Lowell's political passion encompasses much of his greatest poetry. Lowell himself reads from his work. Elizabeth Hardwick, Robert Hass, and others discuss his development and style as illustrated by Lord Weary's Castle and Life Studies.

For many, the 1960s mark the true end of modern America. Whereas the modernists remained serious about the transcendent nature of art, the artists of the 1960s wanted an art that was relevant. They wanted an art that not only spoke about justice, but also helped create it. This program explores the innovations made in American poetry in the 1960s by Allen Ginsberg, Amiri Baraka, and Adrienne Rich.

Two poems, by Linda Hogan and Alberto Ríos, follow wolves, jackrabbits, and other animals across the harsh Great Plains and Sonoran Desert. Both poets join wildlife biologist Jeff Corwin, film director Chris Eyre, Native American scholars Philip Deloria and Stephanie Fitzgerald, and a chorus of students to discuss how the poems call back difficult histories of human migration in the American west.

Jonathan Kellerman is an American novelist, psychologist, and Edgar- and Anthony Award–winning author best known for his popular mystery novels featuring the character Alex Delaware, a child psychologist who consults for the Los Angeles Police Department.

The history and social structures of Latin America's native peoples were neither simple nor peaceful before the arrival of Europeans. Wars were fought, empires were created and destroyed, and-as this program illustrates-narrative tapestries of fact and fiction were woven in the process. Underscoring the linguistic sophistication that flourished for thousands of years in the region, the program addresses the proliferation of Nahuatl and Quechua literature,...

This program features poets who turn to the past and to their own cultural heritage to understand the present. They eloquently reflect their own personal journeys through poetry. Garrett Kaoru Hongo's work reflects his Japanese-American heritage. Hongo began to write poetry because he wanted "more than anything to belong to the history of Asians in America. Joy Harjo's poetry is influenced by her Native American heritage. Her poetry emphasizes the...

In the late 1800s, Maggie Walker, an African American community leader, helped establish a sanitarium for tuberculosis patients, a community center, and an educational loan fund, among other humanitarian projects. She was also the first woman in the United States to become founder and president of a chartered bank.

Out of prison, Hester pleads to keep Pearl, as the Boston magistrates debate whether she is fit to raise her child. When Dimmesdale passionately intercedes on her behalf, the magistrates relent. Meanwhile, Hester’s husband, Chillingworth, pursues his wife's lover. Dimmesdale, racked by a mysterious illness, weakens, and the magistrates call in a physician -- Chillingworth -- to tend him.

An Egyptian crocodile who catches the fancy of the esteemed Emperor Napoleon becomes an instant celebrity in a fancy fountain in Paris. But when someone in the kitchen starts singing the praises of crocodile pie, the resourceful and very hungry reptile escapes by sewer. Narrated by Tim Curry. AudioFile: "Tim Curry's narration is exemplary - a glorious example of the perfect melding of all parts of an audio recording. The musical background is...

In early 1417 Peru, an old Inca rope bridge in the Andes collapses, plunging five travelers to their deaths. Brother Juniper becomes obsessed with discovering how these five people came to be on the bridge at that moment wanting to know if it was mere existential happenstance or part of God's cosmic plan. Eventually, he is accused of heresy put on trial for his life by the Inquisition.