All Readings from 12:10 to 12:50 p.m. on the First Thursday of the Month
Admission Free • Morrison Library in Doe Library • UC Berkeley
For directions to Doe Library please check the campus map. (lower right corner)
Series Kick-Off, 09.06.07 |
John Matthias, 10.04.07 |
Amiri Baraka, 11.01.07
Monica de la Torre, 12.06.07 |
Arthur Sze, 02.07.08 | Diane di Prima, 03.06.08
Jessica Fisher, 04.03.08 | Student Reading, 05.01.08
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Lunch Poems Broadcast on UCTV
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September 6, 2007
SERIES KICK-OFF
Hosted by Robert Hass and university librarian Thomas Leonard, the kickoff features distinguished faculty and staff from a wide range of disciplines introducing and reading a favorite poem. This year’s participants: Aftab Ahmad (South & Southeast Asian Studies), Ben Braun (Men’s Basketball), Janet Broughton (Dean of Letters & Science, Philosophy), Jennifer Dorner (Library), E. Bond Francisco (Physical Plant), Cecil Giscombe (English), Lucia Jacobs (Psychology), Kathleen McCarthy (Classics and Comparative Literature), Paul Parish (Faculty Club), Kay Richards (East Asian Languages and Cultures, Center for Korean Studies).
Watch the kick-off
This digital collection is produced and housed by webcast.berkeley Events and Educational Technology Services
October 4, 2007
JOHN MATTHIAS
Rich in its landscapes and its search for personal discovery, John Matthias’ poetry encompasses vast territories of history and culture. Robert Duncan once called Matthias “…one of those wandering souls out of the Dark Age in our own time.” He has published more than twenty-five books, twelve of which are poetry, and is the editor of Notre Dame Review. This is his first visit to the west coast in over twenty-five years. Watch the complete webcast
This digital collection is produced and housed by webcast.berkeley Events and Educational Technology Services
November 1, 2007
AMIRI BARAKA
Revolutionary poet, playwright, and activist Amiri Baraka is recognized as the founder of the Black Arts Movement, a literary period that began in Harlem in the 1960s and forever changed the look, sound, and feel of American poetry. Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) helped to empower African American artists to establish publishing houses, journals, and university ethnic studies programs. His books continue to spark intense political and aesthetic controversy while receiving tremendous critical acclaim. Watch the complete webcast
This digital collection is produced and housed by webcast.berkeley Events and Educational Technology Services
December 6, 2007
MONICA DE LA TORRE
Born in Mexico City, Monica de la Torre came to the United States in 1993 on a Fulbright scholarship to study at Columbia University. Her poetry explores with great depth both the boundaries and the permeability of imposed identity, combining a playful use of form and dry humor with a hint of hopefulness. Talk Shows, her first book in English, was published in 2007 by Switchback Books. De la Torre serves as poetry editor of The Brooklyn Rail. Watch the complete webcast
This digital collection is produced and housed by webcast.berkeley Events and Educational Technology Services
February 7, 2008
ARTHUR SZE
The first Chinese American to graduate from U.C. Berkeley and publish a book of poems, Arthur Sze is an internationally known writer and celebrated translator. Jackson Mac Low describes him as, “truly, a poet of clarity and compassion.” A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Sze teaches at the Institute of American Indian Arts, and is the first poet laureate of Santa Fe, where he resides. Watch the complete webcast
This digital collection is produced and housed by webcast.berkeley Events and Educational Technology Services
March 6, 2008
DIANE DI PRIMA
World-renowned poet Diane di Prima, one of the preeminent writers to emerge from the Beat generation, wrote in Manhattan for many years before relocating to San Francisco, where she has been for nearly four decades. In addition to raising five children, di Prima has studied photography, collage, Zen and Tibetan Buddhism, Sanskrit, and alchemy, all of which inform her intensely lyrical writing. Her 43 books of poetry and prose have been translated into over twenty languages. Watch the complete webcast
This digital collection is produced and housed by webcast.berkeley Events and Educational Technology Services
April 3, 2008
JESSICA FISHER
Jessica Fisher’s Frail-Craft was the winner of the prestigious 2006 Yale Series of Younger Poets competition. Judge Louise Glück writes, “what gives Jessica Fisher’s work its sense of form, of repose, is her perfection of ear. That repose, with its strange mobility, its accommodation of surprise, is Fisher’s particular genius.” She is a doctoral candidate in English at U.C. Berkeley and is coeditor, with Robert Hass, of The Addison Street Anthology, which chronicles Berkeley’s rich poetic history. Watch the complete webcast or listen to podcast
This digital collection is produced and housed by webcast.berkeley Events and Educational Technology Services
May 1, 2008
STUDENT READING
One of the year’s most lively events, the student reading includes winners of the following prizes: Academy of American Poets, Cook, Rosenberg, and Yang, as well as students nominated by Berkeley’s creative writing faculty, Lunch Poems volunteers, and representatives from student publications.
For more information
or to be added to our mailing list, or for feedback regarding this series,
please email: poems(at)library.berkeley.edu
Support for this series is provided by Mrs. William Main, the Library, The Morrison Library Fund, the dean’s office of the College of Letters and Sciences, and the Townsend Center for the Humanities. These events are also partially supported by Poets & Writers, Inc. through a grant it has received from The James Irvine Foundation.