Poetry in America

The challenges of art and audience across time, space and artistic medium; guests include Cynthia Nixon, Yo-Yo Ma, Jill Johnson and Marie Howe.

Using basketball to understand poetry and poetry to understand basketball; with poet Edward Hirsch, Shaquille O'Neal, Pau Gasol and Shane Battier.

Reflections on "Those Winter Days" by Robert Hayden; with Joe Biden, Elizabeth Alexander and Angela Duckworth.

Two emotional poems by Allen Ginsberg -- the "Hymmnn" from Kaddish and the anti-war "Hum Bom!"; with Bono and Juan Felipe Herrera.

The rise of the skyscraper and the emergence of the modernist poem; with Frank Gehry, Zhang Xin, poet Robert Polito and student poets from across the U.S.

A discussion of "Harlem" by Langston Hughes; with Bill Clinton, Herbie Hancock, Sonia Sanchez and students from the Harlem Children's Zone.