Holy Cross Magazine Podcast College of the Holy Cross

With the May 2022 release of Marvel Studios' 28th movie — "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" — we talk with Jorge Santos, Holy Cross associate professor of English, about Marvel's diversity and inclusion track record on film: what it has gotten wrong, what it has done better and where it should go next.
Show Notes
"Graphic Memories of the Civil Rights Movement: Reframing History in Comics" by Jorge Santos
“Pablo’s Inferno” by Rhode Montijo
“Understanding Comics” by Scott McCloud
“Darkroom” by Lila Quintero Weaver
“Shang Chi and the Ten Rings” (2021)
“Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man”
by Brian Michael Bendis & Sara Pichelli
“Miles Morales: Spider-Man”
by Saladin Ahmed
"Eternals" (2021)
"Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" (2022)
America Chavez
“Thor: Love and Thunder” (2022)
“Hawkeye” by Matt Fraction & David Aja
 

College of the Holy Cross President Vincent Rougeau, Dean and Provost Margaret Freije and Jon Favreau ‘03, Hon. '14, former head speechwriter for President Obama and co-founder of Crooked Media, reflect on the impact of the seminal program, the intersection of experiential learning and a Jesuit education, and more.
Show Notes
"Not Your Average Internship": Inside the Lifelong Impact of the Washington Semester Program (Holy Cross Magazine, Spring 2022)
Holy Cross Washington Semester Program
Crooked Media
Pod Save America
The Wilderness
Jon Favreau ’03, Former Obama Speechwriter, Talks 2020 Presidential Candidates, His First Encounter With Obama, and Holy Cross (April 2019)
Jon Favreau '03, Hon. ‘14 Commencement Address to the Holy Cross Class of 2014 (May 2014)

Col. Patrick Roddy Jr. ’99 leads the Army’s oldest active-duty regiment, the 3rd U.S. Infantry, which is tasked with a host of high-profile responsibilities, including conducting military funerals at Arlington National Cemetery and nonstop watch over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. In this episode, Roddy takes us inside the preparation, detail and demands behind those two solemn duties, and shares other fascinating information visitors may not know about these national landmarks.
Show Notes:
Holy Cross Magazine profile on Roddy (Fall 2021)
3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard)
Arlington National Cemetery Website
A Short History of Arlington National Cemetery Property
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
Tomb of the Unknown Solider 100th Anniversary
A Century of Honor: A Commemorative Guide to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Billy Collins '63 was U.S. Poet Laureate in 2002 when Congress gave him what seemed like an impossible assignment: commemorate the nearly 3,000 victims of 9/11 in a poem. In the inaugural episode of the Holy Cross Magazine Podcast, Collins talks about why he balked at first and why he changed his mind, and details how he wrote the historic piece, "The Names."
More on Collins and "The Names"
Collins profile: “The Making of an American Poet" Holy Cross Magazine, Summer 2020
Collins' website
Collins' Facebook page, home of his live broadcasts
Collins' "The Names" notebooks and drafts
The Paris Review Interview with George Plimpton, Fall 2001
Podcast interview with Cheryl Strayed, May 2020
Holy Cross Remembers Lost Alumni on Anniversary of Sept. 11, September 2016
Transcript of this episode:
Melissa Shaw:
Hello and welcome to the Holy Cross Magazine Podcast. I'm your host Melissa Shaw, Editor of Holy Cross Magazine. This podcast takes a deeper dive into stories covered in our latest quarterly issue or examines a timely topic in between publication. In this episode, we'll be focusing on the latter with the man the New York Times has called the most popular poet in America, Billy Collins, class of 1963. Collins was serving as Poet Laureate of the United States on September 11th, 2001, and was later asked by the Library of Congress to write a poem to commemorate the victims of the attacks.
Melissa Shaw:
He read the resulting poem, The Names, at a special joint session of Congress in September 2002. It was a work the best-selling writing doesn't discuss much. But today, in light of the 20th anniversary of the September 11th attacks, Collins reflects on the assignment and the poem with writer Marybeth Reilly-McGreen, class of 1989, who profiled the native New Yorker and former New York Poet Laureate in the summer 2020 issue of Holy Cross Magazine. Here are Billy Collins and Marybeth Reilly-McGreen.
Marybeth Reilly-McGreen:
Thank you, Billy Collins, for being here today. And we are anticipating the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the attacks on America. At the time of the attacks you were U.S. Poet Laureate.
Billy Collins:
Correct.
Marybeth Reilly-McGreen:
You were asked to write a poem, The Names, which you then presented to a joint session of Congress on September 6th, 2002. If you would, we would love it if you would read it for us now.
Billy Collins:
Right. I'd be happy to read it then we can... and even happier to talk about it. The poem is called The Names and there is a parenthetical epigram below the title, and it reads, for the victims of September 11th and they're survivors. Yesterday, I lay awake in the palm of the night. A fine rain stole in, unhelped by any breeze. And when I saw the silver glaze on the windows, I started with A, with Ackerman, as it happened. Then Baxter and Calabro, Davis and Eberling, names falling into place as droplets fell through the dark. Names printed on the ceiling of the night. Names slipping around a watery bend. Twenty-six willows on the banks of a stream.
Billy Collins:
In the morning, I walked out barefoot among thousands of flowers heavy with dew like the eyes of tears, and each had a name. Fiori inscribed on a yellow petal. Then Gonzalez and Han, Ishikawa and Jenkins. Names written in the air and stitched into the cloth of the day. A name under a photograph taped to a mailbox. Monogram on a torn shirt, I see you spelled out on storefront windows and on the bright unfurled awnings of this city. I say the syllables as I turn a corner, Kelly and Lee, Medina, Nardella, and O'Connor. When I peer into the woods, I see a thick tangle where letters are hidden as in a puzzle concocted for children.
Billy Collins:
Parker and Quigley in the twigs of an ash. Rizzo, Schubert, Torres, and Upton, secrets in the boughs of an ancient maple. Names written in the pale sky. Names rising in the updraft amid buildings. Names silent in stone or cried out behind a door. Names blown over t