representation of the cultural, political, and class dynamics that animated the Women’s Liberation Movement.
Book Review: “To Walk Alone in the Crowd” — Masterpiece or Mess?
Like Blinky in Pac-Man, the narrator of this provocative but often frustrating and diffuse book gobbles up everything.
Poetry Review: Maureen N. McLane’s “More Anon” — Lots of Existential Fun
Her poems are sassy.
Book Review: “Disquiet” — A Compassionate Litany of Tragedies in the Middle East
This is a timely novel, a lament for the multicultural harmony that has disappeared from Mesopotamia as well as a dire warning: fundamentalism is on the rise, not just in the Middle East but in the West as well.
Author Interview: “Of Thee I Sing” — Ben Railton on the Cycles of American Patriotism
“If you are more critical or try to highlight some of the worst things that happen in America, then you are un-American or anti-American.”
Arts Feature: The Lockdown Underground — Discoveries in Isolation
Stuck in a world where regular shopping was rare and live performances extinct, the right path seemed to be the curls and swirls of mentions and references that led to surprising new or little-known artists and fascinating new levels of famous ones.