April is National Poetry Month, and what better way to celebrate than at ALOUD next Thursday, April 24, when the Poetry Society of America brings their national series The Voice of Women in American Poetry to Los Angeles. The series, which pays tribute to the literary heritage of women poets, was first born out of a conversation about Emily Dickinson, arguably the greatest female poet of all time.
Alice Quinn, the executive director of the Poetry Society of America and moderator of the ALOUD event, and the poet Kimiko Hahn were discussing the importance of Dickinson to their literary lives and to the lives of all women poets. Quinn had long wanted to have a program celebrating the great heritage of poetry in America by women when Hahn summoned up the line “the landscape listens,” from the Dickinson poem “There’s a certain slant of light,” as a possible name for the program. They continued to play with names as the vision of the program soon broadened to include distinguished poets—both male and female—honoring the immense achievement of a wide range of women poets in the U.S., and all agreed that the format required a more simple, yet overreaching name—thus, The Voice of Women in American Poetry.
The initial segment launched in Boston last month with a two-day festival in partnership with the Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University, involving some twelve poets, like the recent Pulitzer Prize-winner Vijay Seshadri, Lucie Brock-Broido, Robert Pinsky, and Marie Howe, among others. The series went on to D.C. for an intimate program with poets Shara McCallum and Hailey Leithauser. Next up, the series comes to Los Angeles before culminating in New York in the fall of 2014. “To have spectacular poets, both male and female alike, come together to hold aloft the tradition of great women poets in this country strikes me as important and exciting work,” says Charif Shanahan, the programs director for the Poetry Society of America.
On the ALOUD stage, Marilyn Chin will explore the work of Ai, a National Book Award, American Book Award, and Lamont Poetry Award winner who passed away in 2010. She was known for her fierce dramatic monologues that gave voice to marginalized speakers. Also, Toi Derricotte will explore Anne Sexton, and Percival Everett will explore Gertrude Stein. To learn more about all of these poets—both the ALOUD guests and honorees—check out their work at the Los Angeles Public Library:
To learn more about the upcoming ALOUD program, click here.
