We have a wonderful array of guests for this new summer season of Poetry Centered, including Nicole Sealey, Harmony Holiday, Samuel Ace, Leila Chatti, Dawn Lundy Martin, and more.

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Kicking off the season is guest Nicole Sealey, hosting our fiftieth episode.

Nicole Sealey chooses poems that speak to the lasting power of big ideas offered generously to one’s community. She shares Toi Derricotte forecasting the spirit of Cave Canem (“I say hello, oracle, kind mother...”), Cornelius Eady responding to racism with defiant love (“Gratitude”), and Patricia Smith reminding us that poetry is a life-affirming art (“Building Nicole’s Mama”). Sealey closes with her piece, “The First Person Who Will Live to Be One Hundred and Fifty Years Old Has Already Been Born,” a poem that measures time in the span of open arms.

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Stay tuned for more episodes coming this August, September, and October.

Poetry Centered features curated selections from Voca, the University of Arizona Poetry Center’s online audiovisual archive of more than 1,000 recordings of poets reading their work during visits to the Center between 1963 and today. In each episode, a guest poet introduces three poems from Voca, sharing their insights about the remarkable performances recorded in our archive. Each episode concludes with the guest poet reading a poem of their own.