Episode Details

Community Engagement Librarian Martín Alvarado joins Pete and Greg to celebrate National Poetry Month with a mix of powerful poetry and book recommendations. He shares selections from poets like Maya Angelou and Dylan Thomas, reflecting on how poetry connects to culture, identity, and current events. Martín also highlights novels centered around poets, including works by Roberto Bolaño and Vladimir Nabokov, offering listeners a deeper dive into the literary world.

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Relevant links from this hour:

• Refaat Alareer’s If I Must Die - poem written before the author was killed during a bombing by the IDF in Gaza.
• Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise - an affirmation of being a Black woman in America, weaving the legacy of slavery and refusal to apologize for one’s self. 
• Dylan Thomas’s Do not go gentle into that good night - a powerful poem that has found it’s way into pop culture – even into Rodney Dangerfield’s performance in Back to School – shot at UW-Madison in the 1980s.