Poets & Writers Theater

“I am so happy to tell people, and to have learned myself, that a passion for the writing is all you really need.” Patricia Smith reads from her new collection, Unshuttered (TriQuarterly Books, 2023), and speaks about continuing to challenge herself with her writing for this Poetry.LA interview with host and poet Lynne Thompson. For more on Smith, read “Unshuttered: Patricia Smith’s Journey Into the Aperture of History” by Tyehimba Jess in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Mama was an elevator girl at Montgomery Ward’s in Trenton, New Jersey, summer of 1952...” In this video with poet Alondra Uribe, Nikky Finney reads “Hotbed #224” from her collection Love Child’s Hotbed of Occasional Poetry (TriQuarterly Books, 2020), which is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“There’s something in the lyric moment that really ruptures the taken for granted-ness of the world.” Meena Alexander discusses her writing process, artistic collaborations, and the sensory experience of being a poet in this 2015 interview for CUNY TV. The author of five books of poetry, including most recently Atmospheric Embroidery (TriQuarterly Books, 2018), Alexander died at the age of sixty-seven on November 21, 2018.

“They await counterintelligence / transmissions from our laptops / and our blue teeth, await word / of humanity’s critical mass, / our ripening.” Kyle Dargan’s poem “The Robots Are Coming” is brought to life in this animated Motionpoems film by Julia Iverson. Dargan’s new poetry collection, Anagnorisis (TriQuarterly Books, 2018), is featured in Page One in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Who knew our pudgy American dream was so combustible?” Patricia Smith reads a poem from her seventh poetry collection, Incendiary Art (TriQuarterly Books, 2017), which is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“This poem will be guilty. It assumed it retained / the right to ask its question after the page / came up flush against its face.” Kyle Dargan reads “Poem Resisting Arrest” from his fifth poetry collection, Anagnorisis (TriQuarterly Books, 2018), which is featured in Page One in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.