9 min listen
Chris Abani — The New Religion
FromPoetry Unbound
ratings:
Length:
12 minutes
Released:
Oct 19, 2020
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
How do you speak of — and to — your body? This is a poem dedicated to the body. “The body is a nation I have never known,” Chris Abani writes. Throughout the 21 lines of this work, he describes lungs, skin, bone, touch, smells, sweat, armpits and hunger. For all the embodiedness of the poem, there is disembodiedness too: the poem continues to question how to truly be in your own body.Chris Abani is a novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter and playwright. Born in Nigeria to an Igbo father and English mother, he has lived in the United States since 2001. He is Board of Trustees Professor of English at Northwestern University. His poetry collections include Sanctificum and Hands Washing Water.Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
Released:
Oct 19, 2020
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Jane Mead — Substance Abuse Trial: Jane Mead’s “Substance Abuse Trial” is set in a courtroom where a daughter hears her father’s name mispronounced at his trial. As she watches this, she wishes that the court could see the fullness of her father and his story — to bear witness to him as a human being, defined by much more than his addiction. A question to reflect on after you listen: When was a time when you were judged based on a mistake you made, rather than the fullness of who you are? by Poetry Unbound