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The Poetry Show looks back at 25 years of poetry on State of the Arts, and into the future with three stories about the different paths poetry is taking today. We'll meet young poets competing in a national poetry recitation competition in Poetry Out Loud!, talk with rising star Ekiwah Adler-Beléndez at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, and hang out at band practice with Princeton poet and professor, Paul Muldoon.
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Slam poetry competitions and the immense popularity of hip-hop music have both added to the recent resurgence of poetry as an oral art form. Recitation and performance of great poems builds on that momentum by inviting the dynamic aspects of slam poetry, spoken word, and theater into the English class. The National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation have partnered with Arts Agencies in each state to support Poetry Out Loud, recitation competitions which encourage the nation's youth to learn about great poetry through memorization and performance. This exciting program helps students master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and learn about their literary heritage.
State of the Arts producer Christopher Benincasa covers Poetry Out Loud in New Jersey, from a regional competition at Dante Hall in Atlantic City to the state finals at the NJN Studios in Trenton. Along the way viewers will meet a few state finalists: Absegami High School student Kaylee Bruckler, Williamstown High School student Sandy Lamplugh, and Newark Arts High School student and state champion Naja Selby, who will be going on to the National Finals. Also featured in this story is Poetry Foundation president (and poet) John Barr, who, along with NEA chairman (and poet) Dana Gioia, created the pilot program for Poetry Out Loud and continues to support its growth and development through out the country.
2006-2007 was the second year of Poetry Out Loud. Check the Poetry Out Loud website regularly for updates about future competitions.
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Poetry Out Loud
Poetry Out Loud state finalists
Poetry Out Loud state finalist Kaylee Bruckler performing at a regional competition at Dante Hall in Atlantic City
Poetry Out Loud state finalist Sandy Lamplugh performing at a regional competition at Dante Hall in Atlantic City
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Ekiwah Adler-Beléndez, a poet raised in the mountains of Mexico, was the youngest poet ever to open the Main Stage readings at the 2006 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival. Then only 19 years old, he read from his most recent book, “The Coyote’s Trace,” and from his previous writings. State of the Arts producer Susan Wallner meets Ekiwah at the festival, and visits with him as he reads and interacts with fans at the largest poetry festival in North America.
Ekiwah is fluent in both Spanish and English (his father is American, his mother a homeopathic doctor). According to his parents, as a child Ekiwah would spontaneously compose poems to the world around him. He began to put his verses on paper at age 10, and at 12 he became a literary sensation in Mexico with his first published book, “Soy” (“I Am”). This is all the more remarkable because Ekiwah was born with cerebral palsy. He writes that, “In a way cerebral palsy has forced me to do what I love the most: stop dead in my tracks and write.” As a poet, he has been influenced by the work of Jalaluddin Rumi, a 13th century Persian mystic. Coleman Barks, who is largely responsible for popularizing Rumi’s work in the West through his translations, is interviewed for the story. Barks talks about why he sees Ekiwah as a mystic, or ecstatic poet in the tradition of Rumi.
Another key figure in Ekiwah’s life is Dr. Roy Nuzzo, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon. During his early teens, Ekiwah developed a life-threatening case of scoliosis. Dr. Nuzzo, a poet himself, was so moved by Ekiwah’s poetry that he arranged for a marathon surgery with volunteers and donated supplies in 2004 (a story covered at the time by NBC’s Dateline). This surgery may have saved Ekiwah’s life, and since then he has been straighter and stronger. Wallner speaks to Dr. Nuzzo at his office in Summit, New Jersey.
 See Ekiwah Adler-Beléndez read “The Rite of Passage” at the 2006 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival
See Ekiwah read “The Homeopath” at the 2006 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival
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Ekiwah Adler Beléndez, Poet
Roy Nuzzo,
Pediatric Orthopedic Surgeon
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The world of poetry has its own set of rock stars: Maya Angelou, Billy Collins, and Robert Pinsky, to name a few. And then there’s Paul Muldoon who wants to rock the poetry world and the, well, rock world. With his “three-car garage” band Rackett, Princeton University professor and Pulitzer prize-winning poet Muldoon has taken to playing bars, coffee houses… and Princeton University.
In this story, viewers follow Muldoon, a resident of Griggstown, New Jersey, from a proper poetry reading at Trenton’s historic Ellarslie Mansion, to band practice in a, yes, three-car garage, to a live gig in Princeton. That’s where State of the Arts producer Christopher Benincasa caught the band rocking out to a sold-out crowd at Richardson Auditorium.
Paul Muldoon was born in 1951 in Northern Ireland. For 13 years he worked in Belfast as a radio and television producer for the BBC. In 1987 he moved to the United States, where he is now a professor at Princeton University and Chair of the University Center for the Creative and Performing Arts. Among his many books of poetry are “Moy Sand and Gravel” (2002), for which he won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize, and his tenth collection, “Horse Latitudes” (2006).
See Paul Muldoon read "The House of Poetry" at the 2004 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival
Watch Paul Muldoon reading from his book “The Prince of the Quotidian” on the State of the Arts set in 1997
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Poet Paul Muldoon
and his band Rackett
Poet Paul Muldoon
Poet Paul Muldoon
and his band Rackett
Poet Paul Muldoon
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