Poetry Centered

Maggie Smith approaches poems as a poet’s best teacher in this episode, calling poems “a conversation we have with our own minds.” Smith shares a poem by Donald Hall that shaped her early days of writing (“Gold”), a Lynn Emanuel poem that she prizes for its perfection of word choice (“Stone Soup”), and a prose poem by Jenny Boully that engages the listener through its forward momentum (“Tether”). Smith closes by reading her poem “Ohio Cento.” Listen to the full recordings of Hall, Emanuel, and Boully reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Donald Hall (1972)Lynn Emanuel (1993)Jenny Boully (2013)Listen to a 2018 reading by Maggie Smith on Voca.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode. Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Urayoán Noel introduces recordings of Ai engaging with war through necessary fury (“The Root Eater”), Lehua M. Taitano composing a lifeline to communities living with the legacies of colonialism (“A Love Letter to the Chamoru People in the Twenty-first Century”), Ofelia Zepeda on the untranslatability of song (“Ñeñe'i Ha-ṣa:gid / In the Midst of Songs”), and a fable of radical imagination by Gloria E. Anzaldúa (“Nepantla”). Noel ends the episode with his poem “Molecular Modular,” built around open-ended questions considering virality and modes of community.Listen to the full recordings of Ai, Taitano, Zepeda, and Anzaldúa reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Ai (1972)Lehua M. Taitano with the board of Thinking Its Presence (2017)Ofelia Zepeda (2015)Gloria E. Anzaldúa (1991)Listen to a performance by Urayoán Noel on Voca, presented as part of the Thinking Its Presence conference in 2017.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode. Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Hanif Abdurraqib presents poems that offer listeners an invitation to reflection via rich details, repetition, and rhythm. He discusses his admiration for Ross Gay’s tenderness (“To the Fig Tree on 9th and Christian”), shares a long poem by Juliana Spahr that creatively engages with the political (“Gentle Now, Don’t Add to Heartache”), and praises Yona Harvey’s tenderness and nuanced understanding of violence (“Hurricane”). Abdurraqib closes by reading his poem “Someone Brought You into This World and Someone Can Take You.”Listen to the full recordings of Gay, Spahr, and Harvey reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Ross Gay (2017)Juliana Spahr (2009)Yona Harvey (2014)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode. Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Ada Limón shares poems that speak to finding a way forward through moments of crisis and struggle. She discusses Lorna Dee Cervantes on being courageous enough to be alone (“Crow”), the enduring relevance of poems written in a particular moment, like Mark Wunderlich’s “Peonies,” and Lucille Clifton’s anthem on need, defiance, and making it up as we go (“won’t you celebrate with me”). Limón closes by reading her poem “The End of Poetry,” published this spring in the New Yorker.Listen to the full recordings of Cervantes, Wunderlich, and Clifton reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Lorna Dee Cervantes (1991)Mark Wunderlich (1995)Lucille Clifton (1998)Listen to two readings by Ada Limón on Voca, including her most recent, which was given as part of our Art for Justice series in 2020.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode. Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Alison Hawthorne Deming, a prestigious poet and professor, discusses the deep connections between poetry and life on Earth. She shares the poignant themes in Diane Ackerman's extraterrestrial love poem and Cornelius Eady's reflection on gratitude amid racial strife. Deming recounts a memorable moment with Georgia O’Keeffe through N. Scott Momaday's work and introduces her own poem, 'Territory Drive,' born from the solitude of quarantine, exploring isolation and the enduring beauty of nature.

Poetry Centered is a new podcast featuring curated selections from Voca, the University of Arizona Poetry Center’s online audiovisual archive of more than 1,000 recordings of poets reading their work during visits to the Center between 1963 and today. In each episode, a guest poet introduces three poems from Voca, sharing their insights about the remarkable performances recorded in our archive. Each episode concludes with the guest poet reading a poem of their own. Our inaugural season includes episodes hosted by Hanif Abdurraqib, Alison Hawthorne Deming, Ada Limón, Urayoán Noel, Maggie Smith, and TC Tolbert. The first episode premieres on July 1, with a new episode every two weeks. Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode. Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.