American Idiom III: Lucille Clifton & Natasha Trethewey
Gigi Bradford
THIS CLASS IS NOW FULLY ENROLLED. Please contact mravenscroft@politics-prose.com to be added to the waitlist.
Six Tuesdays:
April 9, 16, 23, 30, May 7, 14; 3-4:30 p.m.
Price: $120 ($110 members)
Books:
The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010, Edited by Kevin Young & Michael S. Glaser
Thrall, Natasha Trethewey
REFUND POLICY: Please note that we can issue class refunds up until seven (7) days before the first class session.
Join us this spring as we continue our investigation into why
U.S. poetry written since World War II became an authentic American idiom. How
have American poets wrested a national braid of voices from a previously
predominant European influence? The answer to this question will be joyously,
clearly, gravely evident in the poetry of Lucille Clifton and Natasha
Trethewey.
National Book Award winner, nominee numerous times for the
Pulitzer Prize, Poet Laureate of Maryland and role model for an entire generation,
Lucille Clifton lived nearby until her death in 2010. You will find her poems
accessible, searing and very smart. Don’t be put off by the size of her Collected Poems; I predict that you will
worship and adore this poet.
Natasha Trethewey is our nation’s current Poet Laureate and
the recipient of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize. She writes about the South, science,
family and race in America.
Her latest volume, Thrall, may seem
slim in comparison to Clifton’s
tome, but her elegant poems are big, bold and reverberant.
The class runs six consecutive Tuesdays, April 9 - May
14 from 3 to 4:30 PM. To join, no experience is necessary and there is no need
to have attended previous classes: just bring pleasure in the company of words
and of others.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Gigi Bradford is the President of the Folger Shakespeare Library Poetry Board.
