Poetry In America

The series premiere spotlights Emily Dickinson. Host Elisa New, actor Cynthia Nixon, cellist Yo Yo Ma, dancer-choreographer Jill Johnson, and poet Marie Howe explore the challenges of art and audience across time, space, and artistic medium.

Poet Edward Hirsch, host Elisa New, NBA players Shaquille O'Neal, Pau Gasol and Shane Battier, and a group of pick-up basketball players read Hirsch's "Fast Break" and use basketball to understand poetry—and poetry to understand the game of basketball.

Vice President Joe Biden; Inaugural poet Elizabeth Alexander; and psychologist Angela Duckworth.

Bono; US Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera; the “Hymmnn” from Kaddish; and the anti-war chant “Hum Bom.”

The rise of skyscrapers and the emergence of the modernist poem. Includes architect Frank Gehry; Chinese visionary and real estate developer Zhang Xin; poet Robert Polito; and student poets from around the United States.

President Bill Clinton; pianist and composer Herbie Hancock; poet Sonia Sanchez; and students from the Harlem Children's Zone

Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power; journalist and ethicist David Brooks; and poet, professor, and painter Peter Sacks.

Fashion designer Johnson Hartig; Bergdorf Goodman's Betty Halbreich; shoe designer Stuart Weitzman; and with fashion and poetry students from the New School.

Senator John McCain; playwright and activist Anna Deavere Smith; and poets Reginald Dwayne Betts and Li-Young Lee.

Evolutionary biologist E.O. Wilson; poet Robert Hass; environmental photographer Laura McPhee; naturalist Joel Wagner; and children at an Audubon Society summer camp.

Hip hop artist Nas; music executive Steve Stoute; and scholar Salamishah Tillet.

Emma Lazarus's iconic sonnet of immigration. Also includes Regina Spektor; United We Dream Foundation Cristina Jiménez; American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten; philanthropist David Rubenstein; and poet Duy Doan.