Poets & Writers Theater

In this 2016 New Yorker video, Robert Battle, former artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, reminds all artists, whether dancers, musicians, poets, or writers, that “it’s important for us to, at this time, see beyond our circumstances.” Battle continues: “I think we can do that through the arts.”

In this short video, filmmaker and author Miranda July talks about Snarla, a feminist punk zine she created with Johanna Fateman while living in Berkeley, California. Their zine as well as other zines and works are on view in Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make Zines at the Brooklyn Museum through March.

In this episode of the Yale University Press Podcast, director of Yale University Press John Donatich speaks with author and historian Ned Blackhawk about his book The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History, for which he won the 2023 National Book Award in nonfiction.

In this CBS Sunday Morning video, correspondent Conor Knighton reports on how public libraries across the country are renovating and evolving beyond acting as repositories for books and becoming innovative community centers that meet the many needs of their patrons.

In this video from Adam Savage’s Tested, the host visits the American Bookbinders Museum in San Francisco and speaks with executive director Anita Engles about the history of book cover designs and proves that maybe you can judge a book by its cover.

This Wall Street Journal video analyzes the history and business model of the bookstore chain Barnes & Noble and how they are adopting the strategies of independent bookstores by empowering their local booksellers to make more decisions on inventory and displays in order to boost sales.

In this video, Simon & Schuster president and CEO Jonathan Karp gives writers advice on how to get a literary agent and their books published, including useful websites and reference books such as The Poets & Writers Complete Guide to Being a Writer (Avid Reader Press, 2020).

Filmed at the Milwaukee Public Library, this video featuring local artists Genesis Renji, Klassik, and Marli Amor aims to raise awareness for Penguin Random House’s All Ways Black initiative, which is partnering with Little Free Libraries to build a number of free libraries with a curated selection of Black authors and classic stories. For every share of the video on social media, Penguin Random House has pledged to donate a book to the initiative.

“I think there’s still a hunger for reading, for the print book, for something you hold in your hand and take with you,” says Emily Powell, owner and president of Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon, about the struggles independent bookstores face today in this CBS Saturday Morning interview with Michelle Miller.

“I have heard my father tell a wide variation of the same five stories but you can affix a certain moral to one—you can affix an entry point, an exit point, an image—that makes it feel like a new story every time,” says Hanif Abdurraqib in this lecture on the nature and impact of storytelling for CreativeMornings in Columbus, Ohio. “Twelve Things That Help Me Set My Table” by Abdurraqib appears in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Watch TIME Magazine’s compilation of their one hundred must-read books of 2022, which includes books by Nuar Alsadir, Franny Choi, Isaac Fitzgerald, CJ Hauser, Jay Hopler, Oscar Hokeah, Yiyun Li, Sarah Thankam Matthews, and Ocean Vuong. 

“A free society does not ban books.” Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones speaks about her personal journey to develop The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story (One World, 2021) as well as the attempts in certain states to ban the book from schools in this interview for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.

Have you ever been curious about the history of words like “cool” or “on fleek?” In this WIRED magazine video, linguists Nicole Holliday and Ben Zimmer talk about the origins and trends of popular slang words, old and new.

“What does it mean when we say books unite us? It means that books can be the tethers, that books can connect human beings.” In this video, Jason Reynolds, honorary chair of Banned Books Week 2021, talks about the importance of reading a range of narratives and stories that make up this “tapestry of life” and the danger of censoring that knowledge. “To censor a book is to damage the framework in which we live,” says Reynolds.

“These times are really ripe for different opportunities and taking different approaches to things because everyone’s sort of making it up as they go along.” In this BLDRfly video, Wisteria Bristol, Peter Jones, and Sofia Miranda, co-owners of Trident Booksellers & Café in Boulder, Colorado, speak about shifting the store to an employee-owned model during the pandemic and how that has affected their connection to the community. For more, read “From Booksellers to Owners” by Lynn Rosen in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Who doesn’t appreciate a nice notebook to write in? Belgian expat and artist Henry might be taking his love of Moleskine notebooks a step too far in this New Yorker Shorts & Murmurs film written, performed, and directed by Sam Bronowski.

“By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.” Watch the trailer for The Tragedy of Macbeth, a film based on the play of the same name by William Shakespeare, written and directed by Joel Coen and starring Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand, and Corey Hawkins.

“Human creativity is nature manifest in us.” In this TED Talk video, actor and author Ethan Hawke speaks about the importance of creativity, the necessity of taking leaps to express yourself, and how we turn to poetry for sustenance.

House of Gucci is an upcoming film based on Sara Gay Forden’s 2000 book, The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed. The anticipated film is directed by Ridley Scott and stars Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Salma Hayek, Jared Leto, and Al Pacino.

“It’s all about providing access, not only to education, not only to learning, but also to a free public space where people can actually come together and engage,” says copresident Andreas Dracopoulos of the newly renovated and transformed Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, a branch of the New York Public Library in Midtown Manhattan that reopened in June.