E56. Rita Dove: The Pleasure of Text‪.‬ The Institute of Black Imagination.

Today’s episode is with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and Author Rita Dove. Rita is a US Poet Laureate, the recipient of 29 honorary degrees…Yes, you heard correctly…29, and the only poet to be honored with both the National Humanities Medal and the National Medal of Arts. Her portfolio of work is timeless, precise, and captures the complexity of life. 
In today’s episode, we explore the pleasure of the text. We also journey through how using your imagination can help to get what you want, the role writing can play in the midst of chaos, and how Rita’s lived experience as a Black woman has shaped her understanding of the world.
Things mentioned
Award Winning Poet Nikki Giovanni 
Dawn Revisited, a poem written by Rita Dove
American Poet Michael S. Harper 
What to read
Playlist for the Apocalypse: Poems by Rita Dove 
Thomas and Beulah by Rita Dove
The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1998 by Nikki Giovanni
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou  
The Pleasure of the Text written by Roland Barthes and translated by Richard Miller 
Dear John, Dear Coltrane: Poems by Michael S Harper
Staged Otherness: Ethnic Shows in Central and Eastern Europe, 1850–1939 by Dagnosław Demski and Dominika Czarnecka

What to listen to
Feeling Good - Nina Simone
So What - Miles Davis
Take the "A" Train - Duke Ellington 
Summertime - Ella Fitzgerald

This conversation was recorded on August 20th, 2022.

Host Dario Calmese 
Producer: Coniqua Johnson 
Visual Art Direction and Designs: 
River Wildmen, Adam Selah, a href="https://www.instagram.com/willdomingue/?hl=en" rel="noopener noreferrer"...