Marilyn Nelson was my first teacher at NYU, and she not only put up with my craziness--I has just moved to New York, was in this new strange place called an MFA program, and I was so excited about writing poems I was like one of those kids from Fame, running out of the school and jumping on cars--she taught me a lot about writing and life as well. Now, some years later, Marilyn is reading her excellent poems at Sage College.

I am bringing my Oral Interpetation of Literature class over there tonight. You can hear some audioblog readings of Nelson's poems at the class website. I will be adding titles to the posts later today. Just hit those little players, and you will hear some great Marilyn Nelson poems read by my students.

UPDATE: Marilyn's reading was strong, strong enough to fill up the Bush building's 100-foot ceilings. She finished by reading A Wreath for Emmett Till, a heroic crown of sonnets that addresses and memorializes the lynching of that 14-year-old African American.

The book is marketed as a young adult book, which is probably why I didn't buy it when it came out, but it's really a book for everyone. The book has also made national headlines, just in the past couple of days, and rather perversely so, when two teachers in Los Angeles were fired for collaborating with students who, after reading and being taught the book, wanted to make a Till presentation for Black History Month. Read more about that recent event here.

Listen to an NPR piece when the book came out, as well as Nelson's reading the book, here.

+++++++

Last week, we went to the Fence and Fence Editions reading at SUNY Albany's New York State Writers Institute. Scroll down the same page to hear some great audioblog readings of Fence poets, most notably Prageeta Sharma and Michael Earl Craig (above).

Labels: Poems, Saint Rose, teaching