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64th Annual
Peabody Award
for Radio
Programming!
POETRY OUT LOUD
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Program 10-07-11-A |
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When Rae Armantrout recently won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry the first thing she said was curious. Read them out loud, she said. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, poetry out loud. We'll hear Rae Armantrout read her poems. We'll also hear Natalie Merchant sing our favorite classic poems. And, Bobby McFerrin on the human voice as poetry.
SEGMENT 1:
Poetry is often relegated to academia, but both Bobby McFerrin and Natalie Merchant think poetry is the literary art most relevant to our lives today. It certainly is for Amber Rose Johnson, the 16-year-old winner of the national Poetry Out Loud competition sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. She recites some of the works she won with, and tells Jim Fleming about the value of poetry in her life. Singer Natalie Merchant rediscovered poetry in the company of her young daughter. Her new album, "Leave Your Sleep," is a collection of songs adapted from poems by Victorian and early 20th century poets. She tells Anne Strainchamps how she came to love these works.
SEGMENT 2:
Poems are different things to different people, solace, a call to action, beauty. But to Rae Armantrout there is one thing that all poetry should be - read out loud. She recently won the Pulitzer Prize for her book of poetry "Versed." Producer Charles Monroe Kane loved it so much he just had to talk to her.
SEGMENT 3:
Bobby McFerrin is widely known for his Eighties hit "Don't Worry, Be Happy," but he is admired for many other things. For the past eight years he's devoted himself to a project called "Vocabularies," which is now out as an album. It's a mix of 1400 separate tracks sung by 50 different singers, and he tells Steve Paulson it was a labor of love.
CD copies are available at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 10-07-11-A.
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| Rae Armantrout, Versed (Wesleyan) |  |
| Natalie Merchant, Leave Your Sleep (CD) |  |
| Bobby McFerrin, Vocabularies (CD) |  |
- Natalie merchant
http://www.nataliemerchant.com/
- Bobby McFerrin
http://www.bobbymcferrin.com/
- For more on Rae Armantrout: http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Armantrout.php
- For more on the NEA’s annual youth Poetry Out Loud contest: http://poetryoutloud.org/
- Yesternow / Miles Davis / Tribute
to Jack Johnson / Columbia Records.
- I Wish to Weep / Kristin Asbjornsen / From the Soundtrack
to the Film Factotum / Sony Pictures.
- All Natalie Merchant songs are from her CD "Leave
Your Sleep" on Nonesuch Records.
- All Bobby McFerrin songs from his CD "Vocabularies" on Emarcy Records EXCEPT "Don't Worry, Be Happy" which is on the CD "Simple Pleasures" on Capital Records
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